Plasmarift's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[MAC Escape 2]

I really like it. This wasn't just a generic escape game where you are locked in a room and need to get out. You give the player a mission and a lot of places to search through. Even better, many if not all the puzzles are intuitive and make sense. The multiple endings were also a great inclusion. I wish more escape games like this were made. I do have a few suggestions though.
- Have a way for the player to know what they picked up because right now, you only have the initial description that appears when you pick something up and after that, there's no way to identify the object (a player might click off before reading what the item is).
- Perhaps add a pause function to the game so a person can stop playing and not have to worry about the timer running down.
- Why is it that you can only access the bonus ending after beating the game once? This is going to throw a lot of people off if they searched thoroughly for secrets during the first playthrough. Why would they expect an unseeable secret to suddenly be available then?

I really look forward to your next release and don't be afraid to experiment with these kinds of games. I for one am tired of the tropes of point and click games and would love to see some more unique approaches and gameplay. Good luck!

eriklectric responds:

You can actually get the bonus ending the first time. As soon as you turn the power back on, you can look at the computer for the code. Thanks for the suggestions, though, I'll be sure to implement them in the next one.

[Hyperskill]

Honestly, the game seems to rely less on skill as you progress and I'm not just talking about the upgrades. You even state in the description that if a level is too hard, then get more upgrades to make it easier, but during my time playing, I never reached a point where I beat a level feeling a sense of accomplishment: it was either too easy or too hard to where I needed more luck than anything else. I will explain in points:
- Sometimes, there are just too many bullets on screen and this honestly seems more like a cheap attempt at difficulty (of course adding more things that can kill you onscreen will make the game tougher. Trying to make a hard game that doesn't follow this trend is tough, but it isn't impossible). There are so many and they are moving too fast to the point where you are overwhelmed within seconds (I'm referring specifically to the count down challenge that has two doors leading into it). If they are moving faster than you, there are fifty of them and you can only take five hits, then what are the options for the player (you can only teleport two times, basic evasion is useless, and your bullets may only kill 3 of them before you are overwhelmed)? Instead of increasing the number of bullets, organize the level to create a sense of difficulty, such as making fewer enemies, but make them harder to kill or make the spawn points harder to reach (you did this in one room where you needed to destroy the inner most spawn points before being able to take a crack at the outer ones.
- The speed of the bullets changes for the SAME towers as you move forward. The first thing you do when you enter a room is see what kind of towers they have. A player might say "oh, these towers. Their bullets are slow, but there are a lot of them." only to find that the bullets are moving faster than the previous ones. Why not create brand new enemies with different insignias to identify the faster moving enemies or, a better idea, have a device that encompasses an area where a spawn point in its area of affect gets its bullets speeded up. Destroying the device slows the bullets. This gives players a sense of strategy and choice "should I go after the speed devices or focus on the more powerful spawn points?"
- I don't think the towers provide any indication of when they will release an enemy. This is a big deal because there's already enough going on onscreen that a player can't be counting down the time until the spawning takes place. They might be standing right next to one shooting it when an enemy releases one and boom, they're dead. Perhaps add a pulse indicator, where a small circle increasing in size can be seen in the spawn points and once it reaches the outer edges, an enemy appears.
- Options are very limited. You have four options when taking on the enemy: shoot, evade, release the blast attack, or dash. Yes, you can mix these, but two of them need to recharge and there is only so much you can do with them so for most of the game, you are moving and shooting. even worse, the area is so small that some bullets are impossible to evade, meaning you are meant to take damage during the game. From the menu, it is apparent that you will add more upgrades, but you should do more with what you have, like make it so the blast attack can be further charged up to release more damage, have the auto-bullet bounce off the outer walls, have the dash ability allow you to destroy objects you pass over (more strategy with players trying to evade while also lining up the dash with an enemy. Yes, I know that this is included already, but the affects are minimal). Other suggests for powers: a weapon that will take all the bullets in a specific area, pull them into the center and explode them, taking out whatever was in the center and getting rid of the bullets (needs to charge), shield that when activated reflect bullets and lasers for a short time, but does not defend against tougher enemies.

