Fanka
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 38
Registered: 12-09-2005
IP: Logged
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Re: People who have finished the Beta 2.0 Version. (+5)
My little "review" as I promised...
Generally I really enjoyed playing WonderQuest. In terms of the DROD hold rating system I give it a rating (enjoyability) of 10 and difficulty probably something like 8-8.5. (Although it's a bit difficult to compare Wonderquest and DROD holds.) Anyway, as far as difficulty is concerned I think some rooms are very challenging (and enjoyable to conquer) and even the first levels are not too easy. However, I don't think there's any room that would keep and experienced DROD player busy for days. I'm not certain about a newbie's point of view though. Maybe a few of the rooms even in the beginning are a bit too difficult eg. the butterfly ones -I hate them by the way-, where you need to be very comfortable with the technique of "backswiping" and other skills that maybe need more time to master. However, I can see that you have emphasised much more to puzzle rooms rather than combat rooms, which are easier for a beginner to understand. Another problem is that there are a few rooms that are based on monster movement order or at least demand understanding of that.
I enjoyed most of the story. It certainly works, especially in the beginning it is very successful to create a gloomy feeling that feels very appropriate. The music, which I liked a lot, also helps for that. You do get the message you were planning to ("we all have to work together, each with his own abilities and disabilities") both through story and levels. However, I think the pet-eye part was a bit too long and maybe a bit boring. I'm not sure that this theme was actually long in the sense that went through too many levels but I did get the feeling there were too many scrolls about it. Also I have to say that I was a bit disappointed because I was expecting the pet-eye to turn into a character in another level since you had said there would be a dog!
I did enjoy playing with most of the non-DROD features you created. A few ideas were brilliant: character splitters, friendly snakes, running, etc.. There are a few things that I didn't quite like though. (Sorry if I sound like a DROD purist and, anyway, comparison is bit unfair) For example interaction of balls and lasers: since the character is the first to move, if he goes on a ray then he should die, even if a ball blocks the laser, since the blocking would happend after the death. Maybe one could say that the laser is also a monster that plays last, but that doesn't explain why monster avoid lasers. In my opinion you should need two consecutive balls to be able to go through a ray. Also, the purist inside me really hates the idea of keys, because it involves change to room state (more than conquered/unconquered) so it's not the same when you exit and re-enter.
The order that things happen is generally a bit strange. For example when a character or a monster enters or leaves a pressure square, then the doors the square controls don't open/close immediately but wait until everything else has moved. This doesn't make much sense. Also, it seems to me that the game does all moves and then calculates the "am I dead" variable. So for example you can walk onto a mimic's sword, provided that the mimic moves and you don't die (in DROD you simply can't move). This can result in strange behaviours: try level 12, 4W 4S. You can stay in the yellow door as long as you like. The balls won't push or kill you but simply go through you. This might be a bug really but a believe it's because of those strange movement order rules. Also, balls, rafts etc. combined with the movement order thing introduce a high degree of unpredictability. Another thing that has to do with room design that I didn't like very much is an abuse of the stand-on-a-closed door effect.
Of course there's room for improvements. I would like sound effects for some things, like mimic placement, when getting a key etc.. Some features haven't really been used very much and I would really like to see them in further levels. Eg. the snake-eats-food thing. Another thing that I would really like to see is each character's weapon pushed to its limit in combat. I mean combat (not puzzle) rooms that you really need eg. the scientist to kill all roaches. In most such rooms it feels that our humble smitemaster, Beethro, could do the job, except perhaps a few arrow-man rooms where he seems to be used quite effectively eg. butterfly rooms (have I mentioned how much I hate them?).
Something that one should also take note of is that for some strange reason Wonderquest uses constantly 80-90% of my Pentium 4 3.2 GHz CPU even when it is idle (but not minimised). That's really a lot. DROD almost never uses more than 30% and when idle it is like 1-2%. Might be a reason for crashes.
Once again thanks a lot for a great game, googa. Looking forward to a sequel. Keep up the good work! Have a few mod points
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