UndefinedArt's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Epic Battle Fantasy 3]

Oh. Wow.

Look, I'm going to do something that I usually don't do for Flash games, and that is assess them compared to the professional game market. Because, frankly, that's the only possible criticism I can offer this game.

Firstly, it would have been nice if the skills were streamlined a little bit more. That is, instead wasting 2 or 3 slots on different abilities that did the exact same thing, just have one column that upgrades itself and requires different skills to reach another level. This would have really been useful for Matt, whose three Earth based skills could have easily been streamlined into one that upgraded its animation and power with higher levels. While this isn't a huge complaint, one thing I did notice was that, on my first playthrough, I was slightly intimidated by the sheer amount of skills that each of the characters had - but by the end, I found myself wishing there were more levels and depth to each of the skills. It would have been really nice if skills had a higher level cap or added bonus effects with higher levels, like dealing extra fire damage or having a chance of freezing enemies - it would have made the late game grinding more enjoyable and fulfilling, rather than for the quite mundane task of filling the bestiary. Ideally, the heroes should only be at about 80% completion by the time they reach the final boss - necessitating some extra grinding to get to maximum level. As it stood, I hit 30 by the time I reached the Protector boss (kind of necessary though, I was playing on Epic) and felt that the Volcano and Space levels were pretty much redundant since I had no more character development.

Furthermore, some of the level design was a little bit frustrating. I remember the first time I played, being dropped into the town left me disoriented and I had trouble locating the first dungeon, which broke my attention span and lead me to quit the game before trying it again a few days later. Couldn't there have been an opening fight against Akron? It would have set the scene better than any written cutscene - it would have hooked the audience straight away, and immediately set a standard for the eventual level they would reach and surpass.

Also, there were a few control issues. It would have been nice if you could have either used arrow keys in combat or used mouse in the world map - as it stood, constantly switching between left and right hands started to annoy me after a little while. The control system in the fourth minigame was quite frustrating - it wasn't impossible to use, but just took more time to adjust to than was necessary, and I got very annoyed at losing because the two-button attack control scheme delayed my input. The visuals in the fifth minigame were also an obstacle - red and grey rocks that kill you shooting across a background of red and grey was quite tedious, and often I got hit by rocks that I didn't see because they blended in with the background too well.

That said, I've still put about 40 hours into this game in order to completely finish it and get all the medals. The visuals are gorgeous, the sound and music is fantastic, the minigames are challenging but ultimately fulfilling. I found the humour delicious and the characters rich. There is not a doubt in my mind that this is the very epitome of Flash gaming - there is nothing that even comes close to the scope and depth you've captured here, and frankly, this has been the most enjoyable RPG I've played for *years*, professional or otherwise. Truly a milestone - if the next title in the series expands upon this one with extra content and fewer problems, then frankly, I can see the series hitting the professional downloadable title market - and I would gladly pay for it.

[Madness Hydraulic]

Fair game, big problems.

I like the idea for this game. It genuinely has some great potential. But I just felt that there were a lot of gameplay problems that really bogged down the pacing and made me eventually quit at around wave 30 or so. Firstly, the knockdown of both you and enemies is a major problem. Against clumps of enemies, it makes them too easy to kill. Against you, it makes it sometimes impossible to break out of tight situations without taking 20 damage from random shotgun blasts and being meleed in the face when trying to reach a more favourable position. Being knocked down by every single bullet or punch taken seriously just broke up the gameplay and it ended up feeling awkward and stunted - the movement didn't feel fluid at all, and that wasn't helped by the extremely annoying lag. Also, a wider camera view would have been favourable - it's difficult to kill enemies you can't see but can still shoot at you. A lot of moments in this game wound up being mash click solution instead of actual skillful combat. Furthermore, the way that melees and shooting alter your movement in midair is extremely frustrating - it made me feel like I had no control over how my own character behaved. This wasn't helped by the fact that the enemies had the same melee animations and the lack of a contrasting colour meant that Hank was perpetually lost in a sea of grey. Another thing that really would have helped would have been gameplay variety - different levels, game modes, time attacks and challenges, things to keep the player interested. I mean, simple is good, yeah, but you still enough variety and challenge to spice up the gameplay - a greater control over upgrades, or different turrets, some more interesting and fun weapons, maybe upgrading melee weapons and other factors. It was a fun idea and generally done quite well, but the amount of problems that the game had, coupled with the fact that it just got boring really quickly, made me drop it before I finished.

