Ruin Diver 2
Sequel to the first Ruin Diver. More of a spiritual than literal sequel, as the series tends to run. As ThDPro's review notes, it does share some similarities with the third game. This was a pledge game for the 2004 MZX pledge. [Release date from dMZX release thread.]
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Last modified 2012-08-31 19:19:38
With the newfound and apparently external interest in Ruin Diver III as of late, I thought it'd be a good idea to look into the original two to see where RDIII actually came from. It's interesting how far it went and the time it took to get there, and the arc at which the games improved. While this game is a very far cry from RDIII, it's paves the way for some ideas that got carried over, and paved over some ideas that didn't.
This game features a half decent platformer engine, a standard mzx weapon used with X, and a grappling hook that is also used with X and DOWN, which was a serious bum-pain for quite a while, a pain I eventually accepted and ignored. The enemies (and there are only three) are quite simple with the added bum-pain of being required to kill them to finish the game, but there are certain hacks to this game which can make it easy to beat, perhaps not with a high score, but still easy to beat. By the time I was going through the levels to try and kill the last few enemies, I had no score at all.
All right, in four stages, this game baptizes you with fire, putting the very hardest and easily most tedious level first, the bane of anyone playing a 1x1 mzx platformer is when the creator decides to make the landing 1x1 as well... But I suppose that, like RDIII, this game is a "learn by dying" kind of game... but still, there is nothing more tedious in a platformer to me than the blocky movement making it impossible to tell where exactly your going, precision is out the window and luck is everything. On top of that, some of the controls (specifically, the grappling hook) are somewhat unresponsive... I mean, you get a feel for it, but the fact that it is that hard to engage such a key component of the game I found tedious as well....
That's enough complaining. This game is not BAD at all, and you CAN in fact finish it, giving it a significant advantage over RDI, on top of the many other aspects superior to it, such as better (if a bit sparse and still not great) graphics, engines (because, yaknow, there is one) and actual goals that are set in stone instead of faux story that doesn't actually lead anywhere.
On the note of story, this game doesn't have one... I mean, Wildfire in the last DoZ had more story than this. I like story, and what's confusing to me is that I know Kkairos does too... Well, I don't know how to apply anything further than "You want gold! Kill the bad guys and get it!" but anything more than one sentence explaining your goal and providing no particular reason for having it. Well, whatever. This game doesn't need story to stand on, and I suppose none of the RD games do.
The music in this game is one track... one single, not very long, kind of tedious track... And when you're already doing something monotonous, like trying to do the same thing over and over again probably 30 times in the same way to simply finish the game, a monotonous track is NOT what I want to hear...
Ugh, I thought I said I was done complaining...
This is NOT a terrible game! Play it, you'll see. It has some interesting things in it, and if you actually enjoy mzx platformers (unlike me) you'd probably enjoy it much more than I. When it comes down to whether this is a good game or a bad game, it's a good game. Not the best, but hey, this is MegaZooks.
I guess what I can really say about both the previous Ruin Divers is simply this: It came a LONG way in 2 games to get to the third, but that doesn't mean this game is now without value.
This game features a half decent platformer engine, a standard mzx weapon used with X, and a grappling hook that is also used with X and DOWN, which was a serious bum-pain for quite a while, a pain I eventually accepted and ignored. The enemies (and there are only three) are quite simple with the added bum-pain of being required to kill them to finish the game, but there are certain hacks to this game which can make it easy to beat, perhaps not with a high score, but still easy to beat. By the time I was going through the levels to try and kill the last few enemies, I had no score at all.
All right, in four stages, this game baptizes you with fire, putting the very hardest and easily most tedious level first, the bane of anyone playing a 1x1 mzx platformer is when the creator decides to make the landing 1x1 as well... But I suppose that, like RDIII, this game is a "learn by dying" kind of game... but still, there is nothing more tedious in a platformer to me than the blocky movement making it impossible to tell where exactly your going, precision is out the window and luck is everything. On top of that, some of the controls (specifically, the grappling hook) are somewhat unresponsive... I mean, you get a feel for it, but the fact that it is that hard to engage such a key component of the game I found tedious as well....
That's enough complaining. This game is not BAD at all, and you CAN in fact finish it, giving it a significant advantage over RDI, on top of the many other aspects superior to it, such as better (if a bit sparse and still not great) graphics, engines (because, yaknow, there is one) and actual goals that are set in stone instead of faux story that doesn't actually lead anywhere.
On the note of story, this game doesn't have one... I mean, Wildfire in the last DoZ had more story than this. I like story, and what's confusing to me is that I know Kkairos does too... Well, I don't know how to apply anything further than "You want gold! Kill the bad guys and get it!" but anything more than one sentence explaining your goal and providing no particular reason for having it. Well, whatever. This game doesn't need story to stand on, and I suppose none of the RD games do.
The music in this game is one track... one single, not very long, kind of tedious track... And when you're already doing something monotonous, like trying to do the same thing over and over again probably 30 times in the same way to simply finish the game, a monotonous track is NOT what I want to hear...
Ugh, I thought I said I was done complaining...
This is NOT a terrible game! Play it, you'll see. It has some interesting things in it, and if you actually enjoy mzx platformers (unlike me) you'd probably enjoy it much more than I. When it comes down to whether this is a good game or a bad game, it's a good game. Not the best, but hey, this is MegaZooks.
I guess what I can really say about both the previous Ruin Divers is simply this: It came a LONG way in 2 games to get to the third, but that doesn't mean this game is now without value.