Bowmaster - Joe Stachnik

Let me set the scenario and take you back to a simpler time: freshmen high school computer class. All your work is finished, months before it is due in fact. You stretch your arms and legs, glancing at the teacher as he reprimands yet another student for never doing anything in class. You browse the internet, stumbling upon some lone “kill some time” websites who are hiding from the IT-admin’s banination ray firewall. Flash games are just starting to pop into popularity, and, unsuspectingly, you stumble upon a gem that will make you forget about the classroom setting and even take you all the way into the wee hours of lunch: Bowmaster.

Created and released to the online world in 2002 by Jason Reinsvold as his senior project in college as an undergraduate in Software Engineering, the game is dated.

Don’t let it’s looks fool you! Behind the primitive shapes, blotchy colors and sometimes ugly gradients, the game hooks you into its world medieval based world or archers, catapults, peasant huts, and armor clad, axe wielding enemies.

As the player, you are an archer who sits atop your guard tower and must defend your town’s huts (located at the left side of the screen) from a horde of oncoming enemies (who advance from the right side of the screen). By defending the town’s huts, you are defending the population, which is marked by a numeric value at the top right of the screen. Should the enemies make it to your town’s huts (or advance off the left side of the screen), then your population will decrease. If it reaches zero, the game ends.

Being an archer, and this being Bowmaster, you the player defend your town with your trusty Bow from atop the watchtower. Shoot your bow by pulling back on the strings (depicted as a green circle) with the mouse. Move an angle your mouse while holding the green circle to gain power and fix trajectory on your shot. Then, release the mouse click and fire away. The only outside force that can change the outcome of your shot is the Wind, which has power and direction. Other than that, when you shoot, it should land where you want it to. One graphic mechanic I find interesting that that the game marks the point of release of your last shot. So if you want to imitate a shot, or change the trajectory or power, you simply realign your bow strings with that point.

The enemies appear and advance over the terrain. The more complex the land to traverse, or “line of terrain,” the longer it will take for enemies to reach your castle. One would think a long line would always be a good thing, but it can sometimes be frustrating, especially in the beginning of the game. Your bow power is relatively weak from the start, meaning you can only shoot about half way across the screen accurately. You usually have to wait for the first wave of enemies to get relatively close to cause them pain. This makes the game seem slow and uninteresting, but if you give it time, and let a certain mechanic get to you, you’ll be hooked.

The main mechanic of the game is upgrades (and I would like to believe this game started that Flash game trend). At the end of every level, your score will be calculated and added to your “XP” or skill points. The player gains skill points by taking down enemies from afar and hitting enemies with headshots (which do double damage). You can earn the most skill points by not losing a single point in your population. You use these skill points to buy upgrades to your arsenal, which can include anything from increasing your bow power to buying yourself a catapult or two. There are many upgrades with hundreds of amounts you can buy. The more upgrades you have, the more formidable, and interesting, you become as Bowmaster.

Certain upgrades also invoke new mechanics. Bomb Arrows can decimate many enemies near each other in a single shot. Piercer Arrows can blow through multiple enemies in a row. Some arrows even come in handy other than just weapons. Ice Arrows can freeze enemies, and even be used to put out fires that may start on one of your town huts. You can even strategically use certain arrows with other, such as firing an Oil Bomb then lighting up the terrain with a Fire Arrow. You can even shoot all your arrows at once. Seeing what you can do with those new arrows is definitely the fun part about this game.

There are more mechanics to the game, but more subtle ones. Flying enemies eventually appear which can mean more particular concentration to aim is necessary. Certain enemies are even more susceptible to certain arrows. The most fun is at the end of every tenth level, when Boss enemies appear. He requires a bombardment of arrows, but when he goes down, he takes everyone around him with him in a brilliant explosion.

All in all, Bowmaster is a basic but interesting Flash game. It’s a classic that set many standards for the hundreds of flash games we see today. There is actually a sequel, Bowmaster Prelude, released just recently by the same creator. It boasts faster and more interesting game play, new mechanics, new bows, more control options, and a capture-the-flag scenario rather than the defend-the-town task; all-in-all, it is a completely new and better experience. The original won my heart with its nostalgia alone though (the reason I played it over Prelude), but I would defiantly recommend Prelude to anyone new to the scene.