Of Shields and Spears

Lately I’ve been play­ing a highly access­ible puzzle-rogue-like game called Hoplite.

Simple graph­ics and ever-increas­ing dif­fi­culty make this a quick and easy game to learn, but a very dif­fi­cult one to master.

You play the role of an adven­tur­ous Hoplite — a cit­izen war­ri­or of ancient Greece city-states. You’re quest­ing in ever-deep­er dun­geons look­ing for the Fleece of Yendor whilst avoid­ing doom at the hands of vari­ous dun­geon inhabitants.

Each level is a smallish hex map with lava obstacles, oppon­ents, a temple and an exit to the next level down. Defeat the oppon­ents, heal or receive a boon at the temple and jour­ney onward. Simple right?

Well, yes, and no. Depend­ing on the num­ber of enemies and your strategy, your jour­ney could end on the first level, or you could retrieve the Fleece and win, or hang on to the fleece and quest even further.

I find myself com­ing back to Hoplite daily, for at least one or two rounds. As you can tell by the shot at the top, I’ve man­aged to recov­er the Fleece once (yay me!), but am won­der­ing what lies beyond…

Hoplite is avail­able for Android and iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch).

Enjoy this fine game­play video.