On the surface, Fortix 2 seems all too simple. You draw lines to box in areas of the playing field, much like the arcade classic Qix. With a simple concept, it’s all about the execution. With Fortix 2, Nemesys Games executed their simple line drawing concept in such a way that had me totally addicted.

Each level in Fortix 2 is one of the strongholds of an evil wizard (the game’s final boss), which must be captured. As Sir Fortix, you can free the land/capture fortresses via the simple mechanic of boxing in an area of the playing field. However, if either you or the line you are drawing is hit by an enemy, you lose a life.

Beyond just boxing in areas of the map, you are specifically trying to capture catapults, which will then fire a single shot taking out one of the towers that is otherwise trying to shoot you every time you leave your base line. You see, the enemies can’t actually hurt you on the base line. In addition to getting the catapults to fire, you must capture shield icons, which represent the fortresses you are taking over.

One of the things Fortix 2 does really well is escalating the challenge. While the first set of enemies bounce around at random, ones farther into the game will specifically change their trajectory to come after you. The aforementioned towers also become increasingly more dangerous as the game progresses. They start out early in the game as incredibly slow cannonballs, progress into quick flaming arrows, and finally end up as heat-seeking magic blasts.

The level design plays well into the mechanics. While the game starts with fairly open levels, adding a few fortified walls here and there that you initially have to go around, it progresses into some very labyrinth-like designs, full of doors that must be unlocked through capturing color-coded keys.

All of that is fine and dandy, but where they really got me addicted was in the game’s strategy. It keeps score and has built in leaderboards, so it quickly became not enough to have just muscled through a level. If you are quick and complete a level without losing any lives, you get big bonuses. You are also scored on the areas you capture. The larger the area, the exponentially larger the score it gives you. This made me take a lot of risks to try to get huge areas and capture baddies all in one fell swoop versus just carving out tiny sections at a time.

However, even carving out the small sections has its place. You can use that tactic to make little shield walls since enemies can’t cross areas you’ve captured, or use them to fence in creatures to keep them out of your way. All the elements come together in ways I was really not expecting when I first booted this game up.

Fortix 2 has a lot of content. The main game has thirty levels, with four difficulty levels. You can also play all the levels from the original Fortix. As if that weren’t enough, you can unlock Zombie Mode simply by quickly and repeatedly mousing over the little tweeting bird on the title screen.

Yeah, I know, every game just has to have a Zombie Mode these days. Fortix 2 does a good job of making it it’s own unique take on the game. Here the zombies can kill you even on your base line. They also always try to follow you, and will keep spawning from the many graves around the battlefield, which are the new thing you have to capture instead of the game’s normal catapults and shields.

The zombie’s movements force you to completely rethink your tactics. If you are clever about it, you can corral huge hordes of zombies for massive points, since backtracking away from the line you are currently drawing will make them change course away from it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Zombie Mode felt like its own thing and not a quickly tacked on, purely aesthetic feature.

For a $10 casual game, Fortix 2 is really a no brainer (zombie pun not intended). It is fun, addictive and easy to pick up and play. It’s also one of the very few games that after playing, I couldn’t stop seeing the playing fields in front of me when I was trying to sleep (also known as the Tetris effect). It is an easy recommendation for me to make to gamers of any skill level. Seriously, just go buy it.

Tags: Casual Games, Fortix 2, Nemesys Games, PC, PS Minis, Qix, strategy

This entry was posted on Friday, July 1st, 2011 at 9:54 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.