FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Bullet Heaven 3 [Prototype]]

Hmm, it was alright, but compared to previous games from you, it felt a little underwhelming, though I understand that it might be due to it being a prototype, so perhaps I'm being a bit unfair. But in that same vein, it is a prototype, so I feel like I should try to give as much feedback as possible to make it become a great game.

First off is the controls: they default to mouse-only controls, which I, and it looks like many other people, get very confused by since it creates a very awkward way where you need to move in weird ways just to aim at the enemies. I thought maybe the weird control scheme was on purpose to make it more challenging or something, like a fumblecore game, but luckily I was able to switch it to control scheme number 4, keyboard and mouse, which I highly recommend you make become the default since it seems smooth and logical for a shoot em up like this.

The general gameplay, while functional and smooth, seemed a bit overly basic. Unless I was mistaken, it seemed like all I could do was move around and shoot. No special abilities, no bombs, no grazing, no excitement derived from trying for a higher multiplier, nothing. Don't get me wrong, the enemies did seem to have a good variety to them and the levels progressed well in terms of difficulty, but it was just a bit bland. The levels were just static images grayed out, and the waves were just teleporting in scattershot: nothing like the excitement of scrolling shooters that take you through all sorts of animated backgrounds and waves entering in all sorts of interesting patterns (again, though, perhaps this is just missing because it is a prototype).

Finally, and this isn't a big one and only my personal inclination, but I don't really like it when shooters utilize an upgrade system: I prefer for the experience to be balanced around a standard loadout, it being solely the players own skill and style that gets them the victory, instead of having victory chained behind bullet sponges that you need to grind to level up just to be allowed to win against.

There is certainly a lot of good about this game: the menus were nice and animated, (albeit a bit overly black in terms of palette), the enemies and bullets were easy to see and had tons of variety, and the core gameplay, while basic, seemed solid and smooth. While I had plenty of nitpicks, the number one thing is that I just feel like it needs some sort of special something to add to it, some sort of unique hook. A prototype is usually created to sell a unique gameplay mechanic or loop to see if it's got legs: this didn't seem to have any of that, just the boring basics. The game's like a plain scoop of ice cream at the moment, I just need some sprinkles and a cherry on top now, and I do have faith that you can deliver it based on your repertoire, so I'll be looking forward to the future!

[SELF]

Had a blast with this! It was a bit awkward getting used to the controls at first (tank/rotate controls for the soul instead of just pressing the direction you want the soul to go, and toggling the soul instead of holding the key down) but eventually, I was in full control and loving it: dunno what the story was about, but it just felt so satisfying to move and engage with the core gameplay! My only real complaint was that I felt it was over too quickly, and when I wanted to play more, all I had was endless mode which wasn't enough, and I couldn't even redo story mode. Bit of a letdown compared to other games you've done that have either fleshed out the mechanic more with big challenges or have had bonus levels, but hey, it was great while it lasted nonetheless, so nice work! Oh, and before I forget to mention: the music was absolute dynamite, heck yeah!

EDIT: Bonus levels were awesome! You guys spoil me, haha!

devdwarf responds:

Adding bonus levels tomorrow!

[Fateless]

I didn't have the greatest impression of the game at first, but something about it ended up hooking me and made me want to not only keep playing, but replay for other endings, so nice work! Like I said, part of the game does seem a bit bad: movement and general presentation just seems really low-brow, stealth mechanics are a bit awkward, the script is riddled with weird phrases and confusing grammar, and there are some weird designs like, for such a keyboard focused game, why use the mouse for making choices? Also, it looks like the game doesn't save properly as my save file got corrupted, meaning I wasn't able to continue my game. But nevertheless, for what I did play, I ended up enjoying myself. I just really liked how it was doing this really goofy horror film with all sorts of fun escape events and crazy decisions, and I really liked how the game seemed to roll with whatever happens, even if that's death: no resetting, it just continues the story. In fact, the awkward english in the script actually kind of added to the humor and campiness, really selling the B-grade horror feel. I think there are definitely some neat ideas with some decent execution here: just needs some more polish to make it shine!

