Review: Quarrel (XBLA)

How do I begin with Quarrel? It’s like the perfect blend of Channel 4’s Countdown, Scrabble and Risk. It’s challenging, addictive and more importantly it’s a lot of fun. What is perhaps most refreshing about this title is the competitive element, it lures you in and you’ll find yourself hooked trying not only to dominate your enemies but to better your own scores.

Graphically, Quarrel is bright and fun which fits lovingly in with the games light hearted tone. The animations are smooth and whilst it isn’t a game that is graphically tasking it does add to the experience of the game. From the main menu you can play the tutorial or you can jump straight in but be warned once you do you might not stop!

The essential goal of the game is to take over all the territories on the game board. The game board is split up into segments and your squad is spread across these same segments. The aim of the game is take over the opposing players segments (up to 4 players at a time). To do this you must score a higher word score than your opponent. There are two catches. Firstly your limited to how many letters you can do depending on how many squad members you have in a segment. For example, if you have 5 squad members on a segment you may chose words up to 5 letters in length. This is something that can be used tactically. For example, taking a segment with 2 opposing squad members can be easy as there aren’t many high scoring two letter words (but some do exist such as Zo which I used and won with!). The second catch is that the biggest word doesn’t necessarily equal the highest scoring word. Like Scrabble each different letter is worth a different amount of points depending upon how common it is in our vernacular. For example letters like a,e,i etc are all worth just 1 point but less common letters like j, x, z etc are worth much more. It’s a case of going for big score not just big words.

At the end of each round your squad will automatically reinforce itself, you gain one squad member for each segment owned. However, during your turn you may move your squad members around, (you have to leave at least 1 squad member on each segment). It makes the game much more dramatic because whilst moving squad members to one particular segment could strength it, it may also leave the original segment exposed and weaker. To go for the real high scores you want to get the incrediwords but to do so you must amass eight squad members on your segment and then use all eight letters available to make a word. Each grouping of letters has an anagrams on top of various potential shorter words. A nice touch is that the incrediwords (or anagrams) are revealed after you complete a battle so even if you can’t figure it out you still get see the potential words you could have had.

The formula is repetitive but it is fun and addictive. It’s equally fun challenging what words you can come up but you have to be careful as you have only three attempts to correctly guess a word (in the allotted time frame) or you forfeit that go.

The game controls fairly well. One small (and unavoidable) gripe is that using the controller can feel clunky and sometimes slow when spelling out words. Using a USB keyboard or the controller chat add-on can alleviate the issue. This shouldn’t put you off playing the game but it is something to consider when deciding on the best set-up to use.

Quarrel offers a nice array of modes for your buck. In single player you have your bog standard quick play which is alongside domination which acts a career mode and a challenge mode where you play to attain certain goals (and you are also ranked on your performance ). Finally there is Showdown where you can play against various A.I. characters until you’ve played and beaten them all. Each A.I. character is slightly different for example whilst Dwayne is slow at thinking up of words, Caprice is faster and will offer up a more difficult challenge.

Quarrel was originally an iOS title and one of the biggest differences in its transition to the xbox is the addition of online multiplayer.

Multiplayer is a big draw and it’s lots of fun. Quarrel allows you to play with up to 4 players online at a time and it really does take the game to the next level whilst also more than justifying the 400MSP price point. The multiplayer plays exactly the same as the single player but with the added bonus of a real human response. This can make the game more difficult (or in some cases easier!) but playing against your friends is a blast. Also with the added bonus of xbox live vision cam support it means you can see the reactions of your opponents as they jump for joy or swing their arms in frustration! The vision camera works in the same way as with the Xbox Live Arcade classic Uno with your avatar replacing the space the vision camera would be if you opt not to use it (or simply don’t have one). Sadly there is no Kinect camera support but for the low price you can forgive that one. Another little difference in online multiplayer is the addition of sudden death. If you think the game is going no where or you simply don’t have time to hang around then permitting all players agree to it you can activate this option. In sudden death you have no letter limits, so using all the letters available you must make the highest scoring word you can and if you do, you win. It’s a nice convenient little after thought from developers Denki which means you won’t find yourself having to drop out of games or getting stuck in a stalemate situation.

The multiplayer only has one weakness. If you play in a three or four player matches there are gaps when either your territories are not being attacked (or doing the attacking) and if your team is wiped out you can spend long periods of time waiting for the other players to finish the game. It is during these gaps that you’re not playing and having to wait. Denki have done there best to address the issue as you can play an anagram mini-game where your score can help you earn additional squad members, )which will almost certainly come in handy later on!). If all else fails you could ask the other players to skip to sudden death.

Whilst the game censors questionable words, I had noticed a couple slip through although it’s most likely that these words in question (such as ‘anal’) allude to their original meanings and not to the causal forms which they take on today. You will find as with many word games that some words are incredibly obscure, for every simple anagram you guess correctly there will be one you’ve never heard off. Simply put you’ll find that your vocabulary grows the more you play. Quarrel defines all the words that were used during each turn so you’ll never be left questioning if a word is real or not.

Quarrel is one of the funnest releases on the arcade in a while for me. Whilst I like my mindless violence (looking at you Saints Row: The Third) it’s sometimes gratifying to have something a little more stimulating. The blending of Scrabble style word making and Risk-style battles makes for a very addictive mix. Quarrel has an honest charm that will keep you coming back for more. Fans of the iOS edition will be more than happy with Quarrel’s transition and new-comers are getting a very strong package for the admission price. It might not be the blockbuster action of Call of Duty but it serves up a big enough dose of excitement to infect you with one more go syndrome.