Reviews

Review by entheh all reviews by entheh

This is a promising game of strafing around, shooting the triangles and collecting the hearts. I particularly liked how elements activated and deactivated as I progressed through the level (is this the morphing?).

I use the word 'strafing' because the direction I'm moving (WASD are compass directions) and the direction I'm shooting (towards the mouse) are independent, a control system that might be needlessly complicated or might just not be to my taste. In the finished game, I can appreciate that there might be so much going on that you need this granularity, but for the level included, I'd rather just shoot in the direction I'm facing and have less to think about. I think this is a very personal thing though. (Of course, when the game is windowed, it's also very easy to click outside the window by accident.) Finally I would have liked to see support for the arrow keys as an alternative to WASD.

Unfortunately I did struggle to see how the genre requirements were met: are we inside the heart, or are the hearts just a nod towards the genre? The artistic requirement of dancing seemed a little lacklustre. On the plus side, the silly weapon requirement was Act of YouTubed into oblivion in spectacular fashion.

More levels and a system of acknowledgement when a level is beaten are needed, but overall it's an entry worth trying out. For those who aren't aware, a Windows binary can be found at https://www.allegro.cc/forums/thread/617116 . It does seem to need force-closing in Task Manager, but I'm sure that's just a symptom of the game being unfinished.

Scores: Overall 4 Artistical 3 Technical 4 Genre 2

Review by entheh all reviews by entheh

This game sees you sent into battle as a medic, sort of. The two sides are the soldiers and the devils, and you are on the soldiers' side, probably.

You can kiss soldiers, leaving them dead over deals with love. You can kiss devils, momentarily pausing them. Or you can kiss your succubus's success goodbye if, like me, it only takes five kisses to give yourself 'Sticky keys' (see what I did there?). Luckily, kissing is not the winning strategy anyway.

You can also heal your soldiers (or the devils) a limited number of times, but this is also not the winning strategy. The winning strategy seems to be to get in the way. You want soldiers shooting devils, which they can do from a distance, with you blocking the devils' paths so that they can't get close enough to fight back. This gets extraordinarily tricky as more devils approach from other directions. In terms of general enjoyment, unfortunately I can't say this game really worked out.

The story might also need further explanation: whose souls am I supposed to harvest? The soldiers', by kissing them? Is that what 'my catch' refers to? But then, I could just kiss them all quickly before the devils get to them, so why do I need to aid my soldiers?

In terms of the technical rules, cross-fading is implemented in the form of cross-fades between different screens. I think something more fancy could have been done in this area, but the game is reliable and must have been competently coded.

In line with the artistic rules, there is a basic paused dancing feature, and although the documentation states that soldiers throwing crosses at devils is silly, I think it's the kissing that deserves the medal of outstanding silliness in a weapon. Either way, this is further enhanced by a lovingly crafted, fairly consistent artistic style.

The title is a play on Médecins Sans Frontières, for whom the lack of frontiers refers to their willingness to work in war zones. I like the idea that the succubus's lack of frontiers might refer to the boundaries she might be crossing if she were to invite all the soldiers round for a little unhealthy indulgence. Maybe that's just me though. Either way, the genre requirement is certainly not unmet.

A little story and game mechanic re-evaluation may be necessary, but certainly a solid implementation. Well done!

Scores: Overall 3 Artistical 4 Technical 3 Genre 4