A Knight's Dawn for iPhone is beautiful, but helplessly broken

A Knight's Dawn may have some of the prettiest environments this side of Plants Vs. Zombies. Unfortunately, crash issues and an uneven difficulty put this iOS title on shaky ground.

Game name: A Knight's Dawn
Price: $1
Compatible with: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

What is it? A platform-based tower-defense game, similar to runaway iOS hit, Defender Chronicles. As in Defender Chronicles, A Knight's Dawn has a narrative wedged between levels, but it's largely forgettable. Instead, the game's focus is rightly on the strategic placement of units and your shrewd use of experience points to upgrade your arsenal.

Who made it? The nearly unpronounceable VisionaryX GmbH -- this is the small studio's first game.

What works? The stingy placement of where you can put units makes for some harried second-guessing as missions progress. Since you can only place one unit type at each position, it makes the situation of a dagger-wielding soldier or a musket-toting footman that much more important. Some levels only let you place five units on the map, so don't take those spots for granted. Also, the game is just extremely pretty, with hand-drawn, lush graphics.

What doesn't work? Sometimes, the game itself. Freezes and crashes occur too frequently for comfort: sometimes in the middle of a mission, and then only if you were doing particularly well it seems. Unfortunately, once the game is frozen it can't seem to unfreeze, even if you quit out and come back in. When things are running more smoothly, though, the only other potential drawback is the uneven difficulty that ramps up and lets off unpredictably stage to stage.

What's the estimated shelf-life? A weekend or a full week if you're determined to replay all six levels on the different difficulties.

Is it worth the price of admission? Sure. Just know there are some sizable caveats on this one. Might be smartest to buy while the price is still cheap, and then hold off on playing until it's patched for steady play sessions.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gamepro/~3/gqPW3Jpbo-k/

innova cls venus williams serena williams infowars keanu reeves rosario dawson