Hey guys. For a multitude of reasons. I didn't really give Ecliptic the time it deserved. See, it's an RTS game, and as I've said before, I'm not a fan of RTS games. That combined with an unusually overbearing workload today and a general bad mood on top of a lot of factors lead me to quit the game after my first defeat, which came totally unexpectedly in the middle of the game where I thought I was doing everything right. Continuing would have caused frustration that I really don't need right now.
The problem I have with most RTS games is that they give me this worthless feeling like I should be helping the characters on screen rather than just ordering them to their deaths. A majority of the time, be it because of lack of virtual currency or resources or just waiting for x thing to recharge for y seconds, all I can do is sit back hopelessly and watch as my forces, my men, my only chances for success...are destroyed. Maybe this is a clever allegory for real life, but I play video games to escape from the monotony of the real world, not to revel in it.
See, this is why I liked Base Invaders so much. It let the player intervene without having to wait. It cleverly avoided generating that hopeless feeling through its game mechanics. Ecliptic, if anything, only accentuates the feeling more than other games by making no visible attempt to cover up the fact that all you can do is order men to stand in the line of fire.
Moving away from the tonal aspect of it, the game isn't that great from a design standpoint. The controls, while I appreciate their lack of need to explain themselves with some kind of map, don't give you the feeling that they're so inherently supposed to. What was the name of that feeling again? Um...oh yeah, CONTROL. Maybe if I had toyed around with it for longer I might have found some way to use the controls better, but I'm going to go ahead and fall back on the old "if the game doesn't intrigue me from the beginning, I'm not obliged to wait until it gets interesting" argument.
Aesthetically, it's okay...passable. I mean it's not ugly by any stretch of the imagination, but it advertises itself as having "cutting edge graphics technology." This isn't a very easy claim to substantiate when I can count the number of polygons on each character.
It's pretty clear that I was in a bad mood when writing this, so maybe Ecliptic isn't as bad as I think it is. All-in-all, though, I wouldn't recommend it even to RTS fans. If you are an RTS fan, chances are you've already purchased a Total War or Starcraft game and therefore have experienced far better than anything this game can muster up. There's nothing special about it. It's just another RTS.
That's all for now. Until next time, stay strategic.
Links
Total Wat, more like:https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25910
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
Echolight
I'll admit, I got a little worried about this game from the very moment I saw the two words "Singapore" and "Puzzle." Perhaps it's my deleterious American brain that renders me incapable of solving the simplest of puzzles, but the fact remains that I haven't had too much luck with DigiPen Singapore in the past.
Actually, beyond the whole "too hard to complete under my time constraint thing" I would say my experience with Echolight was...above average, to say the least. I may not be a very good puzzle critic, but from a game design standpoint, this game is very hit-or-miss, which is my favorite kind of game to nitpick.
Let's start with the flaws so we can end on a happy note. First off, the students who made Echolight seem to have skipped a few classes on proper tutorial design. Here's my theory on the subject: creating a tutorial is kind of like raising a child (in this case, the child is the player). It's true that you need some kind of structure to keep your kid within the realm of social acceptability. For example, you can't just let the kid do whatever he or she wants because he or she will soon realize that punching another kid in the face is an excellent way to obtain the lollipop he or she was previously holding. They need to know what's right and what's wrong in order to succeed. By the same token, you can't hold your child's hand too tightly, or they'll learn to hate the very idea of a structured society and devote the rest of their lives to bringing down the fabric of human civilization...erhm...or...in the case of video games, they'll just be really annoyed with the tutorial. Echolight takes the helicopter-parent approach and doesn't give you full range of the game's controls until it's showed you everything you need.
Everything else is really just a nitpick. The sound effect "you win" screen after each level doesn't really fit with the game's atmosphere, which hurts the flow a little bit, but there's nothing really in terms of core game design to complain about. That said, let's move on to the good stuff.
