Summer 2003 Day of Zeux Judging Sheets:Exophase
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*--- Summer 2003 Dualstream Day of Zeux ---*
+++- DoZ Score sheet -++++++++++++++++++++++
###- Exophase -#############################
--- Introduction ---
Ah.. finally finished these scores. It took a lot longer than I wanted it to
and I apologize for that. Mostly I've been pleased with the results of this
DoZ, and I'm glad that this many people finished again. However, there are
some things I'd like to say regarding future DoZ's, and since I'm the host of
this DoZ it's best that I say it here:
Please try to take the anonymity rule seriously. I know that a lot of people
find it very obvious who did which games, but the judges never know for sure
unless you spoil it for them. This really applies more to other people talking
about other's games in public places, but some individuals have also talked
about their games before the judging was finished. I know you all want to tell
everyone about your DoZ game after putting all the work you have into it, but
please wait until the results are out so that the judge's scores aren't skewed
because of that.
I don't know if this was clear to everyone (and honestly, I can't understand
why it wouldn't be), but you may NOT use char sets made before the DoZ began
in your game. We've been pretty lax about it this time, but in the future it
could mean disqualification. No one wants to see anyone's game being
disqualified for petty reasons such as this, but you have to understand that
this is CHEATING. The rules are very clear regarding this; unfortunately MANY
people violated this rule this time around. Before entering any DoZ you must
be sure to read all of the rules very thoroughly.
I don't really want to be the bearer of bad news in saying these things, but
I think that it's good for future reference so that everyone can have more
enjoyable upcoming DoZ's. Now, there are just a few more things regarding this
DoZ that I'd like to get off my chest...
I'd like to again apoligize, this time for MZX bugs. There have been a few
bugs and version discrepencies that have caused some games to not work as they
should. I've truly dedicated a great deal of time to finding the source of
these bugs and I believe I've been pretty successful (see my notes regarding
the games). Nonetheless, it's not fair for games to be potentially penalized
for unpredictable bugs that aren't really their fault. Hopefully there won't
be any such scoring problems regarding this.
Lastly I want to give a shout out to two people, asgromo and Dark_Shaolin,
for not being able to submit their games even though they finished it. I was
hoping that we could judge them anyway (disqualified, though), but I
personally haven't received either of them, so that's probably not going to
happen. I of course urge you both to compete in the uncoming DoZ.
--- Policies ---
These are just a few notes regarding my own personal scoring style.
- Music and sound both receive 1's if none is included, and 0 if the
music/sound is so unbearably bad as a whole that I have to turn it
off. Fortunately no one got 0's in either this time, but it does happen
sometimes.
- I judge discretion regarding how much common sense the author uses,
basically. However, to get a perfect score in this category, the game really
has to look and feel very professionally done. Things that are potential
traps for discretion are bad language, unfair gameplay, obvious bugs,
missing files, questionable rule adherence, and just being really
annoying. ^_-
- The "grade" given is purely subjective and doesn't really have any meaning
regarding anything, it's just a grade I gave the game, similar to one that
would be given in an American school... an A is very good and an F is very
bad, and letters inbetween are just that (there's no E of course) and
+'s/-'s are higher/lower than the baseline.. uh.. no point really explaining
this this much so yeah ^^
Team 1337: Paradigm AM (The Internet)
Grade: C, score: 159/300 (53%) It certainly could have been worse..
Gameplay: 22/70
There really wasn't a lot of gameplay in this entry. The game mostly
consisted of a few rounds of going between events. You talked to people or
touched things and went to the next thing, with a very slight amount of
direction. There wasn't any kind of fighting or anything that involved any
level of thinking. There was one short blinking maze, but those are
typically frowned upon and it didn't really add anything to the game. The
game itself is short, although there aren't any serious bugs, as far as I'm
aware.
Graphics: 41/50
The graphics are quite good. The backgrounds are well detailed and colors
are also chosen well. One thing that impressed me was the recreation of
familiar icons. This was done faithfully and gave the game an authentic
feel. Some pretty decent fades are used. Overall nothing incredibly
fantastic, but everything had a clean and polished look to it. The graphics
also have a decent amount of variation.. that is there differing kinds of
areas. There was however one obvious pitfall to the graphics and that's the
people. They're all default, 1 faced MZX smileys. Didn't really fit in with
the background at all... the author of this game could have made them look
nicer.
Plot: 28/45
There is some plot, and I do have to give them credit for what's there. The
problem is that nothing really progresses in a way that makes a lot of
sense. The ending comes out of nowhere and is completely forced. There are
plenty of NPC's but none of them really say anything important, they're just
there for amusement. Speaking of which, the game seems to attempt to be
funny sometimes, but never really succeeds. The overall premise was rather
dull, but it probably could have done alright if it was put together more
coherently.
Theme: 26/40
The theme is used.. that is to say, their intentions regarding the theme are
obvious. You're in an internet based virtual reality game and there are some
internet like aspects to it... kinda. Having familiar internet icons and
personalities here was a good idea, but unfortunately the game didn't take
it far enough. Too much of the game had NOTHING to do with the internet, and
much of what seemed to really was more about computers in general.
Innovation: 20/35
Gameplay-wise there's nothing new here. The setting is also very
familiar... seems like I've seen something just like this in some other
games, humm... the whole virtual reality MMORPG idea is unique for MZX, but
it's also a .Hack ripoff. Still, it does get some points for that.
Discretion: 0/20
Ow, where do I begin. Okay, first, this game has a lot of blatantly
offensive material. That in and of itself doesn't merit its low discretion
score, but it seems like it was used for no reason whatsoever other than to
get a bad discretion score. Especially the ending, with some bad rap song
with a lot of really offensive lyrics is played; it's not the song itself
that's the entirity of the problem, but the fact that there's no explanation
or reason at all for WHY it's played. Same goes for a lot of the other
material. But, that's not all. The game had a lot flashing white light that
was rather painful on the eyes. Some of the text was also pretty hard to
read. Lastly.. the score was at 3, but the game used a font from the
encyclopedia for the title screen. This is really bad and should probably
make the game disqualified, but the judges decided it won't be over this, so
instead I'll just take away its remaining discretion points. All in all, the
author of this game didn't show very good discretion.
Music: 18/35
While there was definitely music there, I don't think it accomplished all
that much. There were about 4 pieces... At least two of them have been
commonly used in MZX games. None of them fit very well or were even very
well done. They were all pretty long, but some of them were just of a low
enough quality that I didn't really care to listen to it for very long. The
music could have used these things: more pieces, more variation, and pieces
that more closely fit the mood of the game. Of course, I've heard much worse
music in DoZ games before.
Sound: 1/5
No sound effects.
Team 1347: Castlevania: Drum Solo of Discombobulation (Trust)
Grade: C+, score: 154/300 (51%) OMGWTFLOL!!!!!!!!
