Bowmaster Winter Storm --- Flash Ryview

Bowmaster Winter Storm, by LostVector.

Bowmaster is an archery shooting game where you are shooting for a fixed point and firing towards one side of the screen.

I liked parts of the game, and didn't like other parts. I'd have to say that I usually find upgrades in flash games unbalanced. Either they're aren't enough, or they take too much grinding, or any other number of problems. It's very hard to find that balance. Bowmaster does actually have an okay balance, but there are a million and a half upgrades, and it takes way too long to buy things. So, while I appreciate that the upgrades have a lot of depth, it didn't pan out very well in the end.

You have completed roughly 10% of tab 1 out of 10...

And that might have been nice, if I wanted to play through the whole game. Unfortunately, the game is very repetitive. To the designer's credit, there are several different game modes that do vary the gameplay a bit, ranging for all out killing to protecting allied villagers to protected fixed points on the map. But the same basic rule applies: Shoot at bad guys until they're all dead. Sometimes you have to aim around allies, but that's about it. It's very much the same every time. And the upgrades unfortunately don't do enough to radically change the gameplay in a positive way as you progress through the game.

3 arrows at once, harnessing Robin Hood, Katniss, and Hawkeye all at the same time

The core gameplay is fairly easy, which I definitely appreciate. You have a cooldown after each shot, and for certain upgraded shots you have a longer cooldown. It's very easy to see and you could assign hotkeys to multiple powers, which was a necessary and appreciated feature.

The difficult and controls are also very malleable to suit the player, which is really great. I've complained in the past when controls can't be changed or if the difficulty is poorly scaled with no way to change it. It's very important for enjoyment, in my mind, to be able to cater the gameplay to your preferences, at least a little bit.

So, should you play it? I think if you enjoy the core gameplay, it's a worth while past time. And I really love the mechanics of the game, so I want to like it and I want other people to like it. But I found it too take too long to level up in a game where each level felt the same. So maybe it's worthwhile to play until you're bored with it, then move on.

Scorecard:

Category	Score
Time Value	6
Money Value	10
Originality	8
Ryplayability	8
Fulfillment	4
Final Score	7.2

Let me know what you think of Bowmaster Winter Storm!

Until next time,

Ryan

Pictures courtesy of ArmorGames