Skazulab's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Vorago]

Pretty good Point'n'click

Well thought out, and thorough. The shooting parts were sort of awkward, but since they were such a small part of the game I don't think it's that big of a deal. Some of the items you needed to find were sort of hard to figure out, and I had to consult the walkthru (which really gets to me-I love solving point'n'clicks using my wits alone! :))

For example, when I went to the pharmacy and I needed the skeleton key-the key way back at the beginning of the game protected by bear traps-I was stuck! In my mind (I like to get in the character's heads), I had just been fending off a vicious attack of monsters and was in a hurry to get in and out of the pharmacy. Having to wander around outside for a while-go all the way back to the store to get the car, go all the way back to the start to get the key-it didn't feel right to me, so I didn't do it. Had to look at the walk through to find out that after that first attack, I was safe! I could wander around outside all night if I wanted. Same thing with getting Seth's car keys. I guess my point is this-if we're under a relentless assault from all sides by monsters, when I'm playing the game I want to minimize my trips and the time I spend outside.

The atmosphere you created was sufficiently creepy, but the whole time I was playing it it felt like a mash up of Silent Hill and The Mist. These are good source material, so I can't blame you, but it definitely detracted from the suspense when at every turn I correctly guessed what was going to happen.

Now for my response to the content, rather than the game: you can't say that there is no hidden message in your game when at the end, you say the only happy end to this story is the "return of HIM!" Just... be honest with us. Also, the content of the Apocalypse of John is in no way, shape, or form a prediction of an "end of days" that will happen our future. "The apocalyptic writer...despairs of the present, and directs his hopes absolutely to the future, to a new world standing in essential opposition to the present." This apocalyptic book, created by early Christians (read: Jews) is more dense in symbolism than Moby Dick. It is a thinly veiled prediction of the fate of Israel at the hands of the powers that be. When it was told (because most books in the New Testament as well as the TaNaKh were dictated, then collected in written forms), those early Christians knew that John was talking about things that would happen in THEIR lifetimes. That being said, IT IS NOT A PROPHESY! There are plenty of prophets in the Bible, so if you're looking for that kinda stuff, check the "Old Testament".

ANYWAY! For anyone doing a tl;dr, here are my main points:
-Well constructed
-Good ambience
-Good voice acting
-Combat a little clumsy
-Puzzle had some confusing spots that caused me to refer to the walkthru
-Book of Revelation is not a literal text

7/10
3/5

[Zombies - The Beginning]

Good

Really promising work man. It's a pretty impressive mix of FPS and point-and-click. The cinematics also fit in with the gameplay really well. But there is NO REASON for there not to be checkpoints! Yeah, you could say It dampens the realism, but this is a zombie game we're talking about here, so realism be damned. I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't want to stab the same zombie in the head 7 times.

Again though, really a pretty fun game, and the flow is very good. Looking forward to part 2.

7/10
3/5

MichaelJ responds:

I honestly didn't know how to, or think about putting checkpoints... probably because I had played it so many times and I thought that most people wouldn't die anyway. I was actually surprised to see that it scared a few people... (lol)

[Plazma Burst: FTP]

Good-but difficult even on lower difficulty levels

I played it through on medium, and died countless times on Level 16. Even playing on the easy difficulty, I still got regularly slaughtered. The yellow, flying robot guys are the destroyer of worlds, man! I can't tell you how many times I got one-shotted by them. That really detracted from the gameplay, IMO. However, it's your game, so you can make it how you want. If there is going to be a part two, I have these suggestions to make:

1. Do more with the ragdoll stuff. Yeah, I can pick up my enemies corpse and drag him around, but what comes of it? My point is, there's nothing really added to the gameplay because of this feature.

2. Increase the upgrades. Another eight to helmet and another five to body armour would be fantastic.

3. Fix the movement! On Level 8, I must have fallen off five times. If you're standing right next to a step and run towards it and jump, you go flying through the air in the other direction (not the best thing in a firefight). AND, there are health packs that you CAN'T REACH because you can't jump high enough! Very very irksome.

4. Checkpoint before the boss. Checkpoint before the boss. Checkpoint before the boss. Checkpoint before the boss. Checkpoint before the boss. Checkpoint before the boss. Ya following me? ;-)

5. Can you make it so our rocket launcher follows the position of the mouse? That would be so cool, and it would make it invaluable to your inventory. Right now, it's just kind of a crappy version of the plasma gun, but by adding this neat feature, it becomes a key tool in the experience.

Hope the points help you out!

5/10
2/5

[Lastman]

Very frustrating

But I guess that was the point? Actually, the most frustrating part was having to watch an ad every minute. To be honest man, I found myself hating you and hating your game as I went on! Now, I understand that you have to please your sponsors, but take a message to them from me: when your game inspires feelings of hatred from the players when they aren't even playing it? Not a good sign.

Other than that, well made. But why 127 deaths?

[Halo Physics Box beta1]

Pretty good

Neat 2D representation of it, but I feel like the WASD and E/R controls are a bit clumsy. If you continue on with that, maybe you should change the control scheme? Good luck, I'm excited to see the finished product

7/10
3/5

[VR Defender Y3k]

Interesting Game

It's got a neat aestetic, it's programmed well, and it plays smooth. Trouble is, it only plays smooth for about 10 rounds, then falls apart, even on the easiest difficulty setting.

I consider myself reasonably good at tower defense games. So, when I'm confronted with a game that I can (at most) get a third of the way through, I don't think, "Innovative! Exciting!" I think, "This game is stacked against me." Now, I know you're the artist, and you can make it as hard or easy as you please, but the consensus seems to be that this game is very very difficult. I think this is the greatest obstacle to this game being remembered as one of the best on NG. Fun for a few minutes though.

5/10
2/5

[Dress Up Game No. 1]

Pretty good

Great attention to detail (zoom in and you'll see what i'm talking about), well programmed, and the art is fine. However, you should show off that detail! Make it a little bigger, maybe increase the size by 20-30%, and it will be really a pretty well made dress up game, and an excellent beginning to your career on NG

3/5

Oelbachtaucher responds:

hehe. ok. Thanks very much for your comment :)

[Box the Collector]

Simple but lacking

Simple idea, I know, but there's nothing wrong with that. The thing is though is it's broken. I sat there and got 5 points, sure, but then I alt+tabbed, came back a few seconds later and saw that the game was playing itself and my score was -23. I don't know, maybe it could use something like a lives feature? I dunno, maybe that's not what you were going for.

[Bloons Tower Defense 3]

Oh My Lord

Another great game! Really fun tower defense. Every time I've played it I've discovered something new . This time? Plasma vision! Holy hell was that intense!

I only got to level 55 in free play before I died broke and utterly devoid of any chance of winning. 50 Ceramics with 5 or 6 MOABs floating around in the mix? That is just cruel.

Loved BTD1 and BTD2, and this one doesn't disappoint! Good job.

[Simpsons Jigsaw]

Okay

Nothing really special, but not flawed in any sort of way. The problem with most flash jigsaws though is there is no snap, which makes it very frustrating to play. I mean, if you actually put two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together, you can move them both out of the way if another piece needs to go where they once were. If you can redo this with a little more thorough scripting, you'd really have something.