Tag: Adventure

[LEGACY] Nightmare Never End

You wake up in your room and realize that something is very wrong. You’ve been tasked to review another horror indie game, and it already looks as if you’re going to be crying in frustration more than you are in fear.

In the last (or maybe first) review that you saw of mine, in the very first paragraph I mentioned the shovelware that has plagued Steam since Steam Greenlight was taken from us and “anything goes”. Well, here is your first example.

NMNE is a “horror” game, which in itself is correct. Any game which has the purpose of trying to scare you is indeed a horror game, but it spectacularly fails at doing so. Even trying to cut the game some slack by looking at horror sub-genres still greatly fails.

Survival horror? Yes, but either easily survivable or pure luck (based on unpredictable A.I. patterns and wall phasing).
Action Horror? Nah, not really.
Psychological Horror? It wishes, or at least it’s trying to be. It’s one of the many games where the protagonist is stuck in a coma, and it tries so hard to create this sense of dread but is entirely ruined by the next part.
Jump-Scare Horror. Which is badly done. Scares with no rhyme or rhythm. One of which, after being “scared” once, I know exactly what triggers the scare, which I then demonstrated that I knew as I had to replay the game when I got stuck.

There is no finer detail to this game. Every story aspect serves itself as it is, and it is what it is.

Pros: 

  • The game works as a game (most of the time)
  • Has grab and move physics
  • Actually made me jump (once)
  • I’m a sucker for trippy visualisations. Eyeballs coming out the walls, floating teacups, fleshy meatballs I need to stack into a bathtub? Love all that weird shit.
  • The game has a beatable threat (most of the game) but doesn’t seem too unrealistic to beat or not beat, reasonably easy.
  • You know exactly what you’re doing every time you’re faced with a “challenge” or scenario. Very self-explanatory, even though that’s probably just down to the game’s simplicity.
  • When you die, you get sent back to the last stage or beginning of the stage you’re on. Very unlike most trash indie games.

Cons:

  • I actually got stuck in the game twice, one was due to the lighting being terrible in a particular area that I couldn’t see the “solution” to the “puzzle”. The other was to do with bad A.I.
  • Grab and move physics are almost overused, to the point where I need to make bathtub meatballs a SECOND time in the game. I love weird shit but WHY. The lack of other mechanics and odd tropes hammers this almost-overuse in.
  • The game is not scary, honestly. The one scare that got me was because a bat flew into my face as I went around a corner. I didn’t even jump that much, but THAT was a proper jumpscare. The rest of which was The Rake, but like Shadowman squished up behind a door going *BSSHHHHHT* *Static Noises And Static Visual Effects*. I’m scarier behind a door making those noises.
  • The last thing that I came face to face with (whether it was the end of the game or not) was biscuit collecting??? Every time I collected a biscuit, noises, and sounds were added, enemies with AWFUL PATHING were added and it eventually killed me. Unlike the rest of the game, it did not revert me to the previous stage, it bugged and game over’d me. At this point, I’d already restarted it once, so…

Overall, this game is not great. If you want to be scared, this is not it. It seems like a first attempt at a game with minimal assets and minimal effort or people who seem to kind of know what they’re doing but don’t know how to pull shit together.

But, this is not their first game, nor their first horror rodeo. AK Studio, the publisher, and developer of this game, has made 5 games before this going back to 2019. Albeit, one of them not being horror but a Crossy Roads clone, by the look of it.

While practise is patience and practise improves things, you have to pay $100 (I believe, feel free to correct me) to publish a game on Steam. While it is completely free to publish a game on Itch.io or Game Jolt, GOG, or Gamers Gate.

I’m not saying, “TAKE YOUR TRASH AND PUT IT ELSEWHERE.” It is a better business prospect for games like this, where you can get traction and feedback without having to pay out your ass just to see if people will buy your game.

Even so, despite traction and everything, you can even have someone famous review or play your games. One of their previous games, “Ghost Stories” was obviously seen by someone quite famous on Twitch as on Nov 12th 2020 the view of the game on Twitch spiked to 4.7k. Despite that, and despite all the LOL GAME BAD = GOOD REVIEW that came from it, not much else came from it. Obviously, enough money to try it again, but it lucked out, and it probably won’t happen again.

The reason I’ve spotlighted this game in particular is for one reason. If rubbish is highlighted and praised for its stupidity, you can fool anyone into thinking that the market is successful and a feasible means of making money.

Price: £7.19
Time To Complete: N/A
Achievements: None
Cards: No
Worth The Money: Yes, play it again and again.

This game’s base price is £3.99, discounted right now at £3.19. That’s not a steal, and I doubt there will be a price suitable for the “content” that it brings. If you can get this for free, good on you, but I have no clue why you want it. Jinx from the present day here, this is ridiculous. I’m checking right now if they’ve made any updates since on this game because the base price has been raised from £3.99 to £7.19 as of a couple of days ago. Yeah, just as I thought. No official updates of patches since release in December 2021. I’m not altering the rating or anything to suit, just thought I’d chime in on this somewhere.

Zesty rating
1 Out Of 10.

A badly made, badly crafted excuse of a semi-psychological, shitty jumpscare “horror” game where discount RakeXShadowman squeezes into the most unscary, ridiculous places to scare you and defies physics just to be intimidating. 

Please bear in mind that this is a repost. There have been slight changes to the post such as spelling and grammar fixes, images added, and things generally organised in the fashion I'd like them presented.  Apart from that, the main context of the review has not changed, opinion has not been altered and everything is sacred. I look forward to writing for you all again.
0

[LEGACY] Shape Shift Shaun Episode 1: Tale of the Transmogrified

When strolling through Keymailer, I often look for games I know I can play. This also means that the selection of games that I get can sometimes be rather underwhelming, or just plain shit.
The ease of getting and reviewing bad games has got me this far, being not just a smaller streamer than most, but also relatively newer to streaming, less professional and less social media savvy.
I can now just about get any game I ask for off Keymailer, assuming that it is indie, and it’s cheap enough made. So, when I saw Shape Shift Shaun, this was another game that I could easily get and play. Plus, it’s easy to make a review for a game when everything is so bad that it sticks out like a broken pinkie.

