Enjoyed it for a short while. But too luck-based.
how I played this
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Read 'help' as you advised, played, realised how the animations relate to the actions, died on 3rd battle, played again, died in 1st battle, played again, died in 3rd battle.
Then I played again and won.
some selected aspects (rated from ----- to +++++)
(note: I'm not rating everything or trying to break the flash up into constituent parts. Just indicating how much each thing I mention adds to/detracts from my enjoyment of this.)
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+++: I like the little animations showing the movments. The way they morph to dodge/block is quite interesting.
---: You don't show damage taken until the end of each 'round'. Firstly, you should make damage from a blow affect the lifebar immediately - not change the lifebar when the round is done. Secondly, it'd be nice if you had some graphic, maybe a 50% alpha colour-coded (to indicate you or your enemy) circle, to retain abstract feel?
---: When we lose, there's no screen commiserating, or showing us the final energy levels. We're just plonked uncermoniously back to the title screen.
++: funky title screen effect.
-: When we win, we don't get to know the end energy levels. It should maybe pause and say 'click to continue' .
--: I think we should be able to roll-over to tell what each card does in-game.
+: It was interesting trying to work out to see if there was a pattern to the enemies...
+++ some strategy in choosing cards. We can see which card is best, by exploring the net result of possible outcomes, ignoring the possibility that the computer may do nothing.
A: 0, +5, 0, -20
B: -5, 0, 0, -25
D: 0, 0, 0, 0
2A: +20, +25, 0, 0
So we can see the cards (in order of greatness) are 2A, D, A, B.
----: But the whole game seemed to be largely luck-based. I think there's the illusion of more strategy than there actually is. Beyond realising what card to pick over others, there's nothing to this game.
overall
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It's a cool concept, but the necessity of luck seemed to take away any possible long-term appeal.
I enjoyed it a little while working out what strategy there was though.
Stay funky,
- Bez
I enjoyed the abstract animations