Castle Master 3D

God is not a happy bunny. The human race has failed him, and he's decided to leave us wallowing in our own filth. Orcs, demons, and other nasty things have swarmed into the resulting vacuum to finish us off.

Fortunately, there's a hero on the loose, and he's ready to command the remaining human armies and rid the world of this underworldish scourge.

Castle Master 3D is a management game and arena battler all rolled into one, and while it doesn't quite have the depth we would have liked there's enough entertainment here to keep us booting the game up until the world is saved.

Master-cast

Armed with your central castle hub and loyal servants, your goal is simply to build up your troops, attack surrounding castles, and claim them as your own.

This is easier said than done, however - if you just send troops straight into the battlefield, they'll get slaughtered. Instead, you first need to use cash to train your troops, construct buildings in your castle, and beef up your guys with better weapons and skills.

All of this is done via the overmap and the castle view, and it's all very easy to understand and get into. After a short while you're building farms and barracks in each castle and hiring lords to watch over your people while you're away.

The other side of Castle Master 3D is the battling. When you choose to attack an enemy castle the game switches to the battlefield and your guys start running towards the enemy. The goal is to kill everyone and smash down the gates within a time limit.

You also get to play on the battlefield as the hero, and can deal out super combos and extra hit points all over the shop. Rushing into the enemy lines with your troops is a pretty intense experience, and a really inspired feeling.

Plastered

But it's not all so sweet-smelling on your way to victory over the goblin hordes.

There appears to be a serious amount of depth to the game, what with all the management options, but this is not really the case. You're actually just choosing the same buildings, troops, and options over and over again for each castle, and waiting in real time for them to finish.

Once you're seen one castle, you've seen them all. And if you're not willing to drop any cash on this free-to-play title, you're going to be playing the waiting game lots if you want to see it through to the end.

Then there are obtrusive ads that sometimes block buttons that you need to press at the top of the screen, bad text translations that don't read correctly, and the occasional game crash. It all puts a dampener on what is otherwise a solid management RPG.

Castle Master 3D is worth a punt, especially given that it's free-to-play. If you don't expect anything revolutionary then you'll have a grand old time.