Shape Shift Shaun Episode 1: Tale of the Transmogrified, is a mouthful to say, SSSE1:TT is also ridiculous and the first gripe I have with the game is the length of the title of the game. Why does that need to be the full title? I get that you probably want to make more games in the future, but it all doesn’t need to be in the title.
Nevertheless, I’ll stop bitching about things that don’t really matter all that much.

Shape Shift Shaun is a game where you get bullied at Hallowe’en after you get a bunch of candy, then thrown down a crater that was made by a falling meteor by the bully. You and the bully are now trapped in the centre of the earth, which is reminiscent of the setup of Journey To The Centre Of The Earth or Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaur. Inside this area, the Bully, and Shaun freak out as there’s “no food” despite only being there for like 3 minutes, which is hardly enough time to look around for food. The Bully threatens to eat Shaun’s candy, but the candy has been dropped all over the inner planet. After threatening to then eat Shaun, the Bully then eats a little red Soot Sprite that can talk and transforms into a mega-chad bully and goes on a rampage to eat more of them. Using the power of more little red soot sprites, Shaun turns into a dragon and goes on a quest to capture the Bully.

I have no idea whether this is a game for kids or not.
It’s really hard to tell.
It’s a basic platformer where you can run and jump, and you collect candy for points. You can also change into a red dragon at any time during the game to then glide and breathe fire on the enemies, effectively killing them. You also breathe fire on a multitude of obstacles to get them out of the way and progress with the level.
All the controls, bar a few, seem relatively alright and make sense concerning the global platforming controls. The only thing I didn’t like was the controls for switching forms and attacking enemies. They were close to each other and on a side of the keyboard that didn’t make sense to me. This often led me to change forms when I wanted to attack enemies.

The story itself goes on further than that, hinting towards being able to change into multiple things, but I just didn’t get that far. Despite actually feeling quite fluid and easy to control, the enemy placement and the placement of platforms, on the other hand, had me at a complete loss. Only being able to get close to the end of the level out of memory, makes me think that either it’s not a kids game, or it’s just a bad one.

Pros:

  • The game works, has no massive graphical or audio issues/glitches, and does not crash upon load or during the game.
  • Even though it’s not an old game, it has that old, cheap looking aesthetic of older games with the weird moving 3D character models in a 2D game. I hold this as a positive as it’s not entirely ugly, but certainly holds that old-world charm.
  • Everything is clear and self-explanatory, absolutely no guess-work is required to complete this game. Everything is spelt out clear as day and objectives made clear.
  • Most of the controls are the universal norm for most platformers.

Cons:

  • The story is boring, rather drab and a little ridiculous at best. Clearly overexaggerated for the comedy value. The Bully freaking out the tiny red creature talks then promptly eating it seems a little unusual.
  • The controls that are not the universal norm for platforming are very strange. It essentially has you reaching round the keyboard, but also accidentally smacking the wrong one. Despite being relatively easy otherwise, this part of the controls raises the difficulty immensely for no reason.
  • As the controls for platforming are almost perfect, the game had to fail elsewhere. This is where game design came in. The platforms are arranged so strangely that one small move can have you falling off the edge of a platform, despite the image of the platform still being under your feet. You also have to remember exactly where things are, as you can be jumping off a platform at the far right of your screen not knowing where the next platform is.
    Enemy placement as well is a tragedy. Three long and wide purple blob creatures on a tiny platform that I not only need to land on but also destroy the vines AND kill them and progress.

Price: £5.79
Time To Complete: N/A
Achievements: 15
Cards: No
Worth The Money: Nah, not really.

In conclusion, I’m still not really even sure whether this game is a kids game or not. It’s genuinely bland enough in the story department but colourful enough and revolves around sweets. It’s also easy to grasp, apart from the odd controls for switching forms and attacking. It’s a really mixed bag in terms of a game, but my audience absolutely hated it, they could’ve hated how it looked more than me. Overall, the game isn’t that bad, it’s just not really worth the money it wants as while it probably has the content and time/effort put into it for a £5.79 game, it’s just not fun.

Zesty Rating
3 Out Of 10
A boring and bland story paired with a colourful but ugly game. Lovely controlling of the platforming and has everything a platformer needs, except for a good game design. Dodgy platforms, terrible map planning and even worse enemy placement.

Please bear in mind that this is a repost. There have been slight changes to the post such as spelling and grammar fixes, images added, and things generally organised in the fashion I'd like them presented.  Apart from that, the main context of the review has not changed, opinion has not been altered and everything is sacred. I look forward to writing for you all again.
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[LEGACY] Lake

Lord bless Keymailer and their forever extensive library of new and upcoming games, waiting to be requested and played by the unsuspecting gaming influencer. With Steam and the Greenlight function being taken away and a mountain-load of shovel-ware sweeping into the marketplace like a landslide from a landfill, it’s hard to request things from the site and not dread what you’re getting into.

Due to its overall look and information, Lake was one of the more promising looking games. It was also one of the few games that provided a different “please read before requesting this game.” This uniqueness before even starting the game or even being accepted to play it was pretty fresh.

The game itself is exactly as you see it. You are a woman who is taking over from her dad as the local postman, which is giving her a needed break from her work, too. It’s a delve into her past, as it’s her returning home to the town she used to live in by a big, beautiful lake.

There’s not much else to this game that I have experienced, which is not a bad thing.

The game is simply experiencing this twist in a person’s life through delivering mail around the lake each day, with different dialogue options leading to better/worse relationships with other characters and possible romance options.

