Download Battle Wrath

Let it be stated that my purpose in reviewing a game is to be as considerate as possible. That is because there are all types out there. There for whom my review will be their first introduction to a game. And then there will be those for whom this game represents some treasured memories of the past, of hours lost exploring this game’s nuances, discovering and mastering the games subtle ways. 

Against my stated MO I am going to say, for Battle Wrath, I hold up a sign of warning to the first and pity the last. Despite my best attempts I could find almost nothing to like about this game. It’s more like a proof of concept that failed, but instead of scrapping the project they slapped it together and tried selling it shareware. I’d be surprised if they make a single sale. 

Battle Wrath does have what might be called an innovative fight system. You press and hold down your attack key and then press a direction after your attack has had a chance to charge up a bit to unleash it. Consequently your movement keys, since they double for putting the spin on your attack, do not allow combination like up and left at the same time. There’s a key for that. Most of the time this new and exciting attack method results in you either being hit while charging up or giving your opponent enough time to get out of the way. Needless to say I personally lost every round I fought in and had very little interest in navigating its clunky interface to try and improve myself. 

The game lacks any sort of structured story. In fact it is so lacking of structure whatsoever that enduring it becomes an exercise in endurance. Instead of some tiered fighting system you must set up each fight by picking who is fighting and who they’re fighting with. If you’re confused, that’s because I think that’s part of the “charm”. I found this dual level of character interaction disturbing. Not only do you have the fighting characters, but you have the player characters, one that you’ve made and several of various AI levels. To gain rank you must set up your character (and your fighter) to fight against another character (and fighter) of nearby rank to start a “sanctioned fight”. If you win you move up in rank, if they win they do. I suppose this is so that you can make a dummy character and just beat up on them to learn the moves, gain a level, and start getting beat up by the computer. 

If you are determined to play this game it comes with a text file that explains its convoluted fight style, keyboard setup up, and moves for each fighter. I will point out for those foolish enough to jump into the deep end without waders that player 1’s movement keys are set up around the ‘f’ key and use ‘a’ and ‘z’ for your attack buttons. If you’re one of the crazies that like using the number pad, set your character up as player 2. 

This game let me down quick and never redeemed itself. I don’t normally like belittling anything this much, but I’m giving this game a 1 and not apologizing for it.