Gameplay: 51/70
This game definitely had gameplay. It was clearly modelled after old NES
Castlevania games. However some things it wrong pretty badly and that really
hurt it. First, the whip engine isn't very responsive nor does it stay out
for long enough. Then there's the jumping.. it's just bad. Way too slow and
clunky. The movement in general has this kind of feel. This makes fighting
certain enemies hard, especially the bats who have a way of creeping up on
you when you're in really tight situations. The game has a lot of bottomless
pits, which is annoying because the control has such obvious
problems. Fortunately you can save anywhere, which alleviates a lot of the
pain of this game. This game isn't the MOST challenging I've played
recently, but it's hardly a walk in the palk either. Don't let the fact that
this is an obvious joke entry fool you, because the level mechanics,
enemies, and bosses are pretty on the level gameplay-wise. Like I said, the
whip weapon is pretty terrible, but the other weapons more than make up for
this. They're not perfect, but they're still much more pleasant to use than
the whip. Of course using them uses hearts, but that's not the main
handicap.. that would be the fact that you have to press delete. Delete is
an awful key for anything in a sidescroller, and I can't really justify
using it for something action-oriented like a weapon. There's no really
excuse for using it either when all of the other keys are every bit as
accessible by this MZX version.
This game is very LONG. I can't emphasize this enough. It's definitely
longer than any DoZ game I can remember playing, and it's longer than a lot
of full MZX games too. If you play this one you're in for the long haul,
which is good if you can tolerate the gameplay flaws. Bosses near the end
get pretty hard although if you play around enough you can find a pretty
cheap way to beat them (which is good because the end boss can be very cheap
himself). There are some other nice additions too, like the
worldmap.. although that really doesn't add much to the game itself. So,
overall, this game does have pretty solid gameplay. It also has a few
problems and some people won't like it for that. If you can overlook them,
though, then it's a worthwhile way to kill quite a bit of time.
Graphics: 29/50
At first I was going to give this game a much lower graphics score. At first
the graphics are pretty hideous: blocky and very loud. Basically like you'd
expect a pretty bad MZX game to be, although there were some slightly better
things thrown in (char editing on the backgrounds). The worldmap also looks
particularly bad and the chars are your typical MZX smileys. But strangely,
the game actually got BETTER looking as it progressed. Not just in one area
but consistently, it just kept getting better and better. Now, it never
became truly excellent, but during some of the later levels the backgrounds
actually looked like they had some level of skill applied to them. There
were some decent effects all about that gave some nice, albiet minor,
graphical additions. The levels also had a distinctly NES look to them, even
the pretty bad ones, which is a nice touch given the nature of the game...
Plot: 31/45
There's a pretty clear presence of a plot. Even though it's a sidescroller
it does have more plot then you'd expect from one, particularly the older
NES Castlevania ones it's emulating. The dialogue at first is pretty
annoying and not very funny, then it progresses to semi-annoying and funny,
but only with injokes. By the end I was actually laughing, as it was really
pretty funny. I've got to give the game credit for turning around rather
unexpectedly in this department. Still, the plot is kinda weak, but the
comedy value is there.
Theme: 1/40
The level of either theme present in this game was pretty much a joke.. they
just emphasized "trust" a few times, although this did add some decent humor
value, present the topic it did not. They even through in "the internet"
towards the end for kicks too but that didn't really matter. Put it this
way, it's obvious that the maker of the game didn't really make it with plot
in mind.
Innovation: 23/35
A Castlevania like sidecsroller in MZX.. haven't really seen one of these
done to this level before, so it's pretty new and interesting. Also
parodying it was original. Of course since it's a parody it in nature kinda
lacks pure originality but for MZX it's easy distinguished.
Discretion: 5/20
Even though this game is an instant-DQ, so to speak, I'm still going to
judge it as if it weren't, and given that it used very poor discretion.. I
mean, it's so obvious that it takes after the previous joke game,
FFXXX. Sure, that doesn't really mean that it gives away anonimity but if it
didn't it just be blatant theft anyway. Point is that it doesn't show very
good discretion to reuse so many things from other games.. using inside
jokes also doesn't show that much discretion, and there were some annoying
gameplay aspects that could have been easily changed.
Music: 9/30
Usually game parodies have music consisting of extremely downgraded versions
of the original, and unfortunately this game is no different. There are lots
of pieces, and I think they're all Castlevania knock offs, but they're all
pretty awful. They're all very short and repetitive, which makes them
quickly grating. I wish there was just a lot more to them.
Sound: 5/5
The game had a lot of sound effects and it used them well. Some of them were
a bit silly, but then so was this game so it was fitting. None of them were
annoying... and they really helped breath life into this game.
Team 160: The Evil Internet Virus (The Internet)
Grade: C+, score: 197/300 (66%) It was okay, kinda boring though.
Gameplay: 41/70
The gameplay in this game consisted of running around in small rooms,
picking up ammo, life, and coins, and shooting enemies that spawned. When
you got all the coins, the level ended. There were 7 weapons, but many of
them seemed to do the exact same thing, although some of them were pretty
interesting. This quickly got tedious for me... For one thing, there was
only one type of enemy. You also had to spend a lot of extra time just
running around picking up all the coins. This was nice for one level, but
when I saw there were four more just like it afterwards I wasn't that
happy. There were some other problems with the main engine. It made you
switch a weapon on at the start of every level, so you always started
unarmed. The ammo listing was brought up when you pressed enter (yet I don't
think this listed every weapon), however it would have been much more useful
to have an onscreen one. As it stood you got plenty of ammo so running out
wasn't usually a problem, but it could and did happen for various weapons,
and when it did happen you could be in trouble depending on the
situation. For instance, if several enemies suddenly spawned and you ran out
of ammo you could be pushed against a wall and no amount of further shooting
could get you out. Then you got to die a slow and embarrassing death... this
was especially easy to have happen to you in the last level where enemies
constantly spawned and the space was much more cramped. So, to sum things
up, the game WAS sorta fun for a while, but wasn't something I wanted to
play for as much as the game made me. It looked like there were going to be
more things to this game.. unfortunately, there weren't. I guess they ran
out of time.
Graphics: 30/50
The graphics in this game get the job done, but without any real extra
touch. They're not bad, but don't really stand out. Nice curved edges are
used and default animations are edited. Likewise a lot of bright, attention
grabbing colors are used for powerups and the like and some things are
nicely animated (like coins and health) keeping the screen nicely
active. The intro looked okay, not great but again, it got the job done. I'd
say the intro in particular was a bit above average. Now, for the
problems... well, the main problem with the graphics was the abundance of
black space. There was just way too much of it; of course that was somewhat
alleviated by all the power ups and stuff strewn over the floor but there
still could have been nicer floors. The graphics are also very
repetitive. Once you've seen the first level, you've seen it all. So, a
little above average, but not a lot. Oh, and the font was annoyingly bad.
