New release: Chesslike

Word reaches me that there’s a new game out by the name of Chesslike. Developed by Moore Interactive, Chesslike doesn’t qualify as an RPG–it’s a fantasy strategy game, and even then only just barely. The gist is that you progress through a series of dungeons, and both your forces and those of the dungeon inhabitants are chess pieces.

The trailer showcases it well enough:

Chesslike features the following things:

-Pick up swords and shields to upgrade your piece.
-Keys, Locked Doors, Warp tiles, Maps.
-Pawns move and kill in four directions, but will only kill diagonally.
-Level Editor – play everyone’s custom levels!
-Registering will save your progress and allow use of the Level Editor to create new puzzle levels

It’s a cool idea, really, though I found it a lot less compelling than I expected I would. I attribute this to the fact that it features no items or equipment, no persistent characters, not even a storyline. It’s just a series of challenge levels; and not even a series, really, because (at least in the browser version) you can play them in any order. Weirdly, this results in it feeling more like a casual puzzle game than a fantasy strategy title despite the fact that it employs chess boards and chess pieces.

Chesslike is available to play online for free in your browser right here. If you want to play it on your Android or iPhone, on the other hand, you can purchase it for $1.99.