Stellar graphics, psychedelic soundtrack and the exciting decision of whether to repair the ship or keep trucking. Makes me look forward to "WAVE CLEAR" and keeps the energy high in an overdone genre. There are too many damn asteroids and the cannon is disproportionately valuable in repair priority but they subtract very little from the game.
Reviews for "Odessa"
ElPandito responds:
Thanks for the review and thanks for playing m9!
THOSE DARN ASTEROIDS HUH.
I dunno, usually if my engine breaks down that will be top priority haha.
First off, my review might be a bit skewed because, even on easy, I couldn't get past level two...
Anyways, I feel like you've tried to execute several mediocre concepts when you should've focused on executing one (maaaybe two) great ones.
The platforming wasn't completely necessary, IMO. The repairing, shooting, and upgrading would've been good enough on their own. Although I do appreciate the effort to add more variety.
As many other players have already said, I really do like the detailed graphics. The asteroids look a bit shoddy in comparison. Also, the debris flying in the background for level two is just really distracting. I kept thinking it was stuff I had to dodge.
The gameplay is what killed this for me. The repair mechanic was interesting, but I don't think I got to fully enjoy it. Honestly, it felt completely useless because I could never repair faster than I was getting damaged, even on easy!
And honestly, starting the game from scratch after losing all of my lives? Really? Why is that necessary?
ElPandito responds:
First off, thanks for playing and for the lengthy review! :)
If you tell me the scope for the game was too wide, you have a point. (Why 'mediocre' concepts though?)
The platforming wasn't developped enough to fit in really yet, but I think it adds a nice change of pace.
Lol, the flying debris ... yeah I've heard of those, although they never seemed to bother me, I'll look into fixing it.
Haha, it used to be even harder to repair, but you're right, it's still pretty absurd. I plan to change two things about it : time will be slowed down outside the ship when you're inside, more so in easier difficulties, AND #2, you will repair a lot more at once but it will apply a cooldown so that you can't repair again right away (this way you don't need to stay in there wrenching as much). Sounds good?
Yeah the lives system is RUDE isn't it? Alright alright I'll get rid of it >__<'.
The graphics are amazing...mostly, a few bugs like black cubes after destroying anything in space, annoying music and not having a help menu to even check controls is a bit off. I had to restart only to read the text about the weapons since I missed it
Could be me but it is rather difficult even on easy, unless you can repair the ship somehow, which is not included in the tutorial and if you could repair, I agree with
xXSilentSXxxXSilentSXx, the signal sounds even if there are enemy ships.
ElPandito responds:
I'm glad you enjoyed the graphics!
If you could send me a screenshot of the black cubes that would be amazing, I've never seen it happen!
You can mute the sound ... I guess you'd want to be able to mute only the music and not the sound?
'the signal sounds even if there are enemy ships' I don't really understand that part, but you can in fact repair the ship from the inside by wrenching the red-wired machinery across the ship (there are three sections to the ship : engines, guns, hull, that can all be repaired).
Thanks for playing and giving feedback!
Really wanted to like this game. The concept is very interesting, but execution was off.
If your engines or weapons are dead, you're mostly fucked if you're in the middle of a wave.
Sometimes the end of a wave would be signaled before all enemies were dead, severely cutting into repair time.
Lives are definitely an outdated game mechanic, aren't really appropriate for free flash games, and definitely don't add anything to this game.
ElPandito responds:
Well, it's a work in progress really, hopefully you'll still be around when it's been improved!
Yeah it's hard. I've seen a lot of folks make their way out with just the engines or just the guns, but rarely without taking any damage haha. Anyway, I plan to offer more abilities/options to the player to escape such dire situations.
Yeah, the wave system needs some work, it's all time-based right now.
Haha, well having only one life on tryhard sure gives me a thrill, but I might get rid of the whole lives system and throw in a save system instead soon enough.
What exactly qualifies this as 'metroid vania'? the little bits of walking around wrenching things and picking up a new weapon? You know what metroidvania 'is' right? The process of having to acquire new tools or weapons in order to progress through previously inaccessible areas while having the ability to explore freely.
Now, I'm sure you put some work into this game, but 'walky sections' do not a metroidvania make, otherwise it's just a shoot-em-up with only cookie-cutter enemy types and remarkably miniscule variety of weapons.
ElPandito responds:
"Now, I'm sure you put some work into this game, but 'walky sections' do not a metroidvania make" ... and that justifies giving a 20% review on a game that was rushed for a jam. Certainly this is gonna make my day and motivate me to work on adding all the elements that were planned to make it an actual metroidvania game.