Plot: 25/45
The plot is introduced in the opening and the first few scenes following it
pretty well. It's all easy to understand and makes enough sense; it's clear
that some thought was put into it. However, after these scenes.. plot's
pretty much flushed down the toilet. We don't even get much of an
appropriate ending, just some generic text ("you are free!"). Would have
been nice to have seen things much more fleshed out.
Theme: 28/40
It hit the theme pretty well in the background plot, utilizing the
internet.. as you can tell by the topic, it involves a virus and an
MMORPG... again it's kinda .hack like, but that's to be expected. It really
could have carried through more beyond this, but since the plot was
vaporized beyond the intro points that's all there really is to it.
Innovation: 22/35
Basic MZX combat, multiple weapons.. been done before, but I don't think
I've ever seen a random placement engine quite like this before. It
definitely had a new, unique feel to it.
Discretion: 18/20
Didn't really do anything in poor judgement, although I would have
personally done less levels in general, but that could have just made the
game too short. Could have used some more instructions (ie, press enter to
view the ammo) and could have had more ammo on the menu...
Music: 30/35
I liked the music. There were plenty of high quality pieces that all lasted
a very long time. This variance really made the long winded gameplay more
enjoyable. I'm pretty sure these aren't all original tracks, although I
don't know where they're from. I'm told some of them might be from the game
Flashback. Nonetheless, the music all worked. It gave an appropriate feel to
the game, and was fairly enjoyable to listen to.
Sound: 3/5
A lot of sound effects are used, for pretty much everything. Some of them
are fairly common as far as sound effects in MZX go, and the constant usage
of "groovy!" got a little old but the sound effects were still well enough
utilized.
Team 101: Net Demon (The Internet)
Grade: F+, score: 66/300 (22%) This game is just really bad.
Gameplay: 15/70
Let's see.. basic MZX shooting in one board with a few mindless robot
enemies. Very short and pointless.
Graphics: 18/50
The best part of the graphics in this game are the text openings which have
been converted for usage in MZX.. other than that, they're pretty bad. The
intro looks barely passable, but the "game" itself is made up of mostly
black backgrounds and some default chars used in weird ways (like letters
for bullets?) And.. yeah, that's about it.
Plot: 10/45
There is some attempt at a plot, but it makes no sense at all. Seems almost
randomly conceived.
Theme: 4/40
The game starts out trying to have something to do with the theme but
clearly the author gave up in making this really related to the internet so
just wrote some nonsense to try to make it seem that way, or
something. Yeah.
Innovation: 3/35
There's nothing innovative about this game, just standard MZX shooting...
Discretion: 10/20
I'm basically giving them half points for even submitting this thing. If you
can't handle the DoZ don't bother ;D
Music: 5/35
One mod. Very repetitive. I think ripped from somewhere. It's not looking
good here either.
Sound: 1/5
None.
Team 215: Lethal Recourse (Trust)
Grade: C, score: 169/300 (56%) This game is a lesson in tragedy.
Gameplay: 41/70
Alright.. let me start out by saying that this game could have gotten a much
higher gameplay score. It started out pretty solidly, and the engine was
very nice but... it was a flawed concept, in a way. At first I thought it
was a really TERRIBLE idea, to have to enter combos like this in a REAL TIME
engine. But, after a bit, it really started to grow on me.. there's a steep
learning curve, but I really think that the gameplay in this game could have
worked, and it could have gotten pretty good, too. Unfortunately, it quickly
bugs out.. it just becomes full of bugs by the second board. Lots of
graphical glitches on screen, enemies not working, getting stuck INSIDE an
enemy... then, there's the infamous endgame bug which froze MZX by trapping
it in a loop of teleport players with commands set to 32767. Not
good. That's more of a discretion matter, though, because it didn't really
detract from the gameplay itself. What did was the difficulty.. the enemies
were too merciless in taking your life while you struggling to fight against
them. Maybe if they fought in a way with delays similar to the ones you'd
experience while fighting things would be different. Still, at first the
engine seemed very smooth and nicely executed.. it's a shame this game
couldn't have done more with it.
Graphics: 32/50
They work pretty well; nice animations, especially with the Kama blade. The
backgrounds look nice, although there are some errors in not loading char
sets for one or two of the intro boards. Nonetheless for 1x1 they stand out.
Plot: 30/45
We just get a backplot, but it's described in a lot of well written
text. It's intruiging; too bad we never get to see where it goes.
Theme: 0/40
I couldn't find one thing in this game that related it to either topic, and
no, saying "trust" in the title screen doesn't count.
Innovation: 30/40
The whole Kama blade engine was definitely very innovative, if not perfectly
executed in this game. It would have been very nice to have seen it work
out. There's no question that this game stands out.. it also makes intuitive
use of sprites and the vlayer, giving it a technical edge over other games
which allows its relatively complicated Kama blade engine to work, as well
as giving it a nice heads up display.
Discretion: 9/20
First, the gameover bug. Settings commands to 32767 in the first place is a
bad idea, because if you're not careful, this is what happens.. control of
MZX is literally seized. Doing an infinite loop of the relatively SLOW
teleport player command can result in disaster, and it did here. This game
obviously wasn't thoroughly bug tested, or else this would have been
noticed. This isn't the only problem with the game... first, the whole Kama
blade engine shows questionable discretion because it's just a very strange
idea for an action game. Then, the text in the openings.. it was so FAST! I
guess whoever wrote this must be a real speed reader because even at speed 9
I could barely keep up.
Music: 24/35
I only heard a few mods in this game. They were nice, and fit the areas
well.. but I could have used more. Then again, this game could have used a
lot more too.
Sound: 3/5
There were sound effects for swings and the like and monster's howling in
the background. Unfortunately some of them were constantly played in the
background and got all crackly, which was annoying.
Team 222: Netsplit (The Internet)
Grade: B-, score: 206/300 (69%) This one's broken too. It's still interesting,
though.
Note: There's an NPC who can crash MZX with their long frown
(":(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((("). If you talk to this person.. you'd
probably be best off closing MZX and trying it again without talking to
them. The game won't be counted off because of this.
Gameplay: 38/70
The main gameplay of the game involved the mini-game Netsplit, which is
similar to Battleship.. kinda. The game itself was pretty simple but it did
require at least a little bit of thought. This was really all the game was
about... you walked around and talked to people, and there were some boards
you went between... the main problem is that the game was obviously
incomplete. New boards didn't show up, and although there was a hidden board
you could access, nothing particularly useful was there. It told you to
save, but there wasn't actually anything that could do anything to
you. Looked like there could have been some good fetch elements here, but
nothing really took off. Of course, playing in the editor revealed a little
bit more.. well, not really. But you could get to the end boss, which was an
interesting if not frustrating sort of maze involving words of Al Gore...
Graphics: 40/50
The graphics in this game are very stylish, in a good way. The title screen
is particular impressive. From there on you have well detailed and nicely
colored backgrounds and okay character animations. The scenic backgrounds
such as the Netsplit background or the channel select board looked
particularly nice and really had a technological feel to
them. Unfortunately, there are some graphical errors, such as failure to
load char sets/palettes, and missing text boxes. That takes away from the
score a little.
