Want to Quarrel? Letters Have at It!
| A review of: Quarrel by: Mark Harrison |
| Platform: Xbox 360 | Publisher: UTV Ignition |
| Rating: 9.0/10 | Quarrel is a quirky word conquest game made from the fun-loving guys at Denki, the makers of "Juggle!" and "Denki Blocks!". Quarrel has been out on the iPhone for a while now, but the game was originally developed for XBLA, and it's proving just as fun to play on a big screen as it did on the mobile. The marketing slogan for Quarrel: "Where words speak louder than actions" sums up the game well. It's an inventive hybrid of Risk and Scrabble, and if you like either of those games, you'll have a lot of fun. Let Me Spell it Out For You The game takes place on a Risk style map with between two and four players on it. The aim of the game is to conquer all of the territory on the map. You start with some pieces on the few squares you control, and when you move to attack some enemy territory, the number of pieces on the square you are attacking from determines the maximum word length you'll be able to spell.  Attacking and defending your territory takes place in the form of a mini scrabble-like game. You're presented with a jumble of eight letters, and you have to spell the best word out of them. Longest isn't always best - if you make a short word out of "difficult" letters, that will give you more points than a longer "easy" word. If you're good at mental arithmetic you can really annoy your opponents by putting together impossibly short seeming, high score words. Successfully make the eight-letter anagram, and you'll get bonus points. At certain points within the game, you'll have the opportunity to call in reinforcements. This, plus the way that you can move troops around to bolster weak areas, makes for some fun strategic play. Strategic skills won't make up for a poor vocabulary, but it's still a nice extra element to the game. The XBLA version of Quarrel has several different modes, including Domination and Challenge modes, which pit you against a range of opponents and add variety to the game beyond just plain "conquer the map" play.  You will face time limits when trying to spell words, and speed is of the essence - if there's a tie for word score, the player that spelled the word fastest wins. Using the analogue stick to move back and forth over the letters felt a little slow to me at first, but you do get used to it, and the ability to come up with words quickly is the most important thing. At the end of each turn, you're provided with the dictionary definition of the word that you came up with, along with the definition of the anagram that the letters made. This is my favourite part of the game, and I've learned a few new words while playing. Multi-player The XBLA version supports up to four players in multi-player games, and I think it's a great alternative to a traditional game of scrabble - there can be no arguments when a computer is responsible for deciding if your word is real or not! Sadly, if you're playing via Xbox Live, you have to contend with the service's rather strict word filter. The list of banned words goes far beyond just profanity and innuendo, and includes some perfectly innocuous seeming words that might take you by surprise. This can get pretty frustrating when you take the time to spell something (As an extreme example, I've heard “help” is on the forbidden list, but haven't managed to test that one myself), only to find out it's blocked and lose the round because you don't have time to spell something else. Graphics and Sound The graphics are cute and cheerful. The game makes use of your avatar, which is always a plus, but it's the cute army guys, robots, and ninjas that really brighten up the game. The sound is perhaps a little too cheerful though. If you get hooked on the wordplay, you'll probably turn it down after a few dozen rounds.  Quarrel's simple, polished style works really well on the console. I usually prefer to play word games on the PC because reading a big screen that you're a long way away from can be rather annoying (the hacking game in Alpha Protocol being an extreme example of letters done wrong). Quarrel, though, is words done right. Achievement Unlocked This isn't a game that you could buy for the 200 points and be done with in a day. The achievements are quite demanding, but nice to work towards. Making 100 anagrams and achieving a Word IQ of 200 in a game have made it on to my “must do” list. The game may look and sound cute, but the achievements are decidedly hardcore. Conclusion Quarrel may be the most addictive way you could spend 400 Microsoft Points. If it were easier to gift games on XBLA I'd suggest buying a few copies for friends and challenging them to a civilised Quarrel instead of a frag-fest. They may resist at first, but they'll be converts when they spell their first Anagram. |
