Reviews

Review by Onewing all reviews by Onewing

Good: The title.
Bad: Low replay value.
Easy. Easy. Hard!!!!
Comments:
This is nice. Everything is here. Music (I swear it sounds like Freya?s theme at times), functional, challenging, fun, etc. Way to go!

Overall: It?s just a great game. I wish there was more replay value, but you can?t ask for everything in a 72hr competition game. It does get hard really fast unexpectedly, but it?s at the right time to keep you hooked and having fun. With the fitting music, I was having a gay time. I?ll give you a very, very low 5 (you know, like that 89.4445 A you got in Trig?).

Artistic: It?s got a very cartoony feel, which I like a lot. And it?s very consistent. With each level changing to a new feel, I?m inclined to give my second 5.

Technical: ASCII was weak. Help for each level was good. Game engine was sufficient. Score was 3.

Genre: I?m not sure where the time requirement came in, but I?m willing to give a 2.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 5 Technical 3 Genre 2

Review by Marcello all reviews by Marcello

Trainee is a quite nicely polished game that follows a pseudo pipe style gameplay. This level-based puzzle game displays sets of tracks and a train moves along them to a goal. As the player, you can switch tracks at certain points, and even add tracks.

The graphics in the game are simple but fitting. Some improvements could be made to how the train turns at corners, but for the most part, the game does not look like it was made in just 3 days.

However, the gameplay is lacking somewhat in speed. Once you've set the level layout how you like, there is no way (that I could see) to fast forward the level so that you could complete it. Being impatient I found myself just wanting the train to go faster so that I could continue to the next level. This kind of issue can easily be fixed and is the type of problem that usually comes out in user testing, so I do not hold it seriously against the game.

All in all, the game is well made, but somewhat slow. With this feature and perhaps slightly revised graphics, this would be an excellent game.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 4 Technical 3 Genre 3

Review by jovoc all reviews by jovoc

This was a great concept for a puzzle game with a real-time feel to it. I really liked the flipping levels, but I didn't like the building ones. I would have rather if the game had more flipping levels and didn't have the building feature at all.

Very impressive that you were also able to make a level editor in the timeframe. The ascii art and help system were enough to satisfy the requirements. One problem with the help system, the first time I played through the game I hit "space" when it said "Level Completed" and it skipped the help text for all of the other levels.

The graphics are really good, I liked the "seasons" theme in the tileset. The music was good but it didn't really seem to fit the game. Overall, Good job.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 4 Technical 3 Genre 2

Review by miran all reviews by miran

This is another promising puzzle game. The graphics are very good, they are even different from level to level and the game even has some music which isn't bad, although it gets old rather quickly. The game has a nice help screen in each level which explains everything and it uses some basic ASCII art to demonstrate. The game is obviously all about trains (although the "train" looks more like a minibus to me) and you have a limited time to complete each level, so all the competition requirements were met. But the gameplay could in my opinion be a lot better. The first few levels are more like tutorial levels and are very easy to beat, but then all of the sudden when you have to build tracks, it gets almost impossible. The outcome of the game depends on luck more than skill.

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 4 Technical 3 Genre 3

Review by guilt all reviews by guilt

Trainee is a nice game :) You've got to hurry up and complete the tracks before your engine derails ...

I like the look and feel of the game. It plays nice, and keeps you engrossed for a while .... Very entertaining!

Two thumbs up :)

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 5 Technical 4 Genre 5

Review by Darksoll all reviews by Darksoll

It's without any doubt my favourite game on this competition.
it's an original puzzle where you have to guide a train to the end of the level.
It has a lot of levels and a good variety of it. The music is excellent.
The game is really fun and entertained. The graphics are cute.
and the ASCII is OK.
the menu, GUI, and everything looks excellent. i didn't found any bug.

Two thumbs up for this game!

I think this game would be better if: mmmm, i dont like the way you add railways, they're random, and sometimes you have to fill the map with any railway in order to get the necessary railway.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 4 Technical 4 Genre 5

Review by ahuillet all reviews by ahuillet

This game is interesting. It has a real potential to distract.

Unfortunately, the "time" rule was not implemented very clearly nor originally, which forces me to give a lower mark than I'd have liked to.
2 out of 5 for genre mark

Good drawings, but where is the ASCII art ?
3 out of 5 for artistic performance

Game correctly written but I spotted a bug when the train goes out of the screen. The interface ("place parts") is a bit hard to use.
3 out of 5 for technical perf.

4/5 overall because the game's somewhat funny

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 3 Technical 3 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