Reviews

Review by graue all reviews by graue

Very nice. Excellent use of ASCII art; I loved the letter backgrounds. Concept was quite fun and original. I hope to see this finished sometime.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 5 Technical 5 Genre 3

Review by graue all reviews by graue

I find this game extremely difficult, even on the so-called "easy" setting. It's an endless deluge of monsters, and reloading takes so long! On the plus side, I like the metaphorical concept, combining trains and time. The ASCII art was also interesting.

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 5 Technical 3 Genre 4

Review by graue all reviews by graue

I can't figure out if this is supposed to be playable yet or not. After I put down the first piece of track, I can't easily go back for more pieces, since part of the tunnel I have to go through has scrolled away.

For now, I'm gonna have to give this low ratings, but I really hope to see a finished version. The idea is a good one. The music, especially, is quite catchy.

Scores: Overall 1 Artistical 2 Technical 1 Genre 1

Review by graue all reviews by graue

I'm not sure I see how this is possible. If I just hold Right and jump as needed, I don't make it, and I don't see any way to go faster. Also, the figures at the top of the screen that are supposed to indicate the time left do not resemble numbers to me.

At least the visuals are nice, and the ASCII art is used in a nice way.

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 3 Technical 4 Genre 3

Review by graue all reviews by graue

A wonderful game, with beautiful graphics and music and gameplay that keeps you interested all the way through till the end. The objective for each level is to ensure the train reaches its destination safely, and to do this, you have to flip switches at junctions, and on later levels, place tracks as well. There's also an editor for when you finish the levels.

The only nit I'm going to pick is that ASCII art is not used in the game itself, only the help screen. So Trainee complies with the ASCII art rule, but not all that creatively. Overall, though, well done.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 5 Technical 2 Genre 4

Review by graue all reviews by graue

This game doesn't seem to have a readme or a help screen or anything. Various random attempts at clicking in places didn't turn up anything interesting, either. I just see a bunch of tiles arranged, and I can click on tiles to place them, but other than that, there's nothing to do here, as far as I can figure out.

Whatever the authors had in mind, please finish it. It looks like it would've been fun.

Scores: Overall 1 Artistical 2 Technical 1 Genre 1

Review by graue all reviews by graue

A quite entertaining game, based on a cool concept: You move through a grid of roads, delivering packages, taking the trains to help you make it faster. But I kept waiting for the point when it would get really challenging, and that never happened -- I tended to make the deliveries with plenty of time to spare, even without taking the trains. The game could use some difficulty tuning: I suggest more trains, a bit fewer roads so it's not as easy to find a direct path, and tighter time limits towards the end.

That said, We Deliver is still definitely worth playing. The ASCII-art map previews are particularly ingenious. The time theme is done well, with the various eras you play in.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 3 Technical 5 Genre 4

Review by graue all reviews by graue

Looks cool, there's just... not much to do yet. I would like to see this developed some more, but as of now, I can't stand it for more than a few minutes.

I had to change the code to get it to not segfault with the music missing. Also, I'm not quite sure where the time theme was supposed to come in here.

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 3 Technical 2 Genre 1

Review by graue all reviews by graue

Note: This is Ashrilyn. Graue said he could not compile Niunio's entry, as it uses Pascal. (And, unfortunately, I had not registered separately for Tins06.)

The game's titlescreen has an ASCII art train scrolling along, the text on the side of the cars telling you to press F1 for help, esc to exit, and space to play.
The help screen's colors and graphics resemble those of an ASCII DOS game, while the graphics in general resemble old EGA or VGA DOS games.

The game concept is a bit like Pipe Dreams. In this case, there are pieces of track already placed which you can rotate or slide into an empty space. You can still rotate or move pieces of track the train has already been on.

When playing, if I try to slide a piece of track outside the grid that is not actually movable, I get an access violation error, and must exit the game. It's kind of easy to forget about those edge pieces not being movable at first, as they look very similar to the other track pieces (just not inside the grid). The game does handle the error somewhat gracefully, giving me an ingame message about it rather than just crashing.

The pieces of track you are given in each level seem to be a bit random. The first two levels I've been given in several games to be easy.
The first level 3 I was given, which introduced tiles with cows in them, I found difficult. On my second try (after replaying the first two levels), I succeeded. I had to do some quick work with the movable track ends and the two 90 degree curves I was given.
The level 4 I was given was very difficult. I didn't have enough time to move the cow tiles and track tiles around. It would be nice if one did not have to start all over from level 1 upon derailing.

I considered the music during gameplay to be too repetitive after a while.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 3 Technical 3 Genre 2