There are also other suggestions I have for the game:
- There is a bug where you can end up on the outside of the level (I'm guessing this might happen if you are moving in the direction of the door moments before death or something. I'm not sure). It has happened to me at least three times.
- The warning for the laser ray needs to be bigger. Also, it is one of the most annoying parts of the game because it is the only thing that a reset will not reset. Sure, it makes each attempt less the same, but it could also hit you just as you restart the level, making you have to restart the level again.
- Make it so you can only talk to NPC when pressing a certain button because running into them during battle and having it paused like that is annoying and throws you off.
- Going off of the previous comment, please make it so you can go through the dialogue faster.
- How much the shield protects you is unclear and how much damage each enemy does is also unclear because there is no time to be keeping a close eye on the health bar when you're in battle (also, with the enemies jumbled together, how could you determine who hit you first?) Have an info section that explains how much damage an enemy does. This can help with strategy because then a player can say "I'm moving left to get hit by this enemy to dodge the other because the other would cause more damage".
- I like the art style and the story a lot. The character portraits are also cool.
- For the shockwave, have the misty circle that surrounds the player be more apparent when the player still has the shields (it pretty tough to see when the player still has shields).
- There's no indicator on the range of the dash and I don't know what you could use as an indicator, but is this pretty important.

Please excuse my temper in this post as I wrote it after having tried the 8 count room with the twin lasers. I'd gotten close a few times and then failed, usually because of that stupid laser. I wish you luck in your game endeavors.

RaveryNet responds:

Thanks for this very elaborate review. You have mentioned many good points.

- The bases spawn enemies as soon as they are touched by the spawn line. (It's the purple line, which moves upward)
Knowing when those bases will spawn enemies can be very important in thinking of a strategy to clear the level. e.g. In one of the north-east levels you can destroy a spartan base (enemies with shield) by using dash twice in a row and ramming the spartan base, which reduces the difficulty of the level immensely. The order in which you destroy the bases is very important and will turn an insane enemy-filled bullet-hell into a more reasonable challenge.
I think Ash should teach the spawn line mechanic in the beginning.

- Different speed of enemies. The levels have different difficulty levels. I should display the difficulty as it changes the speed, behavior and hitpoints of the enemies.

- The countdown level with two entrances: Maybe I shouldn't have added this level in this version. It is indeed very difficult, when you do not have e.g. the Lightray or higher movement speed. It can be done, but it is indeed frustrating.

"have the dash ability allow you to destroy objects you pass over (more strategy with players trying to evade while also lining up the dash with an enemy. Yes, I know that this is included already, but the affects are minimal)."
In the story mode you don't get the benefits of the dash damage yet, but in the challenge mode you can upgrade your beam damage and kill most enemies with one or two dashes. The challenge and story mode will feature a lot more abilities and upgrades, but I have to do more balancing before I can release them. (If you are interested, you can see some upcoming levels and abilities in a gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqOfi6DdGKQ )

- Out of the level bug: Thanks! I'll code a fix in the next version.
- Regarding the shockwave indicator: I have to think about a good solution. Right now one can hear a sound, when the shockwave is ready, you get the glow and there is an icon on the right hand side of the screen.
- NPC talk button: Yes. I agree. A button, at least in the battle levels, is a good way to go.
- Faster NPC dialogue button / skip dialogue button: Yep, will come.
- Enemy and damage information screen: Yes. Planned and will come soon.
- Indicator dash: I'll add some subtle line, which indicates the max distance.

Regarding "too easy or to hard": I wanted to have some non-linearity, but maybe I should reduce it instead. It can decrease the challenge too much, when levels are done in a strange order. If the levels are too easy, the player won't get the necessary muscle memory to complete the later levels, which is frustrating. I need to think about this.

