Reviews

Review by elias all reviews by elias

This is a pretty solid clone of Robotron, with a story/setting fulfilling the genre rule. I'm impressed how it's quite polished, with an intro story and ending cinematics.

The artistic TINS requirements are met, graphics are/look hand-drawn (even the displayed source code) and there's voice samples.

I missed a reference to polymorphism in the game or readme. But there's many things fulfilling the rule anyway (like easy/hard mode, polymorphic enemies and weapon, and likely lots of things in the source code).

Gameplay is quite fun - I remember when I used to play Llamatron for hours. There are 10 levels with rising difficulty. The appearance of a new kind of enemy as well as two weapon updates keep it from getting boring. I only made it to level 7 in easy mode myself - but luckily the builtin cheat mode allowed me to see the ending anyway. I'd have hacked the levels.dat text file otherwise :)

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 4 Technical 4 Genre 4

Review by elias all reviews by elias

I think each rule is implemented perfectly. Source code and polymorphism are the main game mechanic. By reading the source code of the elements you know what they do (well, for the simpler ones... for the later ones you'll just place them and watch). And the way you change how an element behaves when triggered the same way is like the core definition of a polymorphic object, all as gameplay of the game.

Graphics are hand drawn and look great.

The game also was fun to play. The difficulty of levels gradually rises up to the last. There you have to first realize that two functions need to go to a certain element to maximize score and then it's only a few tries to order the other elements right.

But the best part of this game has to be the music. It alone would be enough to fulfill the voice rule. And to me it also completely captures that whole sun-god setting somehow.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 5 Technical 5 Genre 5

Review by elias all reviews by elias

I enjoyed playing Hotel Hell. I used a text editor to plot out the map because I was hopeless at memorizing it :P Once I had almost the full map with locations of disks and hearts I could win. Since there is no music I listened to "Hotel California" which seemed fitting :)

Now about the TINS rules. For artistic, there is no sound and also no bonus rule which would allow not implementing one other rule, so I deducted a point. The hand-drawn rule on the other hand is done perfectly - I think the look is great. So if the 5 points are 3 for looks and 1 each for the requirements, I give 4.

For technical, the engine appears solid, source code on the various disks is shown. And I don't doubt there is polymorphism, but there's nothing really polymorphic in the game. I give 4.

Genre. Well. It basically uses the same genre interpretation I used and the rule specifically allows it. I award 4 points again.

Overall I think it turned out great for a TINS entry. I'll vote as 4 points by now but maybe increase to 5 once I've played the other games and have some comparison.

Scores: Overall 5 Artistical 4 Technical 4 Genre 4