Bane of Sin Review: Twilight It Ain't

Bane of Sin Review: Twilight It Ain't
By Vincent Haoson (Vincenthaoson), OnRPG Journalist

In usual game lore, vampires are one of the two things, they are either romantic bloodsuckers that seduce beautiful women to submission, they're ferocious hungry bloodsuckers who are hell bent on draining everything that has blood...

Well, ladies and gents, you get the both of them in this browser based game.

Vampires come in droves

Bane of Sin is a browser based game where you try become the most infamous vampire of all time. You do this by controlling lesser vampires to do your bidding to kidnap humans and steal gold,

The gauge of your infamy is based on the bounty that is placed on you. So the more evil things you do, the higher the bounty, the better it is for your standing.

Gameplay

Bane of Sin's gameplay is reminiscent of a long standing browser-based game titled Kings of Chaos. They have the same concept of collecting a harvestable unit, which would then be converted to the different aspects of your army.

The differences between the two is that there is no referral link in Bane of Sin and that Bane of Sin's harvestable units add nothing to the defense or offense of your standing army.

Bane of Sin Introduction Page

The concept behind the game is that you collect and then convert in accordance to your gaming strategy. This gives you enough leeway how you want your vampire army to work.

The game is a mix of turn based warfare and time based resource earning. You need to accumulate attack points to attack and this takes about 10 minutes or so.

The game also utilizes the army-system of gameplay where you do not control you character individually but rather by the numbers. This gives off the feeling that the game is in fact a strategy game rather than a role-play game.

Races

If you think vampires are just vampires, Bane of Sin goes to the next level by adding vampire races to the mix. Each vampire race has its own set of bonus and disadvantages to work around as the leader of your army.

The Races in Bane of Sin gives a broader spectrum to the whole vampire mythos. This works well with the game because it gives you something to work with instead of providing you the same generic character that everyone has.

Plus, the bonuses and disadvantages gives the game a more strategic approach as you try to counterbalance the disadvantages and maximize the bonus your chosen vampire race has.

Game Balance

With the inclusion of the bonuses and disadvantages to the game the next thing to look out for is the overall game balance. The usual problems with this kind of bonus and disadvantage system are that one race may get too many bonuses and it becomes an overpowering force.

Bane of Sin does not have those kinds of problems. The distribution of the bonuses is even enough and the disadvantage are also a good neutralizer to the bonus.

Also, you won't have that much of a problem in understanding how the bonuses work . The language used is understandable and is tied to the overall description of the race. I doubt anyone would have trouble with that as long as you pay enough attention to the descriptions.

Units

Bane of Sin allows you to attack, defend, spy, convert, loot and steal to help raise your army and your bounty. The game provides you different sets of vampires to do just that, however you need to balance the number of units to be able to maximize the potential of your undead army.

The game also uses a variation of a check and balance system so you cannot over farm the attacking vampires because by doing so it would make them too agitated and they eventually leave you. You then need to balance it with your defending units if you want to keep hold of the units you have.

This system may be a nuisance however this check and balance system is the one thing that keeps the game interesting. In other games there would be no drawbacks if you were to convert all your units into attackers, in Bane of Sin unless you find a good strategy for that you would then be busy balancing the attacking and defending forces.

Conclusion

Bane of Sin isn't a game that you would try out if you are a player that nitpicks the game because of looks. The game has admittedly, a shabby look and the color variation in the interface can really hurt your eyes. However as a strategy game, I must say that this is as good as any other game out there.

Even if the game is using tried, tested and overused game play, it has worked around it and added a balancing feature that would really makes your gaming interesting because you have to work around more system limitations. The challenge of being able to beat the limitations while going at a steady rising pace in the ranks is one of the things that make this game a challenging and rewarding.

The whole idea of having more than one vampire race is a good idea due to the fact that vampires have already been an overused as a game concept. The correlation of the race bonus to the description is also a nice touch that gives the game a good first impression to players.

If you are someone who has enjoyed playing games like Kings of Chaos, or is after a browser game that really makes you think, then this game is for you. Even if you think that vampires are overrated, like me, I can still say that this is one for the books as a good decent vampire themed browser game.

Pros:
- The balancing system gives makes the game more interesting
- The races balances each other out
- You get nice rewards if the round ends and you belong to the top 5.

Cons:
- The color combination of the interface can really hurt the eyes
- The game is too dark, both in color and theme
- There is a lack of graphics.