FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Space Thread]

Fun little game that's short and sweet! Felt like it had a good tutorial that taught the mechanics and way to progress very well, and it felt fun to race around using the dash strategically to win. I only had minor confusions during my playthrough with me not realizing I could pick up items other than white things, and with me thinking that carrying items was burdening the character for some reason: other than that it was great! Oh my god, though, I was literally 1 pixel away from home with my haul that would've completed the game and I died to time over, aughhh! But even with that defeat, I had to come back and beat it, and I did on my second try with a whole minute and change left!

Elastiskalinjen responds:

Thank you :)

Yep, maybe I should have left some random debris in the ship, then it would have been more clear!

[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! :)

[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 :)

[Newgrounds Snowboarding]

Not too shabby: felt fun to hit the slopes and build up a big combo (though I do wish there was a clock or something to show you how long you have to do a move to keep your combo up). Menu is a bit drab and confusing though, and the game does get boring pretty quickly, especially due to the small amount of tricks, small amount of variation in obstacles, and the endless random generation. I'd end up killing myself intentionally just so I could get back to the shop! Maybe consider, instead of randomly generating mountains, hand-crafting a few mountains as levels with a start and finish to them. That way, people could ride down the mountains and try to create a best combo route for maximum points, which you could store in high score tables for people to compete.

Oh, there was also a funny glitch: I found that you will grind on a rail no matter what, even if you are completely upside down in the middle of a flip (it'll just automatically insta-adjust you). Feels like that shouldn't be possible, haha!

MSGhero responds:

We started to make hand-crafted levels, but we didn’t have the time. Deadlines!

[Scott's Quest]

Hmm, seems like it could be an interesting adventure, but at the moment I was just too overly confused in trying to get through it. I'm coming at this as someone who is not familiar with Scott the Woz, so I'm trying to just be straight and evaluate it as a game first and foremost. I had several times where I glitched through the boundaries and ended up walking on top of the ocean, and I was stuck at the beginning for a long time as well because I didn't even think I could jump the gap (top-down games usually don't have jumping in my experience, shame that the only jump tutorial wasn't until way later with the drones). Even when it wasn't glitchy, a lot of the game felt a bit, I dunno, vague or sketchy, like how I wasn't sure how to dodge the drone bombs with confidence or how to fish or where to go, with a lot of the time spent getting stuck at dead ends only having to backtrack. Didn't help that the graphics were quite drab as well, in terms of repeating tiles, simple Paint graphics and not much variation. Definitely quite impressive in terms of scale and I would like to see if I could finish the game, but it might help if the game was polished a bit more and maybe had more guidance with NPCs and maps, and tutorials to teach controls, among other things.

Nomron responds:

Hi, thank you so much for your feedback! I agree that there should've been more thorough explanations on many mechanics-- it was difficult to implement everything with a proper tutorial in our timeframe. As for difficulty exploring, the fast travel system was added to make that (or at the very least, backtracking) a nonissue. Thank you again for your very articulate review :)

[RetroMMO]

Certainly quite the impressive undertaking to make an entire MMO, and while I can certainly appreciate that, it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I only played it for a little bit, so perhaps I haven't done enough to get a good impression of it, but that was pretty much my main problem with it, that it doesn't really make a great first impression. While I enjoyed the old-school feeling of getting some gold, buying some basic equipment, and fighting some mobs outside town to level up, it didn't take too long for it to become stale. Everything is just a bit too old-school for me: gold and levels just come by so slowly and the combat is very basic, slow and with minimal abilities or exciting VFX to it. Not to mention that there doesn't seem to be a story or any sort of quest to guide or motivate me: I know one might say that the game is just about leveling up and wandering around to fight bigger monsters, but the combat just isn't fun enough nor the world interesting enough for that to be an incentive for me.

