FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lily's Cafe in Nevada]

Man, I really liked the idea behind this. Having to manage a cafe that caters to deadly killers? What on earth could happen? Maybe you need to deliver food in the middle of a gunfight with bullets flying everywhere? Maybe you need to mop up blood from the constant fights in addition to food service? Maybe you need to keep everyone fed or else they start fighting? Maybe you join in on the fighting to calm them down? The possibilities had me excited for what was in store!

Unfortunately, what I found was rather underwhelming. I don't want to be mean, but how on earth can you have a food service game where customers have infinite patience, only come one at a time, and don't make orders and are satisfied with anything you give them? It goes against all logical expectations! The game is just so easily exploitable by filling up the plate with every single type of food and giving that to everyone for maximum points, because apparently you get 10 points per food. I quickly found myself losing interest as it all just felt so pointless.

I guess I got surprised by how the game turned out, but it wasn't a good surprise. It felt like a real nothingburger, if you pardon the pun. Please revisit this concept in the future and do it justice: I'm a big fan of cafe management games and I think one set in Madness is a novel idea!

TomaFokio responds:

We are currently working on a similar update. And I think your reasoning is pretty fair

[Madness: interlopers]

Oof, this game is in a pretty rough state in my opinion, a bit too rough for public consumption. It's super cool to see an attempt at a Madness FPS, and I do think it has a lot going for it: the gore effects from attacks are quite satisfying, there's a neat variety of weapons and characters to use, and there's some pretty innovative mechanics like being able to use a human shield and the 'last stand' slow-mo system that reminds me of Max Payne 3.

However, the game overall just had a really janky and unfinished feel to it, both from a design and technical perspective, and I found it really difficult to play. I realize that's somewhat vague, so here's some more specific feedback, though it's not necessary a comprehensive list:

*Damage feedback was terrible and I kept taking damage without even realizing. Sometimes I'd get hit by a melee enemy even though it didn't look like they made any sort of attacking motion towards me.

*Whenever I tried to shoot from cover or an enemy in cover, a lot of my gunshots would end up hitting the air next to the cover object, as if the hitboxes for these crates were much wider than it looks, leading to confusion.

*I kept getting put into slow-mo jail/hell, where slow-mo kept activating for either no reason or while I'm getting shot, which makes sense, but with no easy way to get out as sometimes I was carrying a melee weapon or an empty gun so it felt pointless.

*Melee attacks operate oddly in that they seem to only hit directly where the crosshair is pointing instead of the area in front of the player that corresponds to the sweeping motion the attack is making.

*For some reason, if you're carrying a type of weapon and try to pick up the same type of weapon (say your pistol is empty and you want a new pistol) it won't allow you to do this: it only lets you pick up different weapons.

*The human shield just didn't seem to work properly, sometimes their dead body being detached from me but still locked on somehow.

*Arena mode was very boring because it spend so many waves with only melee as an option: where are the weapons?

Hats off to you for trying to undertake making an FPS as it ain't no easy feat. You have my sympathy, and I hope that my feedback, as harsh as it is, helps you because I'd love to see a more polished and finalized version of this in the future!

[Fire Boy]

Hmm, for the most part, the game is a pretty decent platformer. The visual presentation is nice and lively due to the quality animations, there's plenty of wacky story moments and setpieces to keep you motivated, the game keeps introducing new types of obstacles and mixing them all together for some deadly courses, and so on and so forth. In theory, it should be great!

I have to admit, though, that while it has all of the basic necessities, I found myself quickly losing interest because the game was not only rather unchallenging, but didn't really have any sort of special hook or allure. I'm not saying it needed to do something mindblowingly unique, but I needed something to make the game stand out. I found it really bizarre that the game doesn't use any sort of fire-based mechanic, given that the game's main character is Fire Boy. At the very least, it might've been interesting if Fire Boy keeps running and you can't stop him, you know, because he's on fire and panicking, and you need to work around the platforming puzzles with that twist in mind, kind of like an endless runner.

Apart from that, the game could also be a bit awkward and janky with how it was constructed. For example, I found it very unintuitive with how you die if you touch a crusher that's idle on the ground. Likewise, it was really difficult to tell which way a conveyor belt was going based on the visuals: it looks like you tried to put signs to help with this, but they were wrong or absent a lot of the time.

I'm complaining a lot, but the game isn't bad and shows a lot of promise, so much promise that I guess I couldn't help but want even more from it: hopefully you can take that as a compliment!

[Madness Clean Code]

Hmm, I feel like the concept that this is going for certainly has potential. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels like it is doing a take on the Viscera Cleanup Detail schtick, being that you're a janitor that comes in and cleans all the gore that occurs after a typical Madness brawl. There's an interesting twist that it looks like it expects you to do all this clean-up while guards patrol nearby, so you've got to be a proper maid and clean everything while remaining unseen.

While that sounds great in theory, the execution here left me cold, unfortunately. The environment looks to be something out of an asset pack and doesn't match the Madness aesthetic at all. Considering that you're supposed to be cleaning up, it's very awkward that there is no actual mess that gets cleaned up when you go through the minigame. The minigame is very awkward and unresponsive at times with it completely ignoring inputs for certain keys. And in general the game is just so slow to get going with a lot of empty space, repetition, and a complete and utter lack of any sort of challenge or difficulty: I kept waiting to have to do a cleaning minigame while dodging a patrol but it never came before I lost my patience.

Again, it's not a bad idea but it felt like it didn't pull it off: maybe a case of time limits or inexperience, but at least you tried. Better luck next time!

[Madness: Sierra Nevada (Halloween UPDATE)]

Mom, can we get Hotline Miami?
We have Hotline Miami at home.
Hotline Miami at home:

Ok, that makes it sound kinda bad, but honestly this does feel like a Hotline Miami clone, and I mean that in both a very good way (and a slightly bad way).

