Okay, I'll have to be honest with you about this one. Before loading Battle Chess, I had only ever played chess once before and I was totally obliterated and to say that I'm not really a chess fan would be an understatement! It's not that I don't like strategy games, it's just that I'd rather play something that relies more on reflexes and reactions than thinking - when I'm not writing, I use my Amigas to relax, not to wear my brain out even more!
Unlike most chess games though, Battle Chess tries to lighten the game up a little by adding humour and an element of FUN! The pieces are all represented by medieval characters as opposed to the more traditional pieces and whenever one piece moves to attack another, you see the piece physically walk across the board and fight it out with his/her opponent! The animation, while not stunning really adds to the atmosphere with each "death" scene being different depending on which two pieces are fighting. Monty Python fans will definately love the two knights fighting it out! ("Come on then, I'll 'ave you!")
While all of this is going on, while the pieces move or when the computer is "thinking", the game is accompanied by a full orchestral soundtrack playing straight from the CD. I know it doesn't change the basic rules of chess, but these additions really do make it a wonderful experience to watch and participate in.
As I said, I'm no chess player, so I can't judge this on the strength of its playing, though I DID test this on a chess-playing friend (who doesn't own an Amiga) and he was engrossed for a couple of hours until he was well and truly beaten (on the first level!).
For beginners, there is also an introduction to the game of chess. Now, for me, it was worth buying the CD just for this! The pieces walk onto the board one by one and introduce themselves and give a brief history of their pieces and the game of chess. There are some wonderful animation sequences and the actors providing the voices have been chosen well, giving the pieces real character (such as the Jimmy Stewart-like King!) and a nice "human" touch (especially the paranoid Pawn and mindlessly violent Rook!). Again, there is music to accompany parts of this and the tutorial runs for well over an hour. It's full of humour and I loved every minute of it!
Good use of the CD medium is made with absolutely thousands of frames of animation (which were removed from the floppy version and re-inserted for this -- the pauses for loading can be slightly irritating after a while though), great atmospheric music and a superbly warped sense of humour. If you enjoy playing chess, get this disc. I can't recommend this enough.
