Reveal your Rank!

.: By: Justin Cheng :: Device used: iPAQ H3650 :: January 17, 2002 :.

Reveal Your Rank (RYR) is a puzzle game coded by Raimonds Rudmanis. The title is a puzzle game similar to Stratego by Milton Bradley of Hasbro.

I downloaded my copy from RYR's Geocities web page. The game itself, apparently is hosted on Hypermart. The banner at the side makes the site appear unprofessional. The web site design isn't something to be proud of either. I guess the author did not have the time to make it look nice.

The installer is included in a zip file, which contains all the files needed to install RYR on your Pocket PC. The manual is included in the installation, which is pretty sparse and confusing to navigate but nonetheless informative. It took five minutes to install the game, and I was up and running by then. One quirk is that InstallShield takes a long time to load on slow systems, so I would suggest that using a smaller installer might be better.

The game provides a bonus PC version which is exactly the same as the Pocket PC version. The registration system was a breeze, unlike the Rayman install system which was confusing and time-wasting. RYR's install size was a small 150 k, which is surprising for a Pocket PC program.

I launched RYR from the Games sub folder, and it loaded quickly. The menu is easy to navigate, and I launched a new game immediately. The gameplay is very similar to Stratego, and it will seem extremely intuitive if you are a seasoned Stratego player. You move your "units" across the battlefield by tapping and dragging, as you do in Pocket PC Chess games. The computer player nearly always beats me, and it got me very frustrated.

Firstly, there is no way to change the computer's intelligence, which is irritating for new and seasoned players, because the computer will always beat the new player, and vice versa for seasoned ones. But, there are two versions of Stratego in this game, one being Reveal Your Rank and the other, Stratego. Reveal Your Rank is a quicker version of Stratego, and I prefer it as the game moves faster and ends quicker. The Stratego version is included for players who prefer Stratego.

Both boards provide a bar at the right or bottom telling you what number of troops in which rank you have left, which is very useful if you want to compare statistics, and determine who is leading. Stratego's board is somewhat wider than RYR's and so the board is slightly smaller than RYR's. The bar is at the bottom, but some space at the right and below is not utilized and just consists of empty space. The author could have used it for the playing screen. RYR's screen is larger than Stratego's, and more aesthetically appealing.

There are some helpful buttons at the bottom of the screen, such as one to give you a hint or turn off the sound. The hint button shows you a move the computer would make if it were you, and I used it sometimes when I was stuck. I think the exit button at the bottom is absolutely useless, as the Game Menu already contains an exit function. I would prefer an option to change the gameplay from RYR to Stratego quickly without having to navigate the menu system.

There is an interesting and useful option called "Setup Board", which allows you to place your units wherever you want them to be, and it was a very simple to use function, and helpful too. The option, however does not allow you to change the computer board's layout, and so you cannot play a game in "learning mode".

The graphics in the game are nothing to brag about. Most of them are only red, black or yellow, and there is no option to change the colors of the units. They seem very pixelated and the tiles are also an ugly grey. The only animation in the game are units moving and animated water in the centers of the boards, and nothing else.

The game interface also does not add to the appeal of a Pocket PC version. It would be better if the tiles were converted into units that are animated and the Pocket PC interface replaced with a medieval one, as is common in many other games which get rid of the command and title bar. There is also no option to change the tileset of the game, which makes the interface become boring after a while.

The sound is also very unappealing. The sounds are very basic but, on the plus side, only take up a small amount of space. They sound very bare and become repetitive after a while. The sounds when you lose a soldier sound unrealistic on a Pocket PC and you can hear the sound 'click' on and off. What I would want is better sound, and I don't mind a 1 MB game if the interface and sound is significantly improved.

All-in-all, RYR is a below-average clone of a Stratego game, but nonetheless playable. Many of the game's features have the potential to be considerably improved and, as a consequence, the game is not appealing to me. The purchase price is $10 at the time of writing, which is relatively cheap.

Pros:

• Small size.

• Two versions of Stratego.

• Intuitive interface.

• Option to set up the board.
  

Cons:

• Below-average graphics.

• Repetitive sound.

• Dull interface.

• No option to change computer intelligence.

.: Game category: Strategy Games :: Reviews Index :.