Motherload

First of all I want to apologise for not posting earlier, I’ve been a bit busy but since I had a moment I thought I’d review this game.

Ok, so basically you are digging for ore which you sell to buy fuel and upgrades so you can dig deeper and “unearth mysteries from below” (don’t look at me, that cliche comes from the game description). I found this game to be kind of addictive, if anyone knows why then telling me wouldn’t be a bad idea ’cause I wouldn’t have a clue why I want to dig (virtual) holes…

Graphics wise this game looks startlingly similar to Indestructotank AE as it has the “realistic” look to it (but it has more colour then IAE, so it is better)

The controls were one section that really let this game down, you can control the digger via keyboard or mouse but both are very clunky. I also found that I was having a lot of problems getting out of my hole as the digger would get caught on non-existant things attached to the walls and would sap my fuel as I try to continue up the hole and as I usually go up the hole at the last minute this becomes a real annoyance.

All of the places you can go to above ground (the petrol station, junkyard ect.) are just as annoying as the controls as you can’t just land on the bloody platform and get served, you seem to have to land in a very exact spot on each platform and since you can’t just move sideways along the platform you have to fly up in the air slightly and place yourself on another section of the platform hoping that the damn thing will just serve you already (this is even more frustrating when the low fuel notice is beeping or even worse, critical fuel…).

All in all this game would be great if all the problems were fixed but as it currently is I feel it is semi-decent at best…

One last thing that really annoys me about this game, when you change the settings of this game (like turning the pain in the ass music off) and you lose the game the settings revert back to the defaults, if I didn’t want the music the first time around why would I want it now?!

GRAPHICS: 8/10
RE-PLAY VALUE 9/10 (IDK why though…)
MUSIC: 0.5/10 (horrid)
ALL-IN-ALL: 6.5/10

Click Here To Play Motherload

Duty & Beyond

I’ve been playing Duty & Beyond for the past few days and I have to say that it is BRILLIANT!

You are Piet, a pizza delivery guy and you have just been sent to a mansion to deliver a pizza (obviously), however when you knock on the door nobody answers, after managing to get into the house you discover a note from your customer which basically sends you on a very long winded adventure to find your customer. It’s not long before you start running into co-workers, they’re also there to deliver a pizza to their customer (did the customer order the same topping for all the pizzas?)

One thing that surprised me was the amount of dedication Piet has for his job, maybe I’m just extremely lazy but I probably wouldn’t bother with even breaking into the mansion let alone doing all the things that Piet does…but of course it’s called an adventure game for a reason…characters with a bizarre amount of dedication are not that uncommon.

The inventory in this game is HUGE, which is really cool. I personally suggest trying to pick up anything and everything that is small enough to fit in your inventory as it will all come in handy over time.

One cool thing about D&B is the way you get teleported to different places, it kind of keeps the game from becoming stale as you don’t really know where you’ll wind up next. I personally liked the little village+forest.

The part of the game where you have to control a submarine is probably one of the worst parts of this game as it is very hard to make it go to the place where you want it to go, I was very glad when I finished that section…

The other thing that really let this game down was the ending…I think the same ending on a TV show I was watching awhile back only it was funnier…and I didn’t have to spend an age on trying to finish the game.

I love the puzzles this game has to offer, they all have a certain element of difficulty but were not so hard that they were unenjoyable. This game is really good if you want a longish game to play that challenges you but still makes it fun.

Before I give my ratings I hafta say that I am surprised that there was any pizza left to deliver considering the fact that Piet seems to eat an awful lot of it…perhaps it’s a never ending pizza.

GRAPHICS: 7.5/10 (they are not really that great but they grow on you after awhile)
RE-PLAY VALUE:7/10 (if you’re trying to get the highest possible score then you’ll probably play this at least twice)
PLOT: 6.5/10 (somewhat cliched but still kind of interesting)
ALL-IN-ALL: 8.5/10

Click here to download Duty and Beyond

IndestructoTank! AE

So the other day I reviewed Indestruc2Tank, and I breifly mentioned in that post the main reason I was reviewing a game that had been out for quite awhile was because the anniversary edition had been released.

When I first found out about the anniversary edition (VIA Kongregate’s badge system) I was really excited ’cause I really liked I2T and was hoping that this version would be even better, sadly I was disappointed.

The first flaw in indestructotank AE is the camera, as you get higher the camera zooms out which can make it harder to continue your combo especially when you come back down, I think it would have been better if they had stuck with the Indestruc2Tank camera where it doesn’t zoom out it just gives you a (fairly) exact idea of where abouts you are.

The next thing that kind of annoyed me about this game was that Armor Games has attempted to make indestructotank AE look more “realistic” as a result the graphics are more bland (but realistic) but I suppose that may appeal to some people…

The Graphics That Some People May Like...

 

It seems that the fuel in your indestructo tank is used up faster, I suppose this make it more harder then I2T (which is good) but it goes so fast I almost wish there was a way to get fuel back.

It would have been nice if the experience could have been automatically added to your experience bar as you were making these combos as opposed to getting added after you’ve finished the combos as I was getting more then a little ticked off about the way I had to end combos as I was nearing low fuel just to see if I’d got enough experience to move onto the next level.

If this game wasn’t a special edition then I would have have liked it much more, if the graphics weren’t so realistic I would almost dare to say that this game was put together on the spur of the moment…

GRAPHICS: 8/10 (very realistic but not my style…not for this game anyway)
MUSIC: 2/10 (annoying and no mute button, I wanted to listen to some music but it wasn’t possible)
REPLAY VALUE: 3.4/10 (go play indestruc2tank insted)
ALL IN ALL: 6/10

Click here to play IndestructoTank AE

Indestruc2Tank

This game has been out for quite awhile but I like it so I thought I’d share my thoughts on it (that and there is an anniversary version that I am going to review and I want to compare it to this). The idea is that you have (as the name suggests) an indestructible tank, you have get yourself into the air and hit the enemies, getting combos by hitting multiple enemies. There are 3 different types of gameplay: classic, adventure and enhanced I’ve played each one so let’s go through them…

Classic is a remake of the first game (indestructoTank), I found it was pretty easy to beat the normal mode but I am terrible at Hardcore. I like the unlimited fuel mode you get after completing the game; you get the chance to try to make as many combos as possible. The best amount of combos I got was 98 in normal mode before I gave up. I realize that this version was supposed to be a remake with not too many changes in it but I wish the boom bar had been included (read adventure mode for more info about boom bar).

Adventure is basically the story mode, you are Dirk Danger, the indestructoTank driver and you have 3 missions to complete. The first 2 missions are really easy but the 3rd one is hard! My advice for anyone on the adventure mode is not to hesitate when going over holes, hesitate and you die! On the other hand sometime hesitating does pay off… What I really loved about adventure mode was the “boom bar,” when the boom bar is full you can press the up button and fly into the air, this is really handy especially on level 3, which has more holes then a golf course. While on the topic on level 3 I don’t know what is more depressing, falling into the same hole heaps of times or thinking you’ve cleared a hole and then falling into the next one…

Enhanced is basically Classic with a boom bar (YAY!)…so I can’t really say much about this that hasn’t already been said…

Ok so here are the final scores…
GRAPHICS: 8.5/10 (I reckon the cartoonish graphics really suit the game…except for the conversation graphics in adventure mode, they sometimes looked a bit off)
RE-PLAY VALUE: 7.8/10 (worth playing more then once!)
ALL IN ALL:8.7/10

Click Here To Play Indestruc2Tank