Pros:

  • It’s a game that works. And it works really well.
  • The stylisation of the game is a mix of low-poly and not, which does give the land a unique aesthetic. While not looking super realistic, it all blends in really well together and paints a nice surrounding.
  • 2 (As far as I’m aware) romance options, one with a male character and one with a female character. Film Nerd Chick FTW.
  • All music in the game is played through the “local radio” in the post-van and is actually real, original music recorded for the game, which really ties in that close-knit community vibe.
  • All characters feel believable and the dialogue is not clunky or unnatural. 
  • Whether intentional or not, you can power slide with the van.

Cons:

  • Due to the original music, you do have to email the devs of the game with the link to your VOD/Video to make sure you are not DMCA/Copyright struck. It’s a thoughtful thing to do, but could be tedious if multiple videos have to be made.
  • There is no run function. (Similar to Phasmophobia) The movement speeds are “saunter” and “walk normally”. I know the woman is having a holiday by being there, but I’d like the faster speed to be “That awkward jog where you need to be faster but don’t want to put effort into being faster.”
  • The two relationship options (that I have found) are a wonderful Film Nerd Chick and Hermit Paul Bunyan. For meeting Film Nerd Chick, it’s such a natural progressive flow (AND REALLY FLIRTY), whereas meeting Paul Bunyan you’re hit with a lot of guilt-tripping and pity-partying. Which, when talking to other streamers playing the game, also put them off a relationship with him. He seems like a super chill guy, it’s just shit that every dialogue option starts with you delivering bills to him, and you’re just forced to feel guilty about it.
  • You can’t tell your boss/co-worker who keeps calling you asking you to do work while you’re on holiday to “fuck off”.

Overall, this game is a great game if you like enveloping a story via trivial means, like Power Wash Simulator but better. You learn a lot about the community via delivering mail to them and accepting some odd jobs or such from them while you’re at their houses. Meet old friends, old neighbours, and just chill in the hometown you grew up in. 

For me personally, as much as I am invested in the relationship with Film Nerd Chick, I do find the gameplay super repetitive and would probably struggle to play this game if it wasn’t for that specific relationship. However, it is one of the few games from Keymailer thus far that I can safely say I’d continue to play after trialling it.

This game, however, does deserve a place in the spotlight due to having such a well-crafted and believable little town, which completely carries across the feeling of quaint and homely to the tee. 

So while the game style may not be for everyone, it doesn’t mean that it’s a bad game at all and is certainly not a bad story that’s being told. If you can pick this game up from keymailer or fancy paying £15.99 for this game (which I, personally, would wait for a discount on) give it a decent try. Power through some posting to see if the storyline is worth the slog and share your thoughts about it as well.

Price: £15.99
Time To Complete: 7 Hours
Achievements: 10
Cards: None.
Worth The Money: Yes and No. Having 7 hours worth of playable game is certainly worth £16, but the game is too repetitive and chore-like after a while.

Zest Rating
6.5 out of 10 ~ Fresh-Tasting
Back to hometown aesthetics, postwoman romance simulator. Driving and posting every day isn’t my thing, but the relationship dynamics are worth staying for. She’s as much of a gossip as my dad is, and he’s an actual postman.

Please bear in mind that this is a repost. There have been slight changes to the post such as spelling and grammar fixes, images added, and things generally organised in the fashion I'd like them presented.  Apart from that, the main context of the review has not changed, opinion has not been altered and everything is sacred. I look forward to writing for you all again.

NOTE: This game is flagged as “Retry”.
0

Hail Lord Damien, Conqueror of Tanerila

<<PREVIOUS

Damien embraces the powers of his arm, his nails growing into sharp, black claws. He thrusts the arm into The Creator’s open wound and absorbs the Creator’s power. Damien’s skin grows a dark tint of red aside his natural pale tone, and the veins around his body merge into a murky black. Some veins almost pop out of his skin with the sheer pressure of the power being consumed. A blinding explosion-like light emits from where Damien is standing, blinding all those who were watching from afar. The colossus impact that came next sent shock waves that rocked the earth beneath them and reduced the most nearby town to rubble.

As the dust cleared, The Creator’s rotting corpse lay dead, swollen and blackened with the fiery impact of the explosion. And atop the rubble of the walls around the rip in reality sat Damien, in his throne. His eyes were as black as the void in his heart had become, his skin was as pale as his tint was an uncanny red glow. All the veins around his eyes had surfaced, pumping the black demon blood through his cursed skin. His throne of rubble was littered with the blood and the bones of those who died helping him and those who died trying to flee, scorched clean and white from the blast that shook everything in its path. Damien tilted his head with a twisted grin, and as he announced the realm’s new fate, the entire world shook with his voice.

“Heed me humans. Now’st time to tremble in fear of me. Many of you have done so in’t past, this’s where your judgment was wrong. For now, is’t judgement day. And Demons now rule this realm.”

The whole island fell silent, the world fell silent. That was the beginning of the new era where demons were no longer to feel fear, and they were to be dominant. With Damien ruling, demons hunted down humans for sport, crazed with their newfound freedom, they fell victim to their bloodlust and killed each other. Demons who sheltered humans were tortured and executed or sent into exile through the seas, which no one ever returned from. Chaos reigned, and Damien smote all beacons of hope the minute they were lit. As the years grew old and new days rolled in like waves on a beach, Damien’s throne became ever more littered with the remains of the Golden Knights. Insistent on taking revenge on them in the most brutal way possible, as they brutally slaughtered his parents.

 The island burned, and all civilization was in ruins. Lord Damien had forced those who opposed him to his death, demons were either feral or cowering, fearing him, and most of the humans had been hunted down and butchered.

