Towers II
CATEGORY: Role-PlayingPLAYERS: 1
PUBLISHER: Telegames
DEVELOPED BY: JV Games
At a glance...
| Category | Rating | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
4 | |
| Sound/Music | |
4 | |
| Control | |
4 | |
| Playability |  |
5 | |
| Presentation | |
4 |
TOWERS II - REVIEW
Towers II is the Jag's only RPG. Jaguar fans of the RPG genre can jump for joy. Towers is a 3D RPG which somewhat gives it the look of Doom but adds in the traditional RPG elements such as Experience Points, spells, rings, armor, etc. Players choose from one of four characters whose strengths and weaknesses vary. Merton sports great magical capacity. Gerand is very strong and can carry lots of items. Tasler and Andros provide a happy medium of strength and spell-casting ability.The gameplay is the biggest highlight of the game. There are puzzles scattered all around. Even the best gamer will find him/herself stuck in one area or another. As you work your way up through the tower, you'll gain both weapons and spells. Among these are: A bow and arrow, fire storm spell, wands, sphere of annihilation spell and many more. You will also find various armors, magical rings, boots/shoes, helmets and even necklaces. You can even throw things at your enemies. Watch out for the feces.
The graphic presentation is solid, but comes up a bit short of a true next-gen look. The graphics are shiny and rendered from a distance, but don't maintain their clarity up-close. I guess we've come to expect it most of the time. Most 3D games have what they call pixellation. This one isn't too bad, but it just could have looked so much smoother. Some of the spells look very cool. Namely the Fire Storm spell. It looks very nice. Also the Sphere of annihilation spell. As you move in the game, it's quite fast. At first it seems a bit weird. It's slightly different than Doom and other 3D games in terms of movement. The screen moves up and down and your current weapon selection moves in and out of view. Pretty smooth looking, not to mention a nice touch of realism. The framerate isn't perfect, but it's fast and fairly smooth. I haven't heard anyone complain about it.
The sound package is different from most Jag games. Most notably, the music is a change from the 'norm'. It isn't 'music'. It's heavily based on stereo sound effects. There are little melodies here and there, but there are a lot of Sfx. There is only one in-game tune, but there are 3 different themes within it. I like the results. It seems to fit the dungeon type setting that Towers tries to create. The sound effects are good as well-even some nice digitized voicing in there.
Control is kinda quirky. There is a slight hesitation between moving backward to forward and vice-versa. Moving around columns can sometimes be tricky, but some of that has to do with your character's dexterity level when you roll at the beginning of the game.
Overall, Towers II is a great purchase for a Jag fan. If you're not an RPG fan,this might be a good time to give one a good try!
Reviewed by: Wes Powell
Jaguar page