The level design is simple but good. It's a puzzle game, and every puzzle has a solution. More than that, though, the game has an open feel that not many puzzle games can pull off. It seems like every puzzle has more than one right answer, even if that's not the case. I didn't toy around with it enough to find out. I do know that the game trusts you to develop your own strategies, which is a big plus in my book. I nicknamed mine the "bulldozer" strategy because I eventually resorted to mashing the arrow keys in the direction I want to go so that the arrows I previously placed don't get in my way. I do this until I figure out what arrows need to be put where. The difficulty curve isn't insane and it rewards the player enough before hitting him or her with the really tricky stuff. The thing I like most about the game is the very concept. I've never seen anything much like it, and it's a bit too complex to explain here. The visual style is also pleasing to the eye. There's a definite kind of appeal that you get from gradually lighting up the world around you in a manner as festive as in Echolight.
All-in-all, I had fun with Echolight. If it weren't for the crappy tutorial, it would have easily gotten my seal of approval. If you don't have the patience to learn a new concept for a game, skip it. If you do, I think you'll find Echolight to be charming, innovative and fun. Until next time, stay shiny (I get to use that one a lot...I might just make it my sign-off).
Links
Rollin around at the speed of sound: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25438
Actually, beyond the whole "too hard to complete under my time constraint thing" I would say my experience with Echolight was...above average, to say the least. I may not be a very good puzzle critic, but from a game design standpoint, this game is very hit-or-miss, which is my favorite kind of game to nitpick.
Let's start with the flaws so we can end on a happy note. First off, the students who made Echolight seem to have skipped a few classes on proper tutorial design. Here's my theory on the subject: creating a tutorial is kind of like raising a child (in this case, the child is the player). It's true that you need some kind of structure to keep your kid within the realm of social acceptability. For example, you can't just let the kid do whatever he or she wants because he or she will soon realize that punching another kid in the face is an excellent way to obtain the lollipop he or she was previously holding. They need to know what's right and what's wrong in order to succeed. By the same token, you can't hold your child's hand too tightly, or they'll learn to hate the very idea of a structured society and devote the rest of their lives to bringing down the fabric of human civilization...erhm...or...in the case of video games, they'll just be really annoyed with the tutorial. Echolight takes the helicopter-parent approach and doesn't give you full range of the game's controls until it's showed you everything you need.
Everything else is really just a nitpick. The sound effect "you win" screen after each level doesn't really fit with the game's atmosphere, which hurts the flow a little bit, but there's nothing really in terms of core game design to complain about. That said, let's move on to the good stuff.
The level design is simple but good. It's a puzzle game, and every puzzle has a solution. More than that, though, the game has an open feel that not many puzzle games can pull off. It seems like every puzzle has more than one right answer, even if that's not the case. I didn't toy around with it enough to find out. I do know that the game trusts you to develop your own strategies, which is a big plus in my book. I nicknamed mine the "bulldozer" strategy because I eventually resorted to mashing the arrow keys in the direction I want to go so that the arrows I previously placed don't get in my way. I do this until I figure out what arrows need to be put where. The difficulty curve isn't insane and it rewards the player enough before hitting him or her with the really tricky stuff. The thing I like most about the game is the very concept. I've never seen anything much like it, and it's a bit too complex to explain here. The visual style is also pleasing to the eye. There's a definite kind of appeal that you get from gradually lighting up the world around you in a manner as festive as in Echolight.
All-in-all, I had fun with Echolight. If it weren't for the crappy tutorial, it would have easily gotten my seal of approval. If you don't have the patience to learn a new concept for a game, skip it. If you do, I think you'll find Echolight to be charming, innovative and fun. Until next time, stay shiny (I get to use that one a lot...I might just make it my sign-off).
Links
Rollin around at the speed of sound: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25438
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Echo
Oh how I love the feeling I get when the blog reaches another letter. Oddly enough, getting to "E" isn't the only milestone in my little project this time around. Echo is the first FPS game on my list. Make no mistake, though, Echo is not a typical FPS game. No, typically, FPS games are fun...
