sinfulwolf's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Temple of Death]

Good basics, but nothing more.

The core of this game is mostly well done, but in such a saturated genre as the top-down flash shooter, there's nothing else aside from that to get anything higher than the score I gave it. It's smooth, the weapons are accurate, the animation was nice. But...

The story is non-existent save a few scenes at the very start to give a setting. I'm a sucker for a good story, but there's not even an attempt at one here. While I do have to congratulate you on using a female character who isn't overly sexualized just for the sake of... there's nothing interesting about her. No name, no voice, no personality... just a place holder. An interesting story, a solid character, with these things you could really pull your work above the rest. It can entertain the reader that much more if they are invested in what's going on aside from some time killing.

I found almost zero challenge to the game. Some of the enemies were on the verge of being a nuisance, but just by spamming the earliest unlocked weapon you can keep alive. It was almost boring through the entirety, and being rewarded with very little aside from new guns that wasn't really needed, and eventually at the end some medals didn't spur me on to play further. Some better form of rewards, like more creative medals, different difficulty settings, unlocks... these can all help the player want to keep moving.

Also, why is this game rated M? I've seen E rated games that are worse than this. There's no sex, no strong language, and the violence isn't bloody in the least. It's somewhat misleading.

[Why this?]

Poorly delevered

First off, this isn't a game. The interaction is limited to pressing the WSAD buttons to move, but even then only the "d" to move right is the only thing needed at all. This could have been presented as a movie than a game, as it pretty much is a movie already.

Secondly the story was poorly delivered. There wasn't really anything to solve or figure out as the answer was tossed at you. There was no reason given at all for the actions committed before the start, and there was no emotional punch at the end. It simply happened. A list of events triggered by pressing a button. I suggest working on your script writing to try and deliver that punch you want. Perhaps going back to explain why the events took place, and why this ending occurred now out of no where. Nothing clicks and nothing has punch which is the single reason this failed because there was nothing else to grab the viewer's attention.

[Road of the Dead]

Fun, addicting, and well crafted.

Right off the bat, SickDeathFiend's signature art style came to the forefront, which simply made the game a visual treat as I've always liked his work, and it went hand in hand with this brutal and chaotic vision.

Second, right in the intro movie, came the excellent voice work. Sapphire's work in voice acting I've enjoyed since Hippolyta and still shines well in this piece, but Joshua Tomar and DruoxtheShredder both did such an excellent job with the main character, the soldiers and the commanders, fleshing out into a full story what could have been dull and boring easily. I would almost say that the background chatter really made this game stand out so many others in the zombie genre. It brought to life to terror, chaos and carnage of an outbreak of the undead.

On top of art and voice acting the sound effects and music from SoS also create a full experience and really make it stand out.

Finally onto the gameplay itself; the controls were easy, and quite responsive for the most part, though I did find there were times the car would stop without explanation and often lead to death as it would happen in front of a soldier or helicopter. Some more bullets and a longer range with the pistol would have been nice to deal with soldiers outside the car but it didn't really impact the feel or flow other than those moments.

The upgrading system was quite good, and the upgrades themselves made a noticeable difference even if I didn't see any visible gauges for personal or vehicle health aside from the speedometer for, well speed. While it would have been nice to have some explanation or tutorial saying what you needed to do to get points, it was obvious after my first death. Also, the save and checkpoint system was very nice, and the fact that I didn't need to beat a section to earn those points was very welcome.

The zombie variety was a nice visual touch, and while all the soldiers looked the same, that is the point of a uniform. While the heavy gore and crashes caused some heavy lag it wasn't difficult to deal with and wasn't a problem.

The jolts from smashing into cars was very jarring, and while it was a nice little touch for difficulty perhaps the upgraded bumped could have lessened that impact a bit.

The ending of the story line was not entirely expected, though with some of the folks involved I suspected something along those lines was coming down the highway.

In the end, it's a great and entertaining game, with some feelings of Carmageddon. Well done to everyone involved.

Evil-Dog responds:

That's quite a detailed review you got there man :D All the praises are much appreciated, I'd like however to give props to John Creasman aka Xalkie (yeah the main character is named that too :D) for the voice acting he did alongside Druox and Tomar, he did a superb job with pretty much half the story dialogs and soldiers, SickDeathFiend also did the zombie sounds. and SoS made amazing music but not the sound effects, I will take my due credits for those hahaha :D I'm lucky to work with such a great team, I've been a fan of SDF since like 2003 and nwo i'm working with him? awesome! You made valid points about some gameplay "flaws", nothing's perfect but we're all working toward that! Thanks for the great review! Take care

[Deby te amo]

Boring

First, I'd like to state that this is primarily an English speaking site. Most users speak English. So while this might be a nice little niche for non-English speakers the majority of the site will not be able to understand a single word of this piece.

