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RaptorZefier
Multicellular
Joined: 09/23/2008 18:19:59
Messages: 483
Location: If you're reading this, you're a creepy stalker. Leave me alone.
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Omigodimonfire's big bad review beatdown
OK! So, Omigod wanted me to do all of his adventures in his signature. . . I don't know if I'll ever do this again but hey, I figured it's a good way to start. Ok Omigod, here's my review. . .
Stranded : Fair
A locked captain adventure, it was fun but very challenging. Pros of it:
Well, like I said, it's fun and endearing for much of it. The epic battle between the tribe and the Evil Ones is spectacular. Platforming is challenging as is exploring the vast area. It also has a decent story with good dialog between yourself and the chief, and of course the evil one's ramblings when he's loose. Also, all of your creatures are incredibly detailed and well made. I loved just looking at them.
Now, cons. . . The first thing that got me was how horrifically slow the Captain was. His walking speed was tearjerkingly slow. (Though, admittedly, my personal captain is speed 5, so I may just be spoiled.) It made getting from point A to point B long and kind of boring.
Your jump pack is another problem, you need to use it a lot to go anywhere but there's only two energy power ups in the entire level. Both in the same spot on the same island. Unfortunately you burn through your energy just jumping from one island to the next. This means a lot of time sitting on the islands waiting for your energy to recover. More energy power ups would be nice. . . However an alternate solution would be more enemies. I found myself actually enjoying stops on islands with enemies, because at least then I had something to kill while waiting on my energy. (Poison blades don't take up energy.) Unfortunately, this was actually made quite dangerous because of the fire pillars that the planet belches up at you. Meaning you can be standing there waiting for your energy, then, BAM! FIRE! With how slow you move it's impossible to avoid, and because of having to wait on your energy it happens a lot more then it should.
However all of this was redeemed by the epic battle into the base. Those dog things with their charge annoyed me a bit, but I still enjoyed the attack. (I figured out they'd annoy me much more later anyway.) Seeing insect swarms flying everywhere and enemies running for their lives was entertaining to say the least.
When the first sub-boss appears with the two bombs, I made the initial mistake of tossing one of the big bombs at him and waiting. Where I was when the act started, I had no idea grenades were elsewhere and I figured that's what you had to do. I had no idea how huge the blast radius was or how much damage it did, needless to say I killed myself and was very careful not to do it again. Second time, took the guy down, took the tower down. Evil One shows up. . .
Now, I did beat him, but he's still incredibly tough. First I used the second big bomb to chop off a -huge- amount of his health and managed to barely avoid the blast myself. However, I had to run back for the health packs. That's when I remembered how horribly slow I was. Evil one, naturally was faster, and began chasing me down. About half way back to the health packs I realized I wasn't going to make it. . .
. . .Until, and I can't believe this, a flame geyser shot up and killed the boss. . . I won purely, out of dumb luck, literally a once in a life time chance.
SO, It gets a fair rating from me, it's fun, but it has it's moments of drudgery and annoyance.
Stranded 2 (Dracta's Story): Fair / Good
I loved the idea of the polar opposite of the last story. A frozen planet instead of a hot planet. However I wanted to gouge my eyes out when I found out that you changed around the equipment on the captain, but not his speed, which was my gripe with him in the first place.
Anyway, pros. I love bug swarm, it's fun testing it in this mission. Once again the story's great, and the atmosphere is awesome in this one. It's a well thought out mission with a well made opening. I loved visiting the outpost and the timed events that helped along the story. (Like the guy running from the monster, who I was tempted to leave alone a while just to watch him run like a headless chicken.)
Now, critique time. SLOW! GAH! Ok that's out of my system. . . Movement aside, it's fun. I love the new ability set of claws and bug swarm. Made life much easier being able to stun the enemy in question. Also, no jetpack platforming got a big sigh of relief from me.
The beginning part, the escort mission, I have to say it was somewhat annoying. Initially it was fun, but it's hard to target those tiny enemies under the big escorted monsters you have to escort. I found myself accidentally targeting and attacking the guys you're supposed to be escorting because they're so big it's almost impossible to click on the little guys that're tearing into them. This almost cost me the game when I almost killed the lead creature.
Though, once again like I mentioned in the first addition, I love the detail on your creatures. It was spectacular to move with them.
Now. . . Going through the level, I'm still slow, and found myself spamming the sprint ability even if it ate through my energy just to go a smidgen faster. This wasn't because I hated being so slow (Even though I do), it was because of the geysers. Yes, Ice geysers. They are utterly fatal, moving so slow leaves more time for geysers to appear under you, and with no health packs outside to be seen. . . Well. . . You really want to hurry with what you're doing and move along.
Comical scene of guy getting chased, and all of the mini-bosses I had to kill, like the monster chasing the quest giver and the one protecting the key, are made pretty easy by bug swarm. So, all of this was simple if I was still being eaten alive by geysers. I finally made my way to the base, got past that, then had to proceed to the epic battle.
Before I move onto that, the bridges. . . Your low speed meant that you actually had a hard time getting over some of the bumps in the bridges. I had to back up a lot and run at them to get over them sometimes, making an already slow trip slower. . . When I got to the ice lake I actually got off the bridge and walked along side it because it was slowing me down.
