Zero Frontier is exactly what I like to see in a game. It's an original concept with a suitable narrative and competent game mechanics. Oops, I totally just wrote the last sentence of the review first, didn't I? Well, now that you know my opinion on Zero Frontier, let me substantiate it a bit.
The premise is that you are a lone astronaut who has come across an abandoned space station and must explore it (in a top-down omnidirectional fashion) in order to find an energy core that you can use to power your ship and bring yourself to safety. Now, as you all know, in space, no one can hear you walk...that's because there's no gravity, so you can't walk. Instead, you have to propel yourself using a self-refilling fire extinguisher type thing with RMB.
This mechanic was a bit annoying for me because I've been using my trackpad ever since my mouse ran out of battery and I was too lazy to run to the store to buy some AAAs. It's usually not too much of a problem, but playing games that heavily involve both the right and left mouse buttons is a tad annoying, especially when RMB is the predominant button. Can't really blame anyone but myself for this, though...just thought it deserved to be mentioned.
The gameplay gets an A+ from me. Yeah, momentum mechanics tend to be a bit infuriating to work with, but this game pulls it off as well as I think is possible. What really sells it is that the levels are designed in a way that's conducive to rocketing yourself across the room uncontrollably every now and again, but that will punish you for not thinking out your next move.
The regular levels are reasonably fun. enemies, obstacles, and pickups are all placed in such a way that promotes a natural progression of thought->action->failure->rethought->reward. This is not a game that you'll be able to breeze through in your first try. It's going to take you a couple attempts. I know some people don't like this kind of gameplay, so caveat emptor (er...download-or). I, however, find this to be among the most engaging structures for play a game can employ. That's part of the reason I've got 125 hours (and counting) clocked in Dark Souls.
What really made me love this game, though, were the boss rooms. The bosses themselves are standard large circular enemies that shoot projectiles in all 8 (or maybe like 12? I didn't count) directions, but the rooms are beautifully designed from start to finish. The second you step foot...er...float...into one, you're greeted by a stockpile of ammo and health and a change in the normal, semi-calming music to a more lively track that gets you ready for an intense fight that the game is sure to deliver.
I actually didn't get to finish this game because the second boss room was a bit too sadistic for me to complete in time to not fail my Calculus test tomorrow, but for all the failed attempts at completing it, I never once lost the motivation to continue...perhaps everyday school and work environments can learn a thing or two from games like this. Ah, but now I'm overstepping my bounds and dipping into Extra Credits' territory, so I'll move onto game #2.
It's rare that I stop playing a game before it has, in any meaningful sense, begun. As you all know by now, though, I am of the unbending opinion that a game should not be given any breaks just because it's being played for the purpose of a review. If a professional reviewer found the beginning of a game so appalling that he or she had no motivation to continue, I would graciously accept the poor review with the caveat "I didn't play the whole thing." Heck, that policy would probably saved me a few hundred dollars over the years in bad purchases. That's exactly what happened with Zombie Farm.
What hurts the most is that I'm pretty sure Zombie Farm had the potential to be decent. The 3D art, while nothing by today's standards, had that Crazy Cross kind of appeal and definitely handles colors responsibly. Once I learned what to do, I'm sure the game would have flowed perfectly and kept me entertained for as long as I requested of it...but getting to that stage would be so infuriating and tedious that frankly, it's just not worth your time.
The game starts with a bat, who was one voice-over away from being Navi 2.0, swirling gleefully around your head and telling you in the form of a dialogue box the basic background and controls of the game...and when I say "basic," I use that word loosely. Even if I were okay with the idea of text-box based exposition (which I'm very much not), I would still say that this much superfluous text is nothing short of erroneous. Thinking your game's narrative is so brilliant that it deserves more than half a minute of the player's time to be spent reading instead of playing is even more pretentious than the wording in my last sentence.
