Remember Tron? Well I certainly don't. I guess I'm a bit young...it shames me to admit that I only just recently saw the Matrix. Anyways, apart from that dude on Youtube and the fact that Daft Punk infuriates me, the only thing I can think of when someone says Tron is the lightbike. Whoever came up with that either dropped a lot of acid, was a genius, or both. One of the things that made it so unique and fun to play was the 90 degree turn mechanic. I wondered what would happen if you just made a game about lightbikes but let them turn fluidly...then I played Vektor Space.
Vektor Space isn't quite as unforgiving as some other lightbike games I've played. You can run into somebody's trail once and not die, for instance, but run into two or the wall and its game over. Another innovation that makes this unique from your typical Tron clone is that the vehicles have stats, so you can go for either the tank that can run into three walls in a row without harm or the speed demon who expertly weaves in and out of other peoples' trails.
While I appreciate that Vektor Space added its own flavor to an old classic, I don't think the fluid turning mechanic really helped it all that much. After all, one of the most fun parts of the old lightbike games is that you can charge right for the wall but turn at the last second to get a tactical edge on the poor sap who was following you. If you want to try that strategy in Vektor Space, you're going to have to possess incredible precision to ride the round wall while turning in a tighter circle. I wouldn't really have a problem with it if I thought it added more to the game, but it really just feels like it was added for the sake of uniqueness.
While the core mechanic might not serve the game to the best of its ability, I still think Vektor Assault is a damn fun game. The artistic design is wonderful, the game feel is great, and there's enough variety to make this one of the few games on this list I'll return to when I'm bored. This one gets my seal of approval.
Links
Sector Lace: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=538
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Vectron Assault
Vectron Assault is apparently a callback to the good old days of arcade FPS games with vector graphics, which apparently means they just didn't bother to color stuff in. Whether or not such a golden age actually existed, I'm too young to know, but if Vectron Assault is an accurate representation of that time, I'm glad I missed it.
seeing a game described as a callback to a time I've never experienced pets me in an awkward situation. All of the problems that I had with the game might have been deliberately put there to reinforce the old timey aesthetic. But you know what? That didn't make it any less infuriating, so I'm going to talk about them anyway.
Far and away the most annoying thing about this game is the level design. The walls all have this weird effect that makes it seem like there's an opening around the corner, but such a thing never exists. This is especially infuriating when you can see the enemies with less than accelerated AI trying to shoot you through the translucent walls. almost half of my playtime was spent circling around the same 5 square feet trying to find a piece of wall i could go through until I realized that the opening I looked for was on the exact opposite side of the level. Try to visualize that: the game lead me to one side of the level and then told me to backtrack through the area I had already cleared in order to progress. That's like, the first thing they tell you not to do in game design 101, isn't it?
Other than that, the only thing worth noting is the control, which makes the came feel like a weird hybrid of Battletanx and Forsaken 64. The position of the mouse in relation to the center of the screen acts sort of like a joystick, if that makes sense. The farther your cursor is to one side, the faster you will turn to that side. This kind of control could work in a fullscreen game, so I guess I have nothing to complain about, but I usually play these games in windows if I have the opportunity, so my cursor was flying off the edge, leaving me motionless, way more often than I would have liked.
Well that's all I got for today. Final Verdict: nice try, but I'll stick with The Shaman Engines. Until next time, stay retro
Links
Graphics of Magnitude and Direction: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1420
seeing a game described as a callback to a time I've never experienced pets me in an awkward situation. All of the problems that I had with the game might have been deliberately put there to reinforce the old timey aesthetic. But you know what? That didn't make it any less infuriating, so I'm going to talk about them anyway.
Far and away the most annoying thing about this game is the level design. The walls all have this weird effect that makes it seem like there's an opening around the corner, but such a thing never exists. This is especially infuriating when you can see the enemies with less than accelerated AI trying to shoot you through the translucent walls. almost half of my playtime was spent circling around the same 5 square feet trying to find a piece of wall i could go through until I realized that the opening I looked for was on the exact opposite side of the level. Try to visualize that: the game lead me to one side of the level and then told me to backtrack through the area I had already cleared in order to progress. That's like, the first thing they tell you not to do in game design 101, isn't it?
Other than that, the only thing worth noting is the control, which makes the came feel like a weird hybrid of Battletanx and Forsaken 64. The position of the mouse in relation to the center of the screen acts sort of like a joystick, if that makes sense. The farther your cursor is to one side, the faster you will turn to that side. This kind of control could work in a fullscreen game, so I guess I have nothing to complain about, but I usually play these games in windows if I have the opportunity, so my cursor was flying off the edge, leaving me motionless, way more often than I would have liked.
