[Walexei]

you just gotta remember the text log at the start which says the guy left his key on the lower levels. The log is right next to the big elevator.

[Ninja Duck]

Yeah, I didn't remember what the elevator key was for until I saw the elevator. And at that point, I just went back to the beginning anyway to see in 1213 would go back in his cell. But to be fair, the elevator key was mentioned in the very first log in the game so we should have remembered it...

Edit: Well, this post was unnecessarily redundant.

This post has been edited by Ninja Duck: 04 January 2006 - 04:53 PM

[Dr Lecter]

Its not like it wasn't obvious where you had to put the key, but I think alot of people just forgot that was the reason for going to lower floors in the first place because it seemed so long ago. I myself being one of those people

[Zewb]

Do try to avoid "trial-by-error" situations, like in Another World (Out of this World) where the only way to figure out the puzzles is to die at least once, and try again.

I hate that.

[Walexei]

Ahh for the Old days of adventure games such as Kings Quest and Kyrandia where a simple mistake unkown to you early in the game can fuck the whole thing up much much much later on leaving you irreversibly stuck.

[Gobbler]

You actually got to play King's Quest? Wow... I could never manage to do that. All the girls, women, semi-women and sexually confused sailors used to play those games and talked about them like professionals. Now I'm not saying that combining women and computer games is a pointer to void, but that scared the hell out of me.

This post has been edited by Gobbler: 05 January 2006 - 01:11 PM

[Dr Lecter]

About the only good part of Simon the Socerererer 3D was the puzzle that you had to die to complete...

[SimeSublime]

I found the hardest puzzel in the game finding the damn crane key. I think I did three laps of the entire level before I found it. Everything else fell into place then. Though the boss was damn hard. But I was playing the game in a window, so it was incredibly difficult to see if the white spike pre-cursors to tell which attack he was going to use. After fullscreening it, it was hard, but do-able.

[Gobbler]

After fullscreening it, it was hard, but do-able.

Quite a good combination, methinks.

[ion eon]

That made no sense at all

[Dank Panties]

Okay, I waited nearly three weeks to let all the sycophancy die down.

Now, the truth.

Yes 1213 does seem Flashback derivative; it's also a tad like Another World (aka Out Of This World), and maybe a little Prince Of Persia too. Nothing wrong with that. But really, actually what it really, really reminds me of is onEscapee. Like, a lot.

Overall, 1213 does play fairly responsively, considering it's an AGS title using a system meant for adventure games. Yahtzee seems all for finding new and weird ways to bend an engine to do stuff it wasn't really meant to do (maybe you should have a look at GameMaker sometime for action games Mr. Croshaw). As such, there are a few things about the game control wise that suffer due to being made with an engine that wasn't designed for this sort of meme.

It works half-decently, though, so on to other more important things...

The first thing that strikes me about 1213 is that the graphics are very very bland... uninspiring. Vapid. Sad, really considering that Yahtzee has made good/great graphics in the past (7 Days A Skeptic anybody?). It seems with each new release however, that his graphics get blander and blander... I understand this expedites the development process, but it also takes away from the enjoyment and immersion factor. I hope this trend in his work stops or we'll be probably be playing a Yahtzee interactive fiction next.

Of even greater concern, it feels like Ben's games are becoming more and more boring... and I never thought I'd say that about a Yahtzee title. I ate 5 Days A Stranger Alive, and 7 Days A Skeptic I devoured, both class "A" freeware games. Even his older games before those were decent to good, (like Rob and Odysseus Kent) all well worth your time to explore.

But the game after the "Days" series, the Elite/Space Quest hybrid "Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment" bored me so much I quit after 30 minutes. I just could -not- get into it. Sitting around in a non-responsive, non-spontaneous cockpit mucking about a grid managing a whopping four resources... uck. Look, you just don't make Privateer out of AGS... it doesn't lend itself to the genre in such a manner. Or if you do, you don't make space (and space combat) so vacuously insipid.

Anyway, back to 1213, I think I made it through about 20 minutes with this game until I was yawning to tears. For someone who seems to take great pleasure in pointing out all the things that are wrong in games in the columns he's written for "Adventure Gamer Underground" webzine, ( Common Adventure Game Design Flaw series), Ben sure can be a hypocrite.

Examples of really bad game design in 1213 (or why I quit after 20 minutes) in no particular order:

1213 constantly tries to stay "realistic" for immersion purposes... yet, you gain health back by taking showers... what? A nice rinse cures bullet wounds?! Um, howabout some sort of MediDroid system (it's the future right)? Or couldn't I at least just find a medpack on the wall? That's possible considering you've escaped into areas you're not usually meant to go... and the guards would have emergency medkit stations, wouldn't they? No... let's use the "magic happy shower" because that not only makes sense(?) it also guarantees ubiquity. Stupid ubiquity.

