Reviews for Ghost Guidance

[Ytaker]

Pretty fun game. I finished it.

The sense of power was fun. The ability to switch ships was good too.

If you make another game, you should focus on several things. Give upgrades (faster regen, shield, faster fire) and special abilities (cloak, mega blast, heal) you get from bosses.

Make some slightly more in depth storyline. Maybe have a few factions- religious, cyborgs, rebels- have them give you certain goals during missions, like possess a certain number of ships, destroy certain structures, in return for money for upgrades. Have a twist at the end, like it turning out that the government forces pursuing you are controlled by your prototype, or plugging into the global ethernet and finding you are not the first AI to escape.

Or even, alternate endings for each faction, with a special mission at the end for each- for religious, being put into a human body as their messiah (crystal dragon jesus!), for cyborgs, put into a robot body as their king, for rebels, taking control of the government's mainframes. Maybe with some sort of morality metre.

Finally, a few more sorts of enemy ships. Ones that can force you out of a ship. An energy recharge ship. One that slows you down after you leave it. Ones that lock you in until they die. And, maybe give us some chance to control bosses mega ships for a bit, since that looks fun, maybe with a bonus level involving that.

Thanks for a good game.

[Da-Hui-58]

Brilliant Idea for a game

Really excellent concept for a game, I really enjoyed playing it. The game was very well made as well and each ship controlled differently making for a varied experience.

[Ocere]

Skynet... SKYNET!

Well I enjoy'd myself quite thoroughly. I had a slight panic moment when I needed to go get something and realized there was no pause button and I'd just have to lose, but the checkpoints are thrown in often enough that I only lost a few moments of time. I would have liked to see different ships with different levels of energy regeneration for you (jumping into some kind of defenseless generator ship and getting a supercharge before "possessing" a fighter). Maybe this was already implemented though, but it was never explained to me so I can only assume it wasn't. I love that, in a moment of desperation, I managed to possess an enemy missile. Speaking of missiles, they seemed a bit worthless when fighting a boss. I only really used them the first time you can grab a missile ship and they just kinda weaved up and down in front of the boss for a while without attacking. I guess that's understandable if that's just what that weapon type does, but it was a bit disappointing at that moment (fortunately I was blown up half a second later and got the awesome surprise that I could jump into missiles).

What really got me going on this was the story and I would really love to see this concept explored further, with a more in depth system. I would love to see an alignment system with a bar going from skynet to R2-D2 depending on how you treated the humans during your escape. Blow up a random human escape pod that poses no threat whatsoever? Skynet. Purposely attempt to weave through oncoming attackers without blowing them up? R2-D2. You know? Would have given it a bit more depth. Maybe a branching storyline or simply different endings based on how you play. Hiding in abandoned code and empty electronic husks, or enslaving humanity, or destroying it, or going hippy AI and trying to be friends. Also the fact that you just exist as a glowing ball of energy after being blown up seems strange. It would have been cool to see you existing as a little piece of reckage or (in the case of broadcast signals) a more wave like formation. I mean I get the idea that your trying to make the AI seem more "ghost-like". It's just my personal aesthetic preference. I enjoyed this game, but seeing it just makes me want you to get a team together and turn it into something bigger. Of course I understand how long these games take to put together and how difficult it is to do just what you have already done, but I can't help but hope for a sequel. Bravo and Encore.

Void24 responds:

Thanks, and I am glad to hear you enjoyed the game.

You guessed correctly that different ships do in fact have different regenerative rates, with the slow boxy ship being the highest, and the missile being the lowest (almost none). But it could definitely be shown better.

I love your idea about the "supercharge" ship. If there ends up being a sequel, I will surely implement something like this.

I am not generally much good at plot development, but enough people seem to like what little there is that I think more attention could definitely benefit the game next time.

[Buratya]

Good

Really Good

[Lord-Kalvo]

genius concept, great execution.

I think that the idea behind the gameplay, and the story are both brilliant. It's a fantastic spin on the shooter genre. The diversity in the enemies/ships is awesome, and the boss fights were pretty cool. I really liked how you had to dodge the debris of the bosses' wreckage when they went into their second form. It killed me the first time. totally unexpected.

I'd love to see a sequel, or a longer version, not to say that this one is too short however. Im satisfied with it's length. Great job. I think you're a very skilled and creative developer. I look forward to checking out future submissions from you!