Well that's all I got for today. Final Verdict: nice try, but I'll stick with The Shaman Engines. Until next time, stay retro
Links
Graphics of Magnitude and Direction: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1420
Vapor
Vapor starts out with what I think might be the most unintentionally hilarious cutscenes I've ever seen. All of the backstory, riddled with cliches, by the way, is delivered via voice over from the voice actress of the main character. In-game, she does her job very well, but for some reason, in the opening scene, she delivers every line like she couldn't give less of a crap about what she's saying. Maybe this is an odd thing to open up a review with, but it cracked me up, so I give the opening sequence my seal of approval.
But will the rest of the game be endowed with such decoration? Spoiler alert: no. I quit the game after about five minutes because I passed by two gate type thingies that looked like checkpoitns, died, and was promptly sent back to the menu screen without an option to pick up where I left off. Yeah, this is ground well trodden by this point, and I get that what the students at DigiPen are really concerned with is mastering game mechanics and design, but how exactly am I supposed to know whether you've made a good game if I get frustrated enough to quit before I've even experienced most of it?
There are three things I think are worth commenting on here. First, the design. Digipen delivers once again: the design is beautiful. The graphics make my GPU happy and the visual style makes my eyes happy. Second, the narrative. Despite the opening being about as enthralling as a used litter box, the way the plot unfolded during my limited play time actually made me interested in what happened to the characters. I attribute most of this to the voice acting, which is surprisingly well done for an amateur project. Third and most importantly, let's talk mechanics. Honestly, it's nothing special. It's your standard isometric shooter, and I didn't play far enough to see them improve. I mean, they are functional, and no matter who or where you are, beaning a goblin in the head with a fireball will always feel good. Still, though, I found myself wanting more. Again, though, maybe that all comes later.
I hate having to end my sentences with "I might totally be wrong, though," but when a game loses my interest, I stop playing it. It's as simple as that. Maybe you won't be quite as discouraged as I was about losing progress, but for me, it's a deal breaker.
that's all I got for now. Until next time, stay vaporous.
Links
Vaypr: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26720
PS- I totally meant to post this yesterday...
But will the rest of the game be endowed with such decoration? Spoiler alert: no. I quit the game after about five minutes because I passed by two gate type thingies that looked like checkpoitns, died, and was promptly sent back to the menu screen without an option to pick up where I left off. Yeah, this is ground well trodden by this point, and I get that what the students at DigiPen are really concerned with is mastering game mechanics and design, but how exactly am I supposed to know whether you've made a good game if I get frustrated enough to quit before I've even experienced most of it?
There are three things I think are worth commenting on here. First, the design. Digipen delivers once again: the design is beautiful. The graphics make my GPU happy and the visual style makes my eyes happy. Second, the narrative. Despite the opening being about as enthralling as a used litter box, the way the plot unfolded during my limited play time actually made me interested in what happened to the characters. I attribute most of this to the voice acting, which is surprisingly well done for an amateur project. Third and most importantly, let's talk mechanics. Honestly, it's nothing special. It's your standard isometric shooter, and I didn't play far enough to see them improve. I mean, they are functional, and no matter who or where you are, beaning a goblin in the head with a fireball will always feel good. Still, though, I found myself wanting more. Again, though, maybe that all comes later.
I hate having to end my sentences with "I might totally be wrong, though," but when a game loses my interest, I stop playing it. It's as simple as that. Maybe you won't be quite as discouraged as I was about losing progress, but for me, it's a deal breaker.
that's all I got for now. Until next time, stay vaporous.
Links
Vaypr: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26720
PS- I totally meant to post this yesterday...
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Vanquisher (nope)
It dun work. I'm actually kind of glad, though, because Vanquisher is apparently a tower defense game, which I don't have a great track record with...
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26630
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26630
VAMMOS
Oh how I love it when games listen to what I have to say. A little while ago, I said that gaming really has to move past the whole "death as penalty" thing, and along comes VAMMOS with an innovative death system that attempts to punish mistakes without being too frustrating. Before I get to that, though, let me give you some background.
VAMMOS is a physics-based platformer wherein you move blocks around to get from point A to point B. Nothing special so far. The levels are designed fairly well, allowing you to figure out the mechanics by using them. For instance, the game didn't feel the need to tell me that dropping blocks on enemies makes them go boom. It just put a block and an enemy in a narrow corridor and let my primal side take the reins.