Now, big battle. Absolutely, positively, awesome and epic. Made my computer lag some, but that's ok, all I did was sit back and spam bug swarm anyway. Killing the mass of enemies was easy. . . The boss went down without much of a fight all three times. (Though, when his 'backup' appeared in his second incarnation, I'd like to note the glitch where they didn't advance. . . They just stood there and watched me maul their boss to death.)
While this was great, I finally finished it and had to head back. . . And I almost died.
. . .Note I took no damage in the fight. . .
The walk back was so long and finding a way back up the hill delayed me so long the -ice geysers- almost killed me. Going slow, in this case, really was murder. However I barely made it back, and bam, done.
Now, I would have rated this one flat good, if it wasn't for the geysers constantly almost killing me. However I didn't think it was normal fair either, so I just put it on the cusp of both. Let the person playing decide which one they wanna go.
The Maze Good
Oh, my, god, did I have fun with this one. Not only was actually moving at a respectable speed fun but the platforming was a gas.
Pros: Platforming, amazing, speed, amazing, theme, awesome. No story, but then again it's not supposed too. This is pure unbridled fun. And it was only more intensified by not moving the speed of a sloth.
Ok, so, critique. Your big problem were the eggs. Some are explosive and some you collect! Well. . . It's made much easier because the ones you're supposed to collect have a glow. I didn't fall for a single explosive egg because I could tell which ones were real and which ones were explosive by staring at them a few moments.
The maze itself was fun and endearing, platforming across the flying roadways was awesome, and the explosive barrel part was tense as touching the side was trouble obviously.
. . .Then I came to the fight. At first, I couldn't get back into the 'cage' area to fight the birds. . . After a few attempts I blew up the explosive maze and used the jump pad finally to get in. Now, once I was in there. . . I realized I probably shouldn't have. . . You see, this would drive me insane later, but all of the creatures have charge. That generally means if one hits you, they're all going to charge into you, stunning you infinitely, and surrounding you. And when you snap out of it you move about an inch, and get stunned again as everything charges you again.
I essentially got swarmed and blatantly stunned to death. I had a distinct flashback to PvPing a rogue in World of Warcraft, you just get stunned to the point where you can't viably fight back. I'm sure there's tricks around it, but for the life of me I just couldn't get pass that part. Still, it was fun, endearing, and a good adventure.
The Parar-Tasooma Arena part 1 Fair
I had to make these both fair, if for no other reason then they're just too hard. I love a good challenge, but there's a difference between a fun good challenge and a ball buster good challenge.
Now, Pros: This is fun for the first part. Power up system is clever, fights are fun, and generally it's a good ol' fashion beat crap up game. The creatures, as I've said, look wonderful. You have some great ones in here. Also, I wanted to hug you when I found out I could use my own captain as a bonus.
Critique, first glance was the wall of smoke. I couldn't tell where to go. I used my jump pack and leapt on top of the arena because I had to blast out of the smoke to get my bearings. I'm just glad you didn't do that in part two. . .
I finally found my way in, and pretty easily got pass the first two waves. Now, my captain, he's level 10 and built for two things. . . Mobility and power. He's got a level 3 blaster, level 2 power claws, jet pack, stealth, armor, the works. . . Unfortunately he eats through energy like it's nothing. However I didn't figure this would be a problem, energy power ups!
Then, I found out the thing that made me actually want to beat my head against something. They don't respawn. . . I understand this would make it a lot easier, but even so as hard as this battle is. . . I'd love it!
So, third act. . . Actually a pretty comical opening, "Hey! Aren't those the dogs from Strande--" BAM! Hit by charge and swarmed. Thankfully this wasn't as fatal as in Maze, as I had a jetpack and level 5 speed! So, I did something that took me a long time. . . I ran. . . I ran circles around the arena, blasting backwards at the creatures trying to keep from letting any of them charge hit me. Picking them off one by painstaking one. . . This wouldn't be so bad if they didn't have so much health. It made this take -forever-. Now, more accurately, what made it take forever was my energy. I ran out of energy from blasting at them pretty fast, and ran out of energy power ups faster. This means I had to keep running, wait for my energy to recover to where I could fire again, then turn around, fire a shot or two, and then run again. . .
Oho yeah, this took a while. . .
Eventually, I picked away at them enough to make it to the next stage, another mass of guys with charge. . . Thankfully though, they had less HP and went down in two shots rather then. . . However many the dog monsters took in act 3. . . Making it more bareable. . . Eventually I wore down that wave. . .
Theeen I bumped into the epics. . . Ho boy. . . See, now, running did me no good anymore. I couldn't kite them to death, because they're epics, and launch fireballs. Ended up blowing through the last of my health power ups and leaping into them with blades flying like crazy.
Act 4, more epics. . . Ok I just couldn't win and lost pretty fast. That's as far as I got. I'd love dearly to see the end but even for a combat oriented captain it's really tough and energy regen makes you feel like you're chewing on rusty nails. . .