BACK TO START

Cannon Ending? Never decided one. 
Please let me know what ending feels the most likely to be cannon.
Realms of Tanerila is a Choose Your Own Adventure story written 5 years ago by myself for my HNC Games Development course. I started well… then I wrote the rest in a couple of hours at 4am because the deadline was too long, and I forgot about it.
1

Showdown

<<PREVIOUS

A massive tear in the fabric of the realm itself, almost unbelievable to the human eye, was before Damien. It was as if someone had torn a hole in a painting, but the painting was reality. The Creator loomed over Damien as he pulled himself from his fiery prison of death and clambered into the world of the living.

The flesh of what was once the holy and undeniable light which brought the realm to be was now rancid and rotten, peeling down to the bone, exposing both the muscles and bones that made up his immortal body. He stood at around 200 ft (60.96 metres), standing slumped in the remains of his carcass. Soon he would consume everyone the cultist order offered him. They would take over, plunging the world into their dark fantasy and ruling the realms as they wished, all starting with the little island that Damien had forever called his home.

The battle between the Golden Knights and the Cultists had come to an end and everything was at a standstill. The breath of The Creator blew through the air like a rancid and tropical wind, like a breeze in the Amazon amidst a murky swamp. All fell silent as both groups came to terms with what was in front of them, their fate, their death, and their salvation. Faces filled with horror and despair, whereas others were filled with a lustful greed and insane excitement for what was to come.

*SMASH*

Amidst the silence, a smash echoed throughout the crater, all heads turned in the direction of the glass impacting with the ground only to the treasured relic shattered across the ground.

Panic.

The sudden breach of silence not only sent the Golden Knights in a flurry, but with the relic destroyed, the cultists had no way of controlling the creator any more. To have just as doomed fate as the Golden Knights if they stayed. The Creator was free, free to carry out his revenge against all of humanity. He would destroy everything, he will destroy everything, and no one could stop him.

Damien sighs, “Well, not a thing lies ahead of me. Most would look at me and wish me dead. Guess now is time to grant them their wish.” Damien gave a slight chuckle, feeling that this was a rather reckless action to make as there was not much of a chance he would survive, nevertheless actually destroy The Creator. He unsheathed his sword and strode up to the looming corpse of the lost god.

Damien called upon his forbidden power once again, emitting an unsightly black-red glow he lunged at the Creator, slicing its leg open with due intent. The force of Damien, equal to the power the same size of The Creator, forced the creator down onto the ground. Weak after being reborn, The Creator flailed, his brain having almost fully decomposed after being dead for so long. All the Creator could do was grunt and groan and swing his massive, decomposing arms.

With the Creator on his knees, Damien ran up to make another attempt at stabbing the Creator, only to be batted a sheer distance from the creator’s propelling arms. Being launched into a Cliffside, Damien had caught the attention of some other half-demons, seeing his bravery and stupidity of fighting The Creator, they helped Damien to his feet and joined him in the battle.

The battle went on for what seemed like hours, the half-demons making attacks on the Creator, essentially distracting him from Damien so that he can deal the critical blows. But despite their efforts, the Creator started killing them slowly one by one with the hits they were taking from them. Damien was at a loss, seeing people like him, die due to his own stupid actions, he felt guilty. Suddenly, his arm started pulsating as if it were drawing power from The Creator, filling him with a sense of anger and threatening to glaze his eyes over with the blindness of rage. He resisted and followed where this feeling was eluding from. The back of the neck, jugular. The Creator’s neck was a hive for demon infection, and among the blistering and swollen flesh there was a single sword wound from where the jealous priests had murdered The Creator before. This was it, it was to end where it all started, and all he had to do was finish him with his sword.

Damien turned around to see both Naya and the Cultist Leader watching over him from quite close, the remnants of the Golden Knights hiding upon the yonder cliffs, cowards in their metal suits. Both people triggering something fierce within him. Damien slashes at The Creator’s neck, causing a harsh and unearthly howl to emit from the almost non-existent giant. Noticing that Damien had decided to take on the giant and looked to be winning, a few of the Golden Knights came to his aid, fighting alongside the demons and Damien.

And thanks to all the allies, the Creator collapsed as he had before to the hands of the jealous priests, but this time it was righteous. This time it was done not just by the had which he had made, but the curse that he had made to turn humanity and the afflicted against each other.

The Creator barely alive, Damien looks up again. Naya and the Cultist Leader had started a brawl, and while Naya was winning, it was evident that the Cultist Leader was holding back for something. Occasionally glancing over at Damien, eagerly awaiting what he would do.
His mind racing, why would he be anticipating something? There’s only one way that this is going, The Creator is essentially dead. All that was needed was a killing blow, and even without that, the zombie god would surely pass regardless.
Something almost instinctual hit, a burning rage from deep within, simmering, whispering, guiding with muscle memory-like actions. Calling for him to do something.

The demon part of me is not even me, I was cursed to be like this, and I’m about to kill the creator of the curse. It will control me, and be a burden to me no longer. I have a life to look forward to and someone I hope to live for. He will not control me. >>

No, he has something up his sleeve, I can’t risk it. Whatever this is, I need to take control of it and make sure that nothing hurts Naya. He’s the reason my parents died, why everyone scorns me, I’m making sure he’s dead as soon as I kill the Creator. I’m following this instinct. >>

Realms of Tanerila is a Choose Your Own Adventure story written 5 years ago by myself for my HNC Games Development course. I started well… then I wrote the rest in a couple of hours at 4am because the deadline was too long, and I forgot about it.
1

Showdown

<<PREVIOUS

A massive tear in the fabric of the realm itself, almost unbelievable to the human eye, was before Damien. It was as if someone had torn a hole in a painting, but the painting was reality. The Creator loomed over Damien as he pulled himself from his fiery prison of death and clambered into the world of the living.