The restart bug regarding those light rays (warning indicator) is actually a feature, which will become more relevant later on: Some objects are "outside" of Persephone's control and are not affected by the restart ability she grants you. This will be part of puzzle rooms in a later version of the game and will allow a bit of sequence breaking.

"auto-bullet bounce off the outer walls" - Won't happen, sadly. I'd have to add more collision detection, which would be to computationally intensive for slower CPUs.
"blast attack can be further charged up to release more damage" - Good idea. I'll look into that.

Very constructive criticism. Kudos!

[BunnyEscape]

Sorry sir, but reading the instructions is not going to fix this game. The problem isn't people misreading the directions, it's what the instructions don't explain, as well as bugs in the game.
- The game for unexplained reasons will increase or decrease the movement speed of the rabbit before the game begins, going from moving at super speed (making it near impossible to control it properly) to a little below what you would expect. Is the reason why you want us to read the instructions because it somehow fixes the speed glitch (even if this is true, you should mention this to the players. Also, if it is true, I don't believe it is a complete fix because the problem will go away and then come back).
- It seems like falling too far in this game will cause instant death though this seems kind of inconsistent.
- I've falling through the far right platform while standing on it. also, when trying to jump to the right ledge in level 1, I fell through it as well so not all of it is solid.
- It seems like if you keep dying on the first level, the carrots won't reset because I ended up with over 87 carrots on the first level.
- Every time you go to replay the game after dying, you need to click on the game window for the controls to register in the game.
- The game is pretty unforgiving, having to start from level 1 every time you die, especially considering it is very easy to die in.
- There's a white bar above the game window.

Even if you fixed the bugs, the game doesn't offer much gameplay wise. nothing is pulling me in to play more other than curiosity as to what the end will bring, but considering what the game is already presenting, I unfortunately don't believe it would be worth the journey.

However, this is your first game and I've actually seen a lot worse (and I mean a lot worse). You have art, level design, and some sound effects in your game which is more than I can say about some of the others. I believe with enough dedication and work, you could make some good games. don't be afraid to reach out to others for help. I wish you luck in your game design endeavors.

Chitpa1 responds:

yes Actually the increase in speed of the character after restarting the game is actually a bug and i am working on it.
I just suggested to see instructions to get the know controls of the game.
Thank you for your wishes. i will surely think about your suggestions and come with a good game play.
One thing i want to suggest you that keep pressing the left key when you start the game and just press up key when there is gap in between floors. and on the moving floors just stand on the floor and when you get close to other moving floor, then just press right key.

Any way thanks for playing my gape and inspiring me and giving me some useful suggestions.

Hello Sir!
The problem of increasing speed is solved. now you can enjoy this game. :)

[Skyline - The Petina Lee Story]

The game is interesting, but there are some serious problems that need to be addressed.
- For the second choice where you can continue trying to save the rest of the factory workers, if you go in the elevator, die soon after getting on, and then try and go back to that spot, the elevator will not have come back down, making it impossible to continue down this path.
- For the "boss battle" where you just got the laser gun, if you use up the laser gun without killing the boss, you can't reload it so it is impossible to kill the boss (even dying doesn't reset the ammo).

There may very well be other problems so I'd suggest going through the game again to see for yourself.

As for the gameplay, I enjoyed moving forward through the game, but it seemed like things happened without explanation, like the train separating. I was focusing on killing the enemies only to find the train moving apart when I got to that point. Also, killing enemies just wasn't very satisfying as it didn't provide me with anything, but an arbitrary score (if the enemies provided me with ammo or health, it would give me incentive to fight them, otherwise, I'd try and avoid them). Also, relating to that point, the combat is lacking and kind of annoying; if you try to attack standing still, but then move slightly, it cancels the animation and attack, causing the enemy to hit you.

I will say the game isn't awful and I would certainly like the play the rest of it. I hope to see more games from you in the future. Good luck!

