It Belongs in An Ancient Ruin

well, this one was fun!

Before we analyze, let's have a bit of context.  You play as the explorer and spelunker Pennsylvania Smith...

...*disgruntled groan*...

And you steal artifacts from museums and put them back in ancient ruins where they belong...*mumbles*

Alright, well other than...that...I liked almost everything about this game.  Allow me to elaborate:

At first, the game starts out feeling a lot like Trilby: Art of Theft, the game made by the great internet cynic Yahtzee Croshaw.  You work your way around security cameras, patrolling guards, and police dogs to activate switches, steal expensive stuff, and progress through the levels.  

Unlike Art of Theft, this game is also a platformer.  That's an interesting combination: platforming stealth game.  This intermingling of genres is something I'd like to see more of.  Sure, there are only so many ways to do this before the Cooking Mama RPG graces us, but still...I will say, though, there's no way to take out a guard or two in this game like there is in Art of Theft.   Sure, that might not have fit in with the game's mechanics, but I found myself wondering why a man capable of jumping three times his own height is somehow not fit enough to take down a cop with a flashlight at close range.  Oh well...

The second half of the game ditches the whole stealth aspect and just becomes Castlevania.  Mmkay.  I can deal with that.  I'm down.  Let's see what you got, game.

From then on, the game becomes an only minorly frustrating platformer with an actual storyline to keep you motivated.  It was actually very well paced.  It all lead up to a tense escape scene with the final boss, which was immensely satisfying...right up until the very end.

*minor spoiler warning*

The final boss, in the very last screen of the game, is standing right on the edge of a cliff leading into a lava pit.  There is a hook positioned just right for you to be able to tarzan swing and kick him to his death, which would have been hugely satisfying.  Unfortunately, you just walk right past him and win the game...*Sigh*

oh well.  The game did have some missed opportunities, and there were some frustratingly designed aspects (like the evil suits of armor that kill me every time or the velociraptors that jump out of the bushes and give you about 0.0000001 seconds of reaction time before they send you back to the checkpoint).  

There's lots more I want to talk about, but this post is getting a bit too long already.  I guess I can say that the game's best qualities are its conveyance, sense of flow, and art direction (even though I hate pixel art as a concept in the modern world, this was done pretty dang well).  all in all, this game is very competently designed and was one of the more enjoyable DigiPen experiences.  Good work, guys.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay swingin'

Links

I don't feel like coming up with a name for this one: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25076

iQ

God help me, I love puzzle games.  After all, after a long day at school straining my mind for 11 hours straight and then coming home and squeezing some last precious drops of intelligence out to get my homework done, all I want to do is sit down in front of the computer and put my brain under some more stress.

I'm kidding, of course.  I have nothing against puzzle games, especially if they're good.  My girlfriend and I have spent hours playing that Tilt board game.  Actually, iQ is quite similar to that game. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, lemme explain the mechanics of iQ.  You push and pull blocks onto buttons using the force to advance to the next level.  It's quite fun and it does everything it needs to.

See, this is my least favorite game to review because it's so simple that I've already said everything there is to say about it.  It has all the makings for a perfect puzzle game that you'd expect to see on the app store or something. Based on that, I kind of have to grudgingly give it my seal of approval.  I say grudgingly because this game didn't leave me with any kind of take away.  It happened.  I genuinely can't think of a flaw, though, so I guess iQ wins this round.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay smartical.

Links
eye que: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25111

Invade-n-Raid

hmm...a 2-D adventure starring an interplanetary mining robot with an "-n-" in the title...something about this seems unoriginal...

Yep, this game is brought to us by two of the people on the Dig-n-Rig team (plus one new member, who ostensibly decided to get rid of that horribly pretentious pixel art style).  Will Invade-n-Raid be as confusing and unrewarding as its predecessor?  Let's find out.

This game is actually relatively simple and, best of all, unique.  Go figure, right?  In order to dig for minerals, you have to burrow into a planet, which, instead of just being boring and giving you the elements, puts you in a quick Astrobunny-esque collection mechanic, which I find to be a huge improvement.  Getting minerals actually feels rewarding and fun now.  Combat is a fun mechanic as well.  Madly tapping the "E" button to eliminate certain enemies is immensely satisfying.  Getting hit by other enemies because you didn't know they were invulnerable to your attack, on the other hand, is not.

Other than that, the only problem I had was that figuring out which way gravity points is a little confusing.  You know that feeling in a Sonic The Hedgehog game (especially the 3D ones) where you're pressing one direction to build up momentum but then you enter a loop or a turn or something and you don't quite know whether to keep holding that direction or to switch to wherever you're facing now?  Ugh, that could have been worded better but you know what I'm talking about.  That is this game in a nutshell.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay stellar

Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25885

Insecticide

short review today, guys.  Insert flimsy excuse here.

