Chain of Command

I'm running out of ways to introduce blog posts in my old age, so I'm just gonna dive right in.

Chain of Command is another shining example of "good idea, mediocre execution."  Show of hands: who here likes Super Castlevania 4? Everyone?  That's what I thought.  Remember being able to make the whip go limp and flop it around all over the place?  Wasn't that fun?  Didn't you wish that part of the game was more effective?  Well fear not, citizens: Chain of Command makes the flippy-floppy whip controls the center of the game.  The only problem is that the whip is still about as effective as it was in Super Castlevania 4. 

The biggest problem with this game by far is the hit detection.  Other than that (and the sound direction, which I'll get to in a bit), this game is literally perfectly designed.  Alas, the hit detection is so dreadful that the game is almost unenjoyable.  The problem is that the whip has to be going a certain speed in order for it to do any damage to the zombies.  That would be fine if the aforementioned speed wasn't so arbitrary.  When I swing at a zombie, I have no idea whether I'm going to hit them or not.  If the enemies behaved the way they did in Super Castlevania 4 and froze for a moment when hit with the whip, this game would actually be one of, if not my favorite, game on this list so far.

I have to talk about the sound for a bit.  The music is kind of messy, but its an organic kind of "hey, at least they tried" messy.  I can let it slide.  What really grinds my gears is the chain sound effect.  It's so loud!  Any playtester should have picked up on that in the first moments of playing.

well anyway, aside from that this game is amazing.  I love how the whip controls.  You move your mouse to control your characters' arms, which in turn moves the whip around.  It actually makes you feel like you're whipping zombies.  I love the way movement feels, too.  I swear, if the hit detection was better, this would be a contender for the best feeling sidescroller I've ever played.  The game feel is that good.

Actually, now that I think about it, the level design could be better.  I just didn't really notice because I was having too much fun killing zombies.  Plus, there's really not much you can do with the levels given the control scheme.  

This solid game gets my seal of approval, but with a little demerit on it for faulty hit detection.  If you clean up your act, Chain of Command, you have a bright future ahead of you.  As it stands, though, you're just another fun romp through zombieland.

Links

So close yet so far: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1417

Cease Fire 2010 (2021?)

oh, my head...

First off, this game can't even get its own title right.  On the game's webpage, it says "Cease Fire 2021," but when you download it, the file is called "CeaseFire2010."  Let this set the mood of inconsistency and confusion that characterize this game as a whole.

I wasn't being sarcastic earlier.  This game actually gave me a headache (though that may also be from rolling down a hill head-first during a sledding trip earlier today).  I had to play without sound, because the gunfire sound effects overlap upon each other, amplifying them to the point of being agonizing.

The real problem, though, is the gameplay.  Oh God, the gameplay.  You cac pick among a variety of classes, which should make for good team-based combat.  The problem is that each class is unbelievably frustrating to use.  The control is off the walls!  It's hard to explain, but the targeting reticle is always relative to the front of your vehicle, meaning moving the mouse one direction will yield any one of 360 results, depending on where you're facing.  Trying to control something this batty while moving at speeds that are either way too fast or way too slow makes for one frustrating experience.

Honestly, though, I like that this game exists.  It has much more of a right to be here than games like Cat Nap, which, in my opinion, teaches us nothing about game design.  Cease Fire Whenever, on the other hand, is a brilliant example of how to make every single aspect of a team-based shooter frustrating.  Think of it as a sort of how-to-not guide on how not to program a game.  I think a game developer would do well to play this game in order to learn what makes games frustrating.  This knowledge may end up improving the medium as a whole.

Obviously, this game is far from getting my seal of approval.  However, I'm glad I experienced it.  Give it a shot to see how frustrating a game can truly be.

Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=510

Catalyst

Alrighty then, let's get this show on the road.

The first thing I'd like to say about Catalyst is that the description gave me high hopes.  As I've said before, scrolling shooters are my personal favorite genre of video game.  They have a very simple formula that equates to mountains of fun.  It seems the perfect kind of game to be handled by the folks at DigiPen, because its simplicity also leaves a lot of room for creativity.

