Just drink your way to a D+. I did!
Reviews for "The Exam"
I managed an E.
Well I played through this game a few times, so I feel ready to give it a review.
I'd like to start out by saying I think it is really creative to have the player be the "procrastination", battling against a guy who really wants to focus on his work. Usually in games of this nature, it is the opposite. It is also a pretty fun little sim, despite having very few options and a very obtuse goal, which I will address later.
The visual style is appealing, using that trendy 'simplistic pixel' style to keep everything visually interesting while simple enough to use in a game made in such a short time (assuming that was still the same in the original version). However, the sound quality doesn't match that. All of the sound effects, especially the thumping on the calendar screen and the TV, are really grating and made me want to mute my speakers while I played. The music and sound seem really compressed and bad quality. This seems like something you would want to focus on when going back to improve a game. Still, despite being repetitive and lower quality, the music loop was jaunty and matched the visual style nicely.
As for gameplay... there's not much there. A lot of key elements were left out. I would think, based on college experience myself, that booze would lessen the burden of guilt. Nothing in the game seems to lower the 'guilt' meter. I did manage to make it to two days before the exam, but it was done mostly by using three options: add booze, counteract good resolution, and TV. For about seven days I was doing that exact pattern, and the game lost a lot of charm in its gameplay for that reason. The guilt meter also confused me with the guitar practice. I understand a high guilt risk at the beginning, when Pete is pretty bad and feels he should be studying instead. But at level 42, I would assume the guilt would at least have begun to drop at the halfway point, and be pretty low by the time the number climbed near to 50. Otherwise, it becomes unrewardingly difficult to master the guitar. In my most successful playthroughs, I ignored the instrument entirely and got a much lower (better?) grade. While I understand what you were going for, it makes the inclusion of the guitar pretty pointless. From there, the various distractions seem to scale down in terms of pointlessness.. Badger himself serves very little purpose, though his slight boost to booze interest can be a nice buff if needed toward the middle of the game.
I guess it makes sense for a game originally made in 48 hours, but it feels like some more obvious improvements in the 'improved' version were not present. Overall, it feels rushed and unpolished.
Still, it's an okay game. Amusing for a run or two. Congratulations on Daily 3rd Place!
Review Rating: 3 stars
Submission Rating: 2
Overall: 5/10
I got A-
I've got A+, D and missing :D .To get missing just concentrate on playing the guitar till 50/50. Get distractions to avoid giving things away.