Insecticide is my new defensive evidence to show to anyone who accuses me of giving FPS games a free ride just because shooters happen to be my favorite genre.  Don't get me wrong, the gameplay isn't as bad as Echo's was, but I still can't recommend it.

First off, let's talk level design.  The game starts you off in an area with only common SMGs, pistols, and some weird flying centipede type things along with their spawners.  Naturally, as a gamer, your first instinct is to wreck shop.  So you fire upon the spawners, since they're the only things that don't move or try to kill you, only to find that their health bars are way too big.  Killing things, at first, is boring, but it's almost stimulating.  Less ridiculous movement patterns, health bars, aim assist...all of these things would have been useful here.

So then, you go and explore the vast, open landscape until you come across what I call the "fun zone."  Here, there are rocket launchers and swarms of wasps galore to keep your interest.  I like how the game gradually leads you into the intense action, but the beginning stages needed some polish.

Speaking of polish, what happened with those centipede enemy things?  The wasps, houses, ground and hilariously named taxi cab all have at least a little bit of detail to them, so why not the first enemies you see?  Maybe they were following the method of making the player explore to get the good stuff, but I don't know. It still seems a bit unrefined.

That's a good word for this game in general.  It's unrefined.  That doesn't mean it's not good and it certainly doesn't mean it has a shaky foundation, but it does mean I can't quite recommend it just yet.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay swarmin'

Links
Inspect Inside: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=512

Infinite Ion (guest review)

“Luis, my fellow game-whore who has given up on writing guest reviews” he says. I’ll show him...I’ll show them all!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh. You’re here.

So after that very appreciated character assault, I thought it my duty to write a review. And yes, I will resort to cheap shots. Also, I’ll be reviewing it as I play, which means that I get to yell more, but which also means that my analysis may not be super spot on at times.

Pre-Game:

Infinite Ion is a game made by a bunch of sophomores. Their opening description is that it’s a “cooperative bullet hell shooter based on the concept of polarity, based on Ikaruga.” So, naturally, I had to go and see what Ikaruga was all about. And guess what, Ikaruga is a single-player bullet hell shooter based on the concept of polarity. Made initially for the Gamecube, you press A to (literally) flip between what I’ll just call the good Arwing and the evil Arwing. The good Arwing can’t be harmed by blue light bullets and the evil Arwing can’t be harmed by darkness bullets. Clever, but not too interesting.

Now, this game is a co-op game, and I’ve basically come to the conclusion that there are three kinds of co-op games on the market. Your first kind of co-op game would be your Borderlands and your Halo 3, where co-op is appreciated, but not necessary. Your second kind of co-op game would be your Portal 2, where it’s entirely separate from the rest of the game. And your third kind would be your Dead Space 3 and your Resident Evil The Last Few and your Borderlands 2, where it doesn’t need to be co-op, but for some reason is. Guess which one this game falls under?

The menu screen is pretty generic, with a small explosion particle effect thingy going on in the lower left, and all the options and stuff over a decidedly bland logo. The music is decidedly boring, because it sounds like it uses the same keyboard that they did for Deus Ex, but without all of the cool.

Also, since co-op is required, I’ve enlisted the help of my sixth grade brother, Napoleon, also known by his real name Matthew.

Post-Game:

“Look, it wasn’t something I would play again. Maybe I would give it one or two more goes.” This coming from the child that has poured so many hours into the Virtual Hat Simulator that is TF2 that he literally changed the Steam layout so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed by how many days he’s wasted playing it so far. Suffice it to say, kid knows a good game when he sees one.

Surprise surprise, the co-op “definitely was a feature, but wasn’t really necessary. It could’ve just been an option and not really forced upon you.” Honestly, he’s spot on. From a mechanical standpoint, having co-op does open up quite a few avenues for development, but these devs basically seem to have said “Ikaruga with a friend”

A solid third of the bullet patterns are specifically designed so that you can only complete them if both players simultaneously complete a specific and complex series of maneuvers. Which is not fun to do with two people. With one person, the excuse is, “Oh, I’m an ass, guess I need to pay more attention.” Here, you’re completely reliant on your partner, and not in a fun way. The game is your typical twitchy bullet hell fair, so mistakes are obviously going to abound, but when one mistake can lose you two of your shared six lives (side note: shared lives = stupid. Don’t do it.) everything becomes increasingly combative.

Gun upgrades are received through small gold coins of various sizes dropped by enemies. However, there’s nothing that explain the relative value of each coin, or how many you need to upgrade, etc.

The backgrounds were dull and uninspiring. The music changed each level but was so bland that I didn’t even notice it. The sound effects were...okay. Nothing more than they needed to be.