So, about this death system. Every time you get asploded, you have three seconds to press space, which will instantly respawn you exactly where you were. If you don't press space, you restart from the nearest checkpoint. The mentality behind this mechanic was that you wouldn't have to be sent back for cheap deaths, like an enemy that you couldn't see or accidentally dropping a block on yourself because your thumb cramped up or whatever. Meanwhile, if you commit a truly unforgivable sin like, say, falling into a spike trap, respwning exactly where you died isn't exactly helpful, so you'll still incur a slight penalty. The checkpoints are close enough together to make the penalty not too annoying.
The problem with this system is that it essentially negates any threat an enemy can pose, since they either fire projectiles or move in a set path. Both of these attack strategies can be easily overcome with the "spam space" method. Maybe the game designers just wanted to give you some toys to destroy along your journey, which I have no problem with, but it still smells a bit like oops.
What made me ragequit the game is something I really don't take that much umbrage with. I got to a point where I had to ascend vertically using blocks, but for some reason, I died whenever I landed the blocks. So yeah, the game glitched me right out of the experience, but that just means it needed to be a bit more fine tuned, which I don't hold against a school project since I have firsthand experience with the hellish pressure a school deadline can apply to a person.
While I can't quite give this game my seal of approval, I can say it's worth your time if you want to check out an interesting platformer. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay random.
Links
Capital Letters: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24365
VAMMOS is a physics-based platformer wherein you move blocks around to get from point A to point B. Nothing special so far. The levels are designed fairly well, allowing you to figure out the mechanics by using them. For instance, the game didn't feel the need to tell me that dropping blocks on enemies makes them go boom. It just put a block and an enemy in a narrow corridor and let my primal side take the reins.
So, about this death system. Every time you get asploded, you have three seconds to press space, which will instantly respawn you exactly where you were. If you don't press space, you restart from the nearest checkpoint. The mentality behind this mechanic was that you wouldn't have to be sent back for cheap deaths, like an enemy that you couldn't see or accidentally dropping a block on yourself because your thumb cramped up or whatever. Meanwhile, if you commit a truly unforgivable sin like, say, falling into a spike trap, respwning exactly where you died isn't exactly helpful, so you'll still incur a slight penalty. The checkpoints are close enough together to make the penalty not too annoying.
The problem with this system is that it essentially negates any threat an enemy can pose, since they either fire projectiles or move in a set path. Both of these attack strategies can be easily overcome with the "spam space" method. Maybe the game designers just wanted to give you some toys to destroy along your journey, which I have no problem with, but it still smells a bit like oops.
What made me ragequit the game is something I really don't take that much umbrage with. I got to a point where I had to ascend vertically using blocks, but for some reason, I died whenever I landed the blocks. So yeah, the game glitched me right out of the experience, but that just means it needed to be a bit more fine tuned, which I don't hold against a school project since I have firsthand experience with the hellish pressure a school deadline can apply to a person.
While I can't quite give this game my seal of approval, I can say it's worth your time if you want to check out an interesting platformer. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay random.
Links
Capital Letters: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24365
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Valence (kinda)
It doesn't work. I click single player and it tells me I need to select a video mode. I go to video options and there's nothing in the video mode pulldown menu. I click multi player and it tells me some nonsense about an IP address before crashing. I click sandbox and it makes my GUI spaz out a bit before bringing me back to the menu.
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=550
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=550
Friday, November 15, 2013
V1Rus
I know I haven't really been maintaining the blog responsibly lately, but that's what happens when your brain decides to stop being capable of passing Calculus at the same time you have to write college applications. Regardless, I'm going to try out a new scheduling method more reminiscent of the one I started out with. I'm going to play a game and then write down my thoughts. Could be a sentence. Could be three pages. That means no more "3 games 1 post" deals for a while. Right, then. Let's get this show on the road.
Ever wonder what would happen if A Series of Tubes worked? Well, ladies and gentlemen, wonder no longer, because your fantasies are now a reality. V1Rus is structured quite similarly to those infuriating Chaos Emerald stages in Sonic Heroes. Wow. Not only a paragraph in and we've been compared to A Series of Tubes and Sonic Heroes. We're not off to a good start here, V1Rus.
Actually, you might be surprised to hear that I stopped playing not because I was frustrated with the game design, but because the first non-tutorial level is flipping impossible. But it's not impossible in the bad Battletoads way. It's impossible in the good Dark Souls way. When I fly into a spike wall, I feel as though I was given every opportunity to avoid it, but screwed it up. That's a good thing. It motivates you to improve yourself. There is one exception in V1Rus: When the spike balls curl around from the top of the cylinder thing and hit you in your blind spot. This is not very common, though, and you have shields to use, so it's only a very minor annoyance.
This game doesn't provide a very deep experience, but it's fun and engaging and difficult as all hell, so if you're up for a challenge, give it a shot V1rus gets my seal of approval. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay viral
Links
Mother Vi-Russia: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25911
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)