This is another game geared toward the multiplayer crowd, so I don't have much to say about it....Brace yourselves for disappointment, folks.
While nothing to gawk at, the visuals are competently done. It's immediately apparent what all the objects are and there's a fair use of bright and happiness-inducing colors. The attack effects are another story. The left-click laser is an utter disaster of particle effects that, when fired from multiple players at multiple angles, clogs up the screen like nobody's business. It gets worse when you add to that the fact that you always shoot a little bit lower than the targeting reticule would have you believe; and by the way, that was an almost acceptable problem in Claustrophere when the attack moves so slowly that the reticule is basically there for decoration anyway, but in Ruin, the laser is an instantaneous attack with no travel time, so the reticule is actually important.
And on the topic of the two basic attacks, what the heck does the right-click bomb even do? All that seems to happen when I use it is that it shines in the air for a second before disappearing. That's the main problem with this game; it doesn't convey when things happen well enough. It took me way longer than it should've to figure out whether I was playing team deathmatch or free-for-all. The addition of some hit sparks would've helped, as would've a death animation, like a little explosion or something.
Other than that, the game is fine and I gather it would bring a good laugh to a group of friends who played it. I wish I had more pointed praise than that, but there's nothing in the game that's done especially well, it's all just slightly above average. Give it a shot if you're into shooting things, especially if you have a bunch of PCs on the same LAN and you can organize a quick game with your friends and/or family.
Links
Robot Murder: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1412
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
RS-6
I got a bit worried when this game touted its "five insanely difficult levels," because games that are "insanely difficult" tend to have that become their most memorable, if not only, defining characteristic. What do you remember about Battletoads or Ikaruga, for example? Wait a minute...Ikaruga...oh, no...not again...
So yeah. You all know the drill by now, so I don't feel the need to tell you that I've grown a bit tired of bullet hell games centered around changing colors to not die. Whatever, though, as long as the mechanics hold up, this game is fine by me.
I'm glad to say that "insanely difficult" ended up not being the game's only defining characteristic. In fact, it's hardly a characteristic at all. I only played the first level, so it's possible they were just trying to wean me onto the more ball-crunching levels with baby's first bullet hell, but the only difficult part about it was the boss fight, which I dare say was nigh impossible, so there goes the notion of a difficulty curve.
You know what bothers me most, though? The boss didn't need to be as infuriating as it was. The attacks follow a near perfect pattern, being just unpredictable enough to keep you on your toes, but not so much to the point where it becomes random. I actually had a lot of fun with the boss fight until I realized what gave it the name "insanely difficult." It seems one of the developers added a few extra '0's to the boss's health, because the bastard simply does not die. I shot at the thing constantly for five minutes and I was only able to destroy one of its many segments. Its possible I was just doing it wrong, but how complex can a bullet hell boss be to kill? I shot at literally everything it had for as long as I could. I'm not saying I should've beaten the boss no problem, but I should've at least come close. I wasn't just screwing around, I was trying. I was making a lot of mistakes, yeah, but not enough to warrant killing only 4% of the boss.
"lazy" is not a word I like to throw around (especially not to a dev team that includes pictures of themselves at computers, captioned 'hard at work,' which was a nice tough). "Lazy" is a soul-crusher of a word that declares that not only did your project fail, but it failed because you didn't love it enough. It's a cruel word to use and one that I've made people my mortal enemies for using on me, but I have to be honest and say that simply giving the boss more health than Sardinia if it went to CrossFit is a cheap and...*gulp*...I'm sorry...lazy way of increasing the difficulty.
This game didn't need to be "insanely difficult." It could have been a really fun, if simplistic, shoot 'em up, but it tried to be something its not. This game was a pleasant, unathletic kid who occasionally dabbled in Magic the Gathering, but snubbed the nerdy crew to go hang out with the jocks, but the jocks ended up just giving him wedgies and calling him names. Or, if that analogy's a bit too obtuse for you, here's an overview of the game as a whole: It looks good, feels good and sounds good, but artificial difficulty is its downfall.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay modest.
Links
Letter, Letter, Hyphen, Number: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=521
So yeah. You all know the drill by now, so I don't feel the need to tell you that I've grown a bit tired of bullet hell games centered around changing colors to not die. Whatever, though, as long as the mechanics hold up, this game is fine by me.
I'm glad to say that "insanely difficult" ended up not being the game's only defining characteristic. In fact, it's hardly a characteristic at all. I only played the first level, so it's possible they were just trying to wean me onto the more ball-crunching levels with baby's first bullet hell, but the only difficult part about it was the boss fight, which I dare say was nigh impossible, so there goes the notion of a difficulty curve.
You know what bothers me most, though? The boss didn't need to be as infuriating as it was. The attacks follow a near perfect pattern, being just unpredictable enough to keep you on your toes, but not so much to the point where it becomes random. I actually had a lot of fun with the boss fight until I realized what gave it the name "insanely difficult." It seems one of the developers added a few extra '0's to the boss's health, because the bastard simply does not die. I shot at the thing constantly for five minutes and I was only able to destroy one of its many segments. Its possible I was just doing it wrong, but how complex can a bullet hell boss be to kill? I shot at literally everything it had for as long as I could. I'm not saying I should've beaten the boss no problem, but I should've at least come close. I wasn't just screwing around, I was trying. I was making a lot of mistakes, yeah, but not enough to warrant killing only 4% of the boss.
"lazy" is not a word I like to throw around (especially not to a dev team that includes pictures of themselves at computers, captioned 'hard at work,' which was a nice tough). "Lazy" is a soul-crusher of a word that declares that not only did your project fail, but it failed because you didn't love it enough. It's a cruel word to use and one that I've made people my mortal enemies for using on me, but I have to be honest and say that simply giving the boss more health than Sardinia if it went to CrossFit is a cheap and...*gulp*...I'm sorry...lazy way of increasing the difficulty.
This game didn't need to be "insanely difficult." It could have been a really fun, if simplistic, shoot 'em up, but it tried to be something its not. This game was a pleasant, unathletic kid who occasionally dabbled in Magic the Gathering, but snubbed the nerdy crew to go hang out with the jocks, but the jocks ended up just giving him wedgies and calling him names. Or, if that analogy's a bit too obtuse for you, here's an overview of the game as a whole: It looks good, feels good and sounds good, but artificial difficulty is its downfall.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay modest.
Links
Letter, Letter, Hyphen, Number: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=521
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