(by the way, you say in the description "if you want to join me on my quest please contact me", what would you need help doing?)

arcadeattack responds:

Thank you - this is exactly the type of feedback I need! Thanks for pointing out those bugs and for those suggestions - I could really do with good testers for my next projects if you're interested? Email me [e-mail]. Dylan

[Alsoma]

First off, you may want to watch your replies. Just because someone hasn't made a game, doesn't mean they can't differentiate a good from a bad one and doesn't mean they couldn't make a better one though I do understand your frustration about the subject. It only takes one bad line of code or an extra line of code and suddenly, you're game stops working or a specific function of it stops working. A lot of good things get cut from games because of similar problems.

Also, you can't expect people to give you praise for a game that only took you 4 hours to make. Yes, there are people that have made games in a shorter time span and have gotten good results, but the game has four levels, takes less than a minute to beat, is missing sound altogether and this is your first game and you still have a lot to learn.

As for the game itself, it doesn't offer much of a challenge. I actually beat the game the first time without killing any of the bad guys. The bad guys serve as the only true obstacle and they are easy to dispose of and dodge. Below I have a list of suggestions for the games.

Suggestions:
- Add ASWD for alternate controls as the arrow keys can be awkward for people when they also have to use the mouse and aren't left handed.
- A menu would be nice instead of being thrown into the game.
- Allow the option to restart the game after beating it.
- A game like this needs sounds. You can gets some by going to freesounds.org and browsing the website for them.
- Music would also be a plus. You can get some by browsing the audio portal on Newgrounds or from royalty free music online (try googling it). Just make sure you give credit to the creator of the music.
- More levels would be good though perhaps try adding obstacles like you did on the last level to impede the player.
- The explosion that occurs after throwing the bomb, it lingers for a moment after it explodes, killing enemies that run into it. to make things for difficult, you could try shortening this time.
- Add destructible objects like buildings or walls.
- Put a little more time into the credits and ending pages to make them look appealing.
- A good thumbnail is a good way to bring people to your game. Just having the name isn't always enough though I will say the title was enticing and mysterious enough for me to click.

These are just a few suggestions. I wish you luck in your future in game design.

AinslayDickHea responds:

I would respond to your comment but i dont wanna read it all.
Have a nice day.

[All Bears Love Honey]

The game is definitely fun, funny, and interesting and the idea and characters are cute though it is sometimes impossible to get the candy or to avoid being spotted by the bears due to how they are placed (especially when they are patrolling corners. They're turning is so erratic sometimes that sneaking by is tough). I found making them chase you to be the fastest way to beat an area, but since you can't see the entire area from the start, you run the risk of running into bears. I usually ended up having to enter and exit an area a few times before the setup was do-able. It seems like there could be something added to the game that would make sneaking around easier if you know how to use the function (maybe like throwing a rock to distract the bears or throwing candy or by hiding inside bushes where the bears can't get you) though I understand you don't want to make getting all the collectables easy. Also, do I detect a hint of sexual innuendo (Goldick, delivered sausage, the new drink that tasted salty, etc.)? I thought it was funny and unexpected though I don't know whether to suggest changing the rating from E to T or not.

I did run into a few things that may need some attention:
- When I lost all my honey on my way to the rich guy, Honey said something like "Uncle Harry's not going to be happy that I lost all his honey." Who's Uncle Harry?
- It seems like the bears can sometimes sense my presence when I am nearby instead of seeing me. For the most part, the game is pretty good about trying to make it so the only time the bear goes after you is when it does see you. However, the "sensing my presence" comes up enough that it becomes annoying (this happens a lot in the wheat field though I'm not sure if it is intended or not since a grouping of wheat can be seen through). Also, sometimes when I go into a new area, a stationary bear will instantly have a heart above his head and, a second later, come after me, even if I'm not in the direct line of sight.
- Bears being near the entrance to the area. You did an extremely good job at making so this rarely happens. I know other games that have enemies right where you come into a level. I think I only came across two instances of this happening. Even still, there were multiple occasional where as soon as I entered an area, a bear saw me. With the bear not being near the entrance, getting away was usually pretty easy.
- What is MOE and Pets for in the menu? Place holders for stats like food is?