Ok, so there are a few things that I like about Echo. If you press "esc" it takes you to a kind of interactive options menu where you interact with nodes by shooting them. I wish more games would implement that. There's not even any deep reasoning for it. I just think it's cool.
Also, I like the way everything is conveyed. You experience things by doing them and it's not confusing. The game never feels the need to say "hey, listen. Jump on that plant." It trusts that the player will look at the plant opening with the little circley thingies coming out of it and infer that he or she is supposed to jump on it.
Too bad that's pretty much the extent of the stuff I liked about Echo. The rest of it annoyed me.
First off, I'd like to speak directly to all who hope to go into a career in sound mixing. Please don't make the sound effects so obnoxiously loud. They should be about as loud as the music. When you kill things in this game, they release a hissing sound that hurts my ears.
Also, the sight of shooting projectiles is so jumpy that it hurts my eyes. This isn't helped by the neon visual style. So far, my only senses left unscathed are touch, taste and smell. At least the control setup is comfortable (and I would find it very impressive for the game to harm my senses of smell or taste).
I also hate how the game wrestles control from you every 2 seconds. Again, I think it's good that the game trusts me to make inferences, but come on. Yanking the camera from me to show me some unexplained phenomenon that makes no sense to me and that I end up skipping anyway is just not polite, and this game does it every thirty seconds!
Ehh, I'm getting tired. One more rage point before I sign out for the day: I have no idea what I need to do to beat this game. As far as I can tell, the enemies spawn infinitely and there are no targets other than the enemies. It seems like the only ending to this game is a big fat "Lose" screen. That's not a bad thing, and in fact that kind of structure has vastly improved games like Missile Command (I learned that from watching Extra Credits. Have I mentioned I like those guys?). Thing is, Missile Command scores you. It gives you some kind of sense of accomplishment. Echo does not, and honestly, the rest of the game is way too vague for it to fall back on the "artistic statement" argument.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay bright.
Links
pew pew screeeeaaaaaaiiiiiieeeeieieeieiiiieeeeegh: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18585
a much more entertaining thing that I alluded to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQJA5YjvHDU
Ok, so there are a few things that I like about Echo. If you press "esc" it takes you to a kind of interactive options menu where you interact with nodes by shooting them. I wish more games would implement that. There's not even any deep reasoning for it. I just think it's cool.
Also, I like the way everything is conveyed. You experience things by doing them and it's not confusing. The game never feels the need to say "hey, listen. Jump on that plant." It trusts that the player will look at the plant opening with the little circley thingies coming out of it and infer that he or she is supposed to jump on it.
Too bad that's pretty much the extent of the stuff I liked about Echo. The rest of it annoyed me.
First off, I'd like to speak directly to all who hope to go into a career in sound mixing. Please don't make the sound effects so obnoxiously loud. They should be about as loud as the music. When you kill things in this game, they release a hissing sound that hurts my ears.
Also, the sight of shooting projectiles is so jumpy that it hurts my eyes. This isn't helped by the neon visual style. So far, my only senses left unscathed are touch, taste and smell. At least the control setup is comfortable (and I would find it very impressive for the game to harm my senses of smell or taste).
I also hate how the game wrestles control from you every 2 seconds. Again, I think it's good that the game trusts me to make inferences, but come on. Yanking the camera from me to show me some unexplained phenomenon that makes no sense to me and that I end up skipping anyway is just not polite, and this game does it every thirty seconds!
Ehh, I'm getting tired. One more rage point before I sign out for the day: I have no idea what I need to do to beat this game. As far as I can tell, the enemies spawn infinitely and there are no targets other than the enemies. It seems like the only ending to this game is a big fat "Lose" screen. That's not a bad thing, and in fact that kind of structure has vastly improved games like Missile Command (I learned that from watching Extra Credits. Have I mentioned I like those guys?). Thing is, Missile Command scores you. It gives you some kind of sense of accomplishment. Echo does not, and honestly, the rest of the game is way too vague for it to fall back on the "artistic statement" argument.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay bright.
