webchameleon's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[TeleGrav]

good

good. I think I was able to "cheat" on a few levels, though.

AethosGames responds:

relizing the machanics of the game early isn;t cheating. ;)

[Andagel]

boring and unoriginal

Well, I'm sure this wasn't easy to make, so that's why you have any points at all. The controls are lousy. The character turns too slowly and she never seems to shoot in the right spot (but interacting with switches works fine, even if the animation doesn't match). The enemies look like low-poly Predator models and the hands of the woman in the first scene are hideous. I know your poly count is limited, being a 3d modeler myself, but you could have done better (and been more original). The dialog in that sequence is awful. Pleading with a grunt to "save the planet"? That just sounds ridiculous, like from a Captain Planet re-run.

Which brings me to the plot itself. Do you know what a "stock character" is? According to dictionary.com, a stock character is "a character in literature, theater, or film of a type quickly recognized and accepted by the reader or viewer and requiring no development by the writer."

The most common stock villains in America today are businessmen. Common stock heroes are journalists, environmentalists, and 'peace' advocates/ protesters (I'm not really sure of the order of prominence at this time). Robin Hood types are also making a comeback.

I must admit, it was pretty original to make the protagonist a lesbian, but the evil energy company thing is just way too overdone to interest me. These kinds of stories also put me off because it seems that the companies that hold up the weight of the world are being unfairly vilified. Granted, this is a Sci Fi thing and you probably weren't even considering big business in general when you made this, but it all seems to follow the same premises:

Businessmen want to control society.
All big businesses cheat and exploit their workers and customers.
Competition is cruel.
Big businesses=bad, small business=good (until they make too much money).
Money is the root of all evil.

I'll spare you any speeches on the moral and economic justification for laissez faire, but I will tell you that nothing big business (even energy compaies) have done justifies the image they have today in the media.

Bottom line: The story is unoriginal, the models look bad (and unoriginal), and the controls are awful.

Would you rather I just said "this is awful" and gave you a zero? At least now, if you want to tell me off, you be more detailed than " * you!".

Okay, I'm done.

popopt responds:

Webchameleon, so much feedback -well, thanks for being so thorough and for taking the time to write all this down:) Yes, i agree that the 'evil corporation' is a simplistic meme. With all the work it took to come to grips with the 3d, the storytelling suffered, but I wanted to make the point that I believe that powerful groups or people need to use their power with compassion, tolerance, and responsibility. (well, they dont HAVE to but i think its good if they do). For sure not all corporations are evil, they are made of people. But when people do evil (for lack of a better term) things in groups, they affect the world more than when they do it alone9for the most part), which is in part i guess why corporations make an easy target. Ill be sure to infuse more subtlety and originality into the next story thread and thanks for keeping me on my toes:) and its true, the chemicops DO look like predator dont they? LOL

[:the game:]

You know, it's funny...

You know, it's funny...

I shot the camera man (or whoever) in the face by accident on my first try.

...

I can sympathize with Cheyney.

[Gateway]

Oh, I've played this!

This is a cool game. I don't remember if I liked the first or second one best, but they were both great, even with the cheesy cutscenes. It somehow reminded me of Silent Hill 2--which makes this this game look like *, but SH2 makes all other games look like *. Both Gateways are 10, to me. I like the puzzles and the atmosphere.

[Desolation 2]

For all it's flaws, I liked the last one

The music is good, the inventory system is good, but everything else sucks. The navigation is by far the worst in any game I've ever played. The scenery has no depth whatsoever and is often so blurred I don't even know what the hell I'm looking at. There appears to be no correlation between the navigation arrows and the map. This leads me to suspect that you originally designed the areas around a flowchart and added a map as an afterthought.

The only zombie I encountered looked like a photo cut-out with it's eyes missing.

How the hell did you let this happen?

[Look out, Mr Johnson!]

That was fun

That was a great concept. Reminded me a little of Earth Worm Jim. This may actually be better. The boss did kind of suck, but it was challenging.

Make another!!!

molkman responds:

Yea, the boss is silly, I got bored with the project at that time.

[Hunted Forever]

Ditto

Yeah, I kind of agree. The monologue was awful. Is English your native language? You weren't kidding when you called the game "Hunted Forever", either. The game lost my interest after level three. The power-ups need to be more recognizable in effect, too.

[Karoshi:Suicide Salaryman]

Excellent.

Great timewaster. I didn't notice the Return to Menu button for a while.

[Monster Basement 2]

Finally!

I really liked the first one. I have a few problems with this one though:

1) You spent so much time on everything else in the game--Why couldn't you spell-check one-sentence dialog?!

2)You crapped out in conflict resolution. I thought it was a little off how you never got noticed by the Butcher(but I understand why you must have thought "screw it"), and I really think you should have killed him when the swamp-thing showd up, or something. Or make the character do it.

3) Tatari/ Onryo children are a dumb fad that needs to fade out.

4) You got touchy-feely at the end!

5) You changed the story. The original involved a scientist who explored the other dimension or something and transformed. He was a monster hunter, of sorts, wasn't he? I don't remember the details, but this story seems like a mish-mash of trite, contemporary concepts (I cannot be any vaguer).

6) I don't dig anime, but I let it slide this time because its you ;)

I was still entertained and impressed. 7 stars anyway. I love escape games.