Idol Hands Review

Developer Pocket Gamer Inc

Publisher Green Man Loaded

Platform PC

Release Date 18th Feb 2015

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Idol Hands describes itself as “a strategy game where you gradually take over the world by guiding your people and defeating other gods”, a better description for this simple yet endearing title is hard to muster.

It is a Real Time Strategy that pits you against another God. As a passive God you have no direct control over your followers (Furlings) but rather you need to manipulate the landscape so they can forge their own path, much the same way Godus approached this genre.

If you are expecting to get lost in a deep level of resource management you will be disappointed, Idol Hands is about as stripped down as you can get. You are limited to five Furling careers, three resources, and a handful of Special powers. While this might sound disappointing for seasoned RTS/God Game fans it does create a much lower point of entry for players of all ages and skill levels while still managing to be a challenging outing for even the most advanced player.

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The careers and resources are intertwined.  Famers grow and gather food, Wood Cutters gather wood and Blacksmiths gather Iron for weapons. You need enough farmers to ensure you have enough food for the expanding population, wood and iron is used to build weapons and buildings. Once you can keep enough of those three resources then you will do ok, outside of that you really only need an army of soldiers to attack the enemy.

Beyond the landscaping powers you have some extra special “God Powers” that include the ability to zap your enemy with a lighting bolt, turn buildings to rubble with an earth quake, rain fire from the skies with a meteor strike, or raise death from below with an incredible destructive volcano. All the special powers along with the landscaping require “Mana” which you acquire gradually over time. You need to manage this “Mana” and decide where to spend it depending on whether you want to expand or attack as it is hard to do both at once.

Combat is a big part of the game but much like the rest of the game you again play a semi passive role. Other than setting a location to attack and occasionally joining in with a lightning bolt here and an earth quake there it is a grind the Furlings must forge alone.

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The presentation is bright and cute and appears to have been designed very much with the tablet user in mind. Buttons are well spaced and large, and any options to change the settings in the menus are very limited. It looks good, plays well and the music is really relaxing which makes the whole experience very enjoyable.

It is clear Idol Hands is trying to be as open to all newcomers as possible with very little in the way of “barriers to play” for the younger more casual players. There is very little in the design to cause any frustration and they want to preserve this by limiting freedom in game, you can’t zoom in, you can’t alter key bindings and scrolling is different but not in a good way but doesn’t detract too much from the gameplay.

Overall: A simple lovable stripped down God game that has an easy entry point that never gets overly complicated while still allowing a nice level of difficulty for more experienced players.

SCORE 4/5 

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