[hunter with a top hat]

Hmm, a little too short for my tastes, but it was fairly interesting and it hooked me, so not too shabby (plus, you did say it was 5 minutes, so can I really blame it for being short, haha)! I liked the atmosphere and the little touches in the interactions that added to the storytelling: kicking the door down, turning on the lighter in the tunnel, seeing the mysterious people show up late, and so on. And while it was a bit short, the boss fight was pretty cool with multiple phases to fight through (though phase 2 was a bit confusing because I wasn't sure if I was making any progress with the shield, was it just a waiting phase?) I think there is a pretty decent core here to work from for neat storytelling and combat, and I'm intrigued to see more!

[Polarity Switch]

It's come to the point now that whenever I check out a Rob1221 puzzler, I think "they can't all be good: he can't keep getting away with consistently making solid puzzlers. This, this will finally be the one where it's bad and I can give some feedback to improve." But nope! It is yet another great puzzler that takes a concept that I thought I would hate (magnets) and makes me fall in love with it by not only using the concept in clever ways, but also having greatly designed levels that intuitively teach the game mechanics and ramp up the difficulty bit-by-bit in an addictive way. It's good, damn you, it's good! You can't keep getting away with it!

(but seriously good work as always)

[Souls Rest]

Pretty decent game! I liked wandering around the house and examining everything: had a good amount of flavor text and some spooky events like looking through the windows (the difference cutting the music makes!) My personal favorite: I really liked the search for the flashlight part, where if you're paying attention, you can see the box/board trap coming: I felt really clever there, and it felt a lot better designed than most of these horror games where you can't see traps coming and you just die: trial and error crap. Having said all that positive stuff, there was a bit of jankiness to the game: the slider lock was really unintuitive and unresponsive for me, as I dunno why it had this weird arrow/mouse control scheme. While I liked the flashlight event, there weren't many other events like it: I expected washing the gem to be a trap where you need to avoid the kitchen sink (toaster electrocution), but nope, the character will avoid that automatically, and the basement ghost scene was just tedious and annoying to wait for the ghost to get outta the damn way (especially since it can still attack you by just being kinda near it for some reason). Also, I didn't like how when you get a key and use it on a door, it doesn't say you unlocked it: by just opening with no message, I wasn't even sure if I remember correctly on whether it was locked in the first place. Also, there were some bugs, like at one point when I was in the graveyard, I accidently hit the X key and for some reason it teleported me back to the slider lock chest? Weird stuff. Anyway, while it had some confusing parts and I didn't feel like it had enough standout events, it was still a decent romp, so nice work!

LynxIeles responds:

The slider puzzle was iffy due to my program I use to make it. the new beta of it is going to make me fully rebuild the slider puzzles or replace them in the full game.
Thank you for the very helpful feedback. I plan to add more events to make it easier to figure out where to go as well as add interest.

[Spot & Click]

Quite the nice surprise! Game was a nice twist on an old classic concept, and I felt it took the animated element and made it more than just a token addition: by having some of the differences be animation related (such as a bird subtly being more active in one than the other and such) it really elevated it into its own thing. Also, I liked how there was a nice spread of differences: some easy to spot, some very hard to spot, some static, some animated. The variety really helped hook me into it (well, if the beautiful art and animation hadn't hooked me already, haha!) Only downside I could say is that it was a bit weird that there wasn't any scoring or penalty as without those, you could easily resort to just clicking like mad to find practically everything. Oh, and maybe that the animation was so good that sometimes I'd just be watching it instead of playing. Anyway, I had a lot of fun criss-crossing my eyes between the two pictures to spot everything, though I only got as high as 24, argh!

[Arcane Maiden]

Pretty neat game! I'm not really a fan of turn-based RPGs that much, and while this game can be a bit slow at times, with some long animations and long waits for bar filling, it actually seemed to have some decent strategy in place that I enjoyed: using delay strikes to buy time, deciding whether to heal or save up for a big lvl 3 strike to end it, neat stuff! I still think it is a bit slow and grindy for my tastes, without enough story to keep me hooked, and with enemies that didn't make me have to change my strategy up enough, but overall a positive experience for me.