I mean it in a good way because it is quite fun, delivering that classic fast-paced gory action that we know and love, but in a fresh Madness flavor. I had a blast going for big kill combos, switching and throwing weapons on the fly, and all that jazz. I was astounded at some of the new inclusions, like being able to reflect bullets with a sword! It's also quite impressive that you included a level editor!

But on the other hand, I do mean it in a slightly bad way because it does feel like a somewhat inferior bootleg version of it: sure it's got the essentials, but there a lot of subtleties to it that are lost. The biggest example of this was the doors: it cannot be overstated how disappointed I was with the doors when I tried to burst into the first room and not only have the door not knock anyone down, but swing in the completely opposite direction! It was also really confusing to figure out where the next floor stairs were, and where you are supposed to exit the level without any sort of guidance. I didn't like that the scoring system seemed like a complete afterthought as well as it doesn't give us a breakdown or even seem to save our high score. I could go on about other nitpicks such as how throwing a bladed weapon should kill, but in this it only knocks them out like a blunt weapon.

Don't get me wrong, it's still very impressive and fun, but there's just some roughness to it that made me a bit uncomfortable here and there. I'd definitely love to see a more polished sequel of this!

[Madness: Sheriff's Compound]

Pretty cool FPS you got here! I really enjoyed making my way through this, with it feeling really cool to be all careful and tactical with clearing rooms and corridors due to the lethality of the enemy weapons. It was made all the more satisfying with the way the enemies reacted and ragdolled to getting shot and whacked with a bat, and I loved all the little extra touches put into the game beyond the bare basics, like enemies surrendering, including the little birthday boy! I liked how the enemy placement was slightly randomized too in order to keep you on your toes. The twist at the end caught me off-guard too. There's just so many neat things in this little adventure!

I will admit, though, that on closer inspection, there's a lot of rough spots to this. The enemy AI is both easily exploitable and acts oddly, sometimes completely phasing through walls next to doors, for instance. It's frustrating that you can't cancel the reload animation with a weapon switch or melee attack like you can in other shooters. Zombies were a cool twist but they were much more boring to fight than the starter enemies. And overall there can just be some weird stutters and minor performance issues. Oh, and the sound of the AK was pretty weak.

Anyway, it's certainly a very promising game and I'd love to see a sequel to this!

[Deckerware - Eggbug Party Games]

Hmm, seems like a rather cute little Warioware-esque microgame collection you got here! Not too shabby, especially considering it was for a gamejam, but ultimately when taken out of that context, there not only isn't enough microgames on offer which makes it take no time at all for them to start feeling repetitive, but the microgames also don't speed up or have enough variety to them within themselves to keep things interesting for long. Basically it feels like a good rough draft or prototype in its current state, but not enough as a full-fledged game, which I would love to see if you continue work on it!

As a side note, I'm not familiar with this whole Decker interface: maybe it would be best if it was hidden to avoid confusion, thinking it's necessary to mess around with its controls? I also found it weird that the game starts with the music disabled: not sure why!

sysl responds:

Hey, I've left the controls visible so people can see how it works and play with it.

I would love it if more people played with decker.

[FRANKLIN’S BOUNTY DEMO]

Damn, I dunno if I'm missing something or not, but I didn't have a great time with this game, unfortunately!

I really wanted to like it as it made a stunning first impression with an absolutely wild sense of style that exuded from every single aspect of the game's presentation. I'm also a huge fan of boss rush and fighting games so I was really down for hunting down the bounties that this game setup!

Unfortunately, once I got into the actual gameplay, I was just absolutely confused as to how I'm supposed to play. I seriously tired my best to attack and block where appropriate, look for exploitable gaps in the enemy pattern, and all that good stuff, but it seemed for naught as all of the fights seemed to devolve into a confusing, messy mashfest with no rhyme or reason, where you just have to hope you luck into winning. To make it worse, the game barely seemed functional at times, with my hits that look like they should be connecting with the enemy whiffing for no reason, controls being unresponsive, special moves not coming out, and so on.

I was really hoping for something like Punch-Out meets Street Fighter or something akin to that, but I didn't get that here: it just seemed like all style but no substance. To be fair, fighting games are very hard to pull off and I'm quite critical of them, so maybe you just bit off more than you can chew with over-ambition: it happens to every developer, and I can at least admire the chutzpah!

[Anti Terrorist Rush 2]

Hmm, I have to admit that I'm not usually a fan of these type of idler games where success is guaranteed as long as you just invest time, with player skill/involvement being practically unneeded. But I'll also admit that I can see the addictive appeal that this has, and I do think the game has a rather slick, intuitive and polished look and feel to it that helps elevate it. And heck, even though it is largely automated and is just a time-waster at heart, it still throws me a bone by allowing me to use the abilities at key moments to get some more mileage out of a run! It's ultimately not for me, but I could certainly see it being a fun and simple mobile game for lots of people!

If I were to have some feedback, it'd be that I wish it was more clear when the player character is taking damage. It's strange that enemies will react to being shot with spurts of blood and such, but our character is just a unflinching, unfeeling brick. I couldn't tell, for example, whether the molotovs that were landing behind my character were counting as hitting them or not.

[Boxed Boxes]

Wow, this was a really neato game! Not only does it have a really unique and cool puzzle mechanic which it does a lot of interesting tricks with, it's also a very well-constructed game in practically all respects, with great levels that subtly teach the mechanics and raise the stakes, along with great visuals and animation, and a general sense of smoothness and polish to it all!

Usually this is where I would go into feedback, but I can't really think of anything significant to say: it was simply top shelf stuff!

Damn, looking at the date, it looks like this wasn't appreciated in its time. This would've been a shoo-in for best of the month!