Reviews

Review by Onewing all reviews by Onewing

Good: Fulfills TINS requirements really well
Bad: Missing key game features
Best ending. Ever.
Comments:
I really enjoyed this game, even if it is a bit?strange. The constant barrage of ?frozen explosions?? and pressing keys really makes for some exciting play. Add a little music, sound effects and a title screen, and it would be a complete game. I?ve beaten it on medium and still working on hard. The fact that I?m still playing makes it a quality game. Good job.

Overall: It?s fun and functional, but lacking in a lot of polish that would distinguish it as a game. In this instance, the ASCII art is kind of jarring, and real train/sprite bitmaps would better suffice. I?m giving it a 3.

Artistic: Bleh, anybody walking by would say it is ugly. 2.

Technical: Yeah, you got ASCII art, but I don?t think it fits very well. However, the garbage thrower is awesome and balances out my dislike of your ASCII ?talent?. The help screen is really good and the game is functional. I?d say 4.25, but I can?t, so 4 it is!

Genre: Bing! We have a winner. This game is rocking with both time advancement and focus. It?d be a 5, if perhaps the game changed somewhat with the times. 4 it is.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 2 Technical 4 Genre 4

Review by Lenman all reviews by Lenman

HTL seems to be a finished game that entertained me for some time. You move along the rails, defusing bombs and killing enemies as you go. There is only one problem with the gameplay: It's always the same! It was fun to test out the different weapons, I especially enjoyed the ASCII garbage thrower, and the different difficulty levels add some gaming value to the game. But still, noone wants to spend ca. 15 minutes killing the same enemies with the same weapons all the time. I will give 3 as an overall rating because it was fun to play but lacks variety.

The artistic part is ok, the graphics are average and the train theme fits well into the game. The change from one track direction to another is not so pretty and the enemy graphics are a little boring, so I will give 3 points.

The technical part was handled well, the game works and I did not encounter any bugs. The help is screen is well-done, but there could have been more/nicer ASCII art. 4 technical points.

For the genre part, time is an essential part of the game as you need lots of it to reach the end. But seriously, the time theme is put into a nice story and I will give 3 points for it.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 3 Technical 4 Genre 3

Review by miran all reviews by miran

This game could be a lot better with a good movement scheme. As it is, it's very difficult to play, although I suppose you get used to it after a while. The graphics and the ASCII art is nothing special. The one thing that stands out in this game is the help screen which is quite good.

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 2 Technical 3 Genre 2

Review by NunoMartinez all reviews by NunoMartinez

This game is hard to play and I find it boring... The ASCII train is beautiful work but the movement is... well, the train "jumps" some times! The ASCII garbage thrower is a nice weapon but I dislike the other. (Sorry for the lack of words).

Scores: Overall 2 Artistical 3 Technical 3 Genre 4

Review by guilt all reviews by guilt

Wow.. i was totally scared looking at those ominous lookin ghoul like creatures crossing the tracks and pulverising my engine ... The game is a great shoot 'em game :) Just had fun aiming around and getting 4-5 of those things in a single shot :) Of course.. the timing had to be correct!

A nice looking game, featuring great ASCII art and well playable! :)

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 5 Technical 5 Genre 5

Review by Darksoll all reviews by Darksoll

In this game you control aome kinda ASCII strange ship.
The objective of the game is to defend a train trough time.
it starts on year 0 and finishes on year 2006.
in this game there's only one enemy, it's kinda abstract, i don't really know what is it.
you can kill them with three kind of weapons: Standard gun, Erradicator Beam(the same as the previous one, but with a larger range), and the ASCII Garbage(Hahaaha, that's a good one).
in some places of the railroad there are bombs, and you have to deactivate them before the train passes. if the enemies or bombs hit the train you lose fate points(you start with 100 of them). if the fate points reach 0, you lose.
The game itself is great, simple and fun, but sometimes it turns repetitive, specially after 1000 years.....

I think this game would be better if:
mmmm.... time would pass faster. and there's no music!!, remember music is good and easy to implement, it companies the player trough the game.

Sorry for my bad english.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 3 Technical 3 Genre 4

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