I haven't tried any group play yet, so I don't have anything to say about that, and perhaps that is my problem with not having much fun with the game. In that regard, however, maybe there could be something that could make it easier to group up? Instead of making people that get into fights vanish on the world map, maybe you could make a battle icon appear where they are, and if you click on it, you can jump in as a guest to help them, and maybe party afterwards? Again, would love to see some fresh new ideas to set this game apart from just being a straight old-school recreation in MMO form.

Again, this is definitely very ambitious and impressive despite my gripes, and I wish you the best of luck in adding to this game further and further. Perhaps I'll revisit later on!

EvanMMO responds:

Thanks for playing and providing such detailed feedback! Most of your requests are planned features.

[Rat Game: Roaming of the Wretched Rat]

Pretty neat game! Has some interesting and impressive old-school presentation and gameplay that, while simple and not very long, does have some decent strategy to it in the character classes. In my warrior run, the strategy just involved whittling the enemy down while timing my blocks. However, in my witch run, it was more about trying to utilize the magic wand as little as possible so I could save it up to burn the ogre boss down at the end (since I had no defenses).

While I had fun on my runs, and I do think there is some strategy, I do still feel like the gameplay is a bit shallow with very few decisions to make, and I'm a little bit worried that it's too overly reliant on RNG. I feel like the only reason I was able to make some runs work is completely down to whether I got some drops I needed from chests, and whether I didn't get overly unlucky from potions. I always prefer games to be more skill-based than luck-based, and this felt a bit more on the luck side, unfortunately. Perhaps there is some systems in that try to always give you the items you need? It's difficult to tell though because it can be tricky to tell what an item even is, since you don't get any descriptions or names when they drop from chests.

There are some elements to the HUD that are a bit confusing to parse, especially because of all the blur and scanlines making things difficult to read. For example, I had no idea there was a turn counter for the enemies because it's so tiny, dark, and crammed in the corner: something that strategically important should really be made more prominent, I think.

LeviRamirez responds:

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm meaning to do a semi-large update for this game that'll fix most, if not all of these problems, but I'm busy with finals weeks and moving rn. Come back and try it again in like a few weeks hopefully!

Glad you liked it for what it is right now!

[Don't Get the Job]

Pretty cool game! Reminds me of stuff like Shin Megami demon negotiations where you have to get a grasp on the person's likes and dislikes and then answer appropriately. The three interviewers were set up cleverly in terms of difficulty, with the first being easy (just answer badly), the second being medium (reverse it and answer correctly instead), and the third being a more difficult wild card. I liked how you could gather a lot of clues on their personality not just from the questions and dialogue, but the posters and such around them as well. Definitely was a lot of fun to figure it all out!

For minor feedback, I did find it odd that, for the actual gameplay, the buttons were nice in the way they get highlighted and react when you hover over and press them, yet the buttons on the main menu are static and boring.

I must admit, my first playthrough was a bit confusing, despite me liking the game overall. I felt like I grasped exactly what needed to be done in terms of answers, and I think I only had like one question go wrong for Angelo and two for Greg, and yet I still had them head over heels for me. On my second playthrough I did the same general approach but did it more perfectly and that worked out as it should: I dunno, just felt confusing that the game is so overly difficult it pushes you to be completely perfect for a good ending: might be better to have some wiggle room or a middle ground to let the player get a few wrong without outright failing, or know they're on the right track. For example, instead of Angelo loving me despite getting 99% of the questions wrong, maybe have him say 'well, you did pretty bad, but eh, there's something about you I liked in the end, so I say we hire you'. More gradient variations in dialogue, essentially.

YaenGames responds:

Thanks for the in-depth feedback! I agree with you, we accidentally made it too hard: Reason being a slip-up when changing it from the game jam version. Originally we had 12 questions per interviewer and since people said it was too long and repetitive, we decided to reduce it to 10. However, we accidentally reduced it to 8, giving you fewer chances to get your score low enough.
More gradual ending statements would surely have been great but would have required more poses and we had no time to do more when we made the updated version. But I agree, that would have improved the game further for sure!

Thanks again and have a great day!