FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Trail Of Pigs]

Damn, it's got a rough start, and the game can be a bit frustratingly hard at times, but boy if I didn't end up getting enraptured by this! It's like The Last of Us meets Oregon Trail or something, haha!

Like I said, first impression was definitely pretty rough. The tutorial just vomits a wall of text at you (without even establishing context through story) that is difficult to read and remember everything (would be helpful if there was a button where you could bring up the tutorial later to see if you forgot something), the menu functionality can be a bit confusing at times (why does the button to pause have a play symbol and the button to play have a pause symbol?) and the controls can be confusing to grasp (Sneaking is a bit confusing and I thought for the longest time that once someone gets close and starts stabbing you there's nothing you can do: turns out it was because I was running and apparently you can't shoot while moving).

Once I got past that initial hump though, I had a blast! Well...as much of a "blast" as someone can have going through a traumatic and depressing journey of brutal survival, I suppose. The game really immerses you into the direness of the situation with all of its aspects and makes you consider every action due to the limited resources: stealth wins out over shooting if you can handle the risk of it (and my god do you want to avoid seeing the horrors of shooting). Sure, it ain't perfect: the game can be a bit annoying at times with how sometimes a hunt is just a total wash with nothing found due to RNG, but it does fit the theme you're going for, so hey, I guess it works. Man, the places my mind went as I started to get into my role in this game: my god, the darkness of it all! Again, really cool game you've got here!

Stopsignal responds:

Awh man, i was really hoping i'd get a review from you, you always hit the nail on the head when talking about places to improve! I was kind of afraid you wouldn't see it, this makes me happy, hahahah

Thank you so much!! I think what i learned with this game is that, even if the mechanics make sense to you while making the game, you still need to tutorialize everything correctly, there is no other way. Stagger tips, inmerse people slowly, always have a way to show tutorials and help if people need it, if the mechanics are complex enough.

Also learned that people can endure and play a hard game even if it is incredibly punishing, if inmersed enough on its world (at least i think that? it does seem that the inmersion played a really positive factor with lots of people, and that's awesome!)

I really have to give a second try to this concept, make it again from the ground up. One day. Still, it was fun to do for now! Thanks, Futurecop! I still hope your name comes from that one mech game, FutureCopLapd, hahahah

extra: i am still seeing all reviews from everyone, even if not replying. it's just too many reviews to reply for now, but i'll try to get aorund to it! :)

[SACRIFIGHTS]

Pretty neat game! Loved that it was basically a really cool boss rush where you get stronger and stronger as you fight in order to fight a big boss at the end: definitely my cup of tea! Loved the whole atmosphere to the game and all the cool touches to it, like the way the house shifts as time progresses, how you can't eat your own heart if you try, and how the timer changes on the last day.

Combat was decent, but a bit of a mixed bag. It's certainly alright, and has a lot of neat upgrades as you go, but it felt a bit annoying to not be able to move in a separate direction than you can shoot, and the camera just feels way too zoomed in. A lot of the fights started to feel very samey as well: mostly devolving into the same strategy of circle strafing very similar bullet patterns in the same cramped cellar you have to fight all of the demons in.

Pretty odd at times: really didn't grasp the systems initially as it dumps a lot on you quickly and I didn't like how you can totally softlock yourself by running out of resources which forces you to sleep over and over with no way out. Maybe it'd be nice if you could get yourself out of a softlock by sacrificing some blood/health to summon a boss as a last resort, or at the very least, maybe instead of being forced to sleep bit-by-bit, the game notices you softlocked and just fast-forwards you to the last day?

This is a bit silly to say, but it might actually be a bit too easy? I was just playing around and intentionally softlocked myself early on by wasting resources and just slept until the final boss since I was curious how hard it was gonna be. Well, the answer was that not hard because I destroyed 'em on my first try even with my gimped character (well, he still had a few upgrades, but still)!

Anyway, I griped a lot there, but I still had a great time with this, so well done!