Plot: 33/45
Intersting premise; although it was another "travel around the internet"
kinda thing it really was expressed well. There were some nice beginnings of
a plot involving virii and finding suspicious people, but once again it just
doesn't go anywhere. Still, even though there's no real advancement, the
people and situations were interesting.
Theme: 36/40
I really felt that this game did a good job with the internet theme. The
boards really felt reminiscent of IRC channels and other internet familiar
aspects were used. The game seemed to get this setting nailed.
Innovation: 24/40
The main innovation of this game is the netsplit game, which is innovative,
but since it's relatively simple it can't be given too much credit. Many DoZ
games have relatively simply yet innovative mini-games but don't completely
rely on them. The "end boss" was innovative though.
Discretion: 13/20
It would have been nice if the game were somehow wrapped up so that the
player didn't have to realize that it weren't simply unfinished. Also there
are some spelling errors and sams that are used when they haven't been
included.
Music: 20/35
Just a few pieces. Nothing really great, and I thought the netsplit game
piece was kinda obnoxious.
Sound: 2/5
Well, there's an opening with funny voice recordings... that deserves a
point. Other than that...
Team 261: Dark Core (Trust)
Grade: B+, score: 228/300 (76%) Finally, a solid game!
Gameplay: 59/70
In this game you fight enemies and explore an area, pressing switches to
open passageways and collecting health and power-ups. It's pretty simple but
effective; plays kinda like a Zelda 1 dungeon but without any puzzles or
anything. One of the nice features of the game is the ability to choose the
difficulty level. I played the game in "easy", and indeed easy it was. I
played some in extreme, and it was a lot harder. I didn't beat the game in
anything besides easy, though this does give some replay value as well as
the ability for pretty much anyone to play the game. This game is also
fairly long, especially considering the number of boards in the game
itself. There are a few issues with collision detection, but they're all
minor and don't detract from the game itself.
Graphics: 37/50
Graphics look very NES style. Colors are well chosen and the game makes
heavy use of 2x1 char blocks (which is one of the reasons why it looks so
much like an NES game). The graphics get the job done well, and some nice
effects are used (like at the end), but they lack a lot of variation. The
board scrolling looks nice.
Plot: 33/45
There's an opening and an ending, and not really anything inbetween. What's
there is a bit stale... a light core that the people depended on betrayed
them and now it's a dark core that the hero must destroy. Nothing
particularly deep or thought provoking here; the game could have definitely
benefitted from more plot thrown in with the gameplay during the course of
the game.
Theme: 27/40
There was an issue of breaking trust, but it was a little weak, considering
it involved trust in some kind of object. It seemed superficial and a little
forced and didn't really give a strong impression throughout the game, but
there's no denying that it was there.
Innovation: 29/35
This game does a pretty good job standing out from the other games. It looks
and feels more like an NES game than an MZX one, which is something you see
very rarely. The weapon engine is pretty innovative as far as MZX games go,
and the usage of sprites works well. Storing the game on mostly one board
isn't completely original, but still pretty unique.
Discretion: 20/20
I really can't say anything negative regarding the discretion used in making
this game. It's just very well polished, and has a lot of well chosen
implementations.. from the difficulty settings to the ability to skip the
two cutscenes.
Music: 18/35
There are only a few pieces, and one in particularly plays for the entire
actual gameplay portion of the game. It's not very good either, getting
pretty grating. Still, the music has a dark mood to it that complements the
feel of the game itself.
Sound: 5/5
Nice sound effects accompany pretty much everything that happens in this
game.
Team 331: Net Wars (The Internet)
Grade: D, score: 122/300 (41%) Well, at least they're modest
*cough*yeahright*cough*
Gameplay: 22/70
Not this game's strong point (but then again, what is?). Well, most of the
gameplay consists of walking around aimlessly. Most of the areas included in
the game don't matter, but it's just as well because you can't really access
them. The game is buggy.. you can walk through WALLS! I don't know why they
didn't add collision detection for this, as simple as it would have
been. Okay, that's the "passive" part of the gameplay (read, the not so
interactive part). Then there was going to be some kind of puzzle.. I
think. It introduced it, then told me to press j if I was bored with
listening to the explanation. Then it froze. So I pressed j, and it told me
I won! Okay, then there's one more part of the gameplay.. it's optional, so
to speak, meaning you don't need to go through it to beat the game. And
that's fortunate, because it's not good.. I'm speaking of the battle
engine. A one on one battle engine... sure, it doesn't use annoying [ menus
or whatever, but it's pointless; you can't even see how much HP you have! I
don't think it was even close to finished. So anyway, this game has nothing
enjoyable to offer as far as gameplay goes.
Graphics: 20/50
I've definitely seen worse this DoZ, but nonetheless they're still not very
good. It's a shame too because some things were well edited, but they don't
do much to offset the overall striking blandness and uglyness of the
game. There's a lot of repeated chars in the backgrounds and stale, blocky
areas. There are some decent effects with the text, but it seems they spent
way too much time on this because it really didn't amount to much. Then
there are the battles.. oh dear.. these look awful. Almost nothing but
spaces, with some lines for menus. The tech effects make things look a
LITTLE better, but don't save them.
Plot: 26/45
Ah, the plot. Well, I give them credit for at least putting something
together here. There's some text at the beginning, and sure enough some
dialogue in the game (well, I use the word dialogue a little loosely since
it's mostly one sided descriptions). So, it does deliver in terms of amount
of content, but the content itself isn't that good. Some doctor was captured
by terrorists, and now has called for you, his robot, to jack into the
internet and save him. In all honesty I've seen better plots in children's
cartoons. The plot also has dead ends (IE brings up things that it never
bothers finishing) and doesn't actually have a finale itself, just a "you
win!" message.
Theme: 23/40
Hrm.. again, like many other DoZ games, it involves you going into the
internet. Unfortunately this is expressed very superficially; you simply go
into the internet, but very little about the internet is actually utilized
here. It really feels slapped on, but it is there.
Innovation: 18/35
Some things about this game really do set it apart from the rest. Perhaps
it's the way sprites are used (as incompletely as they are). I don't know,
maybe the ability to walk through walls was supposed to be some kind of
awful feature. But the unfortunate fact is that this game touted itself as
an RPG, and a very GENERIC one it tried to be. RPG's like this in MZX are
just not innovative! Sorry, not even in DoZ's. It's been done. It's been
done a lot _better_....