This is especially harmful when it's all scrolling text without anything in English. No one can really tell what's going on. The entirely scrolling text also makes for something rather boring to watch when you can't tell what's happening.

[Death2M]

Nothing new, and nothing great

It's unfortunate but this is a genre that's been done many times before, and at the same time much better. This particular game, even standing on its own, outside of the shadow of these other titles, doesn't really hold well. Easy gameplay with limited challenge, the visuals were the same throughout with zero effort being put into the enemies or the backgrounds. The sounds weren't anything spectacular.

So, a redone game of an old genre, but of substandard quality.

[Templar Secret]

Pointless

My issues with this game aren't in the graphics or the puzzles, but instead in that fact that it seems so very pontless. Players are dropped in a hallway with no explanation except for a Latin blurb at the start (of which there is no translation, and internet translators are unavailable).

I'll admit, I didn't go through the whole thing because the puzzles seemed pulled out of no where. There's no clues or hints as to what your supposed to do, your guy is just supposed to know to turn around pull a bar out of a torch sconce and put it in the floor to unlock pictures on either side of him so he can push them out of the way and start plugging in buttons. There's nothing really intelligent about that, there's no hints, no story just "Go do this shit".

[Clash of the Sprites EPS2]

Not bad but flawed

The game seemed pretty solid. Sure with sprites there's not much to compliment on graphics, but I must mention the fact that you rely on flashing screens much too much. It was starting to hurt my eyes, and was just annoying.

As to the battle itself, seemed pretty well done. There was strategy for the most part, except that the opponent never healed himself, just beat you while you hit him, healed, replenished magic. It was almost inevitable that one could defeat the enemy.

However, most damning was the fact that at around 8000 health points, the enemy stopped taking damage apparently. Being unable to complete a game really puts a hamper on enjoyability.

[Curse Village Reawakening]

A little stale

This game is mediocre on its own, but the Zombie Defense is pretty much its own genre, and there have been some excellent titles to come out. The only thing this particular game adds to the mix is the telekinesis, but that actually part of the downfall of the game.

The telekinesis allows you to use melee weapons at any range. This pretty much removes any point to using the firearms as the melee weapons have good damage, hit multiple enemies on the screen, and do not run out of ammo, letting you sit back and click the mouse over and over on one spot in some levels, and you won't suffer any damage.

Though the graphics and music are quite good, and the framerate is rather smooth, it wasn't enough to detract from the repetitive sounds of the weaponry.

The enemies were pretty much all the same as well. Some were faster, some were stronger, but it didn't match between any particular model. These attributes were swapped between the various zombie models so there wasn't any cue to watch for. Though it didn't matter as all enemies were dealt with the same way.

The actual gameplay itself was something that's been done plenty of times before, and done better. The upgrading mechanic wasn't that great, and you could only upgrade each weapon once. The survivors didn't help too much once you got a good weapon, and the traps timing was so long that I had all the zombies on screen killed before they became of any use, and then more simply flooded in.

The story was non-existent. There was zero reference to why this character had telekinetic powers, who he was, why he was running about killing zombies, why the zombies were there, and the ending was entirely anti-climatic and handled in such a way that it felt like you didn't really do anything whatsoever.

In the end, the game is quite lack luster. There was nothing about it that popped out, except an excuse for overpowered melee weapons that acted like guns, except with wider swing.

[Hippolyta]

Wonderfully crafted

I've been playing this for a few days now, and despite the difficulty, I keep coming back. The graphics are top notch, and the gameplay is quite fluid. The voice acting is simply astounding, so I do give full props to the voice actors brought onto this project.

The story is fairly simple, but very well told. It just embodies Greek history really well, and lives up to the many tales and myths of the Greek golden age.

The obstacles and enemies are well designed, and its a challenge and a pleasure to discover how to evade/kill/block them all. The only problems I had were when something would attack just after I had to duck, due to the time it takes to sit back up in the saddle. Usually resulted in a gory death.

The artwork is very Greek, even down to the mostly nude main character. I'm sure an escaping Amazon with no access to armour would prefer to fight naked rather than in the robes we saw her in the intro movie. Though I should point out most slaves would have been naked to begin with, so it fits really well. The red paint on her body and face is very Amazon, though I wonder where she got it, unless its blood.

The sound was not only helpful for upcoming attacks, but also a pleasure to the ears. The sound of arrows whizzing through the air, or the clash of bronze weapons on shield. It simply fit so well.

All in all, this is an amazing game in all categories. Very well put together and executed. While the difficulty could be toned down some to make it easier on some players, I realize you were going for a reaction and reflexes game. Well done.

Reading your response to another review, I very much await Hippolyta 2.

[Chibi Knight]

Adorable

The game is so very cute in every way. I love what you've done. Your daughter's voice just made all the visuals come together spectacularly.

The RPG elements are very well implemented, and the game isn't too hard nor too easy. It's very approachable.