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Athenion might not have the pedigree of some other deck-building card games available for mobile, but that shouldn't put you off. This is a game that's packed full of bright ideas, fresh new gameplay modes and enough content that you can lose hours of your life to.

Battles take place on a 4×4 grid, and see you taking it in turns with your opponent to lay down cards. You draw up to five cards from your deck of forty at the start of every turn.

These are the units you're playing in the fight, and they range from hulking monsters to flighty fairies, from magical trees to fearsome undead dragons.

Your cards have arrows on them that you show you which direction they can attack. You'll also notice a bunch of other numbers on the cards. These let you know the hit points a card has, how powerful its attack is and how many soul points it grants you.

Those soul points let you attack your opponent and they're the key to victory. The first player to lose all of their own hit points is the loser.

There's a lot more going on than that though. For one thing you need to pick from one of six different factions before you even get to the fights.

These factions have different strengths and weaknesses and figuring out which of them best suits the way you want to play is the first step of a pretty long journey.

Different factions have different special moves as well. Some let you link together cards to make them more powerful, others are all about sacrificing weaker units to create pockets of dark magical energy. One lets you build giant rock walls that you can use to protect some of your units or power up others.

There are single-player challenges, regular events and much, much more as well. You're never short of something to do in Athenion, and the pace of the matches lets you get a lot of them in in a single setting.

The Good

There's a staggering amount of depth to Athenion. It's going to take you a good while to get to grips with the basics and once you've done that there are layers and layers to peel back. Every time you win you'll figure out a new strategy and every time you lose you'll be trying to find a way to right that wrong.

The game looks amazing too. The cards all sport a brilliant anime art-style and you'll want to collect all of them just so you can check them out. The speed of the fights is a massive plus too – they deliver huge chunks of tactical action in the sort of short-blast sessions that are perfect for mobile play.

On top of that there's a brilliant community to the game, and you never have to wait long to find an online battle. There are a number of different modes that let you practice with different decks, take part in intriguing events and fight it out in ranked and casual multiplayer matches.

The Bad

There's a pretty steep learning curve here, so if you're not in for the long haul then you might be better finding your card-based fun somewhere else. Even when you've got the basics down you've still got a lot to learn and it can be punishing to come up against an opponent who knows more than you do.

There are also a lot of currencies, crafting materials and other rewards to figure out. The game does tell you what they do, but the tutorials are pretty brief and you're left on your own for a lot of the time to try and get to the bottom of things.

Overall

Athenion might not be the easiest game to understand, but once things start clicking it becomes something really rather special. There are some brilliant ideas here and they're woven into a bright tapestry of gorgeous visuals and wonderfully paced mobile play.

It won't be to everyone's taste, and it's fair to say that some players are going to put it down before they've even got to the good bits, but this is one CCG that it's well worth sticking with.

8.2

OVERALL

Replayability 8.1

Game Controls 8.2

Graphics 8.7

Sound/Music 8.2

Gameplay 7.8

FREE

Athenion: Tactical CCG

ZERO-bit Company Limited

Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews

'sodes ($2.99) by Nice Boy LLC is a simple and clean podcast app for those who listen to the occasional podcast. With 'sodes, it's more along the lines of Castro 2 instead of other, more fully-featured apps like Overcast. If you only need to listen to a podcast every now and then, rather than every day, then 'sodes could be the app for you.

I love listening to podcasts, but I'll admit it — I've fallen way behind in my podcast subscriptions, and I haven't been able to catch up for the longest time. I must have a subscribed list of around 30 podcasts, and as much as I enjoy listening to them, I'm just overwhelmed with having to catch up so I just stopped listening to most of them. But when I was an avid podcast listener, my app of choice was Overcast specifically for the Smart Speed feature. But with my current non-existent podcast listening habit, I'm not sure Overcast is for me anymore. Fortunately, 'sodes just came out and it could be just what I need.

