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Dom Robinson reviews
Microsoft
- Price: 800 Microsoft points
- Players: 1-2 (plus online)
- Widescreen: Yes
- 60Hz: Yes
- Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes
- Xbox Live-enabled: Yes
Chessmaster Livetakes the classic board game online on the Xbox Live Arcade for a modest fee. It’s a game that has a simple concept, butprecise rules and an infinite number of outcomes given the mind of the two players taking part at any one time. There’s noviolence, explosions or strong language – except when my opponent sneaks a clever move in (“Ooh, you cunning little…!”)and it can be enjoyed by all ages.
But then, you know what Chess is all about, so what you need to know is how this release functions.
Classic gameplay action: part 1
The board can be rotated through any feasible angle and when you go to make a move, it highlights the legal positionsto which you can go – this is during an Instant Game rather than a regular one, the latter involving more options made availableto you before starting the game. Instant games also bring up arrows that show which pieces could be under attack depending onyour course of action.
You can set a game at 10 minutes, 20, 30 or as much as 60 minutes if you think a game might take a while (the latter ispretty much infinite and will only apply to the time taken for you to make a move. Alternatively, you can select the numberof moves per minute, go for an hourglass that ranges from 30, 60 and 120 seconds or a Fischer clock, named after the expertplayer the late Bobby Fischer, which adds on time after each move, so the ‘5min 10sec’ option starts with the former butcontinually adds on the later. This comes across as rather odd.
Interestingly, your controller vibrates while the opposition is moving, so if you look away from the screen for a momentwhile this happens, but are still holding the joypad then you won’t miss a thing. This is particularly useful, since if youselect a longer time period this just gives your opponent the chance to take forever as well, which can be rather irritating….“Hey, I’m a human, you’re a machine – move, already!”
Classic gameplay action part 2
The puzzles section gives you brief against-the-clock posers such as “White to move – Mate in one”, and “White to move -Move to safety”. How to solve them? That’s the question. That said, there are some I don’t understand without looking themup (Find the pin?)
Multiplayer options are available with Message Chess (like Chess by post, I presume), Xbox Live (play ranked and playermatches online) and Head-to-Head (co-op), but these require a Gold membership.
When it comes to the options within this release, there are various chess sets with which you can play: Classic or Irish Glass,Classic or Irish Metal, Wood, Irish Marble, plus 2D top-down forms entitled Expert, Newspaper (both black and white) andStained Glass. Also, download content is available with a free additional chess set entitled ‘Calvert’, which has a carved woodeffect.
You can see footage from this game on the links opposite as I played a game that ran for about 20 minutes, so it’s splitinto two given Youtube’s 10-minute limit. I will confirm that I lost, but it was rather odd when I was beaten at the end ofa game and it just told me of the fact before Lydia was shown to checkmate me, as you’ll see.
Oh, and don’t worry about the fact that I’ve only given the graphics 6/10.They look perfectly great for the job they do, but it’s a chess board andnot much more, but then you don’t need any more.
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.