A glitch I noticed is some of the creatures don't engage me. . . They just stand there looking confused, but, I can't blame you for that one that's obviously an AI problem. . .
Anyway, this gets a good for me, it's entertaining and challenging, but at the same time next to impossible.
The Para Tasooma arena part 2Fair
Same pros and cons generally as the last one without the smoke cloud. It's challenging, but well made, detailed, and fun. . . Yet still impossible. . .
Power ups still don't respawn, immediately knew I was screwed. . . I dealt with act 1 in all the finesse and style that I beat act 3 in part 1. . . Which is to say none at all, just run and gun. . . However I eventually did it without blowing through any health power ups.
Now, Act 2. . . The massive swarm of parasites. . . Ones with charge, lots of small ones you can't run and gun from, because it would take -forever- being over 100 of them. . . I blew through all the health power ups, all of them, and eventually beat it through persistence.
Act 3, Epics. . . Yeah. . . I didn't survive. It was short, sweet, fun, chaotic, and that's all there is to say about it.
It got another Fair from me. This really isn't one of those adventures you can gauge by, 'How fast did you complete it!?' but 'How far did you get before you got ripped limb from limb?' More of a survival challenge then a speed challenge.
All in all, still fun.
That wraps up my massive review of your stuff omgimonfire. Hope it helped. =)
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 07/02/2009 05:16:34
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RaptorZefier
Multicellular
Joined: 09/23/2008 18:19:59
Messages: 483
Location: If you're reading this, you're a creepy stalker. Leave me alone.
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AS - Battle on the Bridge: Great
Oh man this one was a blast. Chaotic, but an absolute blast. So lets get this review underway.
Pros: Attention to detail was amazing, everywhere you looked you could see -something-, not to mention the musical score was well chosen. Laser blasts coming from each way, vehicles in the distance, machine gun fire over your head, well thought out and detailed vehicles and buildings. It was a real blast, I loved the humor behind it, (Mouth-off). Also, being a Mechwarrior fan I could only call the 'Alpha Walker' Timber Wolf and Madcat.
Now, moving right along. . .
Critique: The entire environment was lively, as said laser blasts, explosions and all of the above everywhere. Only thing is it might have been a wee bit too cluttered. Sometimes it left me a bit dazed and made me want to turn my camera away from all the flashes. Though, such is war right? So I'm not going to take points off for that one. Now, act one meeting the characters, easy, act two meeting Mouth-off and killing some grunts gave me a chuckle. (Especially when I realized how horribly powerful my escorts were and figured on how to abuse them)
Act 3, I actually let my escorts take care of the loose grunt for dramatic effect to have a one on one with Guzbog. Which he was rather easy if you got in close to avoid his rocket attack. Take out the two towers behind him, easy, nice. Power ups keep you plenty fueled during it all.
Next part was the escort quests. Comically I see a vehicle stuck on a hill nearby and Lieutenant Bear all too happily went bounding off after the vehicle.
SO, I let him do his work before we finally begin the escort mission.
I noticed your comment on people getting stuck at 60% on this mission before I went on it, I noticed it was coming up and kept my eyes peeled, figured I'd see what was the matter. Now, contrary to your theory, no it's not the bombs. . . Once you get pass the enemies and hit Kilgax the Red it hits you like a train, literally.
He ran up and did his melee attack, not only did he kill me, but he killed Miles and Elma all in one swipe. It went by so fast I actually had to stop in the second section to note who the heck did it to me. . . Oh, second try I didn't succeed either, vehicle killed me in some mysterious way. . . (Went from a lot of HP to none, I think it was a glitch because I just -had- to leap on top of it do the dramatic tearing your claws into the cockpit Wolverine style thing.)
Now, third try I got him by abusing my escorts. I fired at him from afar to draw him at me, but hung back so he had to chase after me and Miles didn't aggro. Then I let my escorts do their thing, they just have so much HP and do so much damage it's hard not to let them beat the crap out of something you're having trouble with.
Moving along, dealt with the explosives, easy. Moved into the base. . . Lash, I knew he was trouble. . . Didn't want to take risks, I let my escorts do the work again, focused on his guards, then wore him down into defeat. Took the teleporter up to Scarstrike and ran into quite possibly the most fatal flaw in this adventure.
Scarstrike's glitched.
He doesn't attack, or fight back. This is a known glitch I ran into in my adventures, if they're on artificial flooring (By artificial I mean buildings) they simply don't attack at all. I'd imagine he'd be tough though with so much HP and such a nasty weapon layout. I'd probably have to duck below and grab the health and energy power ups. (Especially since I ran out of energy fighting him when he -wasn't- fighting back.) So, I pretty much ducked back and fourth anyway to make it more interesting and laughed when Miles randomly teleported up and leapt off the side again.
Ok, finished that. The Oil Derricks were easy, Miles was real low on health by this point, so I simply picked them off with my blasters from afar and finished the mission. Game, win, awesome.
This one earned a Great rating from me, attention to detail was great, it never leaves a dull moment, and the cast is unique and flavorful. All in all, a sound and good adventure.
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This is my Biodrone turret. Part of my Biodrone series.
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