Might& Magic: Chess Royale, as the name suggests, is a mash up of auto chess and battle royale. Since auto chess became a popular genre I have been trying hard to get into it with very few grabbing my attention. Will mashing it up with a battle royale do the trick? Let’s find out. Might & Magic: Chess Royale is available for free on both android and iOS.

n

n

---

Auto Chess originally started as a mod to the popular game DOTA 2. At this stage, I heard so many people talking about it but I never jumped in. I knew some sort of auto chess would be coming to iOS and I figured I would wait for that. Well, there have been a ton of auto chess games and I have tried as many as I can. Each one having something slightly different than the other but ultimately they all were very similar. The games were fun but all very long, most taking over a half hour to complete one game. n

n

Chess Royale came around and promised more people and shorter game times. Most games averaging a few minutes to around 10 minutes. The way they implemented these changes into how the game was played really made this game click for me and set it apart from the competitors. 

n

First off the way the game is played is half strategy and half luck. You have an 8×8 grid that resembles a chessboard and you strategically place your fighters on different spots based on their character type and abilities. You need to try to match units that have good synergies with each other to maximize your attack and defense. This was something that took practice but the game does a great job of letting you know which cards go well with each other. When I first started playing these types of games I thought all that mattered was numbers, then I started losing battles to players that had fewer people than me but they payed attention to their attributes and had a good balance. 

n

n

n

Other auto chess games were 8 players, and you would have a fixed amount of HP. After each battle loss, you would lose HP depending on how many enemies were left on the board. Basically you were doing math watching your team battle wondering how much damage you will do or how much will be done to you. In Ches Royale, they upped the player count to 100 and changed the entire HP system. The game works as three strikes and your out. Everyone starts with 3 lives, when you watch your team fight it doesn’t matter if you barely loose or if you get destroyed your life will tick down by one on a loss. If you win it remains at three. 

n

n

n

Every match starts with a few hero’s you have saved and the store page opening up to make a selection. You earn coins after each battle and use those coins to buy new heroes. If you get three of the same hero they upgrade to a stronger version of that hero. Coins can also be used on spells which help to add a little tactical advantage to you if used correctly. n

n

For me, the best part of any auto chess is planning out your team and watching your strategy win. Now you add a battle royale to that and you got me hooked. Even though there are 100 players, each round is still just a 1v1, so you just need to focus your current strategy on beating one player. After each battle, you see a screen of all the players and you just watch people dropping off and the number getting smaller and smaller.

n

n

n

Like other battle royales, as the number gets smaller and smaller your adrenaline really starts pumping. Whenever I make it to the top 10 I can feel my heart beating out of my chest. When I actually won a game, the feeling of accomplishment was amazing!

n

n

n

Just a note to mention. The game is free to play, I have spent no money and never felt to be at any disadvantage. I have won a few games and stay competitive in almost every round being a free to play player. My opinion is this is a very friendly game for free to play players.n

Verdictn

With auto chess being a popular genre and me struggling to get into it. Might & Magic: Chess Royale was the first and only auto chess to really get its hooks in me. It changes the gameplay enough to stand apart from the rest but it keeps the integrity of the genre intact. I give this a thumbs up, there no reason not to try this one out.

n

n

n

Final score —7.5/10–

nn

everything games. Also check out my review on Vigor and Earthfall: Alien Horde, two shooting games that are wildly different from each other. For everything else be sure to follow me on Twitter I’m @Big_Broons.