Whew! Finally, a game that works!
Dark Labyrinth is a simple little time-waster with a few prominent flaws. What are those flaws, you ask? Be patient, I'll get to them as soon as I'm done padding this intro.
First off, I should note that this game does have a 2-player mode. I tried it, but ended up dying randomly, so I went into the singleplayer mode, where I was greeted with a tutorial. That's a bit strange. What if you wanted to play with a friend who's never played before? Don't they deserve to know about the game too?
The most glaring flaw about this game is that it takes WAY too long to get moving. It wasn't until level 5 that I even heard the first moan of a mummyghost, and a new one is introduced every 5 levels. It was only by replaying the game and skipping the tutorial that I got the idea to click "f1" in the main game. Doing this instantly teleports you to level 26. This exploit is a must-use for anyone who doesn't want to mindlessly walk to all 4 corners of the same room 25 times.
In case that last sentence didn't give it away, this game is just boring. The only challenge or threat whatsoever comes from the mummyghosts, which can easily be outsmarted. I only ever got killed by one because I was screwing around with it and trying to make it do figure-eights. Essentially, all this game amounts to is wandering around a maze, picking up treasures. That's not enough to hold up a game.
I do feel like I have to mention the torches. This seems to be the game's unique selling point, but as far as I can tell, you never ever need to use it. You're constantly being rewarded with more wicks with which to light torches, but again, they're utterly useless. Every now and again, lighting a torch will give you a speed boost or something, but it's completely unnecessary. Every mechanic in a game has to have a purpose, otherwise its just deadweight programming that saps time and energy from portions of the game that could have benefited from them.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay scary.
Links
ooOOoooOOOh: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24355
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Danger Zone
Man, it's turning out to be a good day to be a DigiPen game reviewer, because this one doesn't work either. At least this time they straight up tell me on the game's webpage that there is no download link available.
Dandellos
Downloading this game is kinda the same deal as downloading Crazy Cross. The DigiPen download link just brings me a "not real" exe.
Unfortunately, this game is a bit more elusive than Crazy Cross, and I don't have the kind of free time I did back in the glorious days of vacation. Thus, I'm gonna have to declare this one broken. If anyone manages to find a link to the actual game, feel free to hit me up and I'll get a-writing. For now, though, I got nothing.
Unfortunately, this game is a bit more elusive than Crazy Cross, and I don't have the kind of free time I did back in the glorious days of vacation. Thus, I'm gonna have to declare this one broken. If anyone manages to find a link to the actual game, feel free to hit me up and I'll get a-writing. For now, though, I got nothing.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Damage Control
Hey guys. In case you haven't noticed, it's rather late in the day for me to be blogging. I've also got a lot more stuff I want to get to tonight, so I'm going to keep this one short (surprise surprise).
The first problem I noticed is that the game closes out every time you hit "esc." This is one of those design choices that could enhance the game in some cases, but could detriment it in others. For example, in horror games, having the "esc" key work as a "chicken out" button actually increases tension as the player is constantly being urged to just click that one button and be done with it. I've never played any of those SCP games, but I've heard they implement that concept and that it works. In Damage Control, there's no tension, and thus no reason I can think of to make "esc" an instant quit button. Furthermore, this design choice contradicts the design of the game as a whole. The game is rife with little transitional animations in the menu screens. I guarantee you, at one point when you're navigating a menu, you will press "esc" unknowingly and close out the game. Luckily, the game autosaves the choices you make in the customization screen, so this isn't a huge problem. Also, it's worth noting that "esc" only closes the game when you're navigating the menu, which is the only time it would really be a problem. That's just plain sloppy.
But now let's talk about the meat of the game: the battles.
The first thing that annoys me is the level design. There are three levels to choose from and only one of them is passable. See, the goal of the game is to collect gears. One level has all the gears conveniently placed in the middle of the arena, so you can basically just camp there and turn the game into king of the hill with the added bonus of horrendous controls, which I'll get to in a second. Another also has the gears in the middle but with an obnoxious death pit waiting to kill all those hubristic enough to try and actually win the game.
Now I just want to talk briefly about the game design in general. The only competitive part of this game is that you can kill your opponents, thus removing any gears they've collected. The problem is that the cars move so fast and are so hard to control and the weapons are so useless that you'll never be able to catch up to your enemies efficiently enough, and they'll never be able to catch up to you. Running around collecting gears is the best strategy, and that becomes boring after like a minute of use.