Some suggestions:
- It was kind of a let down that I couldn't examine stuff. It can really add a good splash of humor and character mixed in with info on the game, like I was curious about the bear on Honey's bed.
- I can't examine items inside my inventory, even though it makes a sound when I try to. I'd like to read more about that pet bald eagle.

I enjoyed the game despite the frustration and I look forward to your next one! Good luck.

darkrchaos responds:

Thanks for playing. I'll fix that talk about Harry. It was the name I was going to use before I came up with Goldick. lol

The MOE and Pet info in the menu is just there for filler. Like I said in the description, the menu manager plug-in doesn't work on newgrounds, which hid that window. I simply added random stuff there so it wouldn't show HP, MP, and TP.

Liberty is Justice's big sister. Justice is one of the five Moe Wars mascots and the character you find inside the barn. I don't have any images of Liberty or her pet bald eagle, but it's an important part of Moe Wars history, so it will show up eventually.

[Pluzzed Souls Demo]

The game could be good, but it is suffering in a few different ways, the worst being the waiting.
- Having to wait five seconds every time to respawn gets old really quickly. Although the wait isn't long, the time adds up because of a number of factors. For one, many things in the game can kill you in one hit, you can't see too far ahead to see enemies coming, and the shadow characters move about randomly and are impossible to predict with certainty. Both of these will cause the player to die a lot so why do you make the player wait five seconds before letting them replay the level? It should be near instantaneous. I know you are trying to pay homage to Dark Souls, like how it takes a little while for it to reload, but just because it has a long waiting time for restarting, doesn't mean your game should (and it shouldn't for good reason since, in Dark Souls, a player can go a long time before getting killed so the reloading won't bother them and deaths in Dark Souls are often times deserved because of a lack of skill and such. This isn't the case with your game for the most part.) You either need to cut down on the death or cut down on the reset time.
- The game seems to move at a sluggish pace. Pushing blocks and attacking blobs could be done faster.
- There is less puzzle so far and more luck as the most difficult part is navigating through enemies.
- There is no explanation of the controls in the game or in the description (and just pressing buttons randomly doesn't always work since some games have functions that don't work unless you are near a specific object or you reach a specific point in the game. For instance, what is the shield for next to the sword in the menu bar (where the health is)? Can I defend against attacks with it?

I stopped at the level that introduced the blobs. I know I have to get the extra health, but it's too annoying trying to get passed the shadow creatures as they can box you in if you go for the switch.

There are so many things that can be added to improve the game, such as having torches you can light that unlock doors, but lock others, or using your shield to refract light to activate something, or killing an enemy and pushing its corpse onto a switch to hold it down. I could help you come up with more ideas if you'd like the help. I wish you luck in creating your game.

DragonHeadStudio responds:

Thank you so much for the review, we will improve so much to final version and a lot of content are comming! Please try our windows version in HD! The link are in game menu! Thank you so much for playing and reviewing!

[Tap To The Future]

The game is interesting, but can you please add spacebar to the control option? I can't seem to click fast enough. The biggest number I got up to was 840. I don't know how the others are doing it (well, I know one of the commenters cheated since he said so, but that's beside the point).

Good luck on your future game projects.

