Solomon's Keep is a role-playing affair in which you take on the persona of a young sorcerer. His final exam? Defeat Solomon, a powerful dark wizard. Armed with nothing but a basic fighting spell, you set off on your adventure.
There are many role-playing games on the iPhone, but few can beat Solomon's Keep on price: it's a free download. Still, it’s all pretty standard fare: explore a dungeon, kill the hoards of undead in each room, collect gold and gain experience, and repeat ad nauseam. The game looks nice -- although these aren’t high resolution graphics -- and is very easy to play: you'll simply tap and hold on the left circle to move around, and on the right one to shoot.
Your spells become more lethal the higher the level you get, and the gold can be used to purchase new items or new skills. When you gain a level, you get to choose between one of three randomly chosen skills; but if you’d rather have more say in your improvement, you'll need to consult the game’s premium add-ons. For $1.99, you gain the ability to use gold to improve whichever skill you want, while other, cheaper add-ons let you buy gold, change your wizard’s appearance, and have more storage space for loot.
Solomon’s Keep is designed with casual gameplay in mind. You can pick it up at any time, as it remembers where you were the last time you played it, and death is not a major hindrance to the game: you simply restart at the beginning of the level where you met your untimely demise and try again. Although, more masochistic players may choose the "hardcore" option, which removes this rather large safety net. With that turned on, dead means dead. Good luck with that.
The bottom line. The randomly generated levels add to the game’s longevity, but it does get a little repetitive after a while. Still, it’s perfectly playable without purchasing any add-ons, which makes for a good casual RPG experience.
iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.1 or later
Can't argue with free. Randomly generated levels keep things fresh. Add-ons are helpful but not necessary.
Visuals aren't optimized for Retina display. Can get repetitive.
