Publisher: Chronic Logic
Developer: Chronic Logic
Minimum requirements: Java and Win98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/OSX/Linux
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now

When you have been involved with playing strategy games as long as I have, including those old school Avalon Hill table top box sets from what seems like the distant past, it is easy to forget that aside from all the bells and whistles you can find in games today, there are some very basic structures and formulas that contribute to a successful game. When you strip away cool graphics, immersive audio and plausible plotlines, strategy gamers are really looking for games that provide a wide range of strategic options. The more complicated and nuanced those options are, the more a gamer can get out of a game. Zatikon is a turn-based strategy game that successfully provides the nuanced strategic gameplay for which gamers are looking.

Zatikon has no plot; while its setting is superficially medieval (there are knights, pikemen, necromancers, and so on), the medieval and fantasy elements are merely convenient labels for combat units with different abilities. With no narrative to worry about, the game focuses entirely on strategic combat. It is turn-based and played on a board that resembles a chessboard: 11 x 11 squares in alternating colors with a castle occupying the middle of the first and last rows. Each unit you possess takes up one square and two units cannot occupy the same square. Units use various attacks in order to defeat one another, with the ultimate goal of each session being to move one of your units onto the square containing the opponent’s castle.

Simple and straight forward, right? Well, it is until someone sends in their dracolich to start turning defeated enemy units into undead while their opponent uses a geomancer to relocate the castle to a different location on the map. Any way in which you could imagine the simple rules being bent or broken has already been dreamt up by Chronic Logic, and they have created a unit that can do it. Furthermore, there is no simple “rock-paper-scissors” feel to the various units. Strategy is not a simple case of using pikemen to beat cavalry; some units provide certain bonuses to your own team or degrade the effectiveness of your opponents, creating a kind of synergy that precludes simple solutions to tactical problems. It gets even more complicated when multiple units chain their beneficial effects together, resulting in some rather spectacular and unexpected results.

Before going further, however, I should be very clear and say that Zatikon is a no-frills strategy game. Its platform is Java, and its artwork, what little there is, is 2D and not very detailed. What you see in the screenshots is what you get. As for the audio, there is very little and most of it is comprised of sound cues for certain attacks. This should in no way be construed as a complaint, but for gamers who might balk at the complete lack of eye candy; it is only fair to mention up front that you’ve seen better graphics in games produced in the 90s. Chronic Logic has put their entire effort into the strategy elements; the graphics and audio are just placeholders for the interface.

And that effort is nothing if not rewarding. While the basics of the game are simple, there are multiple modes of play. Single player is pretty standard, but there are multiple ways of doing multiplayer. You can go co-op, construct a game with specific armies, or just randomly choose an opponent and start playing. In each mode of play, no matter what units are available, there is a finite budget on what units you can deploy and how often they can be moved and used. You can base an army around a powerful unit like the Archangel, but don’t be surprised to find out that your army is now too small and specialized to make use of some broader tactical possibilities. On the other hand, there is never any benefit to spamming a specific unit; while there are rushing strategies, they do not revolve around spam.

With all of this in mind, would I recommend Zatikon? Well, the price tag for the basic edition is unbeatable: free. That’s right, while the expansions and add-ons cost money, the basic game is free. As such, there is really no reason not to head over to Chronic Logic and give the game a try. For those gamers with an eye to varied strategy and who could care less about eye candy, you might find a game that is to your liking.

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