Score: 7

"Could have been more effective..."

by: IndigoFenix

date: August 2, 2009

Although an OK game, this one suffers the same fate of most 'edutainment' titles that have appeared over the years: the fact that the game has nothing to do with the educational aspect, but is rather a basic shooter with quiz questions in between the levels. If you want to make a game to teach something, the learning should be an aspect of the gameplay. That way, people will actually remember things as they get better at the game.
For example, if you want to make a game to teach people about rocks, you could make a physics-based game where you find different rocks in the places that they could be found in real life (different depths underground, volcanoes, etc.) and where the physical properties of such rocks (hardness, density, etc) could have some impact on the gameplay itself. Like, you have to use harder rocks to break certain obstacles or denser rocks to weigh down pulley systems. Just a few ideas I'm throwing out there.
As for the game itself, it's decent. But nobody who isn't already interested in geology will remember anything they learn from this game...

Score: 4

"not quite good"

by: jlonderee

date: July 30, 2009

Everything was ok except for the actual gameplay. Ship moves too slow. Reminds me of a certain NES game, can't remember the name.

Score: 8

"wait, what?"

by: greendragonkiller

date: July 29, 2009

if im from a planet where we only use technology for peaceful purposes, why am i in a ship with guns on it?

Score: 6

"Another unfairly rejected educational game..."

by: Malkontent

date: November 5, 2008

Earth Rock Hunter is not the first attempt to develop an educational game. It is the best attempt that I've seen yet but falls short of the lofty expectation that an educational game can conquer the knee-jerk reactions of gamers, who are traditionally of a demographic that spends most of their time innundated with well meaning attempts to educate them whether they think they need it or not. "I've had quite enough education for the last five hours, I'm here to blow things up thank you very much." Overcomming this requires a delicate balance between the game and the subject matter, a balancing act that goes deeper than the traditional devide between story and gameplay. Even Graphical choices in the UI menu can irreparably alter the way the user experiences the educational component of the game.

First, the actual game play. This is one of countless shooters I've played that felt a little stiff. The keyboard controls responded well enough, but even the fastest ship seemed a little sluggish. I usually like Cursor based controls, and it was nice to see an option between the two, but I reccomend against playing ERH with the mouse. The ship doesn't keep pace with the cursor very well, and getting it to move where you want it to move can get frustrating at times. Also, the desktop cursor is not deactivated, so while the player can't see the little windows arrow, its there, and a player occasionally click off the screen by accident. The game is a fairly typical space shooter, which isn't nessesarily a bad thing, and the game overall is fairly well done, but the goal here is to make the game feel more like an educational element being infused into a game than a game being used to promote an educational device. With a lack of animation, unremarkable sound, and a rather flat graphical treatment, this game comes off as a geology lesson first, and a shooter second.

The educational element was handled reasonably well, though the rather bland UI both at the beginning of the game (No flashy title branding?) and in each of the inter-level UI screens tended to send the message of "Okay, fun's over, now for a scantron test." The questions were well thought out, not overly difficult (a plus since the goal is to inform, not to "test" the user), and there were enough programed into the game to limit repetitiveness, though the random script has a tendency to go sideways occasionally (I answered the same question about Red Sandstone in every level in one session). An addition to the question script I'd reccomend is a log of all the questions answered (regardless of right or wrong) and removing those questions from the list to be given in the future.

A few features to consider adding that would add dementions to the game play model. First, a few more in-game power-ups, and the use of a claw feature (ie: Galactix) to retrieve power-ups and rocks rather than the collision-based method. This would make it possible to snag those frustrating last rocks that come on-screen just as the game tears control of the ship away from me at the end of the level... speaking of which, the game really should'nt tear control away from me at the end of the level. The indestructible crate of rocks following the ship reminded me of the weapon pod in R-type. You might consider giving the player the option to kick around that pod, even use it as a weapon. That was one of the features of R-Type that added depth to what was otherwise a fairly typical space shooter. More animation for the ships, even if that means having only one ship (and just upgrading its "engine" and "armor") to save on having to animate them all, and a graphic face-lift for the entire UI. Also chose whether you prefer the cursor or keyboard controls and improve the responsivity of that scheme while dumping the other. It sounds as if you won't be returning to this game, but keep these things in mind. I'm not saying it's right that an educational game should have to work so hard, but that is the world we live in, and the stream of reviews and a lower average score than this game deserves reflect that.

Score: 3

"terrible"

by: SabreOfMisery

date: October 22, 2008

horrid storyline could anyone possibly have a more boring idea? the trivia was a terrible idea and the gameplay is boring