Links
pew pew screeeeaaaaaaiiiiiieeeeieieeieiiiieeeeegh: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=18585
a much more entertaining thing that I alluded to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQJA5YjvHDU
Duality
Duality is a first person 3D platforming puzzle game that focuses on solving puzzles by taking advantage of seamless dimensional rifts." You mean...portals? Oh dear, it's going to be one of those reviews, isn't it? I thought I had my obligatory "this game is trying to be Portal review with Crystaline. Well who knows, maybe this game will turn out to be original after all.
...nope.
Oh okay, fine, it's not exactly like Portal. It also features dual-world gameplay (hence the title) so yeah nothing really too original to be seen here. Oh well, just because the game's not terribly interesting doesn't mean it's not fun, right?
Well it's not boring, so that's good. The levels are largely linear, leaving little room for the player to get lost. The mechanics are functional and intuitive, the 3D world is really pretty and the music is enjoyable, especially when it fades from Dark World to Light World. That said, why am I not particularly enthusiastic about this game? It would be because there's simply not enough ingenuity or fun to be had to justify the little quirks about this game. The little things nipping at my heels would be perfectly acceptable if there was some sort of larger payoff, like if they were scraping the dead skin off my heels and making me look young again. But as it stands, they're just pesky little annoyances that I'd rather kick into the next dimension.
For one thing, the bridges that you have to make for yourself are conveyed very poorly. They're made out of glowing orbs that all form together to make one circular disk. The problem is that it's impossible to tell at first glance where one disk begins and the other ends, leading to several moments like this:
This one in particular tricked me into falling into the lake below, which instantly teleported me to the beginning where I had to undo all my progress just to redo it again in. Yeah, it's one of those games...
Another thing that grinds my gears is that in the third and final level, these moving portals are introduced. They are never referred to again and they're completely obnoxious. They don't add any level of challenge or depth, they just make you play the game at the game's pace, which is really annoying. Remember Super Mario 64? That game knew how to implement moving platforms. The player had to calculate the right moment to jump in order to progress. It was challenging and fun. The moving portals in Duality are neither of those.
And why is it that in the first 2 levels, the Light World's water turns into the Dark World's lava, but in the third level it's always water? This whole game just feels a bit unfinished. Not the broken kind of unfinished like Sonic '06, but the annoying "beta-build" feel that makes it seem like you're playtesting rather than playing.
Duality isn't terrible. It had potential to be cool, albeit not very original, but it blew it with clumsy design. The game as a whole isn't really that challenging. All the puzzles are very simple, even the last one. I was able to blow through all of them without even thinking, and I'm not usually very good at puzzle games.
Cool concept, sub-par game. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay bipolar.
Links
more like Poo-ality...heh: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=11752
Saturday, March 9, 2013
DROP
Boy oh boy I'm tired. It's a good thing DROP isn't a very complex game, because my mind is in no shape to delve into the intricacies of the video gaming medium right now. Luckily, all I have to do is review a game about falling down a pit and avoiding stuff.
That's it. That's all there is to it. Simplicity is bliss, as they say, and if that's the case, this is the most blissful experience you're gonna get.
to be fair, you're also given a few shields that you can activate with LMB, which do enhance the gameplay experience. It's all about making split-second decisions, this game: "Do I use up a shield to keep my streak going or do I save the shield and try and move the mouse precisely enough to avoid this onslaught of obstacles?"
That quote is pretty much the entire review of the game in a nutshell. Essentially, I think what the creators of this game tried to do was to pack as much content as they possibly could into the smallest possible package, hence the achievements, streak bonuses, shields, variety of obstacles, etc.
It's a fun game, but there's not much to it. Yep, it's one of those games. It wasn't quite fun enough to get my seal of approval, but it's an amusing, low-intensity game that you can keep in your start menu to play while your YouTube video buffers.
