A First Impression of Batheo

By Kei Beneza (dividelife), OnRPG Journalist

 

Batheo is a flash based browser strategy game set in Ancient Greece, which is rather questionable as some of the heroes provided are not greek at all (Robin Hood in Greece?). Here, players must build cities, and train soldiers in order to decimate their opponents. Upon starting the game, players will be prompted to choose their champion/hero, each with their own army that will aid you in your quest to be the best. Batheo feels and plays a lot like Evony and other browser based strategy games, but don’t think that it’s nothing but another cheap clone. Batheo also has a couple of features that separate it from its browser based brethren.

 

It’s All About How You Rule

Much like other browser games, everything depends on how you rule. Whether you lift taxes to gain gold quickly or be a hero and not do it often, it’s all up to you— though being a total tyrant has its advantages when it comes to gold lol. You can also upgrade your troops’ arsenal as well as your hero’s to make your army unstoppable. The game also has an impressive line up of quests that autocompletes provided that you’ve finished the task even before taking the quest. It’s probably a good thing since backtracking is a pain on most occasions. It’s a lot of work, but the game is quite easy to play, especially since the game does a good job of explaining the basics.

 

 

COMBAT!

Unlike most browser games, Batheo emphasizes on combat, and even has its own combat screen complete with moving sprites in order to depict battles effectively. The fact that it is flash based also complements the game’s combat capabilities due to the animated interface and moving sprites.

 

A Different Take On The Waiting Game

Although the game shares a lot of the traditional browser based mechanics, it still implements the system a bit differently. A good example would have to be their take on the waiting game. Instead of giving players a building timer, the game grants players a cooldown timer. This means that once you click on an upgrade or building, it will instantly become available on your HUD; however, you will have to wait for the cooldown to end before you can upgrade or build again. One thing that makes this game’s waiting game unbearable though is that almost every action in the game always has a cooldown timer— INCLUDING COMBAT. That’s right, you can only fight once every 10 minutes.

 

Verdict

While Batheo tries to make the browser based experience somewhat new, I would say that it changed a lot of things that didn’t need changing. It’s still enoyable though, and I would still recommend this game to anyone who wants a ‘flashier’ version of browser based goodness.

 

Pros

-Tons of Heroes
-Great Visuals
-Combat heavy
-Great tutorials
-Easy to pick up

 

Cons

-Heroes/Champions don’t match with the setting
-Combat waiting time
-less interaction with other players