After that, I walked around the overworld with little to no idea where the hell I was going until I came upon the character I was supposed to talk to. Oh, goody! More dialogue. I was told to pay a visit to the local shop, which I could distinguish between the other identical buildings that had no function in the game whatsoever because the shop would be highlighted when I walked near it. So then I spent a little time awkwardly dragging myself across any house-like building I could find until the game popped me back into the starting room and gave me a big ol' "Thanks for trying." After this, I was mildly (read, "wildly") agitated, but not enough so to prevent me from trying to amend my perfectly justified mistakes. So I pressed the action button to restart, and was greeted by my good friend Batthew (not joking. That's the name they went with) explaining the game to me all over again. First with a sigh and then with a partially yelled "nope!" I exited the game, never to be booted up again.
Maybe, just maybe, if the game had employed design choices that made actually playing the game the least bit rewarding, I would be able to forgive the terrible conveyance. But there are no background sounds, the gameplay is unengaging as all hell at startup, and what am I putting myself through all of this for anyways? A glorified RTS? That's what it seems like...No thanks.
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay zombified.
Links
Whoosh Kapow Fun: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26035
None of the above: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=508
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
YSoul and Zartan
YSoul started up with a menu screen featuring an adrenaline-pumping techno beat accompanied by the sight of the camera zooming down a road at high speeds. I thought I was in for a pulse-pounding adventure that would put my reflexes to the test and challenge my might as a gamer...
This game looks nice and it has some good ideas, but ultimately, it's a "hold 'd' to win" game. My guess is that the developers wanted to make a Sonic Colors-esque spectacle (hence the powerup that perfectly mimics a powerup from that game, even down to the color), but ran out of time or motivation or whatever and just decided "does it work? then submit it." Final verdict: not much to see here.
Zartan is another take on the ol' Bionic Commando swinging mechanic. It even uses a frog tongue as a grappling hook, like in Froggle. Like my playthrough of Froggle, my experience with Zartan had a bit of a rocky start. First off, the game seemed to have a terrible problem with visual conveyance. Things that looked like walls were actually in the background, etc. This problem remedies itself before long, though.
Admittedly, I don't really remember many of the other 2D swinging games on this list, but I think I can confidently say that Zartan is not the best...not by a long shot. In It Belongs in an Ancient Ruin, for example, I never felt cheated out of my progress because the mechanics were all very intuitive and did exactly what you told them to do. Zartan, on the other hand, is no stranger to the cheap death. The hitboxes on things that instakill you are too big, the camera moves a bit too fast, making it more difficult to set up your next grapple, and the whole game, while having its very fun moments, constantly verges on being frustrating. Another thing I liked about IBiaAR is that no design choices seemed pointless, but in Zartan, there seems to be no purpose in collecting the fruit strewn about the level, which is one of the most major objectives the game gives you.
If you like the idea of 2D swinging games, you'll like Zartan, and while the raw quality of the game is not as good as I'd have liked, there's certainly enough to keep you occupied...if not entertained...for a while. Of course, there is no save feature, so whether this is a blessing or a curse is up to you to decide.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay sticky
Links
Y not: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18529
Lickiana Jones: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25888
PS- we've finally made it to the last letter of the alphabet...how exciting
This game looks nice and it has some good ideas, but ultimately, it's a "hold 'd' to win" game. My guess is that the developers wanted to make a Sonic Colors-esque spectacle (hence the powerup that perfectly mimics a powerup from that game, even down to the color), but ran out of time or motivation or whatever and just decided "does it work? then submit it." Final verdict: not much to see here.
Zartan is another take on the ol' Bionic Commando swinging mechanic. It even uses a frog tongue as a grappling hook, like in Froggle. Like my playthrough of Froggle, my experience with Zartan had a bit of a rocky start. First off, the game seemed to have a terrible problem with visual conveyance. Things that looked like walls were actually in the background, etc. This problem remedies itself before long, though.