In terms of feedback, I do feel like the game lacks a lot of information and could do with a more polished presentation to help with that. For example, the skill tree was very confusing for me at first: I didn't realize that the SP next to learn wasn't how much the ability cost to learn, but how much SP I currently have in total. I wish the skill requirements weren't just a boring list you have to read and figure out: I'd like it if when you try to learn a skill you can't, it would make an error sign and highlight the nodes you need in glowing red or something to help the player see. Just all sorts of stuff like that: helping direct the player with more visuals and sounds. Also, I wish there was more info in general: I'd like it if I could strategize my battles by seeing if I could intentionally plan for a level up to get my health back after a fight, but since I can't see my xp bar during combat, it's a no go. Got some weird bugs here and there as well: for example, I dunno why my player name is "<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=", haha! Also, I wish the story would do more to hook me: felt like it petered out quickly and didn't introduce any new info in the grass levels as I went. Also I felt like the graphics were a bit mish-mashed: different graphics of varying quality (like the difference between the MC and their partner) gave it a bit of an unprofessional feel, like it's just slapped together from a bunch of mixed-up asset packs and such (not that there's anything wrong with asset usage, but it can lead to a non-cohesive style).

Anyway, like I said, despite all those complaints that I'd love to see fixed or polished up to make the game even more beautiful, I did feel it had an interesting take on turn-based strategy that I had fun with, so kudos for that as it ain't easy to make me to play RPGs nowadays!

MidNightMaren responds:

You make some very valid points. The Skill trees could use some more indicators that's true, I'll try to make it happen.
Also the 'Exp Needed' on the battle UI was something I realized was missing when I was almost done with the game. I notice a lot of games do have that feature. I'll look into it also.

The <TEXT FORMAT> bug is something related to Ruffle I'm still trying to figure out. On Flash Player while testing locally it works just fine; but I get it that input text on Ruffle is either something not yet implemented, or I'm just calling it wrong somehow.

The story is something I said before. The structure of the game didn't give much room for one. And also, all and all, this game was a try out of a mechanic I didn't have much clue if it was going to be well received.

You can read in the credits this game uses assets from countless authors. I too felt the difference in quality of the sprites was something bugging me to no end. I even resized characters on stage so that the pixels looked the same size. Cut of some in-between frames to make it seem the same frame rate, etc.
Who knows on a possible sequel I can get a couple of artists to help me design some unique assets. And also go and address all the flaws this game presented.

[Throw Rocks At Shit GOTY Edition]

I never thought I'd see one of my favorite games, Root Beer Tapper, come back in shit form! Not to say that this game is shitty: much the opposite, as I had a great time with it! Definitely delivered some classic addictive hardcode arcade fun: loved the risk/reward of building up my super for multipliers and only throwing as many rocks as necessary. Mechanics are definitely well thought out for creating some exciting play, but at the same time, a lot of the mechanics are a bit unintuitive: I thought the big pile was a boss at first so I didn't realize that you aren't supposed to hit it, lest it punish you by not only growing larger, but also taking your super (c'mon, doubly punished? jeez, why don't you just kill me immediately for hitting it while you're at it). And, I didn't realize you could hold on to your super to get bigger point multipliers and a bigger super finisher: without knowing that, it gets bland, which it feels like it would be easy to not know because who doesn't want to immediately use their super? But still, in the end, I had a great damn time flinging rocks!

[Patetfiske]

I didn't get that far because it was a bit too chill of an experience for me, but it was a chill experience I guess so...mission accomplished, haha! Then again, I could be totally wrong about the 'getting far' aspect: not sure if there is a story to this game, but it kind of felt like it as my character went from catching fish to suddenly catching a dog and an amoeba, so I'm wondering if something was building up or if it was coincidence. The experience was a bit surreal and odd enough to hook me initially, what with the weird music and catching fish, but it didn't really hook me for long. I was hoping to be able to examine the fish to see info on them or something, but all they do is just fill up a gallery with icons. Fishing didn't have much interactability either: can't decide where to throw your hook or any strategy like that, you just throw and wait, same thing every time. Bit confused on why the character gives up sometimes: feel its more appropriate for a chill game if he just always waits. I dunno, I know I'm probably not the intended audience since I'm an action junky, but I'd like a bit more from this game. I know it's chill and all, but I kind of wish there was just a bit more life to the world: more little things you can do or more changes happening in the world to watch.