Links
CANNONBALLLLLL: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24357
That's it. That's all there is to it. Simplicity is bliss, as they say, and if that's the case, this is the most blissful experience you're gonna get.
to be fair, you're also given a few shields that you can activate with LMB, which do enhance the gameplay experience. It's all about making split-second decisions, this game: "Do I use up a shield to keep my streak going or do I save the shield and try and move the mouse precisely enough to avoid this onslaught of obstacles?"
That quote is pretty much the entire review of the game in a nutshell. Essentially, I think what the creators of this game tried to do was to pack as much content as they possibly could into the smallest possible package, hence the achievements, streak bonuses, shields, variety of obstacles, etc.
It's a fun game, but there's not much to it. Yep, it's one of those games. It wasn't quite fun enough to get my seal of approval, but it's an amusing, low-intensity game that you can keep in your start menu to play while your YouTube video buffers.
Links
CANNONBALLLLLL: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24357
Friday, March 8, 2013
Dreamside Maroon
Oh lookie, another IGF game.
Hot damn this game was good. You may remember two days ago, when my partner in crime reviewed a game that advertised itself as a "poetic experience." If any game is deserving of that title, it's Dreamside Maroon (although it never advertises itself as such. Go figure).
I actually have a lot to say about this game, much of which I'm not going to be able to. For now, know this: I didn't play 100% of this game. Not even close. I played just enough to sample the mechanics and write a review.
The main premise of this game is that you are trying to travel to the moon by growing a vine toward it. While in reality this idea is about as ingenious as a cheese grater made of soap, things go surprisingly well for Aster, the game's protagonist.
Now, the word of the day is "exploration," and I have to say, I'm so glad I have this game to hold up as an example of the right way to go about exploration, the antithesis of Skyrim's succession of pre-paved paths under the false pretense of "exploration game." You are given all you need to have the best possible exploration experience: a primary objective (reach the moon), incentive to get off the beaten path (the poetry lamps that I'll explain later), and genuinely interesting environments to explore (every floating island, especially the shifting ones). Granted, the game lacks a bit in the third category, but I'll get to that in a bit.
First, let me talk about these poetry lamps. Along the way, you can light up lamps that do two things: give you fireflies and give you lines of verse. These lines of verse are combined into a poem that you can access at any time throughout the game. This appeals to two of the gaming aficionado's most prominent senses (at least in my opinion): achievement within the confines of game mechanics and exploration of the game's subtext. The fireflies appeal to the sense of achievement, because you need fireflies in order to save yourself if you fall into the depths of space. The poetry allows for a deeper examination of the game's themes and ideas as a whole, which makes people like me go nuts. I'm going to shove this game into the face of everyone I know so that I can have conversations about such things.
EDIT: I replayed the game, and it turns out the fireflies are completely unnecessary. They're just trinkets to be found. Thus, consider the last paragraph as a reflection on what I would have liked to write about the game if it had implemented design choices more to my liking.
Let me talk a bit about the technical side of things before going into what I didn't like about the game.
The controls are nice and fluid and do exactly what you'd expect them to (once you go into the settings and set "inverse y on camera" from "off" to "on"). The only mechanical issue I had a problem with was the fact that if you press "S" to dismount your vine, walking on it is very difficult and unruly, which is likely to send you flying into the depths of space. Granted, you can't die in this game, so it's not a huge problem.
That being said, there's no consequence for dying. I find this to be a mark of flawed design in general, but what really gets me is that it takes any sense of danger or challenge out of the game. The feeling of danger...the emotion that you could fail at any time...these are the kinds of moods that made Life of Pi such an amazing movie. If you knew for a fact that the kid and the tiger would stumble upon an island village of zoophiles and that Pi and Richard Parker would start a family and live happily ever after, the movie would be reduced to nothing but a visual rollercoaster (by the way, nothing of the sort happens in Life of Pi. Don't worry, I'd put 'spoiler alert' in front of a paragraph with legitimate spoilers).