Exremely annoying... when you drop from a ledge guards starting shooting you before you even touch the floor... by the time I drop from a ledge, turn around to face the guard, and fire... I've already taken 2-3 shots.

And then shooting... geez, how long do I have to hold down the TAB button and fire before I actually hit a guard? And why doesn't the distance have any relation to the chance of hitting a guard with a bullet? Is the probability factor determined by a 1D300?!

Why can't I dodge bullets -somehow-... you can do this in a 2-D game of this design, have you never played Blackthorne, Ben? In Blackthorne you could "lean into the shadows", or in this game's case, lean against the wall. Something. Ducking doesn't help much. Out Of This World had the energy barrier for a reason... Flashback had the rechargeable shield for a reason. That reason is that standing there getting shot with no defense capabilities sucks the fun right of combat.

WHY do the guards resurrect? Would it be soooo hard to give their existence a variable?! Another example of rushed development that only serves to make the game "less fun" and "more infuriating".

And the TEXT speed is horrible, I found myself constantly just "waiting and waiting and waiting" for the paragraphs of story to go away so I could just PLAY THE GAME. If you're going to drown us in paragraphs of "suspension of disbelief fodder" (where every character is the exact same snide one-liner spouter aka the game's creator), at -least- let the player control how quickly they chew it.

Last of all the music is completely uninspired, tepid, and annoyingly repetitious. I understand Ben's not a musician, but there -are- decent freeware MIDIs all over the net. Instead of using music that came from a fantasy role playing game creation kit, why not find some music that has a dark techno-electro edge to it? That would actually fit the atmosphere that 1213 goes for... not Final Fantasy dirges. Underestimating the value of good proper atmoshperic game music is a very common game design flaw, so remember that for your next article Ben.

The sound effects were thin too, but I'll let that go... except for one thing. Why the #@$)?! must I constantly listen to that STUPID HEARTBEAT? If you're gonna use the "audible player heartbeat" at least only use it when the player's life is almost nil. At least then it actually enhances the game's suspense, instead of the game's annoyance factor.

Look... there -might- be a good game 30 minutes into 1213. But when you spend the first 20 minutes being constantly -annoyed-, you, as a player (me as a player), may find yourself like I did feeling completely unable to reach that juicy nugget in the center of a sour stale slimey badly designed mess.

Maybe I seem a little harsh saying all this, but Ben fancies himself somewhat of a "diety among men" in game design, hence his Adventure Gamer Underground articles and his oft-arrogant website (where he recently denounced everyone on this forum BTW). In that regard, one would expect great things indeed from the man who brought us the fantasic Days series. Instead, it seems said man is content to be hypocritical and worst of all, lethargic. Ben is just -not- pushing himself, he has -talent- undeniably, but to waste it on half-baked ideas will not garner a good review from this gamer.

Games can be art Ben, but art draped over a pile of poo stinks.

[Yahtzee]

I'm very sorry you feel that way. Please let me know your name and address so I can immediately refund the money you paid to play the game.

(press enter to skip speech, like it says in the manual, by the way)

[Dank Panties]

I'm very sorry you feel that way. Please let me know your name and address so I can immediately refund the money you paid to play the game.

(press enter to skip speech, like it says in the manual, by the way)

Well it would seem that in the diatribe you are forced to endure in the beginning of the game you could of squeezed: "At any time simply press enter to expedite my banter."

Constructive criticism btw. I have actually donated money to you before for games that were worth the $$$.

[Gobbler]

Hell, pressing the enter key is first thing that comes to my mind on any occasion - regrettably even when I'm told to confirm the 'format c:' command. Besides - read the fucking manual. It's not as long and as complicated as it may look like.

I guess I could say a thing or two in reply to all those things that have been mentioned, but Yahtzee already summed it up alright. And since everyone's free to express his own impressions and I'm not in the mood for manipulating them right now, I would like to suggest that 'constructive criticism' might not be reduced to 'attacking the creator' in the near future. I'm no psychologist, but I do know that such attacks most of the time result in defensive stances, thus twisting the meaning of 'constructive' in this context.

[Dank Panties]

I would like to suggest that 'constructive criticism' might not be reduced to 'attacking the creator' in the near future.

I have no idea how I "attacked" Ben.

I said he's made A list freeware, I said he usually makes exciting stuff, I said that he is undeniably talented.

I just think he slipped with 1213. If everybody tells him "it's perfect", then what incentive will he have to evolve as a game creator? Especially when he values "game design" and "games as art" so highly?

Sorry I told the emperor he was naked this time. He's had some fabulous robes in the past, for what it's worth.

This post has been edited by Dank Panties: 15 January 2006 - 06:04 AM