Exercise 2 for DM2232(Pandemic 2)

The game I chose to write a review for is Pandemic 2. A game where players are supposed to control the evolution of a virus, bacteria or parasite, to infect and kill everybody in the world.

In the flash game, players can see breaking news at the left side of the game screen and the world map is displayed while the game is in motion. If the game was to be developed for the DS, the breaking news should be displayed on the top screen while the player can drag and view the world map around in the bottom screen. There should also be a slider bar below the world map such that players can speed up and slow down the game as they wish.

Next is the use for the L and R buttons and the face buttons. In the flash game, there is an additional world and disease tab. The world tab contains information about the amoun of active hospitals and the government efforts at creating a vaccine for the disease the player has created. The disease tab shows all the traits and symptoms the disease can evolve. While the game is in progress, the player can press the L or R buttons to pause the game and bring the world or disease screen up over the world map, while the face buttons can be used to select any options in the selected screen.

To sum things up, any information that is constantly changing such as the breaking news, evolution points and amount of infected people would be shown on the top screen while the bottom screen would be used for the active world map, world tab and disease tab depending on the active screen.

Game Review[Trauma Center: Under the Knife(DS)]

In my endless search for innovative gameplay, I decided to get a Nintendo DS for my very first portable console as I felt that the touch screen feature would provide a whole new line of games that draws the player in making full use of the feature. I have to say, it did not let down my hopes. (It really is my first portable console -.-”)

And so, I picked Trauma Center: Under the Knife for my first console game review. In Trauma Center, the player plays as Derek Stiles (Pronounced “Stylus”… Lousy pun), a normal surgeon who just started on his job. Of course as a game, things happen and it turns into a save the world plot. You even get to mess around with a hidden ability of Derek, “Healing Touch”. The game only guides your action up till the second operation and from then on, your pretty much on your own. (You’ll still have your pretty assistant Angela Thompson giving you general directions though) This pretty much ramps up the difficulty right at the start until you manage to perform the standard procedures almost naturally. After a number of operations, the “Healing Touch” ability awakens in Derek and using the ability slows time to a crawl. (It supposedly puts Derek into ultra-deep concentration) Almost immediately after realizing this ability, Derek is placed in the position where he has to cure patients with GUILT, which is a strain of virus created for medical terrorism.

The gameplay is hectic with frequent switching of tools and sudden complications while performing surgery. You will be forced to keep an eye on the vitality points of the patient while taking note of the time limit and also the events happening on screen. With the concentration required combined with the responsiveness of the controls and the way the tools working almost the way they do in real life, it’s not hard for total immersion in the game. The sound and music also aids in bringing the emotions across to the players, such as the way the music speeds up when there is a sudden complication the the operation that has to be fixed quickly. One complaint though, is that there isn’t a wide variety of music and it gets boring after listening to it for a couple of hours.

Personally, I like how the story is moved along and how personality is injected into the patients and side characters through the dialogue.

Overall comment: This game is not for people with fear of blood or those who are not able to gather their wits when sudden events occur. If you are neither, I highly recommend you picking this game up. I can promise you that you won’t be disappointed.

Score: 4.5/5 . The game is disturbingly addictive despite the difficulty level.

Game Review (Rayhound)

Well, before I start on even reviewing any games, I would like to comment that I find the lack of creativity in the industry rather appalling. This may be because commercialism is driving game designers to design games that are blatant rips of popular games, bending the original idea by as much as you can bend your pen without it breaking into half. There is nothing out there to drive designers to be the visionaries that they are. To leap off the beaten path without a second thought. And thus for my subsequent reviews, I will only be reviewing on games that have really caught my attention by being different.

*Ends rant*

For this very first review, I will be presenting Rayhound, a shooting-game with a twist.

This game is controlled purely by the mouse. The main difference between Rayhound and other shooting-games is that the only means of destroying enemies on the field is by directing the beams fired by them right back at them. And there are 2 means to go about it. One of which is to move the ship fast enough such that it creates a reflective barrier in front of the ship for a short duration. And the other is to click on the mouse button to activate a gravitational field around the ship to attract and redirect the beams. The game also deviates from the usual life point system and instead uses a timer system to determine the end of the game.  What happens is that the player starts with 120 seconds which gradually decreases while the player is playing. When the timer reaches 0, the game ends. The player can prolong game time by 40 seconds by clearing the amount of enemies required for the stage. However, 10 seconds is deducted from the timer if the player is hit by a beam. This places the player under a different kind of requirement where he also has to take note of the amount of time taken to clear a stage while dodging and redirecting shots back at the enemy. The game does not reach a conclusion unless the timer reaches 0, however the amount of enemies also increases exponentially, making it hectic trying to dodge all the enemy projectiles while trying to destroy them before 40 seconds to not have a negative impact on the timer. The game has a rather simplistic design with only spaceship and enemy turrets that fire beams at the player. The UI also provides useful information on the amount of enemies left to destroy, time left and the position of enemy turrets.

Final consensus. If like me, you are tired of games that have the same systems with just different stories, and would prefer a unique game experience over a good story. Do give Rayhound a try (its a free game made by a small group known as hikware). Rating 3/5 (the controls do feel rather sluggish at moments)