The main gimmick this time around is that before you start the game, you pick 4 out of 16 weapons to use.  Those weapons correspond to the E,S,D and F keys, depending on the order in which you chose them.  As a gameplay mechanic, this is pure genius in my opinion.
I feel it necessary to mention Starfox 64 again, which, if you'll recall, is my 2nd favorite game of all time.  The main reason I love that game so much is that due to the multiple branching paths you can take to reach your objectives not only within the levels but in the game as a whole, every time you pop that game in, you'll be greeted by a new experience that's familiar enough to avoid that nervous feeling you get when trying out a new IP.
That said, the mechanic that lets you pick 4 weapons going into a level would be the icing on the cake for a game like Starfox 64.  It would add that much more depth to each of the levels, and each playthrough would leave you thinking "what if I'd used that weapon on that level?"  If executed correctly, this mechanic might make a good game amazing.  In Catalyst, it makes a playable game amusing.

The main gripe I have with the game is that it's horribly balanced, and I mean horribly balanced.  Some weapons are literally useless.  The strangest of all turns you into what looks like the skeletal remains of a trout with a gaseous brown field surrounding you.  I haven't found a single way to hurt the enemies with this thing, making it a "pick this and the game laughs at you" kind of weapon.
On the other side of the same coin is what I like to call the "doomsday ship."  This weapon leaves a trail of anti-matter (or something) wherever you fly.  If the trail makes a closed shape (see? 1st grade math terminology pays off), the space that shape occupies becomes a black hole, killing anything caught inside it.  Use this, and it's pretty much impossible to die unless you want to.

Other than that, the graphics are nice, the character design makes me smile, the music does a great job of keeping the player engaged, and there are a good enough variety of weapons that actually do something to keep the game fun.  This is one of those games that I would really like to see expanded upon.  If this mechanic is designed well and implemented into a scrolling shooter with more than one setting and an actual plot, I would be the first one in line to buy it.

Until next time, stay inventive

Links
hopefully a CATALYST for change...heh: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=524

P.S the people who worked on this game didn't give each other titles, which reminds me of the way Valve makes games.  Maybe take a hint, business people, this no-system system works.

Cat Nap

yeah, I could certainly use a cat nap right about now.

badum tish.  Ace in the hole.

Cat nap is a sluggishly paced 2D platformer that plays like it was made in one weekend with a higher-end paint software and a copy of C# for Dummies.

The game feel is nonexistent.  There's very little feedback with the environment, and as a result, the game fails to deliver that sense of flow that characterizes most platformers that aren't based around puzzles.  The framerate is almost uncanny, as it's just slow enough to cause the sensation of lurching, and it is not very easy on the eyes.

Honestly, I'd probably have a lot more to say about Cat Nap if I didn't quit so early.  As soon as I got to the first enemy, I immediately submitted myself to it because I just wanted to die in order to make something interesting happen.  To my dismay, I was teleported to the beginning of the level to complete a platforming segment that took me more than 10 tries.  The level design is sloppy and unimaginative, so I had pretty much seen enough at that point.

The length of these reviews tends to correlate to the magnitude of the impression a given game made on me.  The fact that this review is ending here might be enough of an indication that Cat Nap is probably not worth your time.  This game brings nothing to the table that you couldn't get from playing any other platformer.  

Links

another platformer, but this time with a meow: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24639

Capture the Dude

Oh, ain't this just the most creative of titles?  Before I get too worked up over this small detail, I'm going to use the (admittedly stupid) logic that this game was made in 2001, and thus I will regard it as if I were 6 years old.

HARHAR OMQ GUISE GET IT CUZ ITS CALLED CAPTURE THA DUDE HAHAHA CUZ ITS A DUDE AND YOU CAPTURE HIM HAHA ITS NOT CATPRE THE MAN OR CAPURE THE PRSON ITS CARPTURE THE DUDE HAHA YO MAN DAS SO FUNNY HAHAHA

*cough*  okay, back to reality.

capture the dude is a simple game which I like to describe as "capture the flag meets Double Dragon."  Essentially, you beat the hell out of people wearing different colored shirts than your team; then, once they've been sufficiently pulverized, you can throw them into your team's dumpster for a point.

