I didn't finish the game, but it seemed to play well disregarding the lag.
The main point of this review (after searching to see if the first 5 or 6 pages of reviews had mentioned this):
When muting and un-muting the music, the music quality seems to degrade and the volume grows louder. This lasts until the particular song you are listening to loops back around or until you exit the area you're in.
Otherwise, good work. :)
Platforming and level design was good and not frustrating or boring.
Music was magical.
Enemy AI was terrible, the gunman were interesting in that they would avoid bullets, but otherwise underused.
As for the story... Let me get this straight:
A Man in a post-apocalyptic world goes on a sociopathic rampage against the one group of people working to save humanity, and utterly destroys both them, an all their progress, further damning the world to its already miserable fate. Humanity might go extinct without their work for all we know!
I understand hm wanting to save his daughter, but in the begging when they took her, he automatically assumed that she was being taken away from him, and going to be hurt, so he freaked, and got shot.
But he lived in that world. He knew how terrible it was. Surely he understood the importance of what they wanted to do, and based on the dialog in the game he seems capable of rational thought at the very least. Couldn't he just have asked to go with them so he could have been with his daughter during this? They had the means to hold both of them.
His reaction isn't totally unfounded, as a parent, someone coming in and saying they want to study your child would be confusing at best and terrifying at worst, but he could have asked questions, gotten a clearer picture of things, after all, it appears they had no intention of hurting her. You don't need to carve someone up for a tissue sample.
The game tended to tote the player character as the hero. A good guy out to save his daughter.
I saw him as a lunatic ready to murder anyone who stood in the way of what he wanted.
Even if what he wanted was tied to him through bonds of love, it was the hero who was truly the destructive Machiavellian force in this game.
It is for this disparity between what the game is at what it says it is, that I cannot rate this higher.
Where do you get the idea that the game tries to 'tote the player character as the hero'?
Who says you need a complex story and innovative controls for a game to be great. The first five minutes of the game is all it takes to get you enraptured into the game and really that's all it needs for the plotline, the character progresses at a good speed for how short the game is. The boss battles require more thought than just a simple point and shoot which adds a element of complexity in the mix, and the sharp controls complement the gameplay well.
About the only things I would gripe about is the ending was semi-lacking, but being the plotline was very simple and straightforward I can't say I expected much to begin with.
As far as the music went I loved it, but felt there was too little, 90% of the game was the overworld music, 5% was the underwater caves music, 3% for house music, and 2% for everything else. All of it was good, but it really feels like the game could have been more enveloping if the music was more diverse throughout the game.
In any case, I hope to see more great games from you guys in the future!
Great game. I felt really submerged into the story. The music was excellent, and the game play was fun. I do hope you come out with a sequel expanding on the plot.
I did, however, feel like the ending was a huge disappointment. Please don't take this the wrong way . . . but I wish the main character would have died. I can't recall if he ever had a name, but I did really liked him. It's BECAUSE I liked him so much that killing him off a character who players have an attachment to would have had a much greater affect on people, or at least me. Let me explain.
I wanted some kind of ending that evoked a real emotional response, something that was going to tie the entire game together, but I felt like I never got that. It felt like the game was building up to something very sad yet great and when you finally find your daughter, it gives the illusion of a happily ever after ending which is far fetched in an apocalyptic world with survivors struggling to stay alive. It was a very interesting idea that a man went all this way to save his daughter, simply to learn that no harm was done to her. It felt ironic, in a very positive way, because it if he hadn't have wrecked the lab, the haze mat guys most likely would have found a cure to save people. But I was hoping you were going to expand on this irony. I thought it would have been really "cool' per say if the pollution was making him more ill and when he finally found his daughter, it had caused him to die. But perhaps you did have a sequel in mind, so you held off on that. I personally just would have preferred an ending with more sorrow, instead of pretending like everything was alright. I feel like it kind of ruined the quest of getting there. It felt like "Daughter gets kidnapped. Save daughter. Daughter is fine. Nothing changes and life goes back to the way it was." I just thought the entire thing would have a LASTING effect on the two characters and change life for them
I know I rambled about the ending, but I just wanted to be able to explain my point in an understandable way. I'm not trying to negatively criticize you or undermine your work in any way. I was very impressed with it, and I spent a lot of time with it. I doubt you'll change the ending of a finished product, which is fine, so my only real suggestion to you is that I do wish the effects of pollution were empathized. Not on the mutants necessarily, but on the people. They all looked and sounded so sick, yet it never explained what it was doing to their body. But I think a lot of people would agree that it's better to have a LACK of reason rather than to provide a reason, and it seems dumb and silly. So if you couldn't think of anything good ( which I know is hard ) , I respect that you withdrew information. I'm just glad that this game didn't scream "zombies." When I heard mutants, I was afraid this was another zombie game, but it didn't give that kind of feel.
Very fun. It felt reminiscent of some of my favorite games on Newgrounds, and that was because you did a good job with the plot. If it was just the game play alone, I wouldn't have felt so compelled to keep playing, but you pulled the two together nicely.
I couldn't possibly be offended by such well justified comments! Each game I make is a learning experience. I have lessons to draw from this one too. Glad you liked it otherwise.
I enjoyed this game pretty much. It defenately stands out, it's not boring, the bosses were pretty interesting and gameplay was developing. The annoying thing was that the first boss you encounter, was at first furiating, as it took me some time to understand how to beat it. The story could of used more development and the ending was pretty lame.
The graphics are awesome, so is the soundtrack. Overall, great experience and worth playing. Problem was that, i quess it's a newgrounds thing, the screen was too small for the game. Some bars and menus were hidden.