Swoc: of Swords and Blocks

Since the beginning of civilisation, warriors have been shuffled around the battlefield by thinkers. That's the way things need to be: muscle isn't much good without brains, and vice-versa.

Swoc: of Swords and Blocks puts you in charge of a band of warriors that have the strength to defeat monsters - but not without the aid of you and your thinking cap. And since the action takes place on a match-three game board, every move you make has immediate consequences.

The game is challenging and addictive as a result, though it suffers some problems with bugs, poor translation, and unclear instructions.

Swoc prides itself on its simple story of good versus evil (no, really: if you try and hit the "more story" option while reading the game's intro, the characters on screen laugh at you). All you need to know is that an undead king is laying waste to the land, and a pack of heroes have decided it's high time they do something about it.

Swoc's action takes place on a large grid filled with symbols and monsters. You begin your quest by choosing a hero to fight for you. Your selection determines how you play the game, since every warrior has a strength and a weakness.

The Paladin, for instance, gains strength when you match up three (or more) swords or shields, but her power takes a hit if you match trees. The Wizard gains strength if you match up scrolls, whereas the Warrior hates scrolls and will shed power seemingly in protest at the match.

In the same vein, the enemies on the grid gain and lose strength according to the symbols you match up. If your player character winds up adjacent to a baddie, they can swap places to damage each other. Whomever has the highest power rating walks away the victor.

Each character has a special move that's unlocked when you match up three specific symbols. Matching three scrolls causes the Wizard to shoot fireballs at enemies, while three shields will protect the Paladin from melee attacks. Three swords allows the Warrior to crush a tile (or damage an enemy) in his radius.

Swoc's events move at a pleasant pace. There's plenty of time to think your moves over, but there are enough bad guys on the board to keep the action from dragging. Once you get into the groove, every move you make in Swoc feels rewarding.

But it takes some time to feel confident about what you're doing. The instructions at the beginning of the game are minimal, and the clunky translation makes you second-guess your actions from time to time.

Fighting against enemies can be a guessing game, too. Matching scrolls strengthens and harms the rabble as it buffs and debuffs your own character, but the only way to know an enemy's likes and dislikes is to press the teeny-tiny question mark in the corner of the screen, and then tap the enemy itself. Simply tapping on a bad guy should bring up its information.

Swoc's multiplayer mode is a bit lacking as well. There's no online multiplayer - it's local or it's nothing. Worse, there's a glitch with the multiplayer mode's character-select screen. When you try and select more than three players, the character boxes stack on top of each other.

They still function, but working through the mess is understandably a bit of a hassle.

Though it's rough around the edges, Swoc: of Swords and Blocks is built around an intriguing concept. Shifting around the board is simultaneously calming and exciting, and fans of match-three battle games will find a pretty meaty quest within.