I like the mechanic fine enough, and I can see this being a really fun multiplayer game.   Screaming at your friend to let you go as he slowly inches nearer to his base seems like it would make a great multiplayer experience.  The graphics are nice (considering when it was made) and the whole thing has a lot of charm to it.

Where Capture the Dude falls down most is in the combat mechanics.  The hit detection is so miserably off, and pretty much all you can do in terms of combat is mash buttons.  Simply put, these flaws make the core aspects of the game unappealing, and thus Capture the Dude doesn't get my seal of approval.  I'm going to end the review here for 2 reasons.
1) I've said all that needs to be said and don't feel like sacrificing concision would add anything
2) I alt+tabbed out of this review 4 hours ago and forgot about it until now.  so oops.

until next time, stay responsible

Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=555

Candela

Hey, y'all!  Before we begin, I just wanna take a moment to contemplate the progress we're making.  6 days into the second month and We're already done with 2 of the letters of the alphabet.  More than that, though, we've gone through the entirety of the first out of 9 pages in the DigiPen Game Gallery.  Thanks for sticking it out this long, and I hope the next 8/9 of our journey is an enjoyable one.

Alright, Let's jump into Candela.

Well the first thing I want to say is that as this blog has been progressing, it seems that the games have been too.  I was encountering games with fewer bugs, flaws, etc.  Most importantly, I can't remember what the last game was that didn't include a save feature...Well, now I can.

I won't spend too much time on this but this is really the worst kind of game to forget such a feature.  It's a puzzle game, and not a very easy one at that.  This game proudly displays a splash screen for DigiPen Singapore, so maybe my feeble American mind is just not suited for a Malaysian challenge, but I got stuck on the third level after the tutorial!  Puzzle games have never been my forte, but I'm at least decent enough at them to say that the challenge level is ramped up way too hard to beat this all in one go.  You could probably do it if you had a few hours free, but a game that demands you devote more than an hour at a time to it is just poorly designed in my opinion.  That's one of the things that makes Starfox: 64 my 2nd favorite game rather than my favorite (I might reveal my favorite some time later in this blog).  While the average playtime of Starfox:64's campaign is only an hour, you can't save in between levels, so if you only have 45 minutes to spare before you have to go to [insert obligatory activity here], you're out of luck.

Back to Candela, though.  I think this game has a lot of potential.  I love how it goes about conveying the mechanics to the player, I love the (somewhat) innovative puzzle mechanics, I like the level design, I like the atmosphere, and I like the aesthetic.  It would be really enjoyable if I could put it down after completing a puzzle.  That's one of the things I liked most about Braid: after straining your mind to surmount a challenge, you can take a break and cool off without having to redo all the puzzles you've solved up to that point.

In short, simple design flaw ruins an otherwise charming little puzzle game.  Until next time, stay shiny

Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25116

Bump

I almost forgot about you guys today!  Let's just say it's another busy week, so don't look forward to any more review binges till at least the start of Winter Break.

Anyways, let's talk Bump.

It's a charming little bumper cars/capture the flag kind of game.  The basic premise is that you have to collect starballs and get them into your goal before the other team (and by that I mean every NPC) gets them in theirs.

The main problem with this game is that it functions in pretty much the opposite way as Buggy X.  Whereas that game gave you too much control over your momentum, this game doesn't give you enough.  The booster doesn't work in midair, meaning if you're sent flying because some numbskull careened into you, there's nothing you can do to get back on the stage.  You just have to wait and watch your demise.  In addition, the movement is just too slippery.  This is extra frustrating when you have to navigate sharp turns.  So many times I would be carefully proceeding on until either I slipped off the side (and had no way to fix my situation) or was bumped into by an enemy and sent flying.

In a word, this is infuriating.

Other than that, though, the aesthetic is charming and the game feel isn't as broken as one might expect from a game with the control issues I mentioned above.

It's still a far way from getting my seal of approval because of it's slippery control, but if you can turn your brain off for a bit and laugh your way through the bugs, you might have a fun time.

Links
Bumper cars with balls that are stars: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1476