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Good games of the nonce
Dec. 22nd, 2014 06:22 pmHere are some freeware games that have had Tang's attention lately.
Vilesteel by Firevictory is a top-down RPG where you click on the bad guys and hold down the mouse button until they're dead. In later missions you will also have to push a button to quaff potions when your health gets low. The plot is generic and the gameplay is repetitive but it is built around a solid RPG character engine, the ambient music is pretty good, and the placement of enemies sets an entertaining pace of advancing through small victories. Multiple upgrade paths allow you choose your character's powers and provide the opportunity to replay the game with a different play style.
Hint: If you choose an archer character as I did, the "composite shot" power lets you launch multiple attacks at the same speed as regular attacks. The 400% upgrade to your attack power is like turning on easy mode.
Tang's rating: 2/4 good effort, bad execution.
Sky Quest by Berzerk Studio is a side-scrolling shooter where you use the mouse to move your psychotic angel antihero around the screen to dodge bullets and blow up monsters while you are backed up by an airship providing heavy artillery support. The airship also has an HP bar, so you have to protect it too. The game's features include multiple upgrade paths, equippable items to improve your stats, and optional challenge levels including some extra-difficult levels near the end of the game that provide a final challenge after you finish the story line. With each level being around five minutes long, Sky Quest is an excellent choice for casual gaming.
Hint: The store sells better items than you can get from drops even with item drop quality maxed out, but selling the weaker drops helps you afford the rare items from the store.
Tang's rating: 4/4 well polished and addictive as hell.
Last Scenario by SCF is an RPG that came out in 2007, but I ran across it recently and it has been taking much of my time. According to the seer's prophesy, the last descendant of the ancient hero of legend is destined to become the hero of today who will fight off the demons that are about to awaken. That's all well and good and it's exactly what that guy wanted to hear, but what does it mean to be a hero? Last Scenario raises that question with an intelligent script that puts the would-be hero in such complicated situations that he begins to question the very nature of heroism.
Being an RPG Maker game, the music and battle system are fairly routine, although much of the artwork is original. The most notable deviation from the norm is that magic spells are not learned but are equippable Spell Card items usable by any character, and each character can only equip two of them until you unlock additional slots. The battle rewards and item costs are balanced well enough that you will have trouble equipping everyone with the best gear available while also keeping a full stock of healing items. There is an optional strategy sub-game that I do not play because I am terrible at it.
Hint: You cannot easily replace most MP-replenishing items, so buy Tents and use them at save points.
Tang's rating: 3.75/4 losing a quarter point for a few quibbles with the battle system.
Phoenotopia by Quell is a platform adventure with an interesting storyline, many sidequests, numerous well-hidden secrets, bustling communities full of interesting characters, and game mechanics that prove that there are still new things that can be done with the genre. The pastel pixel artwork, soft music, and predictable action patterns produce a calming ambience that make this a rare action game that can be described as relaxing. The charming atmosphere and strong design combine to make this one of the best freeware games of the year.
Hint: Bring one or two Honey-based speed items into the tech center under the pit on the other side of the great wall. You may need them after defeating the mechanical boss.
Tang's rating: 4/4 the best Metroidvania game since Cave Story.
The Awakening by RockLou is an RPG with a simple interactive battle system where you press A to attack or D to dodge, and you ignore the other battle options because they are not as useful and you are not going to need them. It gives you about two hours of gameplay before it abruptly ends with a message from the programmer that he ran out of energy and decided to release what he had, so consider it as a demo. For a demo, it's pretty good.
Hint: The game does not yet include any point where you need to use Caleb in battle, so you do not need to waste time grinding his stats.
Tang's rating: 1/4 a pretty good demo but a flawed and incomplete game.
Farmyard Chronicle by Flapbat is an action puzzle game. The puzzle is in finding ways to collect the lost farm animals that an apprentice wizard accidentally teleported all around the castle. The action is in chasing the damn things down as they wander around the room while you avoid the ones that will knock you across the room if you're not careful. This is much more entertaining than it sounds. The game benefits from making good use of stock RPG Maker music and graphics resources, giving you magic powers that progressively open up new areas. and having several secrets to find if you want a perfect ending.
Hint: One of the more important powers is found across a gap on the left side of a room. You will need help getting there.
Tang's rating: 3.5/4 a fun diversion.
Flash's Bounty by ZyBy is a remake of the 1990 game King's Bounty, and it feels like a tactics game from 1990: inspired, fun, and flawed. In the exploration half of the game you collect gold, raise armies, and encounter or avoid enemies. In the combat half of the game you position your units on the field and watch the battle play out. There are two flaws that stand out enough to be mentioned. There is little variety in unit attack patterns and abilities, making the game repetitive after a while. A more serious problem is that your gold sources do not replenish. If you lose all of your units, you will not be able to afford to rebuild your army so you may as well restart the game. You are allowed to retry lost battles, but not to retreat without losing everything, so it's all over if you walk into a lost cause. Even with these flaws, it's a good game and worth playing.
Hint: Ghosts are powerful and increase in strength for every unit they defeat, but they will leave your party after a number of turns. There is an easily discovered bug that can be exploited to keep them in your party, which makes the Ghost unit a total game breaker that removes all challenge from the game. Be aware that this might not be what you want.
Tang's rating: 2/4 flawed but entertaining.
Tiny Dangerous Dungeons by Adventure Islands is a delightful little platformer with retro-themed graphics and sound. The game is one level long and can be beaten in under an hour, which is right about when a player may start to get annoyed by the retro-themed graphics and sound. What little the game does, it does well.
Tang's rating: 2/4 just a demo, but a good one.
Chaos Dawn is a flash RPG from 2010 that seems like a flash game from 10 years earlier. The artwork is bad. The voice acting is bad. The battle system is generic. The story is even more generic. The hero-is-an-idiot comic relief had been done before and done better. Somehow this game managed to draw me into it. Perhaps the amateurness of this game reminded me of the early days of flash gaming when Absalom was the bleeding edge of the state of the art, providing a comforting nostalgia. Who knows? For whatever reason, I liked it enough to give it a mention in this list.
Tang's rating: 1/4 why can't I stop playing it?
[Edit Jan. 4: one more game]
Homework Salesman is an easygoing RPG where there are multiple itemcrafting skills you can build up in addition to your combat level. The worldbuilding and aesthetics are excellent, but the game is hampered by a difficulty cliff between dungeon levels that requires a great deal of grinding to overcome. It also crashes from time to time, so save often.
Tang's rating: 3/4 too much grinding and too crashy, but everything else is great.