The flesh of what was once the holy and undeniable light which brought the realm to be was now rancid and rotten, peeling down to the bone, exposing both the muscles and bones that made up his immortal body. He stood at around 200 ft (60.96 metres), standing slumped in the remains of his carcass. Soon he would consume everyone the cultist order offered him. They would take over, plunging the world into their dark fantasy and ruling the realms as they wished, all starting with the little island that Damien had forever called his home.

The battle between the Golden Knights and the Cultists had come to an end and everything was at a standstill. The breath of The Creator blew through the air like a rancid and tropical wind, like a breeze in the Amazon amidst a murky swamp. All fell silent as both groups came to terms with what was in front of them, their fate, their death, and their salvation. Faces filled with horror and despair, whereas others were filled with a lustful greed and insane excitement for what was to come.

*SMASH*

Amidst the silence, a smash echoed throughout the crater, all heads turned in the direction of the glass impacting with the ground only to the treasured relic shattered across the ground.

Panic.

The sudden breach of silence not only sent the Golden Knights in a flurry, but with the relic destroyed, the cultists had no way of controlling the creator any more. To have just as doomed fate as the Golden Knights if they stayed. The Creator was free, free to carry out his revenge against all of humanity. He would destroy everything, he will destroy everything, and no one could stop him.

Damien sighs, “Well, not a thing lies ahead of me. Most would look at me and wish me dead. Guess now is time to grant them their wish.” Damien gave a slight chuckle, feeling that this was a rather reckless action to make as there was not much of a chance he would survive, nevertheless actually destroy The Creator. He unsheathed his sword and strode up to the looming corpse of the lost god.

Damien called upon his forbidden power once again, emitting an unsightly black-red glow he lunged at the Creator, slicing its leg open with due intent. The force of Damien, equal to the power the same size of The Creator, forced the creator down onto the ground. Weak after being reborn, The Creator flailed, his brain having almost fully decomposed after being dead for so long. All the Creator could do was grunt and groan and swing his massive, decomposing arms.

With the Creator on his knees, Damien ran up to make another attempt at stabbing the Creator, only to be batted a sheer distance from the creator’s propelling arms. Being launched into a Cliffside, Damien had caught the attention of some other half-demons, seeing his bravery and stupidity of fighting The Creator, they helped Damien to his feet and joined him in the battle.

The battle went on for what seemed like hours, the half-demons making attacks on the Creator, essentially distracting him from Damien so that he can deal the critical blows. But despite their efforts, the Creator started killing them slowly one by one with the hits they were taking from them. Damien was at a loss, seeing people like him, die due to his own stupid actions, he felt guilty. Suddenly, his arm started pulsating as if it were drawing power from The Creator, filling him with a sense of anger and threatening to glaze his eyes over with the blindness of rage. He resisted and followed where this feeling was eluding from. The back of the neck, jugular. The Creator’s neck was a hive for demon infection, and among the blistering and swollen flesh there was a single sword wound from where the jealous priests had murdered The Creator before. This was it, it was to end where it all started, and all he had to do was finish him with his sword.

Damien thrusts the sword into The Creator’s neck, causing a harsh and unearthly howl to emit from the almost non-existent giant. Noticing that Damien had decided to take on the giant and looked to be winning, most of the Golden Knights came to his aid, fighting alongside the demons and Damien.

And thanks to all the allies, the Creator collapsed as he had before to the hands of the jealous priests, but this time it was righteous. This time it was done not just by the had which he had made, but the curse that he had made to turn humanity and the afflicted against each other. He was dead, and definitely this time. No magical rain which turns everyone into demons was a plus.

Damien rose from the corpse, climbing atop its very limbs to get a view of everyone. Most of the Knights were unharmed and, most importantly, Derkeethus was intact. He had been standing on a nearby boulder shouting incantations and prayers towards the Knight’s to keep them protected, he was still praying as he probably didn’t notice the battle was over. Considering he was still shaking, and the noise hadn’t died down from the wails of death, to the shrieks of victory, it was understandable. Damien made his way to Derkeethus, but just as he climbed down from the Creator’s torso, an injured voice called out for him.

“… D-Damien…” Weakly cried the Captain of the Golden Knights. He had been crushed under the limbs of the Creator, rendering his entire body to a bloody sack of broken bones and organs.

“H-help…” He stumbled weakly trying to claw his way out, then grimacing in pain as his entire body below his shoulders was essentially mush.

He planned to kill me after this whole ordeal. He deserves his fate. The rest of the knights, however, came to my aid when I needed it most. The actions of one man with too much power and “authority” will not have me paint the rest with a similar brush. >>

He planned to kill me after this whole ordeal. He deserves his fate. Despite being aided by the knights, I still feel like I will be outcast, if not more now due to this event. Others within the Knights will attempt to heed the Captain’s wishes to kill me. If it’s not their loyalty that will have them slay me and other demons, then they’ll say it’s tradition. It’s best if I leave, Derkeethus will be safer without my presence. >>

Realms of Tanerila is a Choose Your Own Adventure story written 5 years ago by myself for my HNC Games Development course. I started well… then I wrote the rest in a couple of hours at 4am because the deadline was too long, and I forgot about it.
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Dungeon Despair

<<PREVIOUS

After being left behind by the Cultists, Naya and Damien had nothing to do but stick to the boundaries of the Temple. Although they’d been there for months, and for Naya it was probably years, they’d never been able to access the dungeons as there were always cultists guarding that area. Their rooms hardly differed from the cells in which they’d kept their prisoners, even the ones they only kept for demon-food. Everyone was gone except them and the prisoners, and they wanted to know why.

Adventuring down into the damp, cold depths of the cave which they carved out their “dungeon”, they came across a lone cell with one man inside it. The man residing in it jumped to his feet and seemed not only to recognise Damien, but was very eager to talk to him.

He said weakly but with excitement, “Hey you! Get me out of here, please!”

Damien shook his head, “We’re not here to free you. We are just wandering around.”

