Gigachess is a small puzzle game where you need to defeat pawns with a team composed of rooks, towers and knights. there are three modes in this game and I have felt that all of them are lacking in some ways. I don't think that Gigachess is a bad game, it has neat concepts embedded in it. but overall I felt like I was done with the game more quickly than I thought I would. Some more depth could've been given to the endless mode while the more puzzle-based needed a bit of tweaking on the navigation side.
The tutorial is quite straightforward and teachers you all about the game. Basically, you have a team of chess pieces that need to defeat all the pawns without being captured, you also have to protect the lower lane so that no pawns reach it, otherwise you lose lives. Some pawns can move two squares per turn, some of them turn your piece into a king for one turn, but that's pretty much it. Even during the endless mode, I went at it forever without the difficulty picking up. I wish there were more types of enemies. You accumulate SP by capturing pawns with all your active pieces, which can be used to build walls, trapmines, or turn your pieces into queens. I tried using these a few times and they never seemed worth it, so all I did with my SP was to revive my pieces when they got captured. Sometimes your pieces get charged for a while, but it wasn't clear how this increased their range.
When all your pieces have moved, the enemy moves. You can undo all your moves except for the last piece you move in a turn, which I find a bit weird. Maybe you should have been able to confirm that you are done moving your pieces for the turn, or be allowed to undo that last action after your turn is over. Otherwise it's a fun mode, but it goes kinda long. Going at higher difficulties add more difficult pawns, but the experience remains the same.
Both puzzle modes, Puzzle Attack and Knight's Dungeon are fine, the first one has you defeat pawns with a set of pieces in a set number of turns - and you can cheese it with a few extra lives - and the other has you jump around as a knight, trying to complete a whole board with tiles that transform you into other pieces here and there. I just wish that when you completed them and clicked on 'next level' it would bring you to the next level instead of bringing you back to the level selection menu. Otherwise, I wish you could unlock more themes for the game, or even more power-ups and enemy types.
In any case, the core gameplay mechanics of Gigachess are good, but I wish there was more meat around the bone. As it is, I've played endless for a few lunch breaks, then decided to stop because the challenge wasn't engaging me enough, and I've done a few puzzles in each mode as well.