Honestly, I came away from this game thoroughly bored. The reason being that aside from the glaring unnecessary co-op, this game is just...dull. There’s nothing else that’s really wrong with it, but it’s just a kind of bland paste. If anything, it just proves that Ikaruga had some really cool ideas and solid execution that they tried their damndest to mimic and failed at.

Ion Paired: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25886

Shameless Plug: http://potentiallymeaningful.blogspot.com/

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And thus, another honest day's work has been evaded.  Thanks, bud.  Since I don't have a mini-me to play with, you guys are just going to have to take Luis's word on this one.  

Incandescence

Prior to playing Incandescence, I was notified by Luis, my fellow game-whore who has given up on writing guest reviews but not on playing these games for kicks, that this was the game controls like a cheetah with an inner ear problem.  I'm paraphrasing, of course, but nevertheless, it's worth noting that I didn't go into this game very optimistically.  That in mind, let's play this thang.

Well the controls definitely aren't great, but I've played a lot worse.  Really the only problem is that the mouse sensitivity is too low, which wouldn't be a problem if the game allowed me to adjust it manually.  Instead, I got a perplexing control options screen where the only options are "invert y axis" and a blank field for you to type stuff into, which does nothing.  huh...

My main problem with the game is how it feels. Occasionally, you'll run into these glitchy-if-effective boost rails, which bring you up to a satisfying speed, but the momentum you gain from them runs out almost the instant you leave them.  The rest of the game is pretty sluggish, all things considered.  I'm just coasting around the city with no real sense of challenge or excitement.  It's just plain ol' boring.  If Igneous were paced like this, I would have torn it a new one because every other aspect of its design focuses on adrenaline.  Incandescence, with its blue tonality, calming sound direction and placid control style, and consequence-free level design seems to go for a much more relaxing atmosphere, which is fine as long as there's something to keep me occupied.  I need to derive some sense of fun from a game...that's why it's a game!

Imagine a game based on that one scene from Aladdin where you're just floating on a magic carpet through the clouds.  No sense of danger, nothing standing in your way, you're just coasting.  Every now and again a little piece of bread or whatever will float by that you can collect, but past that, nothing.  Sounds fun, right?  Yeah, I didn't think so.  That's what Incandescence reminds me of.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay musical

Links
Ink on the fence: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24656

Igneous

I was excited to play this game for 2 main reasons.  First, it's another IGF finalist.  While that's by no means an end-all quality assurance stamp, it tends to act like it.  Second, I have kind of an affinity for the word "Igneous" because when I was younger, my friends and I formed a band called "Igneus."  Get it?  Cuz we were a rock band...and we were hot...and we omitted a letter because we were clever like that...heh...hehe...ehhh...

well anyway, let it never be said that I'm a biased reviewer.  Let's analyze Igneous as a game and nothing more, shall we?

The first thing I noticed about Igneous is that it proudly touts the fact that it was built from the ground up using C++.  Wait a minute, doesn't that sound familiar?  Why yes, Deity advertised itself in the same way.  And, if you recall, I flipping loved Deity; it's probably my favorite game on the list so far.  The graphical styles of the two games are similar, too.  Huh...this game has set quite the challenge for itself by making me think of Deity.

The next thing I noticed is that the only two difficulty modes are "normal" and "impossible."  Can't fault them for being direct, I suppose.

Alright, enough beating around the bush.  Let's talk mechanics.

All things considered, this game reminds me more than Nitronic Rush than anything...oh, crap, wait...I'm not supposed to know about that game yet.  Forget what I just said!

So, I started out this game on Impossible difficulty, and man, does it lead up to that name...I had to turn down the difficulty on level 2 (after all, I want to get some sleep tonight and I didn't know how long this game would be).  Upon turning down the difficulty, however, the challenge factor took a disheartening turn for the frustrating.  Every death was a cheap one.  How the hell am I supposed to escape the falling ground when by the time it's started falling, I've already plummeted to my death?

Alright, let's take a step back and get the praise out of the way before I complain some more.  At least until the cheap deaths kicked in, what this game did best was atmosphere.  The intuitive control, the pleasant contrast of the visual style, the hectic music, and the jaw-dropping presentation put me right into that lovely state of flow.  With the exception of Erebus, no game on this list has immersed me more in its universe.

Then, everything changed when the cheap deaths attacked.

And blah blah blah, I'd be talking in circles if I continued.  Igneous is a great game that's sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.  It's certainly a challenge for all those adrenaline-junky gamers out there.  If you want a game that will put your ability to read the environment and make twitch decisions, this is your game.  For utterly mastering that specific style of game, I'll go ahead and give it my seal of approval.  I really considered withholding it because of the cheap deaths, but the game has so much to offer past that.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay molten

Links
Pig knees: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=8713