Serious Sam: The First Encounter [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.125692]
Enter the Matrix [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.126948#2682893]
Freeware Series:
Black Shades [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.128861]
Avert Fate [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.129514]
N [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.130086]
Enter the Matrix [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.126948#2682893]
Freeware Series:
Black Shades [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.128861]
Avert Fate [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.129514]
N [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.130086]
Warning Forever:
Right, I'm going to review Warning Forever for two reasons. Firstly because I never got into simple shooters so I hoped that this one would be a good initiation to the genre and secondly because the very premise sounded intriguing.
In Brief: A top-down 2D space shooter where you fight against an adaptive boss.
Technical Stuff: Once again, freeware takes refuge in stylisation as the game simply outlines you and the boss green with other neon colours reserved for the weaponry. It looks nice and works fine, as I said in my Avert Fate review, graphical excellence is not the point of freeware games so let's say no more. Sound on the other hand is fair game and it is grating in this one. Most of it is simply weapon-fire, which is not very appealing, but at the start of each stage there's about 30 seconds of siren wails before the boss appears. I suppose it's in keeping with the title but it's irritating as hell, so much so that I played the game mute for most of the time, preferring instead to have iTunes serenade me with Django Reinhart.
In the beginning the Programmer created the boss, and saw it was good.
Story: Is absence without leave; if found please bring in for court martial for deserting his post. In all honesty, I'm inclined to be sympathetic in this case, I just don't see how they could have worked it in, anything they did would come across as half-hearted and out of place considering that you simply fight boss after boss. So we'll be kind enough to forgive this time.
But the Programmer saw the boss lacked badassness and thus created
another boss of greater virtue and saw that it too was good.
another boss of greater virtue and saw that it too was good.
Gameplay:The interesting feature of this game is that it consists only of boss fights, each getting harder. However it's not just getting harder but evolving to your style of fighting in a way that forces you to switch tactics often in the hopes of staying one step ahead of your foe. Between each stage the game analyses how you defeated the previous enemy and prepares appropriately. If you attacked from the front, the armour gets thick r there, if you were blown away by a missile, the next one will have even more launchers, if you died by clipping into it, the enemy will actively seek you out, boosting around the screen and contorting its limbs in an attempt to hit you.This aspect keeps the game unpredictable and varied, which is good, but also has the effect of skyrocketing the difficultly curve. I'm a console 'tard so I opted for the frontal assault, which worked for about four level, until the armour became so thick I was impaled on it when the boss appeared on the screen. The first time I encountered two missile launchers I lost a couple of lives to them before finally finishing the level and you can imagine my dismay when the next enemy popped up with a dozen of the things. A game over screen quickly ensued. Perseverance is the key here, mastering attacks from all different angles so that nothing builds up too quickly. This does have the slight problem that your foe then beefs itself up in just about every area but at least it helps you survive for a while.
However attacking from different directions is difficult in the game for two reason. The first is that the battle field is simply too small, in later levels your enemies occupy about 80% of the screen when they first appear, and with instant death if you clip them it becomes nearly impossible to maneuver or evade. The second problem is the controls are difficult to get the hang of. You can only shoot forward unless you press D to bring up you independently rotating aim. However this is barely under your control, there simply isn't a way to rotate it manually, leaving at its whim to guess where you want to shoot. Despite this, it can be mastered with practice so persistence is, in this case, a virtue.
And lo, the Programmer saw that his second creation did also want for badassness. And thus, casting all subtlety to the winds, he made this. And saw that it was epic.
My final complaint is with the lives system, not in general as they are essential for this genre and a game over in this game is not too damaging, but with the fact that this one doesn't work. That they aren't displayed on the screen is only the first irritation, with the fact that the number you have seems entire arbitrary coming second. Sometimes you can die a lot of times, eked out across many levels, or a few across a smaller number of stages. It may be that they replenish themselves but since it's impossible to tell without a counter it leaves you to guess at how close to failure you are, which reduced the drama for me somewhat. One of the few benefits of the lives system, or indeed any non-regenerating health system, is that feeling of excitement and desperation that you get when down to your last life and yet you still manage to pull the ace out of your sleeve. But without any idea of how many lives you have it becomes significantly less climactical. That's not to say it's repetitive, the variation in foes prevents that, but it doesn't have quite the same peaks of excitement and frustration that similar games have.
Conclusion: Despite flaws, the game is still fun and unique. An unforgiving difficultly curve means that it probably aimed at veterans of the genre but, with patience, even newcomers like myself can enjoy the experience this game has to offer.
Comments: The posters thereof shall have their names remembered in a candle-light vigil as we mourn the tragic loss to society. Please post your thoughts or games you think I should review.
