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Level name: Shinan Fortress part 1 - Burning Outskirts PSN: Yarudark Ok, been awhile since my last review, due to me getting absorbed by import games, haha, but now I've gotten back to it. And the first one is this, the first of the Shinan Fortress levels, by Yarudark. It's hard to know just what to say about this particular level. There were some good things about it.... but there were also some glaring faults, the type of errors that can cause many players to simply quit out of annoyance halfway through. But we'll get to those. First of all, this is NOT a pretty level. It's very clear that it's not designed to be. You'll be seeing quite alot of burning objects, and occaisionally some glass or basic fabric. Ugly it may be, but that is not the point here. The point of this level is to challenge you. And this, it pulls off pretty well. Most players can expect to have a good number of deaths here. Often from being roasted alive! The level starts out with a rather nice looking title screen, and then after a brief and strangely out-of-place bit of text, you're thrown into the mixer, so to speak. There's alot of swinging here, alot of glass jumping, and alot of jetpack lunacy. The level seems to keep up an overall theme all the way throughout, which is good. And the overall design of the level and it's assorted obstacles is, mostly, well thought out. However.... it almost seems to me as if this just wasnt tested enough. There's quite a number of screwball errors that will show themselves throughout the level. The first main issue is the camera. At NUMEROUS points during the level, you'll find that the camera simply stops moving.... yet you're expected to advance anyway. For example, when you're jetpacking through the fire tunnel, you'll soon end up on the right side of the screen. If you try to go past this point at any speed other than a slow crawl, you'll crash and burn.... literally.... into a wall you simply could not see until the camera shifted. There's quite a number of the "bad camera" points to be found throughout the level. But then, there's some other, wackier errors. For example, the boss fight. Now, this is worth mentioning, cause most players are gonna spend alot of time on this section. The first section is pretty interesting; you have the boss at the far end of this flat zone, rolling burning logs at you on all 3 planes. The floor, however, is "half on fire", which basically means that as long as you're standing on it, you're fine, but if you jump and LAND on it, you'll fry. So you have to dodge the logs without ever jumping, to reach the boss. The big problem I ran into here is the visuals; go far enough to the right, and there's this little spot where the logs on the front plane keep piling on top of each other.... getting in the way. Not to mention that for whatever reason, at the same spot, the flame effect from the burning material gets alot larger.... I think it's because of the rapid motion of the boss's arms. So, suddenly, it's very hard to tell which planes approaching logs are on, simply because they become obscured by wierd effects. The 2nd part of the boss is fine, just use the paintinator to pop brains, pretty simple. It was the third part that bothered me a bit. Anyone that's tried any of my own creations probably knows that I use plasma bolts.... alot. So it's a game feature that Im very familiar with. And I always, always always always have one very specific rule, related to plasma, that I never, ever break: If you're going to use plasma, it should be in an area where there's only one plane that the player can be on. Unlike many objects, it can be extremely difficult to tell what plane the plasma is on... a bunch of plasma balls flying around 2 or 3 planes is extremely confusing, and it becomes more an issue of luck, as to wether or not the player can pass this part. Combine this with the fact that this boss just sprays the things at a very high speed with no particular pattern, and..... yeah. I honestly never quite figured out how to get past this, being that there seemed to be no reliable way to get out of the way of this attack. Many players are likely to just quit here.... that's how alot of players are, unfortunately. This part of the boss fight just struck me as being more "cheap" than "difficult". This, is an issue I see in alot of bosses, really. That's not all though.... there were some other glitches to be found, of a more "technical" nature, almost. For example, there's this one lift that you get on and ride down... you must push the switch on it to the left to make it do this. But I found that when I hit the switch, the extremely sudden and violent movement of the lift made the switch go bonkers, and after some random quaking, the lift ended up back where it started. It actually took numerous attempts to get it to go down properly. There's a few things like this in the level.... not TOO many, but a few. Things that, well, some more testing might have fixed. I think it's time for some scoring: Gameplay: 6/10 There's some well done and interesting obstacles and challenges to be found here. The level is well designed, and never really reaches a point of feeling repetetive or stale, despite the "everything's on fire" thing. Unfortunately, this is marred by screwball camera problems, and wacky glitches, which really deter from the overall experience. Graphics/sound: 2/10 Not a pretty level. But then, it doesnt try to be. It's very simple; Everything is on fire and you try to reach the end without being roasted, flattened, stabbed, or all three at once. It's not about the visuals, and it doesnt need to be. This might put some players off, but.... well, cant please them all. Challenge: 6/10 This is a decently difficult level. Aside from some cheap deaths near the end (boss fight), all of the obstacles here are entirely fair, and challenge the player in different ways. Anyone looking for a good challenge, without it being an INSANE challenge, will find it here. Pacing/length: 8/10 The level isnt too long, and moves along at a good speed, overall. Things stop up a bit at a couple of specific points, but, as said before, this level never hits a point of feeling stale or anything. Overall: 5/10 While I liked some of the things and ideas that were in here, the bugs and screwball camera issues really marred the experience for me. For the most part these seem to be rather simple errors that a bit of testing would get rid of... the level feels as if there just wasnt enough of this. If these things were to be fixed, I'd probably put this at a 7 instead of a 5. The LEVEL is actually rather good, but it's the BUGS that pull this score down. Fortunately, this of course IS entirely fixable, so hopefully the author can find the time at some point to make a few small changes. In my opinion, this'd make for a much more enjoyable level, and a more proper challenge. http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2009-5/1340144/Shinan1.JPG A nice title screen, but notice the lighting here. It's the first indicator of the fact that you'll probably be on fire rather soon. http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2009-5/1340144/Shinan2.JPG Now here was an interesting little obstacle. Sort of a "jetpack jump". I thought this was pretty neat. http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2009-5/1340144/Shinan3.JPG This looks like a pretty basic jump, doesnt it? Yeah.... until BURNING DEATH rains from above while you're trying to pass it! Be warned! My camera was being a snot and didnt want to capture the BURNING DEATH, unfortunately.

2009-11-24 09:12:00 Author: Bridget Posts: 334

Posts: 1077139    Threads: 69970    Members: 9661    Archive-Date: 2019-01-19

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