Discretion: 2/20
I can't say that I feel the authors of this game used very good discretion
in making it. I can demonstrate this on several counts too. First, the whole
wall problem. This game wasn't very action oriented; if they couldn't handle
sprites they really shouldn't have used them. It wouldn't have made that big
of a difference. Okay, another thing that REALLY bugged me about this game
is that they seemed to try harder to convince me to give them a good score
than actually trying to earn one! At the beginning of the game you're told
how many impressive things the game utilizes. It seems proud to express how
much of an RPG it is, and no less the beginning of a series (why would
anyone continue this game?). The RPG engine itself brags about itself, but
then tries to excuse its shortcomings (since afterall, it is just a
DoZ). Then, at the end it even has the nerve to tell me to give it a good
score! A good DoZ game speaks for itself. Trying to sugar coat the game with
words when it isn't a very good game anyway is pretty poor. Not only does it
make me want to gag, but it hypes the game to the point where I'm even more
let down when it fails to deliver. Why couldn't they have spent more time
and energy actually working on the game rather than hyping it up? Okay,
that's not all. The battle engine.. yes, I'm going to touch that here. Doing
a boring, pointless, one on one battle engine like this just shows little
common sense. Yes, it wasn't required to play it, but then that brings up
the question - why even bother including it? The game would have been better
off if they simply deleted it. Oh yeah, pressing space to talk is just dumb.
Music: 10/35
I can tell you right off that it's all ripped. But that's not the major
problem - the music isn't very well USED. Yes, even though they used one of
my favorite mods, Crystal Summer, it's still not well fitting for the title
screen of this game at ALL. Mods seem to just be thrown randomly on here as
they feel fit.. oh, and Crystal Summer definitely was the best mod used. The
rest were just bad. I give them a little credit for quantity but quality is
definitely not up to par.
Sound: 1/5
No sound effects.
Team 344: Finite Space (The Internet)
Grade: F, score: 33/300 (11%) Ooh dear :(
Gameplay: 4/70
You ran through one room, gathering hearts while fighting enemies with
really bad AI. Nuff said.
Graphics: 10/50
The graphics in the game you see are very, very bad. However, in a lot of
the inaccessible boards in the game the graphics actually look pretty
good. Not great, but a lot better than what was in the game
itself. Unfortunately, since these are inaccessible they don't carry much
weight, and besides that they're also very incomplete. Oh, and the title
screen's screwed up.
Plot: 5/45
Something about some internet virus making computers mad.. probably made up
at the last minute. It's not good.
Theme: 2/40
VERY little to actually do with the theme; more related to computers than
the internet. Very forced on.
Innovation: 5/35
Run around and shoot things. To its benefit, I think it randomly placed
stuff, which isn't seen TOO often but often enough. It was so poorly
executed that you couldn't really determine what was happening.
Discretion: 5/20
The author spent a lot more time writing apologies and explanations than
trying to put some game together. It showed pretty bad discretion to not
some USE the boards that had the better graphics instead of the crappy
boards, I mean they could have placed enemies there instead... and all the
broken things that would have been easy to have fixed, like the title
screen... sigh.
Music: 1/35
Alas, there isn't any. Could have probably included SOMETHING...
Sound: 1/5
No sound effects either.
Team 385: Gross Injustice (Trust)
Grade: B-, score: 181/300 (60%) It's a full game! But it is SLOPPY.
Note: "chase.gdm" crashes MZX; you should delete/rename it to play this game.
Gameplay: 47/70
The gameplay was actually kinda interesting, involving a few things. You
searched for jewelery within a time limit, ran away from cops for as long as
possible, then escaped from a jail by evading guards. However, there were
two main problems with all of this. The first is that how well you completed
the tasks at hand didn't seem to make any difference whatsoever, really
removing motivation to do it. The second is that the execution was just very
poor - gameplay elements weren't really implemented in a way that was
consistent or even properly working in some cases. For instance, you could
find a spot where the police would never find you during the chase, and
during the chase the guards often saw you when they shouldn't have and
didn't see you when they should have; getting through was more dumb luck
than anything. The game was truly plagued with bad bugs. Some were merely
graphical, but a lot of them made the gameplay harder to enjoy by having
things break up or not be visible at all.
Graphics: 25/50
The graphics were okay, although not great. The player chars in particular
got the job done. The backgrounds were only average, but the fact that they
were built for 2x2 did help. Decent usage of detail editing for chars was
noticable, as was palette editing. Graphical bugs bring this score down a
bit because the game really LOOKS sloppier than it FEELS. 2x2 entities
constantly break apart and write over overlay bits, these bits themselves
being prone to breakage.
Plot: 36/45
The plot was interesting. There was a pretty generous amount of convincing
dialogue and twists that weren't completely predictable. It also gets points
for having multiple endings that you can control. It's nothing incredible,
though.
Theme: 35/40
This game did a good job enforcing the trust theme. It really made you
contemplate issues of trusting long term friends and even made you make a
decision based on trust. Well done adherence to the theme.
Innovation: 27/35
The type of gameplay was actually fairly innovative; it was a nice change of
pace to have a game not revolving around combat.
Discretion: 3/20
First thing I really have to say is this.. WHY weren't sprites used?! The
overlay based engines were so terribly done that it would have been much
better without them. They really killed the game, and just made it look
very, very unpolished. Next, using space to talk to people wasn't a very
good thing (as I said with Net Wars). The dialogue boxes were also jerky to
operate, which was very frustration. I think that they must have timed the
loop wrong or something. Lastly, even though it's not their fault that a mod
of their's was crashing MZX, this still should have been quickly
noticable. This has been a long term problem in MZX and they shouldn't have
included the mod.
Music: 6/35
I really think the music in this game is quite awful. Mostly it's just a
couple of sams playing in the background that get old very quickly and don't
really add anything to the game. One of the mods I had to delete because it
was crashing MZX, but from what I heard of this mod it wasn't good either.
Sound: 2/5
There was a "click" sound effect. It didn't add much, but it was still sorta
nice.
Team 4013: Hacker (The Internet)
Grade: D+, score: 124/300 (41%) Enh.. something about this game just isn't
right.
Gameplay: 33/70
You fight enemies with no real AI with a little sword. I think you can get
things with score, but unfortunately I never really got enough score to get
anything because the game itself bugged out before I could really get
anywhere. Looked around in the editor.. found that there was a boss that was
pretty hard to beat because it shot at you while you had a little sword.. so
I cheated until I won. No real point in that though. This game is hurt by
lack of connections and fatal bugs (for instance, try visiting your
neighbor's computer twice), but really lacks any strong substance at the
heart of the gameplay itself.
Graphics: 15/50
The graphics are pretty bad. There are a few char edits, but nothing major;
mostly repetitive space and defaults. The player/enemies were very small and
this was annoying. There were some graphical bugs, like the sword being
prone to getting stuck on the overlay when an enemy pushes you, and the
player staying red after being hit.
Plot: 30/45
I found the plot was rather confusing and a bit inane. Apparently you're a
hacker and you're hacking into people's computers for no real reason.
Nonetheless, there was a lot of supportive dialogue, and some of the scenes
(like the chatroom one) were actually pretty funny.
Theme: 28/40
You were hacking on the internet... it worked but it's rather superficial.
