Gamelist Review List Song List Watched Journals Forum IRC Gamelist Song List Review List Forum Articles IRC Log Out Add Game Edit Games Add Reviews Edit Reviews Add Songs Edit Songs Log Out Edit Games Edit Reviews Edit Songs Sign Up Log In My Journal My Game Journals Watched Journals All Journals Journal Settings All Journals About Us Staff FAQ
Castle Paradox
Title Bar
Log In Box
 
______  
[more]
Project `C` vs. Shadowiii
Project `C` Yeah, I kinda figured that whole darkness thing out myself.
SDHawk
Download: 303 KB
V.S.
Shadowiii
Play Time: 1 hours and 00 minutes
Review # 38 for Shadowiii Yeah, I kinda figured that whole darkness thing out myself.
Them's Fightin' Words
    The 528 Hour Contest '04 was an excellent contest. The theme was "simulate", and all the entrees into the contest were great OHR games (average or above). This is probably due to the fact that some of the best game designers entered the contest. Sew and S(T)D-Hawk conbined forces to create Project "C" which "..simulates light, damn it!" - Sew.

Project "C" is an interesting game. The basic idea is you wander around a hospital after waking up and remembering nothing (gee, never heard that one before :P). It is either really dark or night, because you can't see ANYTHING at ALL. This is where your light comes in (and the simulation part :P). You get a variety of light-emitting devices ranging from flares to flashlights that you can use to light up different areas to explore. However, the hospital is big and difficult to navigate through, which makes the overall experience somewhat frustrating (though impressive).
Graphics
    Sew did the graphics if I remember correctly, and overall they are decently done. The maptiles are fantastic (even though you only see a few at a time because of the darkness). The NPCs are...ok but somewhat obscure. It is interesting how the lighting effect on the maptiles and NPCs worked...maptiles around the edge of your light's beam would be darker then those in the middle. It is very impressive.

Maptiles - Overall, they look nice. The ripped up walls and hospital beds especially. The floor is dull (and repetative), but still looks alright. Overall, they fit the game perfectly.

NPCs - Frankly, I don't like the way she looks all that much. The enemies look kinda like globs too, heh. They do their job, but aren't...fantastic. However, though the heroine doesn't look wonderful, she DOES look young (and like her in-game cutscene art) so...it works out for the best.

Cutscenes - Sew drew these too. They also look just ok, though sometimes it's difficult to see because they are so dark. Also, there are cutscenes that seem to have no point, like they chose to put cutscenes in some places because they just wanted too. They aren't evenly spaced, which is...bizzare. However, they still looked alright.
 
Storyline
    Story

Project "C"'s storyline is almost as dark and shrouded in obscurity as the game itself is. It seems you are an orphin who was part of some diabolical experiment, one that engulfed the entire hospital you now wander through. Unfortunatly, the story isn't very well told. Though you have a general idea of what's going on at the end, it seems a bit rushed. You know little to nothing through most of the first part of the game, while the ending portion you are slammed with information. If it were more evenly distributed the game would be a lot more suspenceful then it currently is (sadly, it isn't very suspenceful as-is).

Dialogue

Dialogue is decent, if a bit dull. There really isn't anything exceptional about what is said...it is mostly put there just to advance the story (which, in and of itself, wasn't wonderful anyway). The dialogue also is flawed in that it simply tells what you need to hear...it doesn't spice it up in an attempt to make things more suspenceful (which is what this game really lacked). Overall, the dialogue could use an entire rewrite. In a sense, if the dialogue were written to be more suggesting of the plot, the game would be a lot scarier.
 
Gameplay
    "C" consists of doing two things: Walking around with your various lights in the huge hospital, and splashing enemies with water. Overall, the experience is an interesting one, but it gets old quite fast. The flashlight script is neat, but the gimmic gets old fast (while wandering through the first level was exciting, it got old by the second and third one). Though the various lights that you can get make the experience more entertaining, it doesn't really improve the gameplay much.

