Ancient Red is an action RPG like Diablo and similar titles with the difference that it was designed for Palm-based PDAs. The game features the same isometric presentation, point&click control and simplified roleplaying system that employs four basic stats. Character can use a variety of weapons, armor and learn magical spells. The ultimate goal is to collect four parts of the Gammalion ring and defeat the ancient prophet.
The back story goes like this: the land of Basylonia has suffered greatly since the king married a foreign women, who turned out to be the devil in the flesh. She gave birth to a boy who looked like a mummy and had no blood. The heir was named Moloch. After an advice from the Devil-appointed figure at the court, the king started to kill his own people and feed his son with their blood. The country succumbed to the darkness with human sacrifices and twisted cults. However, this hasn’t gone unnoticed as one day a guy came down from heaven and transformed Basylonia into a barren land. A lot of time has passed since those events, but now people are afraid that the second coming of Moloch is going to happen.
The game is played in hack&slash style by tapping the screen to go somewhere or to interact with environment. Quests can be received from NPCs that mainly require to kill a certain number of monsters or to find an item. The game world itself is generated for every new game from the main menu. Another interesting feature is the ability to trade items between two players via infrared port of the device.