$4.99

Castro 2

Supertop Software

Free

Overcast

Overcast Radio, LLC

The design of 'sodes is incredibly minimalistic, and it almost feels like an app that Apple designed themselves due to the aesthetics. On the first launch, you'll be greeted with a simple message that explains how to navigate the app, which is pretty straightforward since there's basically only two screens: Home and Search. The Home screen has a large 'sodes header in the top left, and then you'll have your Favorites, In Progress, and Unplayed Episodes. The Search screen is full of podcast artwork tiles from top podcasts, and there's a search bar in case you don't see what you're looking for.

The default theme in 'sodes is Light, which features a white background and black text. But if you don't care for that, there are additional themes: Dark and Campfire. Dark is more of a steel blue background with light gray text, and Campfire features a burgundy-to-black gradient transition background with blood orange text. No matter which theme you end up sticking with, 'sodes retains the minimalist design and looks great doing so.

Since 'sodes is designed for the occasional podcast listener, don't expect a way to import your previous subscriptions in here. Instead, you'll need to make use of the Search screen in order to find new or current favorites. Just tap on a podcast tile to view details about the show, and view their episode list. You can also add a podcast to your Favorites for quick access. If the show you want isn't featured on the Search view, you can search by name or pasting in a URL.

Once you've picked out a few shows as favorites, you can see them all in the Home screen, as well as Unplayed Episodes. From the Home view, or even from a show's details page, you can tap on an episode and start listening, no subscribing required.

With 'sodes, there are no downloads for episodes. Instead, the app relies 100 percent on streaming the audio, which may raise concerns for those with limited cellular data plans. However, 'sodes intelligently manages data consumption by downloading the audio data in portions. This information is temporarily on the device to help restrict network data usage, but there's no offline playback since a data connection is always required.

During playback, 'sodes has some nice large buttons for play/pause, and rewinding or fast forwarding 15 seconds. You can also tap on the "…" button to adjust the playback speed, select audio output, stop playing, share the episode with others, or go directly to the episode website. The playback bar also displays the elapsed time in a small square that resembles an Apple Watch face, which I thought was a nice detail.

Options for 'sodes is in the iOS Settings, but the gear icon in 'sodes takes you directly to it. You can change the forward and backward intervals, switch themes, and toggle "Keep Screen Unlocked" when the device is connected to power and you're playing an episode.

Listen to podcast episodes when you want to, not when they arrive.

The Good

For the occasional podcast listener, 'sodes is great. The app has a minimal aesthetic design that's simple and straightforward with no fuss. It's easy enough to find the shows you want, or even discover new ones with the featured artwork tiles. Not having to subscribe to get access to episodes is also nice, so this app is perfect when you just want to listen to that one episode of a podcast your friend told you about.

There's also a bit of leeway with the colors, since you have three themes to choose from, and they all look good in their own ways. The large tappable buttons for playback are nice to have as well, especially when driving.

The Bad

If you want a feature-packed podcast app, 'sodes is not the app you're looking for. This app is designed for those who only listen to podcasts every once in a while, and it makes it easier for them to get what they want. If you prefer an app that lets you subscribe, download episodes automatically, create playlists, and more, then you should give Overcast a try.

The only other negative thing about 'sodes is the fact that it needs a data connection to play episodes. For those with unlimited data, this isn't an issue, but not everyone has that luxury. It's nice that 'sodes has smart streaming, but some would still prefer to download an episode before playing it to conserve limited data.

The verdict

So far, I like 'sodes for what it is: a simple podcast app for the casual listener. I doubt that I'll ever be able to manage my huge subscription list in Overcast anymore, so 'sodes is a nice alternative when I just want to find a single episode of something and listen to it when I have the chance to. Plus, as a fan of minimalism, the design is great. I think if there was the option to download episodes for playback, then this would be perfect for the casual listener who doesn't have unlimited data. But if you want a power-user experience, then you should look elsewhere.

You can find 'sodes on the iPhone App Store for $2.99.

8.9

OVERALL

Lasting appeal 9

iPhone Integration 9.5

User Interface 9

Is engaging 9

Does it well 8

FREE

’sodes

Nice Boy LLC

Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews