Casual Review

Full Review

Lux is one of those things that indie developers like to talk about. Sillysoft has built an entire company on this franchise (thought they have a few other fun games), and in doing so, they have avoided using the big portals, doing ingame advertising, making flash versions, using publishers, or doing just about everything else they tell you indies have to do to survive. Instead, Sillysoft has taken the road less traveled by slowly building a community of people build levels in the Lux editor, trade tips in the Lux forums, and generally support the company. The result has been a surprising and I must say, uplifting indie success.

And Ancient Lux is the product of that success. The game is similar to the other Lux games – which is to say almost creepily similar to the boardgame Risk – but with a number of small additional bells and whistles that take it to the next level after American History Lux, the last outing of the series. The biggest change is the improved naval combat, which is now smooth and seamlessly integrated with the land combat, basically turning the water spots on the map into land spots your armies can hold and defend with boats. Like American History Lux, each map comes with a historical perspective on the situation, which is a fun read.

The most intriguing change, however, is the way there is no difficulty level. Instead, you choose the difficulty of the map by choosing one nation or the other. Thus, in the final climactic struggle of the Roman Empire, you can play it easy by playing the enormous and powerful Egyptians, or try to go for the harder victory by playing the scrappy underdog Romans or Germanic tribes. It really does draw you into the game, and encourage you to play the maps again and again. I have to admit, we played every map with every nation until we had won them all – which was way more game time than this review every required. So it must be pretty cool.

The art is very well done (way better than earlier Lux games), and the music is also solid, if a bit unmemorable. The sound effects remain cheesy, but in truth it just wouldn’t be Lux without the sad moaning cry of your defeated enemy or tinny clanging of what we can only guess are some gardening tools in the developers gardens to simulate the clash of arms. Truth is you’ll likely be playing with your own music on anyway, so it’s no biggie.

In all, a great game from a successful indie developer. Go check it out and see what you think.

Review by Nick Kojima