This game is bad. I am sorry, but it fails to make me think or entertain me. It tries to simulate choices, but when you first try to go to school, it won't let you, and you have to go to the park. This is called linear gameplay, and that is why I gave it only half a star. The only redeeming factor I can think of is that the music is okay.
Reviews for "Shooting in the Dark"
This game is broken as fuck. I don't even care about the story, if I can't operate within this point and click adventure then why should I even play it? I'll never know how this got front page.
At first glance one may think this game a master work of a brilliant fatalist attempting to illustrate how all our actions are predetermined.... then it hits you... ms paint graphics, bugs everywhere, super short game length. It isn't that the author is a philosophical genius, it's that he's lazy and couldn't be bothered to and other options or spend more than the bare minimum amount of time on his game. You quickly write a half assed review not wanting to spend any more time on it than the author did on the game but still wanting to warn others to stay away. You leave hoping the author will try harder next time.
Shooting in the Dark simply doesn't work.
From a story perspective, it's as standard as you can get. Kid has terrible things happen to him, his mood goes down. Big shock.
From a technical perspective, it REALLY doesn't work. The glitches make the game nearly unplayable. When I first left the house, I tried going to school first thing, after all that WAS what the game basically told me to do. So I tried selecting it on the map, and after clicking it about 30 times, I just gave up and went to the park hoping that it would allow me to go to school after I exited.
This basically defeats the entire premise of the game story, ie. Choice, since the player basically has no choice but to go through the park path. If this is due to a design choice, then it's a terrible idea. If this due to a glitch, then that's even worse.
Even if your just talking about a simple flash based art game, you still need to play test otherwise you'll end up shooting your message in the foot. It'd be like if Picasso converted Guernica to JPG format after he finished. It's still Guernica, but it would be a blurry, pixelated mess.
Even on a 2nd play through, I just couldn't get it to work.
One time I tried selecting No on the title screen.
So that's how you "win", huh?
At that point, what you're basically saying is that the best way for people who are being bullied to deal with their problems, is to not even try? Don't even start because you'll just skip school and get the crap kicked out of you no matter what? I REALLY don't get to just select school from the start, even though it comes up as a selectable option, because I'm just destined to do it anyway?
Honestly, at that point, just a make a short movie. If that's the story you want to tell, and you don't want the player to experience it any other way, then why does it even need to be a game in the first place?