Cestos 2 Beta Improves Upon Android’s First Multiplayer Game [Video Impressions]
If you haven’t already heard, the Cestos 2 beta is going on right now. Don’t know what Cestos 1 was? Go on and download it from the Android market as it currently sits as a free download. The objective of the game is to direct your balls around the board using your finger to set the direction and distance. Once the timer expires, they’ll begin rolling where you told them, but it doesn’t end there. One of the greatest things about Cestos 2 (and the first one, for that matter) is that you’re not just playing alone or against computer-driven artificial intelligence.
The “Bullseye” gametype sees you trying to fit your ball into the designated circle while keeping others out. Easy enough, but you don’t get a real challenge until you play “Minefield” where you’re surrounded with – you guessed it – heartless, explosive mines. Your job there is to try and stay alive and pray that your opponents meet their ultimate demise. You could try and force their failure, but you’re more likely to run into a mine than you are to force your foe into it. I haven’t had a chance to try out the other levels yet, but there is a nice amount that should keep things fresh as you try and unlock more achievements down the line (which will really add a lot of value to this game.)
You’re given the ability to customize your ball using coins earned through gameplay (you’ll get the most coins through earning the various achievements provided through the system OpenFeint provides. Customizing your ball is really just for show (outside of changing its base color) as you can’t see anything else while you’re duking it out on the plane. You also earn experience which will help you grow levels, earn coins, and unlock more achievements.
There wasn’t much else to check out in the beta as a lot of the features are still locked, but Chickenbrick – the developers – are always updating it (for instance, we can only try out the 3 player mode for now, but support for 4 player is coming very soon. Development progress is communicated to you through the app so if there are any new messages to be had, you’ll see them whenever you open the app.) You can also consider this a quick first look at OpenFeint as it was my first time using the system (I know there are several games either coming out or already in the market which use OpenFeint, but I haven’t tried them yet.)
It gives you a central account that you can sign in to track achievements and progress on various games. What’s great is that if you have an OpenFeint game on the iPhone or iPad, your achievements from any Android games will still count (and OpenFeint opens up the possibility of playing against people on the iOS platform, but we have yet to see anyone take advantage of the cross-platform functionality. I asked OpenFeint about any possible plans to port Cestos 2 to the iPhone, but they said it’s an Android-only game for now.)
OpenFeint can be described as the “Xbox Live of smartphones” and I hope more game developers adopt the platform going forward as I see it making for one of the best compliments to the booming gaming experience that Android users are soon to see. Look out for Cestos 2 in the Android market when it lands later this year.
