PoisonHeart's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Frantic 3]

Well, from my end it's very broken. First deal-breaker was when i hit the pause menu, and then hit "resume game" and it was frozen. Second deal-breaker for most players is the controls, as already mentioned by others.

Slow down your framerate, or slow down the ships! Also, why is the first level such a bland background? Unsure if the others are like that, but I hope not.

out of 10....

gfx - 7 (nice sprites & fx, poor BG & weak color)
sfx - N/A (I have no soundcard)
design - 5 (feels rushed)
gameplay - 4 (super-loose controls, game froze)

overall, this doesn't even feel complete! Perhaps it should be taken off the portal, or just fixed up here and there.

[Sad Worker]

extremely laggy...unplayable. no rating for you.

[Cool Story Bro]

Well, to be honest, I stopped playing shortly after entering the Desert town "Gisbee". The retro graphics fit well enough, and I really did like the story...maybe I'm just too tired now. I will say that this feels more like an interactive short story than an actual game. Given the title, I guess that's to be expected.

Let's see...first, I didn't like the font or cheesy glow around the options. Modern font is out of place, and glow didn't blend well. Codeman38 made some cool retro fonts some years ago, http://www.zone38.net/font/

And, if game mechanics affect story...then I must say that the way the wizard followed you around was sort of awkward. I felt more like I was "swinging" him around, dragging really, rather than he was following me. Could be that he doesn't really have a walk cycle when following, or that he is literally grouped with the player MC or whatever.

Too many tunes, dude! I don't think most people will notice, and it just takes up more loading time. Side-comments include the running speed could be somewhat quicker and I don't really understand why a seperate button is needed for "auto-next". As someone with large hands, this is easy enough for me, but others may be frustrated by the awkward tedium of switching between distant keys and mouse.

i feel uncomfortable giving a rating to this one, as I didn't play it long but still wanted to provide feedback...so please know that much...

out of 10...

gfx - 7.5 (good style, some confusion)
sfx - 6 (good BGM choices, just too many)
design - 7 (pacing could be quicker)
gameplay - 6.5 (didn't feel immersed)

overall, this isn't bad...in fact I like it! Perhaps it's just not my speed, or preferred style. I do not feel engaged, lack of items....lack of puzzles....it's just point-a to point-b, and most of the multiple choice pathways seem fairly linear.

An excellent second title, tho, and I think it would be very popular amongst more avid readers than I.

jdproductions321 responds:

Thanks for the review! I'll see what I can do with those proposed fixes.

[Battle for Darkness]

Well, I will say that this game is very addicting...initially. Everything seems balanced, the graphics look good, and it appears that we're in for quite an epic conquest. Playing as the bad guy, I feel unrestrained and...cool! The "titan" unit and it's evil counterpart are great as capstones.

However, the more I played this one, the more it felt like an "idle-style" game...where it's more about waiting than it is about playing. Waiting to play, I suppose. The army upgrades screen was the most fun for me, but after a few runs of just grinding out gold...I felt sort of groggy.

Could be my slower, older system w/ half a gig of RAM and a somewhat-wimpy video card...or it could be that the game seems to grind to almost a halt after your first few upgrades. The sweet 3D graphics aren't as lush or engaging as they first were...enemy units growing stale and the gaps in true strategy beginning to poke through.

However, I think this definitely appeals to the casual gamer. Graphics style is very ambitious, many of the effects are great. Sound quality is somewhat lacking and may contribute to that previously-mentioned "groggy feeling".

out of 10...

gfx - 8.5 (ambitious 3D, but grows repetitive)
sfx - 6 (overall lack of depth, quality, and vibrancy)
design - 8 (I don't feel "cheated" out of my gaming experience)
gameplay - 7 (engaging at first, lackluster in progression)

overall, this is a fun game. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to enjoy and plenty of humans to mangle with wicked baddies. The overall appeal of the tactics may leave many wanting more, but at the heart is a great design that's probably the best by this author we've seen so far. This is an author who has been with Newgrounds since 2008 or so, and has a large catalog of games released in that time-span.
As a sidenote, I have to doubt the integrity of a game that places you in the role of the evil villain, without an option to play the other side. I have said before that Infectionator is just a Suicide Machine Simulator. I stand by that, and maybe I am just boring but found that merciless slaying of endless peasants wasn't a...satisfying conquest to glory.

I enjoyed this one, but might have liked to see a more socially-conscious theme and the inclusion of a quality-toggle for players on slower machines.