AvixGames responds:

Added SPACEBAR! And it is possible to travel! not an ease challenge though.... Thanks for your feedback! :)

[Can You Escape Fate? An Escape the Room Game Inspired by Undertale]

Honestly, I don't think the game was as fun as the last zodiac game.
- The battles were pretty easy and replaying the game was torture because there was no way to skip long, lengthy text parts (I had to keep waiting for the enemies to get everything off their chest before the battle could end). After the fifth time of beating game, trying to find other endings, I can't take it anymore. Sometimes, I come back to games I played years ago to re-experience them, but I can't come back to this one. There's just too much waiting and I see so many opportunities to skip ahead without losing anything, but time. Even the enemies in the lab were a pain in the butt because you had to wait for them to disappear and they posed no threat of you losing unless you went out of your way to lose.
- There were no secrets that I could find (it also didn't help that it kept asking me if I wanted a hint). A big part of escape games is exploration and experimentation and, with that offer popping up every time I tried something that the game didn't like, it seems to deter players from doing these things.
- I didn't find any secret battles or items and only found three optional battles in the entire game and that was with the cat, the pink girl, and the karaoke machine, all of which don't seem to affect the endings (I thought by avoiding giving the bear to the pink girl, I could get a different ending, but I was wrong). The liked the first game with the sheep because it had more of a escape the room type of feel because it actually felt like you were exploring a room and needed to use your wits and the items around you to solve the puzzles.
- The story certainly wasn't as frightening as the sheep one, but it was greatly expanded and had more enemies and scenes. Still, it seemed strange that the monkey did an almost 180 degree turn near the end where it is mad at you and wants to bring Jax back and, with one phrase (something along the lines of "he appreciated what you did for him"), he likes you and is happy.
- I can only find four endings: A New Life, Lost Forever, A Soul Crushed, and Who Am I. I've searched up and down for the last two endings and have been killed by every single enemy in the game in an attempt to unlock the endings, but I haven't found them. Are the other endings in the Arcade mode? Is there something I'm missing? The only thing I haven't done is try to use the bear on the hoop machine in the game room and like I said, I can't play this game again unless I know there's going to be something new to encounter because I can't go through the same battle another time.

Bugs:
- I think someone else mentioned it, but there are strange pauses in the game, such as for Clawrus Jr when he goes to say what the Jr stands for. I use Chrome so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.
- As I was clicking through the text quickly a few times, I noticed the game started spelling out scrambled words. If you let them spell out, sometimes, the real dialogue will start printing. The two times this has happened has been for the pink girl stopping you from dying and the dialogue just before a game over screen.

Still, I hope to see more from you in the future. It seems a lot of others really like the game so my opinion is the minority here.

If you would like help with testing, voicing acting, or advice for games, let me know. I have some experience in each category. Good luck on your future projects.

chibixi responds:

Thanks for the thoughtful response! I definitely agree with a lot of the points you brought up. I do think that in the future it'd be useful to have some sort of skip button to make the waiting segments a lot shorter for those that have already read them before. The secrets are the optional battles! You do get a different ending with the pink girl but it only happens if you die in the main story (spoiler). The two other endings are in the arcade mode, you are right! Thanks for mentioning the bugs! I'll do my best to fix them in a future version and I'll definitely let you know if I need help. I really liked reading your review and I know that I have a lot of room to improve! I really appreciate that you took the time to play so much of my game :)

[Ohm]

It is a pretty interesting game, but I ran into a potential problem. As the enemy numbers start increasing, there is a chance that they can pin you against the side of a platform, preventing you from getting away from them and causing you to continuously take damage. I was eventually able to escape, but this cost me time and the enemies were able to get closer to the guy I was protecting.

There is also the problem of positioning yourself to attack the enemies. You need to be parallel with them in order to attack, but the problem is if there is a giant group of enemies on one side with almost no room for me to fit in-between them, how am I supposed to attack? It would be easier if you made it so the player can pass through the great master to attack.

Still, it is an interesting game and I enjoyed playing it until I encountered the problems I mentioned. The art is good, the music is relaxing, and killing the enemies was satisfying. I look forward to your next creation. Good luck.

HoytHoyGames responds:

This way it is possible to clean the areas full of enemies without being in much risk.
Pass through the great master, we think that would make the game much easier... maybe, looking now, would be a nice solution