Well, this was disappointing. I started up this game thinking it would be just another Alien Swarm clone, mostly because it's literally a mod of Alien Swarm, but then curiosity (and the words of my girlfriend who you should totally all visit at vivalavidaconamor.blogspot.com sorry I'll stop with the shameless plugs now) drove me to click on the "backstory" button. Upon clicking it, I was treated to a slideshow animation thing explaining the game's narrative that looked professionally done. I mean it droned on forever and way overstayed its welcome, but I'm a game critic, yo, not a slideshow critic. My point is that the quality of the slideshow whetted my appetite for the actual game. Then, I started up the main game to find something that looked completely different from Alien Swarm, unlike Rapidfyre, which I would go so far as to call a carbon copy. After seeing this, I was ready and raring to explore the world in front of me. I was going into this smiling a smile that I seldom smile. Then, the game froze up. HHHHHNNNNGG-
aaaand then I restarted the game. Hah! Had you going there for a second, didn't I? Well anyway, the game worked fine after that. More than fine, really. Well, since the game decided that a 5 minute slideshow about the story was justified, I guess I should talk about the story a bit. You are one of four brothers, guardians of the spirit stone, who must protect said stone from the evil minions of brother #5. Basically, you're in Lyoko killing X.A.N.A's minions. Wow, can't believe I managed to pull that reference somewhere in this blog. As far as motivation goes, it's pretty standard. There are a few holes and the plot as a whole isn't terribly interesting, but if you're one of those guys who can't get immersed in a game unless you know exactly who you are and what you're doing and why at all times, then this game has you covered.
Another thing to note: this game is sexy as all hell. When I say it looks like it could have been done professionally, I mean it. I don't know how many points I should subtract for it being a mod, since, as I said, it doesn't look anything like the game from which it was built, but at the end of the day, a pretty game is a pretty game. If you're into that stuff, you're in luck.
But of course, a game's looks should always take a backseat to its gameplay. So how is the gameplay in Spirit Stone? Well, for one thing, it's super difficult. I died on the first non-tutorial level because there were just so many enemies. A bit of a gentler difficulty curve would have been nice. The tutorial explains the mechanics fine, but I like to experience the tools I'm going to use before I use them. You can tell your little cousin all about how a hose works, but until you let him spray a brick wall for fun for a while, don't expect your daisies to survive when you pass the chores onto him. Catch my drift?
The mechanics themselves, though, are quite impressive. 10 points to the first person who, in the comments, tells me which review of mine this was from (I was too lazy to search for it myself), but remember when I said that the best way to make a tower defense game fun was to let you shoot things yourself in addition to all of that resource-mining tower-upgrading nonsense? Well, this game takes that lesson and sprints to Valhalla with it. The meat of the game is shooting baddies with your fantasy laser thingy, but you can upgrade your laser by upgrading certain guardians, or towers. See that? The tower mechanic is being used to serve the actual FUN part of the game, not the other way around. Beautiful.
While Spirit Stone doesn't have the most solid foundation of all the games on this list, it's certainly done the most it could with what it had. It's a wonderfully crafted mod (I guess. Again, I've never modded anything myself, so I'm just assuming) that shows off the talent of its creators. If I were a teacher, I'd give it an A. So yes, the seal of approval has been given. Congrats.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay spiritual.
Links
420 Spirit-Stoned blaze it up don't do drugs: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24913