[PICO NIGHT PUNKIN']

I'm always a bit mixed on these demakes. I mean, on one hand, the game is awesome! It plays very well and it is an incredibly faithful remake to Friday Night Funkin'. But on the other hand...it's so faithful in its recreation that it copies everything, even the things that could've been improved upon (for example, there is still no result screen for seeing your score and sick/great/good/bad tallies, and you aren't penalized for not holding hold notes, among other things) and at the end of the day, the reason it is fun is because it is based on another game, and if I just wanted to play Friday Night Funkin', I can play Friday Night Funkin', haha! Most of the time when I think demake, I think Daikatana being changed from an FPS to a Zeldalike in order to fit on a Game Boy: to me, that's a really neat case of trying to capture the essence of the game in a genre that fits the lower platform better. This game is just straight up as good as the original and is made in the same form as the original, which is good but...oh whatever, I'm rambling.

This is obviously quite the technical achievement and very impressive at the end of the day, and I had fun playing and listening to the new remixes, so I'm rating it highly, but yeah, just wanted to ramble and share my confusion on demakes, so, uh, there ya go.

[Loihtija]

Decent puzzler! The worst thing I can say about it is that it is a very slow starter: the beginning felt incredibly bland and way too easy: just felt like it took way too long to introduce any semblance of challenge or interesting mechanics. Once the game gets going with the spells and I got into the later levels, however, I started to really enjoy the puzzles, and it did kind of work out in the end because the puzzles did work off of the little aspects and strategies it subtly taught in the boring beginning so...I guess it worked out for me (but I still definitely feel like the game could be helped by upping the pace a bit). The only other complaint I could see is that I didn't feel like there was any strong theming or visual aesthetic to the game to make it unique and stand out, but it still kinda had that classic Kultisti style, so again, I guess it works out somewhat.

[MADNESS: Off-Color]

Not too shabby, but gave me a bit of a mixed impression. Overall I think it was well put-together: presentation is very crisp, controls felt fluid, combat was decent, and so on. But in the end, I also had a lot of issues with those. For example, while the presentation was good, there were some weird issues like text being damaged by scaling issues, and the size of the weapons led to confusion on how they hitboxes worked (melee weapons actual reach was much shorter than their visual size, but on the opposite end, guns actually can hurt someone in front of you even if your barrel is past them). The controls were fluid for the most part, but I felt like picking up was really awkward (I would much prefer that right-click pick up what is below you instead of making you have to point at it with your crosshair), and I totally forgot about blocking for a long time since it felt so unimportant/against what the game stands for. Combat was decent, but it felt very basic and didn't really evolve anywhere: the bosses were cool, but the basic arena fights against mooks were just the same all the way through, with melees being very dumb and easy and gun guys being incredibly annoying since they just insta-shoot you the second they're barely on screen and they can still shoot you even with an empty gun!

I feel like I am perhaps being a little unfair: the game built up my expectations so high with the initial impression that I felt a bit let down, and that is a little bit on me. But still, I do feel that while the game is pretty solid, I felt it could be much, much more, especially if it had more novelty and variety to the combat.

Stepford responds:

I definitely agree with your feedback! We wanted to have more enemy types and we also had an entirely different melee system in the works, but we just didn't have enough time.

Thanks for playing, though! <3

[Pico Untamed Demo]

Not too shabby as a Pico's School clone: got some interesting point-and-click adventure aspects along with some neat combat scenarios, but at the moment it's definitely a bit rough around the edges.

In terms of feedback, here's what I could see:
1) Would love if there was some more interactions in the world beyond just clicking directions and inventory items. For example, it'd be great to click on BF or Tankman and get some dialogue from them, or get some hints by clicking on their locks to see what item you might need, and just flavor text in general would be nice.
2) I feel like the buttons and interactables in the world should glow/highlight when you hover over them.
3) Weird game layout where you go east and then the directions are reversed on the next screen?
4) HUD, text, and other elements aren't consistent and it's confusing. For example, you've got a sectioned health bar normally, but suddenly in the boss fight you've got a different health bar in a different place on the screen. Buttons and text change from scene to scene for some reason instead of staying the same, leading to a slightly hacky unprofessional look.
4) Boss fight and hide/ambush felt a little bit too simple and awkward at the moment: you barely have any time to read how the hide/ambush system works and the boss fight is a simple mashing race against time. Basically, not much strategy to them.
5) Transitions can be a bit wonky: people who you've killed show up for a second while you're transitioning only for them to go away once it's complete.
6) Felt it makes more sense to click on the object that needs the item instead of the item themselves (or maybe you should be able to click on either one, or maybe drag the item to the object it needs to be used on?)
7) Picking up items was so sudden and I had no idea what I got and where it was needed.
8) Boss fight dialogue is difficult to read: could maybe stand to use a text box around it or something else to increase readability.