Again, like other games this one seems to focus on computers themselves as
much as the internet, and things seemed slapped together. Yes, you're a
hacker, but WHY?
Innovation: 10/35
No innovation here, just another poorly done sword engine. Score apparently
was supposed to impact the game somehow but it didn't really.
Discretion: 5/20
Big bugs hurt this one; ones that can kill the game entirely are very
bad. The font seems stolen, although I can't verify this, it gets counted
off just for looking a LOT like existing fonts. Trying to distribute a game
fix after the DoZ is also bad discretion (yes, I know, doesn't pertain to
the game itself. Still, it affects the DoZ). Oh, and that wait at the
beginning.. very bad because it then launches you right into important text,
but you pretty much have to keep the thing at speed 1 just to be bearable.
Then the fact the text messages themselves can go too fast.. why couldn't
the author let you press space to advance them?
Music: 2/35
Aieee.. there's only ONE mod. A CAVERNS remix of all things! This is
slightly better than original Caverns music, but I'm sure we've all heard
this anyway, and it doesn't fit the game at ALL. I guess the author gets the
1 point simply for having it though, so congratulations.
Sound: 1/5
No bad sound effects though.
Team 404: Serum (Trust)
Grade: C+, score: 149/300 (50%) Bad battle engine and bugs kills would could
have been a decent game.
Gameplay: 18/70
The gameplay consists of walking around and getting into RPG battles,
mainly. This of course detracts from the score because the battles are
crappy... for most of the game you just have one player who has the options
"attack" and "defend." Well, let me tell you, when there's only one player
who can only attack otherwise, the "defend" option is pointless, so that
means you're down to a one option engine, which is what you want to avoid at
ALL COSTS with a battle engine. It had multiple enemies, but this was kinda
pointless since you only had one real option.. ho hum. Later another player
was added that could, instead of attack, use "magic" (as well as the
pointless defend option), and now there were four "spells" (they basically
all did the same kinda thing, and were just there for effect) and a way to
legitimately heal yourself. While this was a pleasant addition it actually
didn't add that much to the end.. oh, and the game bugged out well before
then. Even if you did manage to fix the game, you could at most get into one
of these battles before it bugged out again. There was a typical DoZ style
"dodge the incoming stuff" kinda board.. which would have been great, if it
WORKED. No, you can just fly right through...
Graphics: 38/50
I liked the graphics in this game. They were kinda big and bland sometimes,
but usually were fairly well edited and had some good colors going. The
characters themselves looked pretty good. In battle they even had some
animation. The spells in battle also looked fairly nice... unfortunately
there were a few cases of missing char set/palette loadings that screwed up
some areas. Since this is a 2x2 game it had to draw the background
accordingly, and the background does like nice for 2x2.
Plot: 33/45
Probably one of the stronger points of this game. It had a lot of dialogue
that moved the game along, and some semblence of a real underlying plot.
Unfortunately there was never any conclusion (yes, another unfinished game
this DoZ... seems to be more the rule than the exception this time). Also
some of the parts seemed rather... contrived.
Theme: 1/40
Theme? What theme? :P The author seemed to think the theme was "trust", not
"truth." While the two words are vaguely related they are far from
interchangable for the purpose of making a DoZ game. No actual relation to
"trust" can be found.
Innovation: 19/35
This was mostly standard fair.. another bad battle engine, but the execution
of everything does seem nicer and more polished than the other games.
Sprites and MZM's in particular are well used (I like how it uses MZM's for
message boxes)
Discretion: 13/20
Including cheat/reset keys in this one was actually more of a good idea than
a bad one. However the fact that it needed them in the first place kinda
hurt it. Very simple bugs ruined the game (color fade bugs) and that's a
shame because they would have been easy to correct. Failure to INCLUDE sound
effects used is bad, because since you really have to play some of the game
in the editor you get the dreaded load errors for sams, a LOT. Very
annoying. The whole last sequence was pretty dumb; why have the second
player block your path? That was just frustrating.
Music: 26/35
There was a lot of music, and for the most part it fit well, although some
of it seemed out of place.
Sound: 1/5
The game had a lot of pretty good sound effects and I was going to give it a
higher score but it used some really, really annoying sound effects as well
that nearly made me go deaf. So no score for you!
Team 499: Shinrai (Trust)
Grade: C+, score: 182/300 (61%) Short and simple, but complete!
Gameplay: 45/70
Hm.. well, you go around slashing up enemies with your katana. There's a
decent amount of enemies (mostly varying in the speed they charge you at)
and a boss.. a place to restore health where you can save... it's all pretty
standard fare and simple to go through; just hold down space and run around
slashing everything. Not a lot of depth to it, but at least it works.
Graphics: 30/50
The graphics are also simple but effective. It's all 1x1, but some nice
shading techniques are used in the backgrounds. The trees in particular look
pretty nice. Also the swinging animations are well done. There really isn't
much at all beyond that... the title screen was missing graphics so just
looked like a mess.
Plot: 35/45
The plot was also short and simple, but the dialogue provided was effective
and fairly interesting. The whole ending was pretty funny... again, short,
but enjoyable to a certain extent.
Theme: 34/40
Even though the game was short it made a valid albiet silly demonstration
regarding trust. Presented in a pretty unique manner that was again,
effective. Good utilization of theme.
Innovation: 19/35
Sword based games like this are becoming a dime a dozen in MZX these days,
although this one does work better than most, largely because of the
intuitive swinging where the sword remains out to be swung back.
Discretion: 17/20
Failure to include title graphics (should have caught that one) and usage of
some Japanese words that some players might not understand.
Music: 1/35
There wasn't any music.
Sound: 1/5
No sound effects either.
Team 505: Vyznium (Trust)
Grade: B-, score: 208/300 (69%) Fun, but ugly and frustrating.
Gameplay: 57/70
Okay.. let me start by saying that this game is very hard and
frustrating. It's a sidescrolling platformer, with no actual combat involved
on the player's end, merely jumping around. Despite this it's pretty
interesting, and very challenging. The last level in particular is
ridiculously hard; I had to play at speed 9 just to get through it,
something I imagine most players will do. Still, with great difficulty comes
a decent amount of satisfaction, and even though it's very hard it doesn't
feel TOO cheap. Besides pushing your finger agility, some.. interesting
strategies were applicable sometimes. Such as luring enemies off the edge of
the platform. Also there are gems that you can collect which make the game
even more challenging. These are supposed to give you a better ending if you
get them all, but sadly even if you do get them all you won't get the good
ending. Pretty solid gameplay, that's very challenging, with levels that are
well constructed. The game is also pretty well lengthed. Control isn't
excellent, but it gets the job done (jumping is much better than in 1347's
game). Fortunately you can save anywhere in this game.
Graphics: 15/20
The graphics start out alright, with the title screen looking fairly
decent. Then move on to the house, and things don't look so good... some
char editing is used, but for the most part it looks very bland and blocky
and the colors aren't well used at all. From this point onwards it only gets
worse.. backgrounds look ZZT style (meaning there's a serious lack of
char/palette editing).. they really aren't very well done.
