Score: 7
"Lots of potential, but some things ruin it."
date: January 23, 2008
I remember testing this game a long time ago, well I've finally found out it's been submitted like half a year ago.. Tthis game has alot of potential, and with the variety of the blocks it makes for endless possibilities in level design. The puzzles can be pretty hard, and take alot of thinking. Sometimes even thinking outside the box, literally and figuratively.
There are just a few things that keep me, and I think alot of people with me, from fully enjoying the game.
1. The music is really boring. I mean, everyone has a different taste in music, but I think alot of people will agree that it was boring. I ended up listening to my own music after the first few levels, but that just drew my attention from the game.
2. The isometric view of the levels makes it sometimes hard to push blocks correctly. The isometric view forces you to press three keys at the same time (two arrow keys, and the D key) to push a block. Sometimes the little knight won't respond fast enough to the arrow keys, and push in the wrong direction. Often, this will completely ruin the level and you have to start over. I don't see how this could possible be "fixed", as it's just an unfortunate side-effect, but it does suck when it happens.
3. The graphics look very good, but really boring. The whole scenery and look of it all just doesn't entertain me. Of course, it's a puzzle game, and it doesn't have to look good, but it could at least be a bit more... upbeat.
4. Sometimes it takes a while just to push the blocks, and the knight seems to walk really slow when going vertically or horizontally (even when running). What's more, the game lags ALOT in bigger levels (especially ones with fire blocks), which is surprising for such seemingly simple graphics. When you blow up blocks, or push your fifth block into a firelake, the explosion animations take way too long. That wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for the fact you actually have to wait until the explosion ends before you can walk on the tile. That just adds to the frustration of playing a slow-paced game. It's like; 'yay, I've figured out how to beat this level! Oh.. but now I actually have to push blocks and wait around alot before I can get to the next level'. Anyway, since this game really is all about figuring out the puzzles, it would be nice if the actual process of pushing blocks would take less time.
5: Sometimes there are very complex puzzles where you push a block into a firelake and do something else, then get back to the firelake, etc, and it's easy to forget how many blocks are in the firelake. It would be handy if the firelake would display a little number that tells you how many blocks it still needs (preferably the number only shows up when you press shift). Mostly it doesn't matter, but in some cases it can be really annoying to forget how many blocks you still have push into the firelake.
6: The learning curve is all over the place. The tutorial is easy in most cases, but then there's a few levels here and there that are harder. I get that, but it would probably be better if the tutorial wasn't a seperate set of levels, but rather that it would be mixed with the first set of actual challenge levels so you could learn the game as you go, instead of spending alot of time learning it, and then finally actually playing the game. Then you could just have it so that when you finish the first set of levels, the editor, second set of levels and first set of fanmade levels open up. The first set of fanmade's should only contain blocks used in the first normal set. Then the second normal set has a few more new blocks to learn and opens up the third set, second fanmade set and new blocks for the level editor.
7: This is the kind of game that you need to play in sessions, because it gets boring fast if you play it in one go. Considering this, it really bugged me that when I close the game to play again another day, it didn't save my progress :(
So all in all, alot of potential, but please consider these suggestions for Blockslide 3 if you ever make it.