Also, fighting enemies is a bug-riddled mess. First, it's difficult to predict where to splash water to kill enemies, so fighting is hard. Also, if you get trapped, you are stuck in basically and infinate loop until you die. Not very pleasent, especially when save points are hidden in the dark (on maptiles that look only slightly different then the surrounding tiles).
 
  Battle
    The battles, as mentioned above, are buggy. They are also, in my opinion, unnecessary. The game would have worked a lot better if you couldn't kill the monsters, instead you tried to avoid them in the dark. Instead, you are left to squirting them with water-bottle, which is kind of stupid. I heard the original version had you smacking them with a shovel. I am left wondering why that was abandoned for this, but I guess the creators prefered it...

Also, don't get stuck by an enemy. Because if you do, you are dead, even if you have lots of health left.
 
  Map Design
    Maps are amazingly complex and large. It would be alright if you had more light, but instead you can bairly see around you (remember dungeons in Dragon Warrior I? Kinda like that) so you wander somewhat aimlessly. Also, there isn't really any landmarks to see where to go or to know if you are just wandering around in circles, so "exploring" this maps usually is more like "wandering aimlessly."

Also, save points. First off, I think you should have been able to save anywhere. Second thing, save points are REALLY hard to find. They are just blood in the floor, which (in the darked area of the flashlight beam) looks just like every other tile. This is very frustrating, especially because if you wander off from a save point, you may never find your way back later.
 
  Balance
    There isn't any, really. You splash monsters that totally kill you if they corner you.  
Music
    Setu did a decent job composing, though the music is less suspenceful then I would have hoped. Currently the best ohr-suspence music I've heard was the opening song in Bliss, which is an awsome song. These tunes are neat, but the electric guitar takes away from the mood a bit. However, it is all original and (for only 528 hours) it all sounds relativly good.  
Enjoyment
    I enjoyed the first level and a few minutes after, but once battles showed up it got a bit tedious. Also, the game had long maps and was really hard to navigate through, so overall it was a frustration. However, the flashlight script was most awsome, and it really made me green with envy (I had originally planned something like that for Pitch Black, but I was too stupid to figure it out :P)  
Final Blows
    Just so Hawk and Sew know, I NOW KNOW IT SIMULATES LIGHT, OK? Even though they had to tell me a zillion times before it registered. Overall, its fun for a while, but unfortunatly paced too slowly to keep your interest until the end. Also, they didnt' even include the code so you could steal it you could study it for your own games, which was a real bummer (not to mention the file was passworded :'( ). Worth checking out, but quit once you get bored of it.

Also, it's a bit of a coincidence that Project "C" got a "C"...I actually didn't notice this until a while after...ok, I'm a little slow, alright? Shut up. ;_;


"Swing away, Morgan."
Final Scores
Graphics: 6/10.0
Nice but repetative maptiles, ok walkarounds. The maptiles, though repetetive, fit the mood wonderfully, so it was all good. The cutscenes were a little dark to see what was going on (at least in the cutscenes showing the picture of our heroine), but they were a welcome addition.
Storyline: 4/10.0
Eh. Though it got interesting at the end, the pacing was AWFUL, and the dialogue was dull. It provided no suspence, which is what it really needed to do. Story: 2.5 Dialogue: 1.5
Gameplay: 3/10.0
The light script was very very awsome. The "fight enemies off with a bike squirt bottle" was a bit stupid. But the one thing that broke this game were those maps. Too big, too repetative, and too tedious. EVen that beautiful light script couldn't save it. ;_;
Music: 7.5/10.0
Setu did a great job, though I don't think he's cut out for writing suspenceful music. The music sounds great, and almost works, but not quite.
Enjoyment: 5/10.0
It was fun for a while. The flashlight script made exploring somewhat exciting, until you realized all the floors looked exactly the same. It was entertaing for a while, then it got boring because the story didn't kick in fast enough.
Overall Grade: C
Final Thoughts
    " 'C' is for cookie, that's good enough for me..."  


All games, songs, and images © their respective owners.
Terms of Service
©2008 Castle Paradox