Postby da_guru » 2010.02.01 (17:34)
Hello. So, I'll finally keep my promise and write a detailed feedback. I hope it will be of any use to you. Here we go...
Review Prophet Bonus Disc Edition
1: Professialogue
It seems to me like this is to be a kind of a prologue of your pack, am I right?! So let me write the following as a prologue of my review as well.
Although the thumbnail doesn’t suggest that, this one is astonishingly well-planned and at least in my opinion you left your own very special note on it (once again). If anyone showed me 100 maps and said: “Find out Seneschal’s!” – I reckon I’d be able to. All I can say for sure is that you have developed your very own style, which is clearly distinguishable from others. That’s why I’ll give you two advices right at the beginning (although they seem quite paradoxical):
1. Stay just the way you are.
2. Keep changing.
I hope you understand that.
Professialogue is like a prelude in a concert: definitely not the best part of the whole, but the one, which makes you listen to the following ones as well, expecting greater things to come.
I really like the gameplay: it’s smooth and flowy somehow, however it feels a bit empty. Only you and your ninja next to some mines: harmless, unless you’re asking them for a dance.
3.5/5
2: Heights
And that was the sort of map the pack had to continue with. Better than the first, but still leaves room for even more awesome maps. Good thing that the gold told me on which platforms to stop. The chainguns might have shot me more often without the gold, but fortunately it lit my path and it was the path of life. The only thing, which made me wonder, was how to get a quick AGD.
3.8/5
3: Gifthorse
Don’t look a gift horse into the mouth. Well, you made me do it and feel it, though. The one moment I had just been welcomed by drones, the next moment I was already hurrying for those rare pieces of gold spread all over the inside of the mouth, escaping gunshots and trying to find an exit out of that hell. All in all not a very pleasant stay. But an experience worth at least ten new horses. An experience you’ll remember, whether you like or not.
4.0/5
4: Float
A “stairway to heaven” - only guarded by one enemy. No problem!? Oh, it is. The chaingun weakened me, the mines did the dirty work. I call that a very ecological/economical enemy placement.
3.7/4
5: Fomalhaut
Gifthorse part 2. Slightly better than the original. Played very well with this stationary drone. You were right – it gave me a feeling like exploring a foreign planet.
4.2/5
6: Permanent Passenger
I have to admit that this map confuses me the most (of those in this pack). Overall it was the many mines in the centre, which didn’t seem to have an use, except for letting rockets through, but not letting the ninja pass. Furthermore it wasn’t as well-structured as the others, but it provided a welcome change after all those maps.
3.2/5
7: Club with a nail in it
This one also gave me a strange feeling. So simple, yet so difficult. You certainly planned it this way, but the chaingun was extremely annoying on the way back to the finish and made me die in 90% of all tries. Moving around the tiles was an extra-challenge, imo.
However I have to say the enemies were quite effective and the minimalistic placement of objects fitted well in here.
3.4/5
8: Slice of life
I’m still not sure how I feel about this map. I really loved dodging those rockets and I also loved the upper enclosed space (with the one-ways), but it didn’t feel completely right.
Still - good job.
3.7/5
9: In the kingdom of sleep and rust
Loved the title, loved the tiles. Addictive gameplay. My only major complaint would be about the long way you have to go to the place where there’s action, maybe you could shorten that or make it more interesting on the way there.
4.0/5
10: Build upon
My absolute number one from the pack. Wonderful tiles, highly enjoyable gameplay, never boring at any moment. In plain and simple English: EXTRAORDINARY.
Innovative aspects missing, but would have been 5aved.
4.7/5
11: Mjolnir
I’ll repeat myself: I dare say this could have been one of PALEMOON’s.
Neither the best, nor the worst (out of this pack). Included good elements, such as the drone and the bottom-right rocket.
3.8/5
12: The great unwashed
The gold was shimmering through the dusty air as I was standing in that back-street environment. In such an atmosphere of danger every step could be a fatal error. I was so lost in thoughts, that I didn’t even realize I was stepping forwards, carried by feet that didn’t feel like my own anymore, – and out of hiding. The last thing I saw was a bright red flash of light.
Probably the 2nd best map of all. Perfect range of both enemies. AGD = additional challenge and a reasonably difficult one.
4.4/5
13: Post-prophet
Not a memorable ending of this map-pack, but at least some kind of epilogue.
I saw some similarities to build upon (at least the tiles), but the gameplay quality was a bit lower. Nice to see it had a flowy character, but there was nothing else too special about it.
3.5/5
B1: Prolongalogue – Face Edit (for GTM)
I’ll also say some words about his one, although its probably just a ded to GTM.
I bet you know it is below your standards, but even this means it’s not too bad.
And yeah, I would definitely edit this ugly face.
2.7/5
B2: Haemoglobins
Now you were thinking serious again. Much better than the previous map, even though it was much shorter. Interesting tiles, reasonably hard gameplay, good bonus map.
3.8/5
B3: (Oh Man, it’s a) Postal Strike
Weird map. I felt as if I was being watched throughout the whole map, although there were just floorguards. Getting the exit switch was a real challenge, collecting the gold was fun. A bit too long for my taste, though. Reminded me of your earlier maps as ‘cheesemonger’.
3.4/5
B4: Deliverance
One of the best out of the bonus levels.
I liked there was an optional gold section. Also a very addictive map, the only ‘but’ here is that the gameplay became quite repetitive after a while.
4.0/5
B5: Harvest
(Title reminded me of the first map of my map-pack)
Well-themed: feeling of collecting the crop well communicated. Too bad I only got seconds for entering the sections in the left, because they were locked so quickly by floorguards.
There was no spamming of objects, but the map was a bit too full (or maybe ‘cramped’ is a better description, dunno).
3.4/5
B6: Built upon
Sequel of ‘Build upon’, am I right? Not as good as its predecessor, but still very nice. But here it seemed like you made the same mistake as I’m used to make: the desire to fill every corner of the map, even if it’s not really necessary. There are way too many chambers for my taste.
3.5/5
B7: Epileptilogue
Good map to end the whole pack with. Nice gold design. But I had no real desire to say hello to the chainguns, they seemed so unfriendly. Maybe you could have set the exit switch elsewhere (perhaps on the bottom), so to make the lower section at least partly compulsory to visit.
3.7/5
average rating
Maps 1-13 (Main part) 3.84
Maps B1-B7 (Bonus disc) 3.50
Total 3.72
Summary:
- very enjoyable map-pack, I’d loved to play more of these
- high-quality levels (numa-average is “very good” =4/5)
- your strengths: diverse gameplay, your tilesets are becoming better and better
- your weaknesses: hardly any, maybe lack of innovative ideas, difficulty is often borderline to “too hard for the average player”(like me), but your strengths weigh more heavily
- you’re still one of my favourite authors, but I think you already knew that
- keep mapping and bare my first two advices in mind
- I’m in love with your signature (self-made image?)
Well, I think I wrote enough now. Phew, I’m sooo exhausted now.
Yours,
Da_guru
(btw, I’m recently working on a map-pack myself, I would love to have you as a playtester if you don’t mind)
Last edited by
da_guru on 2010.03.31 (10:17), edited 1 time in total.
