There some games are deceptively simple, others are deceptively confusing. The Tone Rebellion, as you may have gathered, falls firmly into the latter category. There are several reasons for this. It looks weird for a start. Take a quick look at the in-game shots and you'll see all manner of strange creatures and artefacts. This will be something of a culture shock to strategy enthusiasts brought up on a diet of Red Alert, Civilization, or even Ascendancy, the last game from the Logic Factory (creators of The Tone Rebellion).
There's nothing immediately identifiable about Tone Rebellion. The others have recognisable soldiers (Red Alert), or historical races (Civ), or even spaceships (Ascendancy).
So it was then that Paul Presley, who previewed the game, spent some considerable time pacing up and down the office in a rather confused state, wondering exactly why he couldn't figure out the basics of Tone Rebellion from the early preview version he had. Having played the game for days on end, I can see exactly what his problem was. The first few hours I spent with Tone Rebellion were very disorientating. The interface looked clumsy and confusing (although it isn't, bear with me) and there was a strange-looking dial at the left of the screen which supposedly reflected how powerful your chosen race in the game was compared to all your opponents, although it didn't seem to have any bearing on the actual gameplay while I was playing. Then suddenly, the penny dropped.
The wood for the trees
The Tone Rebellion is simplicity itself once you get to grips with it. The general gist of it is this. At the start of the game you choose a race to play from one of four different tribes (or 'floaters' as they're more commonly known). You start on a single island, which you must conquer in the face of opposition from the Leviathan. The Leviathan are, of course, the baddies in the game. They are heavy-duty baddies and there are, as you would expect, many of them.
Unlike most real-time strategy games, Tone Rebellion gives you plenty of time to think at the beginning of each level before you take on the Leviathan. This is where you get to practice your advanced skills of resource management before taking on the nasties. At this point you'll be needing a Structure Tone Generator, which provides the materials you need to build structures with, and a Crystal Tone Generator, which supplies energy for all your floaters. The next building you'll need is a Tone Generator. This allows you to 'spread' your supply of Tone to the next screen, thereby giving you more room to build things. So what's all this Tone stuff about then? Well, I'll tell you, shall I?
The Tone is everything...
And everything is the Tone. Or something. Anyway, the Tone supplies energy to all things in the game. Every time you build a Tone Generator, your 'Tone influence' spreads further, allowing you to see more of the level you're on. On the first level, as soon as you build a few Tone Generators, you'll explore enough of the level to come across the Leviathans and so find yourself in a bit of a fight. This is more or less what you'll be doing in all the levels. Lay down a Tone Generator, explore the level, fight the Leviathans and so on, until eventually you finish the game.
This could have become very boring very quickly if it wasn't for the fact that your creatures develop the further you get into the game. You'll start off with fairly useless troops, but then you build new structures that breed stronger, better troops, and even magic users that have a variety of spells at their disposal. If you keep the same attack floaters alive from one level to the next, their experience points will go up, and eventually they'll go up an experience level, giving them new powers and better attack abilities. Additionally, there is an artefact on each island which is activated when you insert the correct items. You need to activate all the artefacts on each island before you can finally confront the Leviathan in their own lair.
The Tone Rebellion is not the greatest strategy game of all time, but it's an extremely absorbing diversion if you're prepared to spend a little time getting used to how everything works. The graphics are fab, too, and the obligatory multi-player options are well catered for. I'm also told the realms 'thing' really comes into play on the more difficult levels, so if you finish the game you can go back and try it again with the 'weirdy' factor turned up to maximum.
// Overview
Verdict
Some games are worth persevering with. This is one of them.
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