Plot: 38/45
The plot in this game isn't very serious, but that's one of its strengths. A
lot of it was really very funny. There was a more than adequete amount of
text for a game of this nature, but for much of the game you're pulled along
without much explanation of why you're going where you're going.
Theme: 27/40
It's another "BUT I TRUSTED YOU!!!" kinda game. It works, but there's very
little depth to it.
Innovation: 27/35
Being the only sidescroller in the DoZ is a strength. Even though
sidescrollers are common in MZX, this one stands apart by being entirely
jumping/platform based which gives it a different kind of feeling than most
sidescrollers.
Discretion: 15/20
Messing up the gem count cost the ending pretty dearly. Also saying that the
game matches the theme near the end... if we couldn't actually beat it we'd
all look in the editor. But really the bite out of discretion comes in the
DIFFICULTY. They should have at least suggested playing at speed 9 at some
points, since that was obviously necessary.
Music: 26/35
The music wasn't totally serious itself, but that was a good thing since it
fit the game. Lots of music, but unfortunately nothing original, and some of
the tunes we've heard a million times.
Sound: 3/5
Conventional MZX sound effects are used. Some are rather annoying
(everyone's favorite screaming..) but don't really get on your nerves.
Team 6047: Convergence (The Internet)
Grade: D, score: 103/300 (34%) Showed a lot of potential at first, but this
isn't a game, it's a diary.
Gameplay: 4/70
Er.. there isn't any gameplay. Some stubs of hacking into the "wired" (where
have I heard that name before?) but you can't actually really go anywhere or
do anything.
Graphics: 17/50
The message boxes and diary look nice, and the player looks okay, but the
background we see (and it's only one) looks.. weird. The title's just text
and.. that's about it.
Plot: 24/45
Only backplot here, no development. Still, it was a long read and sounded
interesting.
Theme: 28/40
Although there was very little to this game I liked where it was actually
going with the internet theme. It had "hack into the internet" concepts like
other games, but seemed to be more focused on control and conspiracy being
used in the internet.
Innovation: 14/35
There's really too little here to consider anything innovative. The diary is
sorta original though.
Discretion: 14/20
Should have done SOMETHING to sew up the game somehow, instead of just
leaving us dry with what's not there.
Music: 1/35
No music.
Sound: 1/5
No sound effects.
Team 666: Depravity (Trust)
Grade: B-, score: 206/300 (69%) At least it's one of the nicer incomplete
games.
Note: You should play this one in MZX 2.69b, because if you save it in 2.69c
it'll stop working (it's due to a discrepency in the way the sprite checking
is handled between versions, not so much a bug)
Gameplay: 47/70
Run around and shoot things.. apparently there was a way to switch weapons
after buying more, but I couldn't figure out how and I don't think it said
how. It didn't really matter because the shooting portions were a joke. What
really made the gameplay of this game was the hacking. Here you pressed a
sequence of direction keys as shown in the screen before the time ran
out. The ones that you needed to pass gave you a lot of time, whereas the
optional ones were far more challenging. Even though this is relatively
small it added a lot to the gameplay of this game.
Graphics: 38/50
The graphics are pretty nice, especially the player animations. Some
background pieces are very well done, but unfortunately there's way too much
black space.
Plot: 31/45
The plot is rather hard to pick up on because it's pretty fragmenting. After
investigating it all in the MZX file it seems pretty coherent. There's a
decent amount of dialogue, but the summation of the plot isn't all that
interesting. Also, yet another game without any kind of an ending!
Theme: 26/40
Another "YOU BETRAYED ME!" kind of plot. Some character from your past is
introduced who then betrays you on a mission by stealing the plans for some
war machine. It's pretty forced and not that deep, but the game does give
some further insights about trust that help it.
Innovation: 28/35
The hacking game is what made this stand out. It was pretty original. The
rest of the game wasn't necessarily original, per se, but was presented in a
manner that made it stand out against the other games.
Discretion: 10/20
The big problem here is that sometimes the screen fades to black and you
have to press enter to advance, but you miss some text in the process. Some
text screens aren't on for long enough, and some text is hard to read due to
the color used against the grey background of the [ boxes. The game should
have used sprite y_order so that you didn't overlap with the other sprites.
Music: 23/35
There were only a few pieces, and they weren't original, but they did fit
the dark mood of the game pretty well.
Sound: 3/5
A few well used sound effects.
Team 776: WHY THE INTERNET IS BORING (The Internet)
Grade: F+, score: 36/300 (12%) HOORAY JOKE ENTRY!
Gameplay: 0/70
Certifiably no gameplay, it's just a cinema sequence.
Graphics: 12/50
Erm.. well, there's not much to them, but they do look like.. uh.. text mode
stuff, which kinda adds to the feeling it was trying to give?
Plot: 7/45
Yes, I'm giving it this high because frankly I thought it was funny. Sue me.
Theme: 13/40
Well, it WAS about the internet, right? Although it was.. uh.. wasn't really
anything to it.
Innovation: 1/35
It's a cinema. No innovation is actually involved here.....
Discretion: 1/20
... I don't want to give the game low discretion just for being a joke
entry, but did this really have to be submitted? ^^
Music: 1/35
None.
Sound: 1/5
None.
Team 777: Hackers Can Turn Your Computer Into a Bomb (The Internet)
Grade: B, score: 214/300 (71%) WHIZBANG!
Gameplay: 62/70
You fly around in a ship, fighting three different types of enemies in a
sidescrolling space shooter. Using the mouse is kinda annoying, but it
works.. and while things seem to get rather hard later you can use the right
mouse button for rapid fire, which helps a lot (I don't know if this was
intentionally left in). Only three levels, so it's a bit short and lacks
variety of other things, but what it's meant to do it does very
well. Refreshing to actually see gameplay this solid in this DoZ. But level
1 is empty...
Graphics: 45/50
NICE graphics. The normal MZX parts are only okay.. looking pretty good, but
not excellent. The SMZX parts really shine, and that's not just because
they're done in SMZX mode, but a lot of attention is paid to effects and
detail. However, while the effects are incredible, it could use more
background and some more animation. Still, very much doesn't look like
something done in MZX.
Plot: 18/45
There was a plot just tacked onto the beginning.. it seemed pretty thorough,
but gets a low score because it didn't make a lot of SENSE and seemed to
have almost nothing to do with the actual game.
Theme: 11/40
Enh, give me a break.. we all know this game had nothing to do with the
internet, the opening was just a silly tack on added to a game that was but
a random space shooter game. Could have done a MUCH better job actually
trying to make it fit the theme.
Innovation: 34/35
Space shooters in MZX are rare enough as it is. Only a couple have been done
well, but none have been done THIS well. Pure mastery of SMZX modes and
actually pushing sprites in MZX makes this game truly stand out among the
other DoZ games, or any MZX games for that matter.
