Welcome to the final installment of my short Nindies@Home series. It's been a long time coming (well, since Friday), and we're finally down to the last three Nindies@Home games, The Doubtfuls. These are titles that I was disappointed by, and though there were some fun and creative elements in each of them, the previews didn't leave a positive impression on me. To reiterate from the first post of the series, these impressions are solely of the previews--the quality of the full/finished product might very well be different. Anyway, on to the games! _____________________________ Typoman (multi-platform) It's tough to be too hard on Typoman. In concept, the game sounds brilliant and unique: you control a stick figure--made up of the letters 'H E R O'--and navigate him (it?) through a series of environmental puzzles involving various kinds of wordplay. For instance, in the screenshot below you come to an area where it's raining into a ditch, and you have to get across. The only problem is that you can't swim; instead, you have to move that rightmost 'D' against 'RAIN' to make 'DRAIN' and clear the water out of the ditch, thus making it safe for you to move across without drowning. Sounds like a really inventive, enjoyable gaming experience right? Well, unfortunately, while there are some impressive puzzles like these that make you feel like a genius when you solve them, the actual movement of Typoman feels unsatisfying. He's heavy and can hardly jump, thus making the game feel like its dragging along listlessly as our hero steadily trots across the landscape. While this may sound like a silly criticism, the moment I picked the gamepad up I felt really constricted by the controls and weight of the character. This oppressive gameplay experience wasn't aided in the slightest by the art direction, which seemed purposefully dark and dreary. The moment I came to the area below and saw the first non-monochromatic colors was the moment I gave an involuntary gasp of joy and relief at seeing life within this desolate world. It was probably designed to evoke that reaction, and reflecting back on it it was a very cool moment, but the rest of the time trudging through black and gray wasn't worth it for me. Aesthetics aside, this can be a punishingly difficult game. I won't go into too much more depth seeing how long this impression already is, but look at it this way: if you don't mind severe trial-and-error design, and if you have an abnormal amount of patience, you might enjoy Typoman. Soul Axiom (multi-platform) It really hurts me to put this one in The Doubtfuls. When I watched the E3 trailer I was instantly interested and excited to see what kind of game it would be and how it would function. A visiting friend drew the obvious Bioshock comparison, and while this game is nothing like Bioshock, the power coursing through the main character's arms do look quite similar; in fact, the visual effect when you cast your powers is probably the best-looking part of this game. In all honesty, this was by far the worst preview out of all the titles, and not just for visuals either. *Spoiler Alert* You start off in a drab and mysterious temple, but you can't interact with anything inside; you just walk around, look at a couple statues, fall into a crevice, find a way out and continue walking. The game feels like it only really starts once you've followed the path out to the desert landscape you see below. From here, you're supposed to pick up on extremely subtle environmental clues ("That structure shows those three shapes, so I have to manipulate the shapes of the center structure to match") in order to destroy the surrounding temples and reach the item you're after on top of one of them. The problem is, you have absolutely no idea what you're supposed to do. The game is more old-school in that it lets the player look around and figure out what their powers do and how they're supposed to use them on their own. This would normally be fine, but the barren sandbox that is Soul Axiom's preview stage is full of empty space along the edges and around the temples, and your character moves infuriatingly slowly. I literally strolled around the ruins for a good 20-30 minutes looking for clues and wondering what to do, taking in the lovely brown, muddy textures the game had to offer. When I finally figured the objective out I was excited and proud, but also felt defeated that I'd just wasted a nice chunk of time doing nothing. Soul Axiom may have some wonderful later stages and more intuitive gameplay elements--as the trailers suggest--but for a stage that's supposed to get players excited to experience what your game has to offer when it goes on sale, this was a critical failure. Extreme Exorcism (multi-platform) Similar to RIVE, Extreme Exorcism is a fun game with strong core mechanics that just feels bland and generic--RIVE, however, had much more polish. Double-E also draws a comparison to Runbow, one of my favorite Nindies, in that this game must be played with friends to fully enjoy it. The crucial difference here is that Runbow, unlike Dub-E, offers online multiplayer for those who don't have people to play with locally. This is a massive downfall of Extreme Exorcism as the joy of running and gunning through the levels alone fades after the first few run-throughs. The first time I played the preview I was quickly turned-off and bored of the two sample levels. When I invited a friend over to test it a second time, however, I was shocked at how much more fun I had. We had a blast yelling warnings of "Watch out!" and "Dude, over there! No, that one!" and senselessly creating strategies that fell apart moments later. The multiplayer definitely hits the sweet spot. The thing is, I swear I've played games almost exactly like this--same retro art style and everything--on Newgrounds or Addicting Games. Those were Flash games, and they were free. I can see the appeal of Extreme Exorcism, and I did have some fun with it, but there's no way I can see myself spending money on something like this, online leaderboards or no. And with those last few harsh comments, the series has come to an end. If you enjoyed it there's a new post every single weekday, so check back often for more awesome gaming content and unpopular opinions! You'll know right when the next one goes live if you follow me on Twitter @CreamBasics. As always guys, I hope you have a beautiful day.
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