I was using my soccer themed mousepad to run a speed test in windows 8 and thought I'd take a break to try out some of the games in the new groupees greenlight bundle. People often ask for impressions, so here you go. Sorry if this is a bit long or something:
First, for those who don't know, Groupees are back with a new bundle of games that might one day be on steam. Not only that, but it supports the charity cause of "water", which seems like a splendid idea.
http://groupees.com/bagb4
Mr Bree+ (DRM free download +
Greenlight. Desura keys to follow)
First the bad. The game crashed for me...a lot. Start the game? Crash. Change an option? Crash. Try to recover from a crash? You better believe that will be a crash.
But eventually flash got its act together and I got into the game proper to try it out. It is a strange package. At first, I thought I was in for a cute platformer. But the cartoon like intro suggests something a lot darker and then the blood starts flowing from spikes and saws. It adds up to an unusual presentation, but a pleasing and somewhat unique one that would be excellent with more technical polish.
The game itself is your standard super meat boy/boshy type of adventure which is no bad thing. To mix things up, the game offers large scrolling environments and a metroidvania type power up system where you can earn abilities like a crouch or extra jump to let you collect the extras in previous levels. It is simple fun with the levels being challenging, whilst providing enough respawn points to keep things fair.
Perhaps to try and be slightly original, an interesting feature is that the levels change in appearance after a certain number of deaths:
For example one level took on a darker blood like filter, in another it started raining. Nothing earth shattering, but these sort of things add up to result in a game that is a lot better than you would expect and makes it a highly recommended pickup for a future steam key and greenlight vote.
Man in a Maze (Desura key,
Greenlight vote)
Stability wasn't a problem this time and I was able to get into the game straight away. Whereas Bree+ is deceptively creepy, this game is openly creepy with the game show "smash tv" type presentation being combined with your ever smiling protagonist.
In this game you enter a one screen room and have to clear it of gems pacman style. Once this is done, you move onto the next room which introduces elements like robots that shoot, a ball you can throw and power up and other similar challenges. After each level you win a prize, which might be something like a set of steak knives that does absolutely nothing.
Does it have that long term addictive hook or challenge? It appears not. The direction to "swipe down" on the wheel mini-game is rather jarring too. It does seem suited to the tablet platforms (you'll recognise some common ui elements), but they could hide that a bit better. However those concerns aside, there is enough game here at a high enough quality to give it a look in case it ever really delivers.
ZigFrak (Desura and
Greenlight)
The first thing the game does is nags you to register. Is this 2003 or something? Don't do that, especially if you are an indie dev. Once past this step (thankfully it requires a key and no email, you are into space).
What we have here is a real mixture of the good (the decent graphics) the bad (the menu system) and the ugly (the menu system gets another run). Everything makes sense once you work out what button does what, but actually reaching that point is an exercise in randomly scrolling your mouse through menus, clicking on different parts of the screen and hoping something will let you progress.
It is a shame that everything isn't spelled out clearly, because what is here works just fine. Your craft controls smoothly, targeting makes sense and the game seems to be making pains to simplify steps like docking (target something and press enter, easy!).
What this means is potentially there is some fun to be had in space, but you'll need to be prepared to put some work into it. Will you bother with Star Citizen and X Rebirth just around the corner (well maybe a big corner for star citizen), probably not. But one more space game on your steam profile, maybe, isn't a bad thing if you must spend some cash.