[Dr. Albert Rabbit]

*koff*

well, there's quality here for sure. the docs' walk rocks, very retro. i like how he walks with his hands in pockets, very chill yknow? Like he's just strolling around the lab or something.

i also like that you disabled tabbing and included a custom cursor. I will say I played this game about 40 times (no shit) before realizing that there's nothing else to do 'cept get lubed up, have some shrooms, and suicide.

I will say that while the theme here seems to be "suicide is the only way out", something about how you did it here versus Sad Farmer is very cool. This one has hip, subtle features and is more "interactive" than Sad Farmer. It engages the player by being tight.

Would have liked to see more effort in the background, and level 8 ("Dr. Rabbit On Mars Versus Godzilla") could have been more refined...also might have been cool if he walked based on holding down the mouse button instead of re-clicking each time. But it's still cool that the Doc will head towards the mouse.

Also, more sound effects (SFX) would be great! Ones that stick out are footsteps, grabbing items, and background music (BGM)

***SPOILER ALERT***

The gag where ya think he's gonna shoot the lock off the door was really funny!

out of 10...

gfx - 8 (cool animation, but bland background)
sfx - 4 (missing SFX/BGM)
design - 8.5 (nice features, good gag)
gameplay - 7 (good controls, sad ending)

overall, this is very entertaining. I see people playing this more than once, having fun, and laughing about the jokes. Maybe little babies and snot-nose brats won't appreciate it, or catch any of what makes it special. Again, the background and BGM/SFX could have been improved....but it definitely is very entertaining.

[Alien Wasp Invasion.]

Well, for a click-em game it's pretty decent. Neat explosion effects, and the wasps looked like wasps. However, there aren't any penalties other than a game over...no upgrades...lacks variety....interesting background (albeit rough). If this game were any longer, any more wasps were on-screen, or the wasps took any longer to kill the player this game might not be quite irritating.
However, I beat it in less than a minute, got my medal, and feel satisfied.

out of 10...

gfx - 7.5 (blurry, retro, interesting, nice fx)
sfx - 5 (boring music, uninteresting sfx)
design - 7 (linear presentation, good execution)
gameplay - 6.5 (nothing special, but balanced)

overall, this game doesn't take long and I may be biased as it reminds me of the ending to Lawnmower Man. With that said, I like it and look forward to more games from you!

[Dungeon Defiler]

After looking through this authors other submissions, I feel safe saying that they don't appear to have ANY interest in what YOU (the player) thinks of their games. I presume they're a sponsor...one that may not be doing so well....and doesn't speak English.

This feels like another half-assed attempt to rake in some cash with a half-baked game that is neither addictive or "mysterious".

It gets boring within about 5 minutes, once you realize that there are no upgrades or equipment. Leveling up takes forever, and interaction is limited to clicking boxes that look like poorly-foreshortened stone rooms. Sorry, the SAME stone room.

The combat is based on flipping cards and hoping you get one that damages the enemy. No, you do not get to customize a deck and there are MAYBE 5 different cards that either damage or heal.

Totally mindless, you can pretty much sit here clicking and clicking...only to realize you wasted a lot of time on something made by someone that doesn't really give a shit. Everything is cheap here, from the uncolored enemies to the lack of ANY character development.

And then, to top it all off, you get a random ad every so often reminding you to support Indy Developers.
Yeah, that's pretty important for developers to keep making awesome games...but these kinds of tactics slander the enterprise and aggravate players into not only NOT wanting to click the ads, but also to navigate away from the game itself.

out of 10....

gfx - 6 (lazy sketches, little variety)
sfx - N/A (I have no sound-card)
design - 2 (insulting and presumptuous)
gameplay - 1.5 (no depth, half-baked ideas)

overall, this game is an insult to Flash game development. It hurts the foundation of the industry by taking things that people already hate (advertising) and throwing it in their face like a custard pie. It then proceeds to tell you how to feel about it ("addicting", "mysterious", "challenging"), after it has suckered you in with feigned professionalism.
Role-playing video games are about the immersion...and the only thing "defiled" here is the genre.

Additionally, "Dungeon Defiler" sounds sort of perverted...

[Caesar's Day Off]

Simple, short, sweet, hilarious, and clever. Everything a good flash game should be, I think.
While maybe only a game by definition, it really does everything it intends to...and well. Timing is excellent, sound fx/music work well to set a good atmosphere, gameplay is very simple, and the premise rocks.

out of 10...

gfx - 9 (hilarious, love the lion)
sfx - 9.5 (awesome tune, great sfx)
design - 9.5 (rad premise and execution)
gameplay - 9 (awesome timing)

overall, this is a game that doesn't take too long to enjoy thoroughly. The real challenge is in getting the medals....