Sunday, March 2, 2008

Died Hard

The "society" loves zombies.

For the game developers, they are cheap to make. They looks alike, nobody cares what they look, you can make a whole bunch of them in cookie cutter; They are "dead", no longer human, and they are trying to hurt you, so it's naturally justifiable to blast them all away, perfectly fit in a game enemy role. (If you have watched The Spiderman movie series, you'll notice they took some time to explain about each bad guys that they were not wicked bad but were actually good guys before); Zombies are creepy. They are slow, however, every now and then, players got sneaked up by them at corners. It gives them a thrill and they love it. Not to mention you can make them fast for whatever reasons (evolved? enhanced? different species?)

For the gamers, what makes you feel better to know you can outmaneuver when outnumbered?

About 2 days ago, Armorgames.com released a game called Died Hard. You are the hero who take the elevator to each floor, clear out zombies, and rescue victims who pops up randomly bounded. Gameplay, graphics, music, sounds are all basics, but it's addicting. Why? because you can upgrade your gun to be a sprinkler! :D Soon enough you will be invincible in the game although you are only one against hundreds.

"What's next?" After certain upgrades (translate into > 30 min), you've done "proving" yourself. The "happiness" fades, and the whole process become tedious. The ~3 types of zombies change only in numbers, next upgrades seems not necessary, making no difference, or just too far away. Then, what's next?

I don't know the answer, the hero got cornered at floor 49, when movement control bug in the script kicked in. But I probably won't play this game again.

Some pretty nice designs in this game are: the whole screen shakes and tilts when the player got attacked by zombies; The area is small, it feels controllable; The zombie numbers increase gradually, "divide and conquer", it feels good to see progress.

Tips: There are about 5 victims on each stage. Do leave without rescuing them. Just wait for them to pop up; Upgrade speed first, 4 is enough. Stamina upgrade is not necessary.

http://armorgames.com/play/925/died-hard



Sunday, February 11, 2007

BlockSum

BlockSum is a creative puzzle game. The game consists of blocks, each with a number. Your job is to connect same numbered blocks to clear them. You can increase the block number by joining them, but you can't split them. Let say you have to cancel a block with number 10, you gotta have 10 blocks with number 10 in it connected. The blocks are constantly pushed to the top, once it reaches there, the red marker will come up for final count down, when they reach the top, the game is over. Not sure if there is an end to this game.

As you level, the time limit gets tighter, and calculation gets more complicated. A great game to train the brain! :D

Graphics, music, sound are quite good, control is responsive, and the game idea is just great!

If you like puzzle game, you should definitely try it.



BlockSum