Other than that, the worst thing I can say about this game is that it severely needs a skip feature. This is the kind of game that would encourage you to replay it multiple times because every play experience is different. You'll likely get a completely different poem every time, etc. Let me get right into the good stuff! Don't make me watch the same artsy slideshow that I've watched every time I boot up the damn game. And for cryin out loud, let me skip the credits! Or at least put my stats before the credits so that I can make a mental note of them before alt+f4ing past the credits myself. It's not that I'm not interested in who made the game, it's just that I already knew that by reading DigiPen's webpage, and I certainly don't need to see it more than once.
Despite this game's flaws (which were plentiful and pronounced), I had a lot of fun with it. I really thing this game is artistic rather than artsy, which is an important difference. Dreamside Maroon proudly joins my list of artistic masterpieces, right alongside Braid and Bastion. Sure Dreamside Maroon might be the little nerdy pipsqueak that the other artistic games pick on, but he's still in the club and real proud of it. It's miles above pretentious, artsy games like Douse in my opinion.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay poetic. I leave you with one particular line from Dreamside Maroon that stuck with me: "But as long as I am young and the world is not as it should be, I am forced to define it. An Idea. To share it with the world."
Links
Fly me to the moon: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=8715
Hot damn this game was good. You may remember two days ago, when my partner in crime reviewed a game that advertised itself as a "poetic experience." If any game is deserving of that title, it's Dreamside Maroon (although it never advertises itself as such. Go figure).
I actually have a lot to say about this game, much of which I'm not going to be able to. For now, know this: I didn't play 100% of this game. Not even close. I played just enough to sample the mechanics and write a review.
The main premise of this game is that you are trying to travel to the moon by growing a vine toward it. While in reality this idea is about as ingenious as a cheese grater made of soap, things go surprisingly well for Aster, the game's protagonist.
Now, the word of the day is "exploration," and I have to say, I'm so glad I have this game to hold up as an example of the right way to go about exploration, the antithesis of Skyrim's succession of pre-paved paths under the false pretense of "exploration game." You are given all you need to have the best possible exploration experience: a primary objective (reach the moon), incentive to get off the beaten path (the poetry lamps that I'll explain later), and genuinely interesting environments to explore (every floating island, especially the shifting ones). Granted, the game lacks a bit in the third category, but I'll get to that in a bit.
First, let me talk about these poetry lamps. Along the way, you can light up lamps that do two things: give you fireflies and give you lines of verse. These lines of verse are combined into a poem that you can access at any time throughout the game. This appeals to two of the gaming aficionado's most prominent senses (at least in my opinion): achievement within the confines of game mechanics and exploration of the game's subtext. The fireflies appeal to the sense of achievement, because you need fireflies in order to save yourself if you fall into the depths of space. The poetry allows for a deeper examination of the game's themes and ideas as a whole, which makes people like me go nuts. I'm going to shove this game into the face of everyone I know so that I can have conversations about such things.
EDIT: I replayed the game, and it turns out the fireflies are completely unnecessary. They're just trinkets to be found. Thus, consider the last paragraph as a reflection on what I would have liked to write about the game if it had implemented design choices more to my liking.
Let me talk a bit about the technical side of things before going into what I didn't like about the game.
The controls are nice and fluid and do exactly what you'd expect them to (once you go into the settings and set "inverse y on camera" from "off" to "on"). The only mechanical issue I had a problem with was the fact that if you press "S" to dismount your vine, walking on it is very difficult and unruly, which is likely to send you flying into the depths of space. Granted, you can't die in this game, so it's not a huge problem.
That being said, there's no consequence for dying. I find this to be a mark of flawed design in general, but what really gets me is that it takes any sense of danger or challenge out of the game. The feeling of danger...the emotion that you could fail at any time...these are the kinds of moods that made Life of Pi such an amazing movie. If you knew for a fact that the kid and the tiger would stumble upon an island village of zoophiles and that Pi and Richard Parker would start a family and live happily ever after, the movie would be reduced to nothing but a visual rollercoaster (by the way, nothing of the sort happens in Life of Pi. Don't worry, I'd put 'spoiler alert' in front of a paragraph with legitimate spoilers).