Looking forward to seeing the full version of this game!

TrickWithATwist responds:

Thank you so much for your feedback. We will make sure to use it as a reference as we develop the final product :))

[A Pico in Time (demo?)]

Pretty neat game that I feel has a decent core to build on for the future. It seems to be going for that classic dating-sim stat-grinding gameplay and I felt like it achieves that well with a lot of variety in activities and an interesting story/quest line. I definitely feel the art is great in particular with a lot of goofy, stylish locations with funny easter-eggs and references.

It's got ups-and-downs: for example, while the art and interactivity for the locations in the world is pretty cool, each having their own unique background art with elements you can mouse-over to see what they do, I can't say the same for the overall world map (which takes place in a white void) and the rumble battles/singing minigames (which are quite drab and lackluster with no special effects). Game also has a bad habit of relying too much on text when it could use visuals instead: the shop/equip menus and tutorial screens could benefit from a lot more icons and illustrations instead of bland text. Basically, I'm looking forward to seeing this more fleshed-out with a bit more polish in the future.

toffeescoffees responds:

yeah no doubt! we plan on working on this more in the future and all that youre saying is totally right! the only reason why some parts seem very undetailed and lack-luster is that i was the one making most of the art for the game and i only worked on it from april 10th to may 1st so i had to cut some corners. the full game will hopefully fill in those gaps and such ^_^ thank you for the detailed comment and everything!! it really helps me out, especially in the art department :)

[Worlds Below]

I do like me a good grapple game, and this game did try to provide it, but unfortunately I found it to be way too rough to enjoy in its current state. I didn't like how the grapple was just a zipline instead of a actual swinging/momentum device, and I found it very difficult to control. The character would constantly bump into things, even if they were barely in the way, and come to a dead stop mid-grapple. I couldn't tell when I was able to reshoot my grapple at first either. Camera system was really odd as well: found it very annoying how it moved around and cut-off parts of the screen while I moved the mouse (why not just keep it in-place since it already shows the whole level?) And so on and so on: all-around the game just felt very clunky. At the very least, the levels did show some decent variety and gem-collecting was challenging (though maybe not since its so forgiving with not having to collect them in a screen all in one-go).

[Ann - Demo]

Made a very good initial impression on me, but really lost me in the end, unfortunately.

I liked all the world-building at the start: walking around the gallery, seeing the missing people posters, and so on (gave me a real Ib vibe). The little cutscene animations that played throughout were great as well. Traveling into the spooky realm, I enjoyed how creepy the game made it, with lots of subtle spooks like things or sounds popping up just off-screen or as you walk past them.

But then, it didn't take too long for me to get pancaked by a piano and say "oh, this is one of THOSE games" and lose interest immediately. "Those games" being horror games that ruin any chance of horror by killing you over-and-over without any hint or telegraph to avoid it: my initial immersion into the horror atmosphere was ruined as the game turned into a tedious sequence of trial-and-error, trial-and-error, trial-and-error. I'd be fine if there was significant and consistent logic and reason to all the deaths, but so many were just silly with no way to reasonably see them coming. To me, horror games are at their best when there is the threat of death, but it doesn't force you to suffer its consequences too much, for if it does so, it reminds you too much of the fact that you're playing a game and nothing can hurt you. And that's what happened with me: sure I got jumpscared a bit still, here and there, but I was no longer immersed and no longer enjoying it.

Having said all that, it might just not be my kind of jam: lots of people do seem to like these kill-happy trial-and-error type of games, and I doubt my feedback can make you change the game since it's such a core element to it, so in the end, best of luck in its future development.

[Medieval Cop-S2-E1]

Interesting story! Not really my jam since I don't follow the whole shebang, but I thought it did a good job at keeping the pace up and starting off with a bang. It also had some clever aspects, like how the game gives you a bit of a loredump though Dregg's storytime distraction to the bombers. I still find some of the humor a bit hit-and-miss: I liked Dregg and the Old Man thinking they fooled the other over the horse, but I didn't like the drugged-out horse itself, nor the way every character needs to add wacky jokes to their dialogue all the time. Also, maybe it's just me, but the kid Dregg's eyes were really goofy and odd looking: felt like it was a real half-ass-job where you just scaled the eyes down and didn't position them properly afterwards.