[Bouncy Bob]

This is a fantastic game

I finished it, without too much difficulty, and personally I really like the physics engine. No matter what anyone else found this game ran 100% smoothly for me, and the only problem was sometimes when travelling really fast I would get half stuck in the ground. But U could easily jump out of it and it didn't distract game play.
Good Job

ProfessorFlash responds:

Glad to see people still find my game. The game does indeed run smooth for everybody, the below 4 reviews are fake and made out of "revenge". ActionSick didn't like one of my reviews on his game and decided to take 'revenge' on my game. Anyway, thanks for your review :).

[Artificial Junk]

It has potential

Quite fun, and the upgrading element is satisfying if somewhat tedious. The starting score function is also a good idea, rewarding you for rushing through the waves. The music was vastly inappropriate and repetitive though, and gameplay was at times frustrating. As for graphics, a lot more effort is required; everything looks shoddy and flat. Some of the upgrades are just silly, and none of them make you say "Wow, that looks cool." An improvement in that area would give the game a much better feel.

[Closure]

Innovative

Interesting and innovative gameplay, a true brainteaser. Music and colour scheme really sets the mood, but artwork could have been better. The animation was jaunty and slightly frustrating. Still, a very nice job.

[Sin Mark]

A well-made game

A very well-made and fun game, challenging but not necessarily frustrating. While the visuals were splendid, I found that, especially on the later levels, I had trouble with FPS, even on low quality. Also a bit annoying was that you can only equip one trinket, forcing you to choose between a list of equally useful effects. Some of the spells were a glitchy; when using raise dead, for example, the zombie minion sometimes starts running away from the battle, much to my dismay. After getting the trinket of piercing, the game also got a bit too easy; it enables you to take down even the giant trolls in five or six quick shots, which, if performed rapidly at close range, can take under three seconds. Also, perhaps enabling you to run through enemies would be useful, due to the difficulty of aiming at an enemy at extremely close range, especially if you are cornered against the far side of the map. Other than that, addictive gameplay, wonderful visuals and mood-setting background music give this game a well deserved 9.

[Notepad Drawing Collab 2008]

Turned out pretty well in end

Disregarding the quality of my own artwork, which I express a certain level of disappointment in (probably should have put in a little more effort), this turned out very nicely. The Sketchup tool was pretty annoying though; the pencil tool didn't flow nicely, and seriously, could you have made the stamps any bigger? Other than that, the menu system was very comprehensive and easy to use. The beeping noise got frustrating after a while though, and were occasionally out of sync. Perhaps some music in the background would contribute to the overall atmostphere?

JKAmovies responds:

Thanks, but for starters, Your piece was nice, simple yet detailed. that's why I let it in.

2. You use the brush size tool to change the stamp sizes as well.
3. There's 4 piece's of music to choose from. That's why there was 4 little play buttons on the top of the screen :P

Thanks for commenting.

[Armed with Wings 2]

MWAHAHA

You said I was trapped in the room but I GOT OUT HAHAHA!

...No seriously, you superjump against the left (and presumably right as well) wall, and hope that you simply never come down again.

In other news, an absolutely gorgeous game, love the music and art direction. However, the controls were just downright annoying, and the plot seemed to have a few loopholes.

[Fear Unlimited Arena]

Hmm

Sorry guys, but I have to say that nothing you've made so far has been able to top the original Fear Unlimited. All the ones you make nowadays have a rough, unpolished look with make the entire game look very unprofessional. Gameplay is pretty much the same but a tad more annoying because it's harder to control.

Seriously, I would actually recommend just reusing the graphics from the first game, and add one or two new gameplay elements, instead of trying to redo it and churning out the unmotivated games so far.

[Z-Rox]

Very nice game, and some advice for other players:

A thoroughly enjoyable game, and although I'm not quite finished yet, I'm sure we'll get there soon enough. The concept is very original, and the game, despite being very simple, is extremely addictive. My only problem with it was that most of the later levels consisted mainly of trying to guess the name of the shape rather than the actual shape itself (which was relatively easy).

Also, I've noticed that a lot of people are getting stuck on the game, particularly on Level 11. I won't give away the answer, but here's some advice; if you read the tutorial properly, you will notice that it says answers can be letters, numbers, symbols, shapes and objects. Hopefully that's helpful. Remember to read instruction carefully in the future.