Other than that, the worst thing I can say about this game is that it severely needs a skip feature. This is the kind of game that would encourage you to replay it multiple times because every play experience is different. You'll likely get a completely different poem every time, etc. Let me get right into the good stuff! Don't make me watch the same artsy slideshow that I've watched every time I boot up the damn game. And for cryin out loud, let me skip the credits! Or at least put my stats before the credits so that I can make a mental note of them before alt+f4ing past the credits myself. It's not that I'm not interested in who made the game, it's just that I already knew that by reading DigiPen's webpage, and I certainly don't need to see it more than once.
Despite this game's flaws (which were plentiful and pronounced), I had a lot of fun with it. I really thing this game is artistic rather than artsy, which is an important difference. Dreamside Maroon proudly joins my list of artistic masterpieces, right alongside Braid and Bastion. Sure Dreamside Maroon might be the little nerdy pipsqueak that the other artistic games pick on, but he's still in the club and real proud of it. It's miles above pretentious, artsy games like Douse in my opinion.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay poetic. I leave you with one particular line from Dreamside Maroon that stuck with me: "But as long as I am young and the world is not as it should be, I am forced to define it. An Idea. To share it with the world."
Links
Fly me to the moon: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=8715
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Drake Savage Space Ninja
Remakes have a special place in video game history. Whether they're direct reboots, sequels with identical mechanics to their predecessors, or completely new IP paying homage to their more notable ancestors, remakes are rampant in all sectors of the video game medium.
Drake Savage falls into the third category, obviously, and I'm glad to say it's everything a remake should be. It uses the exact same controls as does Asteroids with one simple addition: instead of just fending for your life in space until you inevitably die, Drake Savage has set objectives for you to destroy (kind of like Sinistar, but without the terrifying monster or story appeal). As you whittle down their defenses with your special weapon (another innovation), they release more enemies to chip away at your health bar.
The only real con about this game is that there's really no narrative to be found, which I recognize isn't really a flaw, but I can't help but think it makes the game smell a bit of missed potential. After all, the game has already demonstrated its skill of conveyance by getting me to master the controls without so much as an on-screen button tutorial.
I am a huge fan of this game. Maybe it doesn't have a story and maybe it borrows most of its good aspects from an already popular game or two, but Drake Savage fulfills my two main criteria for a truly good game: It's fun to play and it provides a lesson for future game designers. This is a textbook "what-to-do" guide on making remakes. Anyone out there who feels like it's their duty to bring Space Invaders to the next dimension should play this game first. That way, the tragedy of Space Raiders will never have to happen again...*shivers*
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24671
PS- okay, I confess, I never actually played Space Raiders, but come on...
Drake Savage falls into the third category, obviously, and I'm glad to say it's everything a remake should be. It uses the exact same controls as does Asteroids with one simple addition: instead of just fending for your life in space until you inevitably die, Drake Savage has set objectives for you to destroy (kind of like Sinistar, but without the terrifying monster or story appeal). As you whittle down their defenses with your special weapon (another innovation), they release more enemies to chip away at your health bar.
The only real con about this game is that there's really no narrative to be found, which I recognize isn't really a flaw, but I can't help but think it makes the game smell a bit of missed potential. After all, the game has already demonstrated its skill of conveyance by getting me to master the controls without so much as an on-screen button tutorial.
I am a huge fan of this game. Maybe it doesn't have a story and maybe it borrows most of its good aspects from an already popular game or two, but Drake Savage fulfills my two main criteria for a truly good game: It's fun to play and it provides a lesson for future game designers. This is a textbook "what-to-do" guide on making remakes. Anyone out there who feels like it's their duty to bring Space Invaders to the next dimension should play this game first. That way, the tragedy of Space Raiders will never have to happen again...*shivers*
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24671
PS- okay, I confess, I never actually played Space Raiders, but come on...
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