Mini-Reviews

This page is part of an ongoing project to review every game that I play, at least briefly, to give people a basic idea about it, as well as point out the frustrations that can crop up, as well as the unique things about the game that make it an interesting and enjoyable experience.

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AAAaaAAAaaaaAAA – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity

Synopsis: an abstract game about base jumping – score points by getting close to things while falling without going splat.

Fun: Can be played for as long or short as you like.  Each jump is a minute or two, meaning you can jump in quickly for a break.  Fairly decent variety of levels.  A game idea and gameplay that’s fairly unique.

Frustration: Most levels have to be unlocked by getting high scores on previous levels.  If you’re not skilled at playing this game, you will only be able to explore a fraction of it.  I have not come across any other way to enable all levels.

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Advent Rising

Synopsis: Sci-fi third-person shooter/pseudoRPG.  Angry aliens want to destroy humanity, blow up human planets, etc.  Your job is to stop them.  Fairly in-depth plot written by (I believe) Orson Scott Card.

Fun: Fairly unique setting and characters.  Good shooting mechanics, wide variety of weapons and powers.  While the plot can be lackluster at times, the actual gameplay is generally dynamic and enjoyable.

Frustration: While most fights can be tackled in any way, boss fights are generally gimmicky and reliant on using the powers in various combinations. One of these fights is basically impossible to do with keyboard and mouse, despite trying many different key mappings.  The game was designed to be a trilogy, but subsequent parts weren’t funded, so the ending is apparently a cliffhanger that should have been resolved by a nonexistent sequel.