outnumbered.
Reviews for "The Epic Gang"
I'm actually very upset right now because I spent over three hours playing the game, saved multiple times, and then closed the window to come back to it later only to find out it didn't save. I even started a new game to see if the save feature worked at all and saved at the first save point and when I loaded the game again, it still didn't save. I don't know why this is. Perhaps look into it? I'm using Google Chrome as a browser.
As for the game, it is good. The gameplay is engaging, the items you can collect encourages exploration, and the fairy that heals you is a nice upgrade for the player, but there are some problems.
- As others have pointed out, the English is bad. Next time, just ask someone to look over it for you. I'd gladly do so.
- You can still use the flasks even if you are at full health and have no ailments. I think you should disable it and have the game make a sound to alert the player that using it would be useless (I accidentally pressed the wrong button and used up a number of my flasks when I was at full health).
- Although you offer the option to change the controls, why not have multiple options for the controls? (have the default set up and have the keys z x c s be another option for controls). Also, even when you change the controls, you still need to use the default controls when interacting with puzzles and the pause menu. Why is that? Also, why can;t the player change the controls in the pause menu during the game?
- a map would be very appreciated because it is very easy to get lost or to forgot where something is (I had remember coming across a lock that needed the key of sorrow so I decided to go looking for it when I found the key and it took a long time to find it). Plus, it gets very tiring backtracking through monsters while your aimlessly trying to find something you already passed. Maybe have a map where it contains markers that show that a locked door and chest are in that area. You could also have it where an area isn't revealed on the map until a player moves through it.
- The enemy designs are good, but some of the enemies back away when you try to approach them to attack, which is very irritating (especially since the enemies can float off of the platforms out of reach) because it forces the player to bait the enemies more in land so they can attack).
- You don't offer any explanation of the what the ailments do to the player, like curse and inhibition. You might think its apparent, but having a clear explanation would also be nice, especially for the inhibition one (maybe an area in the menu?). an explanation for how exactly the fairy works would have been nice as well.
- often times, you leave little to no room for the player to fight. In a number of instances, this can be interesting and perhaps even fun and challenging, but when you corner a player in a room with a large number of enemies, this goes from fun to just annoying. You really need to strike a balance with this.
- Why is it that the environment does not affect the monsters at all? Why not have explosion hurt them when they can hurt the player?
- The second boss (the fire guys), this one seems a little unfair. You leave the player very little time to strike at the boss since they constantly try to pounce on you (since they rarely due so in sync with one another, trying to attack during this time will usually result in the player's death). I chose the berserker option at the beginning and basically focused a lot of power into attack, yet I still struggled to take them down because my attacks took away very little health. I'd suggest having it so detonating a bunch of bombs near them will hurt them. Otherwise, I don't know how to go about doing the battle.
Still, I want to say I enjoyed the game, but the fact that it didn't save really hurt me and I don't know if I want to go through the game again.
DarkenSoft responds:
We are sorry about that.
But it's strange because It works to us, you can try to update your browser or cancel the cookie.
It's our first attempt to create a game and we made a lot of mistakes.
Thank you for the feedback.
I really like this game... the puzzles are challenging, but not overly so. The graphics, combat system, and movement is smooth and well done. My only issue is: My saved games are gone if I close firefox or shut down my computer. This is NOT a common issue: This is the only game on Newgrounds I have played where my saves are gone. I checked my settings, and everything seems fine. So, I can only give 3.5 stars since I have lack the time to play the game in one go.
Any suggestions?
Nice game overall. I didn't really like the lack of controller customization because the default button positions felt awkward for me: attacking with A makes a lot more sense than Q in my opinion, and keeping the potions button right next to the attack button makes mistakes frequent for the rather minimalistic keybords of smaller notebooks - the controllers felt arbitrary: attack-dodge motions should feel like a continuum and could work better if placed together.
If I could customize, I'd put the A-S-D as Attack-Dodge-Potion and Q or Spacebar to interact.
The dodge mecanics are nice for the more powerful enemies, but for fighting smaller enemies is just a drag. Also, since you can only dodge backwards and forewards, the up and down mechanics of the many vertical corridor fights are also dull - this very flaw makes the first skill of the Guardian - the class I played - very limited, since it is a forward dash that frequently puts you in more danger then it is worth and is also 100% horizontal.
The main character kind of resembles Kratos which is less than engaging, I guess, a little formulaic. Ol' spartan became a little bit of an archetype.
The game has a nice soundtrack - a strong point in my book. Anyways, I seems like a nice game and was fun to play.
DarkenSoft responds:
There is the option to customize controls in the title page (near the audio button).
While It does feel like it could use some more polish in a few aspects (mostly the combat), for the while I tried it I found it fun to explore and travel through.
I won't get into as much detail as other reviews, but I think one of the critical aspects, which seems simple but I found troublesome enough was the game's interface. Most of the gray 'shadowed' text was hard to read, specially in a pinch. and I was never sure if I had a potion left, which is critical if you're poisoned, those numbers could stand out a lot more, and maybe darken the potion icon if you don't have any available could help aswell, my two cents.