Lastly, the weapon design is also sloppy. It seems they just put certain weapons in without thinking about how well they'll work with the games mechanics. The mentality seems to be something akin to this:
Linksbumper cars minus the bumper: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=489
The first problem I noticed is that the game closes out every time you hit "esc." This is one of those design choices that could enhance the game in some cases, but could detriment it in others. For example, in horror games, having the "esc" key work as a "chicken out" button actually increases tension as the player is constantly being urged to just click that one button and be done with it. I've never played any of those SCP games, but I've heard they implement that concept and that it works. In Damage Control, there's no tension, and thus no reason I can think of to make "esc" an instant quit button. Furthermore, this design choice contradicts the design of the game as a whole. The game is rife with little transitional animations in the menu screens. I guarantee you, at one point when you're navigating a menu, you will press "esc" unknowingly and close out the game. Luckily, the game autosaves the choices you make in the customization screen, so this isn't a huge problem. Also, it's worth noting that "esc" only closes the game when you're navigating the menu, which is the only time it would really be a problem. That's just plain sloppy.
But now let's talk about the meat of the game: the battles.
The first thing that annoys me is the level design. There are three levels to choose from and only one of them is passable. See, the goal of the game is to collect gears. One level has all the gears conveniently placed in the middle of the arena, so you can basically just camp there and turn the game into king of the hill with the added bonus of horrendous controls, which I'll get to in a second. Another also has the gears in the middle but with an obnoxious death pit waiting to kill all those hubristic enough to try and actually win the game.
Now I just want to talk briefly about the game design in general. The only competitive part of this game is that you can kill your opponents, thus removing any gears they've collected. The problem is that the cars move so fast and are so hard to control and the weapons are so useless that you'll never be able to catch up to your enemies efficiently enough, and they'll never be able to catch up to you. Running around collecting gears is the best strategy, and that becomes boring after like a minute of use.
Lastly, the weapon design is also sloppy. It seems they just put certain weapons in without thinking about how well they'll work with the games mechanics. The mentality seems to be something akin to this:
That's not good game design. Also, do not ever use the blades. Using those things is a fate worse than death.
Overall, there are ways to manipulate this game so it becomes fun, but you shouldn't have to manipulate a game. It should just be good from the get go. This game is miles away from earning my seal of approval. I'm not trying to be harsh, but the only basis I have for recommending this game is that it's functional.
Linksbumper cars minus the bumper: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=489
Monday, February 25, 2013
Cubed
So, you think you're pretty smart, huh? do ya, punk? Well I'm about to prove you wrong. Ready for it?
Cubed.
This game is pretty easy to explain: It's Tetris on steroids. The premise is simple: place Tetris bricks anywhere on a Cartesian grid to try and form 3x3 blocks. Once you form a 3x3 (or larger) block, it will disappear. The goal is to form those blocks using pre-placed "bug" blocks. Once you get rid of all the bugs, you win.
As the brief intro alluded to, this game is tough with a capital "WTF." I've never been the best at puzzle games, but I can usually hold my own against anything less challenging than a rubik's cube. Cubed, however, put me right in my place. And that's just in the 2D game. This game also comes with a 3D mode, which I won't even begin to describe. Try and survive that one. I dare you.
Surprisingly enough, that's all I have to say about this game. The only outstanding feature is the challenge, but you know what? That's enough for me. All a game really has to do to earn my seal of approval is accomplish what it appears to set out to do. This game seems to have been made for the purpose of delivering a quick, fun challenge. It certainly does that, so this game gets my seal of approval
Until next time, stay crafty
Links
It hurts: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=500
Cubed.
This game is pretty easy to explain: It's Tetris on steroids. The premise is simple: place Tetris bricks anywhere on a Cartesian grid to try and form 3x3 blocks. Once you form a 3x3 (or larger) block, it will disappear. The goal is to form those blocks using pre-placed "bug" blocks. Once you get rid of all the bugs, you win.
As the brief intro alluded to, this game is tough with a capital "WTF." I've never been the best at puzzle games, but I can usually hold my own against anything less challenging than a rubik's cube. Cubed, however, put me right in my place. And that's just in the 2D game. This game also comes with a 3D mode, which I won't even begin to describe. Try and survive that one. I dare you.
Surprisingly enough, that's all I have to say about this game. The only outstanding feature is the challenge, but you know what? That's enough for me. All a game really has to do to earn my seal of approval is accomplish what it appears to set out to do. This game seems to have been made for the purpose of delivering a quick, fun challenge. It certainly does that, so this game gets my seal of approval
Until next time, stay crafty
Links
It hurts: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=500
Cub3
Alright, school's back in session, which means the reviews are back with twice the angst in half the length.
