Age of Heroes IV: Blood and Twilight

It could be said that the mobile RPG genre faces a Helm's Deep-esque battle against the hordes of casual, bright and breezy efforts out there (and if that reference has flown straight over your head, this isn't the game for you). The key focus for the growing mobile gaming market seems to be on accessibility, ease of use and simplicity of concept and execution.

That's all well and good, but there will always be those of us who want a bit more depth to our portable entertainment from time to time. Occasionally all we want is a rich story, a meaty battle system and a universe ripe for exploration. Age of Heroes IV: Blood and Twilight sets out to be just such a game.

Set in a pretty typical orcs 'n' elves fantasy universe where epic wars are waged between the forces of good and evil, and where men are gruff and beardy, you take control of one of the last remaining members of a fallen elven race. As such, you're tasked with assembling a rag-tag army of assorted ghouls and monsters for one final push against your enemies.

The story and setting, while hardly original, are pretty effective in evoking a doomed, sombre atmosphere. Unfortunately, some iffy translation means that much of the meaning is lost in a barrage of broken English. You can usually get the gist of what's going on though, and there's plenty to get your teeth into when it comes to the game proper.

You traverse a top-down 2D world strewn with caves, crypts and towers, uncovering more of the game map and encountering foes. It was here that the Age of Heroes III in the series suffered due to a number of control and navigation issues. Whilst laudable attempts have been made to improve things this time around (such as a context-sensitive cursor), Blood and Twilight can still see you struggling to find a route through the fog and the trees. As a system it's at best functional and, at worst, awkward and frustrating.

The navigational frustrations don't end there, as you'll often find yourself wondering where on Earth you're supposed to be heading. Particularly at the beginning of our adventure, fresh from being dumped into the world with only a cursory explanation of what we were supposed to be doing and barely a tutorial in sight, we often found ourselves wandering aimlessly across the map. The fact that you essentially pay for each wayward move with the in-game currency doesn't help matters – not until you build up a healthy supply, at any rate.

Navigation niggles aside, the game is at its strongest when engaging in its frequent bouts of fisticuffs. When contact is made with an enemy unit, the view switches to a simple grid and battle commences. Your forces are split into units according to type, ranging from zombies to vampires and all manner of beasties in between. Each unit takes it in turns to move or attack, utilising their unique attributes (for example skeletons can ping arrows across the length of the battlefield, while zombies have to work their way in close to do their damage).

Suffice to say that the fun increases in relation to your ever-swelling personnel, and the subsequent range of offensive options that this entails. The variety of the units and the pace of the fights make up for what could be considered a slightly simplistic combat system – as each encounter zips along in a barrage of arrows and spells, there's little time to ponder that you're essentially engaging in a slightly repetitive war of attrition.

Overall, developer Qplaze manages to keep things just about brisk and varied enough to warrant consideration from any strategy-RPG fan. Persist with Blood and Twilight in spite of its clunky navigation and mystifying dialogue and you'll find it to be reasonably rewarding. Just don't expect a Middle-earth shattering experience.