The old man peered at Damien, “Damien? Damien! You look so much older than the last time I saw you. Of course, you were just a child…”

Damien just looked perplexed at the old man. “Just because you know my name does not mean I will free you. People speak of me plenty.”

“Listen, I was friends with your father, Sebastian. We used to be part of the Golden Knights until he was afflicted with the curse. They kicked him out and when I refused to break contact with him, they exiled me too!”

Damien sneered, “Then you were quick to abandon my father then after they kicked you out too?”

The old man insisted, “No, no! I accompanied your father various times after that until he told me what the cultists were planning. Thereafter, he got killed, and I got captured by the cul–.”

Naya interrupted brashly, “What do you mean ‘What the cultists were planning’? They’re going to free us all and help us get equal status within the realm so that we can live like real people again!”

The old man cleared his throat and looked at Damien. “Damien, your father told me what the cultists plan to do and everything they have done. They were the ones that convinced the Creator to share his powers with them. They struck him down out of greed and jealousy! They were the ones who caused the cursed rain to fall upon us and afflict us. These cultists are power crazy and are unsatisfied with how little they’ve gained! They’re now carrying the plan to revive the Creator and enthral him, so they can use him for infinite power. And you and the rest of the demons are his fuel, they were training you up to unlock your powers so that when the Creator consumes you, he will produce magic that the cultists had only ever dreamed of.”

Feeling betrayed, emotions running high, Naya ripped open the cell door to the old man and squared him off. He stumbled backwards and fell, dust rising as he hit the ground. Sneering at the old man, she turned tail and stormed off on a mission to fight the Cultist leader, Damien trailing along behind her, feeling the sharp burn of guilt on his neck.

But they would not arrive in time to stop the summoning.

Showdown

Realms of Tanerila is a Choose Your Own Adventure story written 5 years ago by myself for my HNC Games Development course. I started well… then I wrote the rest in a couple of hours at 4am because the deadline was too long, and I forgot about it.
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Cellular Secret

>>PREVIOUS

Annoyed that he had been excluded from assignments, both Derkeethus and Damien wandered the great halls of the embassy. They laughed and joked about their time on the team, but they both had realized that the embassy was not the right place for either of them. While Derk was spectacular at casting prayer, work in the embassy put him in a lot of danger with no way to defend himself.

Damien, on the other hand, had felt the negative presence when he’d joined, he knew he wasn’t entirely welcome. It still wasn’t enough to convince him to leave, but as soon as the situation with the cultists was over, he knew there wasn’t much reason to stay. When the conversation came to question whether they would part ways or not, they heard a loud conversation in the distance between the Captain and his Lieutenant.

“I come back from leave after my wife giving birth to our first son, only to find out he’s been afflicted by the curse before he’s even entered our world… and I find that you, of all people, have enlisted the very demon spawn of the pair of demons pretending to be a happy family?!” the Lieutenant shouted at the Captain, Damien had frozen on the spot with Derkeethus preparing to hold him back from breaking down their door.

The Captain insisted with a sly growl, “Trust me Lieutenant, I have the perfect use for him. He will destroy the cultists for us, and then we kill him afterwards…”

 The lieutenant scoffed, “You better know what you’re doing Captain, he is just as afflicted by the curse his parents were…” He continued, “I remember the day… Spotting them while we were on a hunting party looking for rabid demons that patrol the forest. We found his parents walking back towards the village with a cart full to the brim with goods for the village. We attacked his parents and stole the supplies for ourselves… Killing happy demons is hard enough, but with him out looking for revenge, I would rather not be caught in that…”

The captain insisted again, sound even slyer than last time, “That, won’t, happen….”
“Send the troops to the mouth of the ancient caverns. They plan to do their ritual there using the standing stones placed there by the creator himself. I’ll get my legion ready, make sure you do too.”

Showdown

Realms of Tanerila is a Choose Your Own Adventure story written 5 years ago by myself for my HNC Games Development course. I started well… then I wrote the rest in a couple of hours at 4am because the deadline was too long, and I forgot about it.
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[LEGACY] Alwa’s Legacy

Starting off with the sequel to Alwa’s Awakening, what a joy and what a delight after playing the first game. From their game in 2017 to this release in 2020, Alwa’s Legacy is one of the games that I can say visibly and thoroughly improves from the first game to the second. Nearly every point that I had made about the previous game was cleared up, rectified, and that’s always a great thing to see. As if they’ve cleared up those things that so many complained about, it means they are developers who listen, and therefore, developers to follow and trust in. (Just don’t go AAA, please, I beg.)

Despite being a little late to the party, Alwa’s Awakening was something that disappointed me, it felt like a bundle of broken promises and pandering towards those who fall for nostalgia-bait (like the Star Wars Sequels). Despite all the problems still standing, it was a legitimate game and cared about its matters. It stood the test of time for another game to be made and was still good enough to get a mixed rating.
It was always a surprise for me to pick up both Alwa’s Awakening and Alwa’s Legacy on Keymailer, I had just gone through my entire 2k “maybe-list” (steam wishlist) and had no idea what to expect.
Playing Awakening later had me hesitant to play Legacy, I will admit. I remembered my draining experience (further worsened by playing another bad game beforehand, I will admit.) and put off playing Legacy as long as I could. Now, playing it, I realise how silly it was to just assume that those same aspects that I loathed from the game would carry over.

Because it didn’t.
Hence, why this review will be a comparison.