Cub3 reminds me of a less advanced Black Hole. Both games utilize the same basic control scheme, which is good because now I can just tell you all to read my Black Hole review instead of recounting the controls here. I love it when I already do my job for me.
unlike Black Hole, however, in Cub3, there is one main objective: kill anything that happens to have four blue triangles all pointing to it. This kind of setup makes the game somewhat mindless, as all you ever really need to be thinking is "there's the target, bang bang."
It's not a bad mindless space shooter, mind you. you can clearly hear the bullets make contact with the targets, making the game feel good in general. That is, once you get the feel of the game, which I'll admit is a bit frustrating at first. Once you get the controls down, however, the game becomes everything you'd expect from a space shooter with a one-track mind.
Before I go on, a quick disclaimer: I usually only give myself 20-30 minutes with these games, and then another 20-30 to write the review. That said, There are a lot of games that I don't finish. This is one of them. For all I know, Cub3 could introduce really cool various missions as well. I'm only going based on what I experienced.
That said, there are a few flaws that I don't think the game would remedy as levels whizz by. First, crashing into anything, and I mean ANYTHING, kills you instantly. This might not be too bad if you had more than one life to complete a mission in, but nope. You only get one. That means you can flawlessly clear out 90% of your objectives and then get blindsided by an asteroid that looked dodgeable and have to start all over again. The hit detection on your ship is also a bit too generous. Just because you can see an asteroid shouldn't mean you are guaranteed to hit it. The deaths don't always feel deserved, which is an easy way to make your game frustrating.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay sensitive.
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24670
Cub3 reminds me of a less advanced Black Hole. Both games utilize the same basic control scheme, which is good because now I can just tell you all to read my Black Hole review instead of recounting the controls here. I love it when I already do my job for me.
unlike Black Hole, however, in Cub3, there is one main objective: kill anything that happens to have four blue triangles all pointing to it. This kind of setup makes the game somewhat mindless, as all you ever really need to be thinking is "there's the target, bang bang."
It's not a bad mindless space shooter, mind you. you can clearly hear the bullets make contact with the targets, making the game feel good in general. That is, once you get the feel of the game, which I'll admit is a bit frustrating at first. Once you get the controls down, however, the game becomes everything you'd expect from a space shooter with a one-track mind.
Before I go on, a quick disclaimer: I usually only give myself 20-30 minutes with these games, and then another 20-30 to write the review. That said, There are a lot of games that I don't finish. This is one of them. For all I know, Cub3 could introduce really cool various missions as well. I'm only going based on what I experienced.
That said, there are a few flaws that I don't think the game would remedy as levels whizz by. First, crashing into anything, and I mean ANYTHING, kills you instantly. This might not be too bad if you had more than one life to complete a mission in, but nope. You only get one. That means you can flawlessly clear out 90% of your objectives and then get blindsided by an asteroid that looked dodgeable and have to start all over again. The hit detection on your ship is also a bit too generous. Just because you can see an asteroid shouldn't mean you are guaranteed to hit it. The deaths don't always feel deserved, which is an easy way to make your game frustrating.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay sensitive.
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24670
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Crystaline
I've got severe last-day-of-vacation blues. It was fun while it lasted, but all good things must come to an end. Anyways, let's get this review done.
Crystaline is a first-person 3D platformer that requires you to manipulate your environment and activate switches to progress through the levels. It reminds me a lot of Portal, but without the portals.
You traverse the levels by either moving yourself to an object with LMB or moving an object toward you with RMB. The puzzles get gradually harder and eventually, you're introduced to robots that shoot you if you enter their field of vision. I think there's a word for that...oh yeah, turrets!
Crystaline is a first-person 3D platformer that requires you to manipulate your environment and activate switches to progress through the levels. It reminds me a lot of Portal, but without the portals.
You traverse the levels by either moving yourself to an object with LMB or moving an object toward you with RMB. The puzzles get gradually harder and eventually, you're introduced to robots that shoot you if you enter their field of vision. I think there's a word for that...oh yeah, turrets!
alright, I'm done with that.
Anyways, this is another game with no save feature and no level select, so I felt no need to finish the whole thing. You already know how much I despise games that make you beat em in one go, so I'm gonna move on.
I'm having a lot of trouble thinking of things to say about this game because everything is so drastically okay. There are minor frustrations, like not being able to stop once you launch yourself to a platform or not being able to tell from where you're getting shot at because there are no bullet sparks when the robots shoot you. Then again, there are some real perks like genuinely challenging but fun puzzles.
As short as this was, I think I gotta end it here. I would probably give this game my seal of approval if it didn't forget the save feature. Other than that, it's kinda forgettable, but certainly not a bad game. Give it a shot if you are in the mood for some indie fun, but still want to maintain your rep as a graphics whore,
Until next time, stay dextrous
Links
hurry, hurry! https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25912
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