Discretion: 16/20
Some people might have a problem with this, but I think that mouse support
only isn't a good idea. It should have had support for keyboard control too
(and no, this wouldn't have been hard to have implemented). Other than that,
pretty solid.
Music: 24/35
The music is nice.. nothing original, but it's pretty high quality. Still,
kinda just random existing themes thrown in on this one.
Sound: 4/5
Nice sound effects for a shooter, all the explosions and shots are there.
Team 787: Innernet (The Internet)
Grade: B, score: 230/300 (77%) Nice little game.
Gameplay: 55/70
Two levels here. The first one involves moving blocks around to zap little
guys then putting them in a port before it closes, so it's mostly reflex
based. The second is a difficult puzzle that makes you think pretty
hard. The gameplay in these two stages is excellent, but unfortunately it
ends there. It's just too short, but it still does a great job for what's
there.
Graphics: 40/50
The graphics are quite stylish.. nice colors and effects and everything is
expressed well. The second stage puzzle is a bit straightforward, but on the
other hand well detailed. The title is pretty cool and the font's also
rather nice.
Plot: 25/45
Not really a lot here, just an opening board with text.. no closing. Even
though this is a puzzle game they could have had more story, but the
backstory is pretty satisfying.
Theme: 24/35
A lot of internet related things and terms are used in the levels
given. Nice incorporation, although a little bit superficial.
Innovation: 35/35
Both levels are very innovative! I have never seen anything like this before
in MZX. Very well done.
Discretion: 20/20
Everything's nice and polished... I can't really think of anything done
badly here.
Music: 27/35
Only a few tunes, but they're entertaining and they fit well. A definite
electronic, techno-ish kinda feel which fits the levels and graphics. Of
course it's not original, but what is in this DoZ?
Sound: 4/5
The sound effects do a good job highlighting the game.
Team 787: Trust Falls (Trust)
Grade: D+, score: 124/300 (41%) This is a great game.. TO TORTURE SOMEONE WITH
Gameplay: 18/70
This should have gotten so much higher. I wanted to give it a lot higher.
But the game just isn't fun; in fact, it's a REAL test in discipline to
actually get through the whole thing. See, there's a battle engine. It's one
on one. However you get to punch in "combos" (strings of keys done within a
time limit, not unlike the "hacking" in 666) and you keep learning new ones,
and you get to call your party (wonder why they weren't fighting with you in
the first place?) to perform some skill. Also you can use items.. to heal or
to raise your attack/defense. Even though one on one battle engines are
pretty much never good news, this could have been bearable, had they not
given the enemies 8 BILLION hit points then littered them all the place. For
what it's worth, the encounters aren't random, but happen at fixed points on
the board. Still, there are way too many of them. The whole combo system was
interesting at first, as was learning new combos.. but then it backfired
because you had to play at a fairly low speed to get the later ones in,
which made the battles even more unbearably long. Not that the combos
actually made your attacks significantly stronger - because they didn't -
but they gave you "boxes" that you needed to survive. Because after you ran
out of potions you could count on spending half your time healing. There was
also an INFURIATING maze near the end... which would have been okay, if you
didn't have to keep going through the battles. All in all.. this is an
extremely boring, frustrating game.
Graphics: 23/50
They're not that good, but have some better points. All 1x1, with
some.. sorta bearable backgrounds. The animations are the best part,
particularly in battle. That's a good thing too, because other than that the
battles look awful, with almost nothing but black space. There are a few
animations, but they're not that impressive. At least the menus and stuff
look alright.
Plot: 33/45
The plot is given through dialogue and is rather mysterious. After playing
through what's there it's somewhat coherent, but could have been fleshed out
considerably more. Still, what's there is there and it fulfills the role of
being a plot...
Theme: 24/35
Trust is easily broken between colonists and natives. Actually it seemed
kinda weak for being trust; ie, one side tells the other side a lie and
pisses them off and throws them on a rampage.... still, the game did try to
stress this (at least towards the end)
Innovation: 23/35
The combo moves in the battle engine were pretty innovative. Other than
that, it has "typical boring MZX RPG" written all over it.
Discretion: 1/20
Did you PLAY through this game? Maybe you would have realized how incredibly
BORING it was! Giving the enemies so much HP was a TERRIBLE move! The
enemies in battle can get really screwed up, moving out of their starting
position, which makes it look even less like they're attacking the player
(especially when they move BEHIND him..) and it gets stuck this way, only
getting worse. Come on, couldn't overlay have been used, or something?
Moving robots around? And this bug wasn't noticed? To top everything off, at
the end you get stuck in an infinite loop in the message.. great, just what
I wanted. Suffered through playing that game up to that point and got
cheating out of perhaps the only interesting battle the game had to
offer. It's a crying shame.
Music: 1/35
There's no music, and let me tell you, this game NEEDED music. I had to
crank up WinAMP just to preserve my sanity during the excrutiatingly long
battles.
Sound: 1/5
Even sound effects could have made a world of difference for the battles,
but nada.
--- The run-down ---
Categorial score rank:
1: Innernet (787) - 230/300
2: Dark Core (261) - 228/300
3: Hackers Can Turn Your Computer Into a Bomb (777) - 214/300
4: Vyznium (505) - 208/300
5: Netsplit (222) - 206/300
6: Depravity (666) - 206/300
7: The Evil Internet Virus (16) - 197/300
8: Shinrai (499) - 182/300
9: Gross Injustice (385) - 181/300
10: Lethal Recourse (215) - 169/300
11: Paradigm AM (1337) - 159/300
12: Castlevania: Drum Solo of Discombobulation (1347) - 154/300
13: Serum (404) - 149/300
14: Hacker (4013) - 124/300
15: Trust Falls (810) - 124/300
16: Net Wars (331) - 122/300
17: Convergence (6047) - 103/300
18: Net Demon (1777) - 66/300
19: WHY THE INTERNET IS BORING (776) - 36/300
20: Finite Space (344) - 33/300
Subjective rank:
2: Dark Core (261) - 228/300
1: Innernet (787) - 230/300
3: Hackers Can Turn Your Computer Into a Bomb (777) - 214/300
6: Depravity (666) - 206/300
4: Vyznium (505) - 208/300
5: Netsplit (222) - 206/300
6: Depravity (666) - 206/300
12: Castlevania: Drum Solo of Discombobulation (1347) - 154/300
7: The Evil Internet Virus (160) - 197/300
9: Gross Injustice (385) - 181/300
8: Shinrai (499) - 182/300
13: Serum (404) - 149/300
15: Trust Falls (810) - 124/300
10: Lethal Recourse (215) - 169/300
11: Paradigm AM (1337) - 159/300
14: Hacker (4013) - 124/300
16: Net Wars (331) - 122/300
17: Convergence (6047) - 103/300
18: Net Demon (1777) - 66/300
20: Finite Space (331) - 33/300
19: WHY THE INTERNET IS BORING (776) - 36/300