App Profile: Root Board Game

Chriss Jackson

Rating: 5/5

Root is a fantastic game. It’s not an easy game to learn, nor is it for everyone. But for anyone out there interested in this strategic war game set in a woodland setting with cats, birds, mice, and even a lone badger thrown in, you couldn’t ask for better. Many apps translate a board game experience into a digital experience fairly easily, and with roots intrinsic complexity you wouldn’t fault a more basic experience for this one, but that’s not what you’re getting here. No, this is the premium deal with combat animation and catchy beats, each character on the map has heart; this is bar none the best digital adaption I’ve ever witnessed. Bravo to the developers. If your new to root or just to the app, the tutorials are brilliant. The controls are fairly straight forward, but give the tutorials a glance, because there’s a lot going on. That being said, the app condenses much of the fiddliness of the physical game and manages things with ease. A couple of points that I’d love the developer to consider in future updates: an option to invite friends to a game and a small notification when a message in in-game chat has been sent. Thanks.

Jenching!

Rating: 5/5

Friends that we usually play board games with every winter weekend bought the board game and remarked how complicated it seemed. Not knowing anything of it, I downloaded the instructions and tried going through it without the board or pieces and I was lost. Even online videos were confusing but the game looked interesting and I read about the app. I decided to download it even though it was $10 and I was hooked!!! This game is so charming and a lot of fun and the app really explains well how to play the game and it translates to the board game very good as well. I played the four basic factions Friday and we played the board game Saturday with me using the app as a tutorial and it was a lot of fun. I even went out that day to my LFGS to snag what I could of Root and I’m still using the app as a tutorial. The app itself is great as the gameplay follows the board game and the animations are awesome with music that really fits the game. If you are a fan of the board game or just want to learn how to play, this app is a sold must have. Highly recommended and can’t wait for them to release the Underworld Expansion.

robbjunk2

Rating: 4/5

Just echoing some comments from other people: (1) Please, please, PLEASE implement an “undo” button. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve clicked the wrong button (especially on the phone, where the buttons are tiny), and can’t go back and fix it. (2) The AI definitely needs work. One poster made a comment about (ex: ) the Eyrie putting cards into its decree that are automatic fails, and the Vagabond choosing strange items to damage. I’d add to that the fact that none of the factions seem to recognize when another one is about to win. They’ll just watch blithely as (ex: ) the Eyrie builds its 5th and 6th roosts and is just a few points away from victory, but the Vagabond with 3 swords or the Cats with plenty of warriors will just bypass lightly-guarded roosts. At some point — when a faction is nearing victory — the other factions need to pay some attention. (3) One more +1 for speeding up battles/animation. The animations are really well done, but I think the game takes 50%-100% longer than it needs to in order to show them off. I don’t need to see (ex: ) each individual bird or cat leap out of the air when they’re recruited, or walk back and forth between clearings. Some sort of setting that lets you speed up the animations, or bypass them entirely with a screen press/button, would certainly make the game less frustrating at times. But it’s a great start — keep up the good work!