Reviews for Convergence

[cyberleon]

mmmh

You have a story, that s a nice plus. However, remember how most of these games start: With the player being absolutely alone. The player being able to communicate with HQ from the beginning kind of contradicts the dark atmosphere you are building up with your - nice (!) - graphics. I would recommend to start with the player writing into his diary instead at the beginning, and having him to assemble a radio from parts he finds in a labyrinth afterwards. From then onwards, I would sometimes let him write into the diary (when I want the atmosphere more gloomy) and then again let him communicate with HQ (to lighten up the atmosphere again) Best source for radio parts would be dead groups of other warriors.

Then, I would only add one player as a companion that you find, and have him killed by a surprise monster attack when moving onwards (They could pincer him from left and right side while he is on a platfrom above you, so the player would see him fighting desperately).

The gameplay suffers a bit from the tiny differences of surface height being mandatory to crouch and kill the enemies, and from the double jump height being incorrect in comparison to the height you can actually reach.

Respawn points could be marked in the landscape somehow.

You are almost there. Fix the jump height bugs and consider adding to the story at the beginning, and you will have a decent game.

VascoF responds:

Thanks for the great ideas; I really liked the idea of having him write in some kind of diary, this way the written story can advance without compromising the feeling of loneliness. If I decide to make a longer version of this game (which I would really like to do if time permits), I would definitely want to explore some ideas similar to the ones you described.

I'm not sure what you mean by the double jump height being incorrect, could you please clarify? Thanks.

[SeymourG]

Solid and uneasy atmosphere, nice exploration vibes, though walking through the tunnels could be made smoother without having to duck or jump every half second. Enemies were dull in combat yet interesting in exposition, "health bar" was a nice touch, and the frequent yet brief relays between the player and the unknown "operator" really helped add to the creepy tone. Definitely flipped a bit when the friendly NPCs first showed up, as it gave me serious SA-X (Metroid Fusion antagonist, a game which this one reminds me well of) vibes. Overall great stuff, would love to see it expanded upon.

VascoF responds:

I saw a gameplay video of Metroid Fusion with SA-X; really creepy and cool idea, now I want to play it. Thanks!

[FutureCopLGF]

Pretty nice game! Everything seemed to be pretty solidly put together: neat dialogue boxes, good movement, shooting and animations, and nice level design that introduces the mechanics bit-by-bit in a natural way. Kinda wish the dialogue boxes could be controlled manually so you can read at your own pace, but the pace you set at it wasn't too bad for me, so no biggie. Only real problem I had was that I feel like it...lacked something. There was a lot of built-up intrigue and mystery at the start, it escalated bit-by-bit, and then we suddenly had this huge battle at the end. It felt strange because, while the end battle was cool, it kinda came out of nowhere and didn't answer any questions and just threw together some sort of jumbled-up moral. Take it as a compliment, I suppose, that I felt like it was so well put-together and intriguing that I wanted more out of it in the end in terms of plot and story and scale!

VascoF responds:

Many have said that the ending seemed forced, and with your description I think I finally understand why. Thank you for the great review!

[AsaTheKool]

it was a really fun game and i liked controls and it was challenging but not impossible for me

[DreamHollow]

I like the unique style of health bar. The transition from pure white to slimy green was a nice touch.

I have a few gripes about the spike hitboxes; they're kind of large. Large enough to kill the player even when the player isn't technically touching them. That's annoying.

Would have really liked the ability to speed up or skip dialogue.

VascoF responds:

The hitboxes are actually not as big as they seem (they're the size of the spike image), but when colliding from the side while jumping it gives the impression that they're bigger.

Anyway, they were definitely still too big, so I've made an update with the hitboxes smaller. Ability to skip dialogue will probably be added tomorrow. Thanks for the review.