“Most of the platforming requires pixel perfect jumping. I found the platforming some of the easiest to control out of all the games I’ve received from Keymailer, but it takes the happiness of finally having that away from me when showing me the platforms. Granted, not all the jumps are hazardous, death traps, but the ones that are the furthest away from the checkpoint always are, and it hurt my soul.” ~ (Alwa’s Awakening Review)
My soul has been healed. This game still requires some amount of “pixel perfect jumping”, which I would say most platformers need for it to not just be a walk in the park, but in this sense, all the jumping and platforms made sense. Everything made sense. I didn’t feel as if I needed to lean to the side “IRL” (in real life) to make every jump, it was smooth and nurturing but wasn’t afraid to let you fall if you fucked up. The death traps and such are placed appropriately within great consideration of where your last checkpoint was, nothing too unrealistic at all and very considerate while still making it challenging.

“Speaking of checkpoints, Red Cap Zombie Hunter, eat your heart out because you have NOTHING on the placement of these checkpoints when it comes to distance. The placement overall of the checkpoints is actually fine and is nowhere near the randomness that Red Cap does with their haphazard tornado lightshows, but the distance is actually heart-breaking and forced me to recline in my chair for a few minutes on multiple occasions.”
Red Cap Zombie Hunter…. Bro this is how you do it. It’s not about putting checkpoints, it’s about listening to criticism, taking it on board, and not having a hissy fit because people are finding problems with your game. Legacy took the absolutely atrocious checkpoint spacing of Awakening and improved TENFOLD on it. There was almost a point that I thought there were too many, but after unlocking new dangers I realised that checkpoints were necessary everywhere that they were. The game had become a lot more difficult, but at the same time a lot more achievable without throwing your hands up in rage, and it’s all due to the checkpoint placements.

“So if it wasn’t for the amount of dying I was doing sending me back, I also have to do A LOT of backtracking as well. I know it was very common in most older platformers, but with everything combined I genuinely felt as if I was losing the will to live, passing the same area so many times with nothing to gain from it. I only found out that there were quicker ways of going around things, like hidden walls/doors/ceilings/floors, yet I wasn’t to know as they looked the same as everything else!”
Okay, so apart from the one place that I got completely lost looking for an old woman who was the key to me moving on in the game… Once again, such a big improvement. The maps are the same way, in which you could easily get a bit lost, or a bit turned around looking for the way you need to go, but it’s different! The rooms are a tad smaller, they look better, they matter just a bit more. Not only that, but the way that you traverse the map is a lot different too. Many rooms are “one-way” making you a tad nervous as you can’t get back, but then, boom, you get your little power to summon a cube out of nowhere, and you can get back now! Every room and direction is much more purposeful, with fewer dead ends. You can only wander down a route if you have the right powers to do so. No backtracking because you went the wrong way. I still haven’t found any hidden walls/floors/ceilings/doors but seen as this game was a lot more enjoyable than the last, I might go back to it.

“As if backtracking and losing progress to things wasn’t enough, your character is also very slow in comparison to big empty and expanding rooms with not much filling them but maybe one or two measly enemies which will be super stingy about their drops.”
I’m trying so hard not to write vocalised expressions of satisfaction, just thinking back to the change on just how smooth the character is when walking… Your character is faster, smoother at walking, jumps are more responsive and rooms are not big and empty. Everything is fucking tight and fluid, and it’s lovely. I’m not so mad about enemies being stingy with heart drops because my slow-ass isn’t being grabbed as much any more, I’m not getting bored in a room, I’m not actually getting lost or having to backtrack as much. It’s honestly just “mmmmmmm”, as a change from one game to the other, it’s honestly a great feeling, almost as if I’m gliding with each step. (Not to be mistaken for the character being slippery when walking, the character is very much rooted it’s just the change is that blissful)

It’s honestly a great experience, and not just the game itself, but the rise from complaint ridden game to game I genuinely have only small complaints for.
— I still don’t really know the story, but that also seems unimportant.
— I got lost trying to find the old woman because I didn’t realise I could jump through the big orange column, as it literally looked like a wall.
— I don’t understand if I can swim? Or how to swim? Or if it’s a special power I’m missing.

But besides that, take all my positive comments from the previous game, smack them in this review and add some sparkle.
“The art style is cute and nostalgic with appropriate colour palettes, nothing is ugly or “meh” to look at.”
This, but without my apathetic language. The colours are now popping, and while the style of the game is still very much the same, there have been some tweaks to let things pop so much more and be more attractive to the eye.
“The music fits the purpose. It’s chiptune and 8-bit, and most soundtracks fit the appropriate setting they are put in. Boss battle areas seem to lack a little, but most of the others are great.”
Likewise, the soundtracks are a lot better, but I still have the same gripe about boss battle tunes, sometimes they don’t actually exist at all, which makes me wonder if it’s actually a boss battle, but on the game goes anyway.
“There are NPCs all over the map that all have some sort of dialogue (whether relevant or not) which really brings a bit more life to the otherwise empty feeling game.”
The NPCs are so much more real now, they look better, they have better, more believable dialogue and just genuinely, overall feel so much better. Despite me still not knowing what the fuck is going on within the game, everything reads so much better and has me a lot more invested than what I was with the last game.

“The powers learned by the protagonist within the game (specifically the first one where you summon cubes) were generally surprising to me and a lot more refreshing than the generic powerups most games would give you to get around obstacles.”
Same as above, I don’t think the powers have changed much since the last game (since I didn’t actually get all that far in Awakening) but it’s still such a refreshing premise on superpowers. Replacing your typical double jump with something different that allows you to mostly get the same desired effect.
“Not all enemies are the same one. There are different enemies and also different variations of the same enemies that take more hits to kill. That and the bosses are interesting and while not outstanding or grandiose were still a nice bunch of pixels.”
Oh my god, this, but so much more. Yes, the staple enemy to this game is skeletons, but within the first minutes of this game, it shows you so much more. Hidden behind a door you can’t open, in the first area with the old woman, are so many new creatures. You get hit with skeletons at the start, but later on, there’s flower demons, and evil flowers and moving statues and… It’s just great, and the art style switch I think was also key to making these guys look wonderful too. It gives you such a better grasp early on of how much this world has to offer.