Admittedly, I don't really remember many of the other 2D swinging games on this list, but I think I can confidently say that Zartan is not the best...not by a long shot. In It Belongs in an Ancient Ruin, for example, I never felt cheated out of my progress because the mechanics were all very intuitive and did exactly what you told them to do. Zartan, on the other hand, is no stranger to the cheap death. The hitboxes on things that instakill you are too big, the camera moves a bit too fast, making it more difficult to set up your next grapple, and the whole game, while having its very fun moments, constantly verges on being frustrating. Another thing I liked about IBiaAR is that no design choices seemed pointless, but in Zartan, there seems to be no purpose in collecting the fruit strewn about the level, which is one of the most major objectives the game gives you.
If you like the idea of 2D swinging games, you'll like Zartan, and while the raw quality of the game is not as good as I'd have liked, there's certainly enough to keep you occupied...if not entertained...for a while. Of course, there is no save feature, so whether this is a blessing or a curse is up to you to decide.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay sticky
Links
Y not: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18529
Lickiana Jones: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25888
PS- we've finally made it to the last letter of the alphabet...how exciting
Monday, December 9, 2013
YAPA-G and YFront
Kids, this is why you don't procrastinate until the last minute to do things. I'm so tired today. Under normal circumstances, I would either review only one game or just take the day off, but unfortunately those luxuries have been long since used up.
I guess I'm lucky that neither of these games really gave me anything too interesting to talk about. YAPA-G literally stands for "Yet Another Post Apocalyptic Game." I'm not making that up. They might as well have just named it "nothing interesting here."
And there may have very well been something quite interesting here, but I wasn't able to understand it. I basically just left-and-right clicked around the screen for a while until the game told me I won. I'm all for a game easing the player into the experience, but I feel like I shouldn't be able to beat the game if I literally know nothing about the mechanics or how the game works. All I could gather is that it's a bit like Risk but it's over in like 5 turns.
For all it's worth, the music is nice...that's all I can really appreciate about this one to be honest.
Next up we have Starfox...I mean StarTeddy...I mean YFront, which can best be described as "what might have happened if Starfox were made for a DOS computer that just so happened to integrate seamless voice acting. This is a terrible idea, by the way, because playing with the z-axis was a daring stunt even when the Super FX chip was around. Seriously, the resemblances to our beloved bush-dwelling starfighter are uncanny. Not that there's anything wrong with a little homage, but usually when you call back to something, you try to improve upon it. Otherwise, it usually gets referred to as "ripping off"
and what exactly did YFront improve about Starfox? Absolutely nothing. In fact, it seems to have taken a step back. There's a terrible problem with depth. Your enemies are always way closer (and by extension deadlier) than they seem. The game is very disorienting in that way and I applaud anyone who can play this game with any semblance of skill, because I'll bet before long you're going to resort to mashing buttons and hoping you don't die, because keeping up with the game's perception problems is far too frustrating.
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay in motion
Links
this again: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26698
*doppler sound*: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24156
I guess I'm lucky that neither of these games really gave me anything too interesting to talk about. YAPA-G literally stands for "Yet Another Post Apocalyptic Game." I'm not making that up. They might as well have just named it "nothing interesting here."
And there may have very well been something quite interesting here, but I wasn't able to understand it. I basically just left-and-right clicked around the screen for a while until the game told me I won. I'm all for a game easing the player into the experience, but I feel like I shouldn't be able to beat the game if I literally know nothing about the mechanics or how the game works. All I could gather is that it's a bit like Risk but it's over in like 5 turns.
For all it's worth, the music is nice...that's all I can really appreciate about this one to be honest.
Next up we have Starfox...I mean StarTeddy...I mean YFront, which can best be described as "what might have happened if Starfox were made for a DOS computer that just so happened to integrate seamless voice acting. This is a terrible idea, by the way, because playing with the z-axis was a daring stunt even when the Super FX chip was around. Seriously, the resemblances to our beloved bush-dwelling starfighter are uncanny. Not that there's anything wrong with a little homage, but usually when you call back to something, you try to improve upon it. Otherwise, it usually gets referred to as "ripping off"
and what exactly did YFront improve about Starfox? Absolutely nothing. In fact, it seems to have taken a step back. There's a terrible problem with depth. Your enemies are always way closer (and by extension deadlier) than they seem. The game is very disorienting in that way and I applaud anyone who can play this game with any semblance of skill, because I'll bet before long you're going to resort to mashing buttons and hoping you don't die, because keeping up with the game's perception problems is far too frustrating.
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay in motion
Links
this again: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26698
*doppler sound*: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24156
Sunday, December 8, 2013
XM-13 Deadly Assault and Xtreme Arena (kinda)
XM-13 Deadly Assault is one of those games that reminds me that I'm reviewing school projects. It wasn't made to push any boundaries or test an idea or to present a new way of designing games, it was just made for the sake of being made. While it would be fallacious to say "not that there's anything wrong with that," it would also be a bit unrealistic of me to say every game should set out with some passionate agenda, and the inspiration behind the game doesn't intrinsically make the end product any better or worse. With that said, let's take a look.
XM-13 is your standard "splosions go everywhere bang bang boom" type of game. You control a giant mech, so the game naturally feels sluggish. I don't see why so many games feel the need to limit your sprint and jump functions. I mean the jump would make sense if this game had any real platforming, but for the most part it's just shooting everything in sight.
This game tried to go for the Attack of the 50ft Robot appeal (whoa, blast from the past. I'm gonna get emotional) that hits that primitive part of your brain that just wants to destroy. What 50ft Robot understood, though, is that the player needs to feel fully in control of the destruction they cause. That game didn't feel the need to jam the screen with particle effects: it just gave you things to crush and let you crush them. Most importantly, 50ft Robot controlled smooth as butter.
XM-13 on the other hand, chugs like a steam train in a beer drinking contest. It's pretty bad when a game boldly declares "tactical nuke inbound" and my first reaction is not "oh, this is gonna be sweet" but rather "ooh, the framerate's not gonna like that." I've said before that my laptop is a pretty disappointing piece of machinery (even though it's an ostensibly top-of-the line Alienware, so idk what that's about), but come on. I was just running Saints Row IV seamlessly and I can't handle a game that might have looked impressive in 2005? Look, I'm not suggesting that a DigiPen game should resemble the newest games with cutting-edge graphics nor am I suggesting that DigiPen studenst should be as good at optimization as people who do that for a living. All I'm saying is that if you're going to push the envelope and go for graphical quality, you'd better be able to make it run, because a game with poor graphics at 60 frames per second looks and feels a hell of a lot better than even the most visually stunning games at 2 frames per second.
And Xtreme Arena was a not real exe, so that's all I got for now. Until next time, stay deadly.
Links
W-DED Sirius XM: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26688
doesn't exist: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=604
XM-13 is your standard "splosions go everywhere bang bang boom" type of game. You control a giant mech, so the game naturally feels sluggish. I don't see why so many games feel the need to limit your sprint and jump functions. I mean the jump would make sense if this game had any real platforming, but for the most part it's just shooting everything in sight.
This game tried to go for the Attack of the 50ft Robot appeal (whoa, blast from the past. I'm gonna get emotional) that hits that primitive part of your brain that just wants to destroy. What 50ft Robot understood, though, is that the player needs to feel fully in control of the destruction they cause. That game didn't feel the need to jam the screen with particle effects: it just gave you things to crush and let you crush them. Most importantly, 50ft Robot controlled smooth as butter.
XM-13 on the other hand, chugs like a steam train in a beer drinking contest. It's pretty bad when a game boldly declares "tactical nuke inbound" and my first reaction is not "oh, this is gonna be sweet" but rather "ooh, the framerate's not gonna like that." I've said before that my laptop is a pretty disappointing piece of machinery (even though it's an ostensibly top-of-the line Alienware, so idk what that's about), but come on. I was just running Saints Row IV seamlessly and I can't handle a game that might have looked impressive in 2005? Look, I'm not suggesting that a DigiPen game should resemble the newest games with cutting-edge graphics nor am I suggesting that DigiPen studenst should be as good at optimization as people who do that for a living. All I'm saying is that if you're going to push the envelope and go for graphical quality, you'd better be able to make it run, because a game with poor graphics at 60 frames per second looks and feels a hell of a lot better than even the most visually stunning games at 2 frames per second.
And Xtreme Arena was a not real exe, so that's all I got for now. Until next time, stay deadly.
Links
W-DED Sirius XM: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26688
doesn't exist: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=604
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Wub Wub Racer Magic and Wyrm (kinda)
Wub Wub Racer Magic is beautiful in its simplicity. You know that weird Japanese game show? No, not that one, the other one. The Human Tetris thing? Well, it's basically that, but with spaceships. You fly a ship down a narrow corridor filled with walls comprised of 9 blocks, one of which is always missing. You have to fly through the hole lest you be blown to smithereens.
The only real noteworthy thing is that this is one of maybe 5 games on this list to actually have made me laugh out loud. There's something absolutely hilarious about the way your ship just sorta disintegrates when it hits a wall. This game is the definition of a time-waster. It's the kind of game you play while listening to a podcast or something.
And I couldn't get Wyrm to work, so...yeah. I guess this is where the review ends.
Links
Dubstep Noises: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26685
Wyrmenheimer: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=554
The only real noteworthy thing is that this is one of maybe 5 games on this list to actually have made me laugh out loud. There's something absolutely hilarious about the way your ship just sorta disintegrates when it hits a wall. This game is the definition of a time-waster. It's the kind of game you play while listening to a podcast or something.
And I couldn't get Wyrm to work, so...yeah. I guess this is where the review ends.
Links
Dubstep Noises: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26685
Wyrmenheimer: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=554
Friday, December 6, 2013
Whisper of the Goddess and Wrecking Ball
Whisper of the Goddess is a puzzle game in the lightest sense of the word. In my current state of mind, I'm very grateful to have a game that rewards thought and problem solving, but doesn't require you to be more than like 25% conscious to get through it.
I'm going to do a terrible job explaining the mechanics, so I suggest you download this one and try if for yourself if you're curious. Basically, you have to latch onto blocks that you can then move across rails to get from point A to point B. You'll have to be strategic about which blocks you flip, move, and latch onto and when...but as I said, the game is fairly straightforward and not likely to leave you stumped.
The most impressive thing about this game, I think, is its sheer size. The developers seem to have packed as much content as possible into this game, each level maintaining the same quality design as the last. This is venerable in many a sense, and it will certainly keep you from getting bored. Personally, I prefer a more concise game that doesn't dwell too much on mechanics after they've been explored, but I can still definitely appreciate the prolific nature of the developers' brains.
The quality of this game is top-notch. Any problem you have with it will not be because of dodgy design, but because of the concept. If you're not into puzzle games or if you only like puzzles that make you feel really smart for figuring them out, skip over this one. I had fun with it, though, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, charming adventure that isn't completely mindless but won't leave you puzzled either.
Wrecking Ball...more like Wrecked Game. I have no idea what's going on in this game. All I can figure out is that there are robots playing what seems to be like European handball but with weapons of mass destruction. Sounds cool, right? Well yeah, the premise is cool, but good luck playing the damn thing. My weapons seem to be completely ineffective and whenever I get the ball I get stunlocked by enemy fire and fumble it quicker than I can say "ouch"
I don't know...maybe I was just playing it wrong, but I gave it three tries and couldn't figure it out. Maybe toy around with this one for a bit to see if you can figure out what I've been missing, because the game seems like it would be really fun if it worked. I like the "recharge" mechanic that requires you to back off from the action a bit to replenish your armor and weapons, but I just can't figure out the rest....sorry.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay destructive
Links
Shhh, Goddess is talking: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26710
Miley Cyrus: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=440
I'm going to do a terrible job explaining the mechanics, so I suggest you download this one and try if for yourself if you're curious. Basically, you have to latch onto blocks that you can then move across rails to get from point A to point B. You'll have to be strategic about which blocks you flip, move, and latch onto and when...but as I said, the game is fairly straightforward and not likely to leave you stumped.
The most impressive thing about this game, I think, is its sheer size. The developers seem to have packed as much content as possible into this game, each level maintaining the same quality design as the last. This is venerable in many a sense, and it will certainly keep you from getting bored. Personally, I prefer a more concise game that doesn't dwell too much on mechanics after they've been explored, but I can still definitely appreciate the prolific nature of the developers' brains.
The quality of this game is top-notch. Any problem you have with it will not be because of dodgy design, but because of the concept. If you're not into puzzle games or if you only like puzzles that make you feel really smart for figuring them out, skip over this one. I had fun with it, though, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, charming adventure that isn't completely mindless but won't leave you puzzled either.
Wrecking Ball...more like Wrecked Game. I have no idea what's going on in this game. All I can figure out is that there are robots playing what seems to be like European handball but with weapons of mass destruction. Sounds cool, right? Well yeah, the premise is cool, but good luck playing the damn thing. My weapons seem to be completely ineffective and whenever I get the ball I get stunlocked by enemy fire and fumble it quicker than I can say "ouch"
I don't know...maybe I was just playing it wrong, but I gave it three tries and couldn't figure it out. Maybe toy around with this one for a bit to see if you can figure out what I've been missing, because the game seems like it would be really fun if it worked. I like the "recharge" mechanic that requires you to back off from the action a bit to replenish your armor and weapons, but I just can't figure out the rest....sorry.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay destructive
Links
Shhh, Goddess is talking: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26710
Miley Cyrus: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=440
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Wake the Dragon and War of the Currents
Hey, remember yesterday when I said some games are designed such that skipping the tutorial is a death sentence? Well...Wake the Dragon. Playing this game is just one nightmare after another. The first thing I did was try to play without the tutorial. All I could figure out how to do was change the color of certain blocks...but that seemed to do nothing. So then the timer ran out, an enemy spawned, and it was game over.
Great.
So then I started up the tutorial, which was even more excessively wordy than some of my blog posts, and admittedly, that's saying something. Having neither the time nor the patience to sit through a tutorial that starts off explaining that the little green glowy orb floating around the corner is, in fact, green and glowy, I promptly nope'd out of the tutorial and clicked "how to play," where I was given an incredibly barebones and unhelpful summary of the mechanics...again, mirroring my blog in the worst possible ways. Press 2 to detonate...3 to disperse...4 to spawn boss...who? what? what does any of this mean?
So I started up the game again hoping that the mechanics would make sense and...no, they didn't. I pressed 2 to to the detonate shout to get rid of an enemy when it spawned, but then the shout never worked again. Does it only work once for some reason? Does it have a cooldown time that lasts longer than the one indicated by the little meter filling back up? Whatever. I didn't have the patience to stick around for the answer to those questions. This game gets a nope out of 10.
War of the Currents is jam-packed with stuff that interested me, both good and bad, so I'm bound to leave a lot of critical stuff out in a review that I have to push out in the span of like an hour. Therefore, allow me to give a quick mini-review before I attempt to go more in-depth. War of the Currents is a clever game with big ambitions and its head on straight, but it bit off a bit more than it could chew and the gameplay suffers a bit as a result. I recommend it overall.
The story is an interesting "alternative history" take on the Edison v. Tesla conflict, a really interesting thing for any who aren't familiar, so the game gets points right out of the gate for tickling my tangential learning spot. The opening cutscene does lose some favor with me just for existing, but for what it's worth, the 5 seconds I watched were very well done. It had a professional look to it and started out with a very thought provoking phrase that summed up a critique I have of modern thinkers much more eloquently than I was ever able to.
Now let's talk gameplay. Overall, it's very well executed but slightly unpolished. The game is very combat-oriented, and you have a varied set of moves to keep you entertained. You can mash the attack key, you can shoryuken, you can stunlock your enemies and you can use some well-timed shields to avoid tanking too much damage. The major downside to all of this is that it's all optional. It's like if your teacher offered to give you an extra point on a quiz if you watch a 15 minute long YouTube video. Yeah, it's nice to get rewarded, and watching the video isn't exactly boring, but if it's all auxiliary, then it can be kind of tough to motivate yourself to do it. Other than that, there are minor issues. The framerate occasionally chugs (and come on, I know my laptop has heating issues, but it's a game made of 2D sprites. It should run pretty smoothly), some platforms blend in with the background, making jumping across them kind of a pain, and the "overcharge mode" throws any challenge the game might have had right out the window.
So yeah. One of these games is definitely worth your time. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay electrical
Links
Don't Wake Dragon-daddy: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26021
Zappity do da: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26712
Great.
So then I started up the tutorial, which was even more excessively wordy than some of my blog posts, and admittedly, that's saying something. Having neither the time nor the patience to sit through a tutorial that starts off explaining that the little green glowy orb floating around the corner is, in fact, green and glowy, I promptly nope'd out of the tutorial and clicked "how to play," where I was given an incredibly barebones and unhelpful summary of the mechanics...again, mirroring my blog in the worst possible ways. Press 2 to detonate...3 to disperse...4 to spawn boss...who? what? what does any of this mean?
So I started up the game again hoping that the mechanics would make sense and...no, they didn't. I pressed 2 to to the detonate shout to get rid of an enemy when it spawned, but then the shout never worked again. Does it only work once for some reason? Does it have a cooldown time that lasts longer than the one indicated by the little meter filling back up? Whatever. I didn't have the patience to stick around for the answer to those questions. This game gets a nope out of 10.
War of the Currents is jam-packed with stuff that interested me, both good and bad, so I'm bound to leave a lot of critical stuff out in a review that I have to push out in the span of like an hour. Therefore, allow me to give a quick mini-review before I attempt to go more in-depth. War of the Currents is a clever game with big ambitions and its head on straight, but it bit off a bit more than it could chew and the gameplay suffers a bit as a result. I recommend it overall.
The story is an interesting "alternative history" take on the Edison v. Tesla conflict, a really interesting thing for any who aren't familiar, so the game gets points right out of the gate for tickling my tangential learning spot. The opening cutscene does lose some favor with me just for existing, but for what it's worth, the 5 seconds I watched were very well done. It had a professional look to it and started out with a very thought provoking phrase that summed up a critique I have of modern thinkers much more eloquently than I was ever able to.
Now let's talk gameplay. Overall, it's very well executed but slightly unpolished. The game is very combat-oriented, and you have a varied set of moves to keep you entertained. You can mash the attack key, you can shoryuken, you can stunlock your enemies and you can use some well-timed shields to avoid tanking too much damage. The major downside to all of this is that it's all optional. It's like if your teacher offered to give you an extra point on a quiz if you watch a 15 minute long YouTube video. Yeah, it's nice to get rewarded, and watching the video isn't exactly boring, but if it's all auxiliary, then it can be kind of tough to motivate yourself to do it. Other than that, there are minor issues. The framerate occasionally chugs (and come on, I know my laptop has heating issues, but it's a game made of 2D sprites. It should run pretty smoothly), some platforms blend in with the background, making jumping across them kind of a pain, and the "overcharge mode" throws any challenge the game might have had right out the window.
So yeah. One of these games is definitely worth your time. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay electrical
Links
Don't Wake Dragon-daddy: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26021
Zappity do da: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26712
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