Tag: Point & Click

The Captain

The Captain is one of those games that takes me back to the old days of NewGrounds and Armour Games, a plethora of flash games, all of my favourites being point and click adventure games. (I tried to recreate that magic on Twitch once by only playing flash games on Fridays, but I can safely say that no one was interested.) Despite the very long intro with screeds of text that I ended up skipping most of, I was taken back to that era rather abruptly so that it gave me a bit of whiplash.

The Captain starts out with a whole bunch of story I didn’t ultimately read, but I got the fair gist of it. Bad people have a big army and are going to use a weapon to destroy the sun surrounding a planet of great stature, Earth. To make the shield, that was created to protect the sun work, a costly and time-consuming battery must be made at this station that’s on the outer rim of the galaxy.
In the process of transporting this cell back to Earth, something unfortunate happens with the experimental “warp hole” technology, which leaves your protagonist stranded on the outer rim of the galaxy without the cell and a broken ship.
The BBEG is still en route to s’plode the sun, so you now need to grab the cells and head home ASAP before the sun goes splat.

The reason this game gave me whiplash, however, is because during one of the very first choices, a person died.
A person died because I can’t lie to people, in-game characters or not. I’m not a liar, and especially with a situation as dire as it was… I just can’t lie. Spoiler. It hurt my soul so much.
This reeks of early point and click games, throwing you into situations like that so quickly and without any forewarning. This game went from boring, clicking through all the dialogue that I’m not concerned about, to “Fuck, I almost cried.” Not everyone will have the same reaction as me, however, as I feel things too deeply, but I love it when games take me off guard.

Pros:

  • The game works.
  • The game’s art style is another one I love. Tiny pixels all arranged to make a detailed picture, but still pixelated. I love pixel art so much, as there’s so much you can do with it.
  • The characters are believable, and the situations are gritty and dire, in the best way. Challenging dilemmas that really have you trying to think so widely out the box, but you struggle to know what to do as it’s the first playthrough.
  • The concept of time in this game is handled great. There have been so many games that I’ve played before that I felt handled time and time-based challenges in such a shit way. (Dead Rising 2) I genuinely felt as if I was racing against time in a way that I could genuinely handle, but also felt I had absolutely no grip on. Nothing I could do would give me more time, I just had to make the best use of it.
  • The puzzle elements to this game are VERY flash point and click game. Combining and searching high and low for things. No hints, but the solutions are simple once you get around to them. Minimal puzzles, but always very meaningful.

Cons:

  • Once again, the text in this game is overbearing. There is a lot of dialogue in this game that’s not very much needed. It does give depth to the characters and everything that’s happening in the game, but the amount necessary is way less than the amount provided, and it’s somewhat of a drag.
  • The game is predominantly made for replayability. Any game that has the number of choices, consequences, outcomes and just sheer “anxiety via indecision” inherently wants to be replayed. What lets the game down is the lack of a skip button for things that you’ve already seen and experienced.

I genuinely can’t think of any more cons for this game.
This is literally one of the first games that I have ever played that one of the people watching me at the time came back to me and said, “Yeah, I went and bought this after I saw you play it.”

Price: 15.49
Time To Complete: N/A
Achievements: None
Cards: No
Worth The Money: Yes, play it again and again.

In conclusion, it’s not the best game there is out there for point and click adventures. It also certainly doesn’t rival any of my favourites of the flash era, but is it good? Yes, undoubtedly so. It’s more than definitely worth buying and playing, as it promises a better playthrough every restart and multiple different routes to the path of success.
It’s not the most riveting or inspiring, but it’s another good space story that I can easily say is worth the money and the time you put into it. If you want something that’s as close to a 5/5 as I can give, then try the Don’t Escape series. It’s honestly gamegasm material for point and click adventure/puzzle games.

Zesty Rating
7 Out Of 10
A refreshing return to flash point and click routes. Gripping and gritty decisions ensue, with lots of space travel and sci-fi themes. Replayability is off the charts, make your horrible decisions all over again…

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

[LEGACY] Abst Clicker Farm

Saying this right here first before I write anything, as I know that the amount I write can prevent people from seeing how I feel about this game.

Do not buy this.
At any cost.
Do not.
If you’re an unlucky sod who has this in their steam library already due to buying 150 game bundles from dodgy Russian game-code websites, then do us a favour. This game only has 4 reviews, write one. Even if it is only “This game is very bad.”, just be honest. In aide of mindless fools who would buy a game just because it’s on sale, turn them away with the sight of red. (Negative rating).

This game is a shill, a shell, and a bombshell all at once.
Now, it’s not outrageously bad as the game actually functions and does not crash in the middle of playing like so many AAA games, that’s a plus, so we are now up to at least a 1/10.
Then there is the matrix-like binary code type theme, which I’m fond of. I’ve always liked the green text on the black background aesthetic.
The generation of money is also interesting, it is your standard “currency is click=dollars”.
To level up, you purchase bits bytes and kilobytes to auto-collect your money. So now we are at least at a 2/10. (If we were giving out pity points, that is).

As soon as you enter the damn game you are hit with a wall of shattered expectations, no ear-blasting music, no cheesy copyright free music, no music that breaches copyright laws, nothing.
None of the buttons make noises, nothing makes a noise. It’s just you, the button and the noise of your mouse endlessly clicking as you try to figure out why life has doomed you to this fate.
Not of this game, but why you even thought this game would even be worth playing in the first place.
Silence of the void, asking you the crushing question of why you even bothered to buy/download/play this game in the first place.

The fun stuff is, is that this game is so easy to replicate.
It’s so un-unique.
You get maybe 10 “enhancers” to your click bonus, and you’re just left to fend for yourself with your underpowered clicking and the severe lack of money to purchase your next 10 megabytes.
Yes, the binary and computer theme is cool! So what?
A mindless clicking game was made with visually intriguing aspects, not visually appealing ones, and boom, done. Perfect.
You’ve got yourself what the developers consider a “game” worth “money”.

Do all these images look the same? If the answer is “Yes”, or any variation of agreeing, then ask yourself this: “Did you expect anything less?”

Pros:

  • It functions as a game, no crashes, major bugs with visuals or audio.
  • Computer Theme/ Binary Theme/ Matrix Theme

Cons:

  • No Music
  • No Sounds
  • No Effort
  • No Imagination
  • Nothing Unique
  • No payoff for all the time you’ve wasted clicking at binary.

This game is nothing.

Oh, and the achievements are borked.

Price: £0.79
Time To Complete: There is no completion. I have 6.9 hours in the game for the “lols”, but it probably only took 1 – 2 hours to max everything out.
Achievements: 5
Cards: N/A
Worth The Money: It’s not worth wiping your arse with.

If you recognise this image, then you already know what I’m implying.
Play it instead if you want a clicker.

This game is a shell of a clicker game, so much so that I don’t even consider it a game, as there’s no payoff. There’s no effort, no life, and no reason to play it. So, therefore, there is no reason to buy it or to endorse the “maker” of this “game”.

Zest Rating
0 Out Of 10. I’m drinking bleach for a pallet cleanser after that.
The endless void which is the expanse of my life can’t hope to be just as dull, empty and meaningless as this game. It’s devoid of passion, creativity, and meaning. Honestly, describing myself as well, but at least I have really nice eyes, the game can’t boast the same.

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

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