Death Valley 3 is an Android game from an independent game studio that wants to give players a quality base defense game. The gameplay is simple, you’re the last defense between the giants, monsters and other evil creatures that are trying to get over your walls. How players go about this is to keep on using their huge catapult style weapon to hurl arrows, bombs, rocks, boulders and a lot more at the oncoming armies and giants to keep them back. The game has a lot of different ammo types available, ranging from the more precise, to the more damaging, with a little of everything in between. Put together in just 10 weeks or so, Death Valley 3 is certainly something for those interested in indie games and something a little different.
Just like other games on the Play Store, users can download Death Valley 3 to their device, but it’s not a free game and will instead cost a small one-time upfront cost. This of course, ensures that there are no ads or any other in-app purchases involved. From there, players can get stuck in.
Players will need to choose their username before they get stuck in, and from there they’ll be able to fire her up and get stuck in. The game puts you behind what appears to be some sort of multi-ammunition catapult protecting the gate to a fantasy-style medieval castle.
Here, players can used to moving and dragging around the catapult in order to aim at different objects, and while things start off easy enough, there’s soon a wave of enemies that need to be dealt with.
There are different enemies that appear, including larger giant enemies, some of which can be pretty difficult to deal with. These big guys will try to take out your surrounding settlements around the castle, which isn’t what any self-respecting ruler needs in his life while trying to keep his people safe, is it?
Of course, the best way to respond to this sort of blatant disrespect for your all-consuming power is to fire rocks and stuff at these giant’s heads. While I didn’t get the “HEADSHOT!” voice from the classic Unreal Tournament and Quake games, I was able to say it out loud thanks to this onscreen prompt.
This is pretty satisfying, and if you’re a good enough shot to have taken out the onslaught of evil nasties on their way to you, then you’ll be crowned victorious, which often leads to you unlocking some more ammo to kick even more ass.
After a time, you’ll have collected a decent supply of these different arrows and other weapon types, which is great, as Death Valley 3 allows users to mix things up a little and change around their “deck”, choosing which ammo type to go where and such.
There is a variety of different levels here in Death Valley 3, and while things start off nice and smoothly at the beginning, they quickly become a lot more difficult, and it does make things fairly challenging for players as they move from one level to another.
Throughout these different levels, players will come across all manner of different enemies, some that attack by the ground, some that are large giants, and some that attack by the air. It all goes to mix things up for the player, and creates a tough challenge, especially for those that haven’t quite gotten to grips with all of the different ammunition types out there.
While playing Death Valley 3, I have to say that while I found the core concept of the game and its gameplay fairly enjoyable, I didn’t think that controls were all that forgiving. I found it difficult and somewhat sluggish to move around the catapult, and the reticule targeting things even harder. Still, I think this was perhaps done by design, as the game is designed to be something of a challenge, rather than a game that you can quite easily complete with little to no difficulty. Even so, the graphics here could do with some polish, and the overall performance of the game leaves a little to be desired, too. Despite all of this, I did still have fun playing the game, and while I might say that it’s a little too difficult for the majority of casual gamers out there, this is the sort of game that I think a lot of people will really enjoy at the end of the day, even if it could be considered a little pricey.
Ratings
- Speed (3.5/5) – I found the overall performance a little on the sluggish side, and I wish that the catapult had a quicker aim to it overall, as this is something that did give the game an almost sluggish feel when playing. Still, this could have all been by design.
- Theme (4/5) – Graphically, things are okay, there’s a lot going on at any one given time, and for the game to render all of that in 3D is commendable, but some sharper textures would be great to see on today’s Quad HD devices.
- Features (4/5) – Gameplay here in Death Valley 3 is good, the game plays well and has some great features to it, especially the ability to mix up your deck and change the overall attacks and the order they appear in.
- Overall (4/5) – It might not be the quickest game, or even the most complete game out there, but Death Valley 3 is good fun and it’s worth checking out, especially if you’re the sort of player that just wants to shoot things in the face.
Pros
- Simple control scheme makes this an easy game for anyone of any gaming background or whatever, to pick up and play right away.
- Different enemies help to keep players on their toes and make sure that they don’t get an easy ride while playing what can be a tough challenge of a game.
- Allows players to change their deck, making it easier to tailor the overall experience to how they like things.
- Delivers fun and classic gameplay with a modern twist to it, while giving players a tough challenge to overcome.
Cons
- Isn’t exactly the speediest of games on Android, as the aiming system feels a little sluggish, and it doesn’t quite give players the feeling of a high-performance game when in action.
- Due to the fact that it was done in a short time frame, it doesn’t feel all that complete, but updates should be coming along that fix this a little bit.
Death Valley works well for the most part, but the sluggish aiming system can be very offputting, but then it could be that some players will just need to adjust to it more than others. The gameplay can however, be very satisfying once players have gotten used to things, and there should be a lot more on offer in future updates. Worth giving a look at the very least, Death Valley 3 can be a lot of fun for all sorts of players.