Price: £13.99
Time To Complete: 9 Hours
Achievements: 24
Cards: No
Worth The Money: Maybe. It’s almost always on discount, however, so a definite yes on discount.

Overall, this game is so much better than its predecessor, and it strongly suggests that they listen to their fanbase/community/players. From what I can see in the reviews for this one, compared to the last game, there is so much more positivity towards the game and the developers and a genuine want for a third game. It’s not a game I would play on stream and something I’d pick up in my downtime (if I let such a thing exist) and complete casually in my own time. I recommend, if you have both Awakening and Legacy, play Awakening first just to make yourself love Legacy all that much more.

Zesty Rating
9 Out Of 10.
A remarkable difference from the previous game. Improved in all aspects and actually a joy to play. Smooth characters and amazing game design. Diverse enemies and not frustrating to play, but provides a worthy challenge. Massive improvement.

Please bear in mind that this is a repost. There have been slight changes to the post such as spelling and grammar fixes, images added, and things generally organised in the fashion I'd like them presented. 
Apart from that, the main context of the review has not changed, opinion has not been altered and everything is sacred.
I look forward to writing for you all again.
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Taking the Relic by Force

<<PREVIOUS

Growing darker in his heart each day, Damien had almost succumbed to his cursed powers. He could use them at full capacity and was able to withstand an excruciating amount of pain, no matter how damaging it was to him.
Naya was put through the same treatment, and although she could not compare in strength, she could withstand a lot more punishment than Damien ever could.

But due to their interest in each other, their humanity still dwindled like a lone candle in the night. Demons felt no emotion except the burning rage and hatred, so for a demon to express anything apart from that was frowned upon, even more so towards each other. They were still human, even though they’d shredded most of their humanity, their growing affection for each other was the single thread still keeping them “alive”. As a result, they weren’t trusted fully by the rest of the cult, and were subjected to unnecessary amounts of “demon training”, which is a nice way of saying “more torture”.

Despite this, the cultists felt that they were to test their new demons. Damien and Naya also wishing to test out their newfound skills and prove that they are ready to help the cause, agreed to their first-ever assignment. Their task was to retrieve the ancient relic that lay in the centre of the Ethereum temple. Both had been assigned to sneak in there, past all the troops, and take it while they were waiting for a front door attack. This was a suicide mission. About 50 soldiers versus them, and if they made one move wrong, they were dead. That was just the kind of thrill Damien was seeking, and if it all went wrong, then 50 soldiers massacred inside the Ethereum temple should be a good message to the Golden Knights, even if he died in the process.

Both Damien and Naya were sent through a portal to a prayer room in the church, and made sure to stick to the shadows. It was a stealth mission, something that Damien was naturally unsuited to. Naya was better at this, as her slim and tiny frame almost rendered her invisible, yet she was muscular enough to throw herself across the room and pull herself up ledges with ease. Damien, on the other hand, stuck to moving around in the shadows less gracefully and more cautiously as his bigger and bulkier frame wouldn’t make him less capable of that, just a lot louder.

Reaching the centre of the temple, they found a fat teen monk reciting spells to the relic. With no one around to guard him, Naya sneaked up on him and killed him instantly. The chubby monk flopped to the floor, the glow emanating from his hands fading as his life drained away. It’s unusual that someone this age would be a monk, especially having the ability to preform what looked to be a powerful prayer. Nevertheless, he was dead, and no trouble to them now.

Both Damien and Naya were awed by the relic, shiny and made entirely out of glass, having a greenish aura around it. Lights floated around it like fireflies as they danced around the room. They danced closely around Naya and Damien and the deceased monk, gently touching the skin and bouncing back off. The warm glow of the lights was entrancing, and actually producing a tiny, comforting warmth. A momentary release from the world, their minds drifted, a daydream, their minds enchanted of a better world. Be it through the delusions the cultists had been feeding them, or from their ideals imagining something so vastly different from their shit lives, the illusion was almost worth not returning from. A vision of each other, suddenly filling the frame, popping their illusionary bubble and turning the focus to each other. It was the artefact, a tiny enchantment, realising the fact that they were still human and extremely attracted to each other. Their humanity blossoming for just a moment…

Suddenly, there was shouting, and their gaze spun from the relic to the door. The guards had spotted them and were sounding the alarm. The reality set back in, Naya went to snatch the relic, and just before she could, it gave off an explosion of light and dust that sent the lights flying away from them. The particles hitting the soldiers and sinking into their skin, they started transforming and mutating as the demon curse infected them at an enhanced rate. Ripping their humanity from them instead of the slow burn that Naya and Damien experience, forcing their bodies to morph, decomposing and recomposing on a cellular basis. This is what the cultists wanted them to become, mindless drones of rage and violence, controlled by the leader.
That brief moment they realised that they didn’t want this, but after months of brainwashing and training, it was hard not to succumb to emotion.

Damien took out his sword as the enraged, cursed soldiers swung their swords at them like raving lunatics. A crooked and wry grin grew on Damien’s face as he charged at the afflicted soldiers craving a path back to the portal, with Naya following close behind him near enough decapitating a few on her way.

Returning, the duo continued to report to the leader, although a little more unsure of their cause. After hearing the news of what happened with the relic, the Cultists Leader suggested that they stay within the cultist lair, as the raw power that was given off may be dangerous. They were to spend the rest of their time here until the Creator was reborn. To them, the relic didn’t seem to be dangerous, why were they being excluded? Naya, more insulted than Damien as she had spent a lot more time here, hushed by the leader as he ushered them to their dungeon-like rooms.

>>Dungeon Despair

Realms of Tanerila is a Choose Your Own Adventure story written 5 years ago by myself for my HNC Games Development course. I started well… then I wrote the rest in a couple of hours at 4am because the deadline was too long, and I forgot about it.
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