ChessLocke Reviews

The game has a problem with the repetition of moves. Repetition has not been disallowed but repetition also does not lead to a forced draw. It seems that the game is incomplete without a decision being made in this regard. Repeating moves is not conceding the game. The lack of a rule in this regard is a major flaw so unless corrected I find I am unable to recommend this game. I see your response but a draw is not a concession in Chess. If the position of the game is that repetition of moves is a loss it should be disallowed. Some variants, for example Chinese Chess, do not allow repetition of moves so this method of a draw does not exist in Chinese Chess. I am not asking for the AI to make silly moves so that the player can win; if you read that in my statement then you misread it completely. Just as the AI should not lose by making silly moves the player should not have to concede because no decision has been made regarding repetition of moves. I stand by my position that the game is in a sense incomplete without such a position.

This is a fun game that takes the classic game of chess and turns it into a tactical-RPG by giving the non-pawn pieces special abilities that you can level up. It's a great premise that puts a fun spin on chess. I was a little disappointed that there's no multiplayer, but it's not a deal breaker.

The game is overly simple but fun regardless. I don't feel accomplished after beating anything but I enjoy the variety. If you want a competitive game of chess with a million unique variations and upgrades "Chess Evolved" is a better game. If you want a game to wind down before sleeping or something to decompress after tanking your elo on Chess.com this is what I would recommend.

I'm an experienced chess player and wasn't expecting much at first. But the game turned out to be quite fun! Played for 2 hours non-stop. In each mission, the starting positions of pieces on the board are different. But the goal is the same: Land a piece on your opponent's throne without it being captured for 1 turn to win. Checks and checkmates don't apply, so the king can be sacrificed too. The pieces move as per normal, but you can decide whether to use a special ability during each turn. Note that special abilities are limited during each mission, so use wisely! Special abilities can be upgraded by gaining XP through capturing enemy pieces. However, I think this mechanic is also a drawback when sometimes it's much faster to end the mission by landing on the opponent's throne than to capture all enemy pieces. Perhaps, the developer can also factor the number of moves into the XP gain. Nonetheless, the game is balanced and fully playable as the difficulty progresses gradually. If you are a fan of chess variants and unconventional tactical puzzles, this one's worth it (especially when it's on sale)!

It's less chess more of a puzzle game. But it's cheap and interesting enough to be worth it for a turn based time killer. Good if you have something else you're doing and want to jump in and out during waiting periods.

Ugly, unintuitive, dull, and "Profile Features Limited". Save yourself the minutes and pennies. Either play something like Shotgun King or Pawnbarian instead, or play classic chess. Sorry. Edit: The developer contacted me on Twitter and asked for more specific feedback. I’ll paste that feedback below. Dev: “Hi! I saw your review of my game, and it's totally fine. I'm a solo dev and I just want to make sure my next game is better and would like some input from you. I see you played for 12 minutes. What is unintuitive about the game? Did you mean the opponent's AI, the list of abilities, or something else? Again, I'm not mad about the negative review, I just want to learn and make it better. Thanks.” Me: “Primarily the UX and the list of abilities. It is overwhelming, or introduced in an overwhelming way. I would prefer a visual or interactive tutorial—“show, don’t tell”. That’s just my tactile-kinesthetic learning style, but then again there isn’t anything more tactile-kinesthetic than a videogame. Additionally, a more gradual and linear introduction. I know it might seem counterintuitive but sometimes rails can be helpful, so long as they’re optional and not overbearing or overwrought. Skyward Sword is an example of a game with the opposite problem, too much tutorial and text and dialogue and handholding, I spent even fewer minutes with it before giving up all those years ago. For example, starting levels could have simpler layouts with fewer pieces. Or pieces could start with only one ability per piece instead of three, allowing the player to level up into their perks and skill trees, an improvement in more than one way arguably. Forgive me for trying to recall, my memory of those 12 minutes is fuzzy. The AI seemed serviceable, but that’s not necessarily a compliment. “Ugly” in my review was probably my biggest complaint. Primarily the board and pieces, where my eyes spend 90% or more of their time during your game. I dislike how the pieces are uncentered/“unkerned” per space, more than anything. Also dislike the designs and color palettes themselves. It is customary for chess games to offer at least some customization on these fronts. Even if it was locked as an unlockable item, maybe 10 or 25 XP for a new piece design set, and 10 or 25 xp per new color set/selection. I wish I could try the game again to offer more specific and constructive feedback. Apologies that my initial public review was unhelpful. I was on some level being both sensational and lazy, myself. I didn’t get far enough to see the game’s design holistically so feel free to take my ideas and suggestions with a chunk of salt. (resistance/skepticism I mean, not the modern slang definition of salt to mean “bitterness or resentment”) Thanks for listening, sorry for spamming, good luck with future projects, hope to keep in touch. (…) “Profile Features Limited” was another big one for me. I want achievements to mean something. I heard that the in-game achievement list did not match the Steam achievement list, either, and I find that frustrating/bizarre.“

It is Chess with wild layouts, board obstacles, and abilities. You can revive material, temporarily take control of enemy material, preform a straight-on charge with your knight, assassinate a pawn, upgrade pawns into Knights or Bishops, and more.. It's a lot of fun. A heads up though: The store page here has a screenshot showing many different achievements.. Do know that these are not Steam achievements. There are only 10 Steam achievements. It is very bare-bones this game. There is no drawing arrows or manual threat tile highlighting (pieces do have their legal moves highlighted though). There is very little feedback for everything you do. There is no going back and replaying previous levels in your current campaign. The worst part of this game is how difficult it is keeping track of what has happened. You can not rewind the match, and when a piece gets taken, it just disappears. The animations play very fast so the only way you will know what piece was taken is if you remember what was on that square OR, if you watched it get taken. There is material notation that tells you what has happened the past 13 turns but it doesn't say what pieces have been taken. The AI is also very odd. In some levels it preforms great, playing at an elo level that's probably in the mid 1000's. In other levels, it preforms terribly. The 2nd level is quite difficult and the AI is very efficient with its play. You likely won't beat that level until you get some upgrades. But in the 3rd level, everything about it is easier. Even the AI plays worse. So it's strange how it all works. Don't quit the game on the 2nd level, it gets way better after that. Overall, it's an awesome game and if you like Chess, you will probably enjoy this. also - you earn XP too slowly in this game imo

Much, much too grindy and the AI is inconsistent. XP takes far, far too long to earn and some of the later levels are essentially impossible without specific XP-intensive upgrades so you've gotta go back and grind the levels you've already beaten A LOT in order to get the XP, the AI seems to flail around and uses abilities almost at random. That would be okay except it throws a huge randomizer into a game that should be much, much less random than it is. The actual playing strength of the moves is reasonably consistent and not terrible, it's just the ability use that is weird and sometimes forces you to restart a level unnecessarily. If the XP grind weren't so terrible and the AI was more consistent I'd recommend it. As it is it's just the far side of too grindy and irksome to be worth it. It would almost certainly also be brutally difficult if you don't have a pretty good familiarity with chess (I'm a competent-though-not-exceptional tournament player). There are better options out there. This one's a swing and a miss.

A hundred stages, A new perspective on playing Chess. Other than the usual rules and move, Innovative skills from the pieces makes the game much challenging and menacing. Once grasping the essence of the skills, the board is an onslaught. Enjoyable and time well spent.

The game is addicting! Killer soundtrack, wide variety of maps/layouts, achievements to unlock for extra XP... oh, did I mention you get XP and can upgrade chess pieces to have abilities? Yeah... this is a good game!