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MLAAP: The Kevin Chronicles vs. Onlyoneinall
MLAAP: The Kevin Chronicles The unique escalator maze - watch carefully to see where you'll go and if you played those old Pokemon games, you probably remember something like this.
Bobert41
Download: 811 KB
V.S.
Onlyoneinall
Play Time: 1 hours and 28 minutes
Review # 3 for Onlyoneinall The unique escalator maze - watch carefully to see where you'll go and if you played those old Pokemon games, you probably remember something like this.
Them's Fightin' Words
    MLAAP - My Life As a Psychopath. I'm not entirely sure what this is a spinoff of. Perhaps it was from an earlier game by the authors (If I understand correctly, Rob Winchester and Kevin Burkeen are the game authors). Perhaps its some play or TV show. I have no idea. What I do know however is, this game was worth the play time. I'm surprised at its low download rate as well as the fact no one gave it any critique!
Graphics
    MMLAP - The Kevin Chronicles sports some fairly good graphics. The tiles are a bit lacking, gradient and grid-like, but on occasion you'll find a few well done bits. What comes to mind would be the escalators, which look like the kind of graphics you would see in a more professional OHR game. The tilesets could have used more work and variety - throughout the game, you'll see much of the same tiles for each area and it will start to get a bit reptitious.

The walkabouts however, are a different story. The pros of these walkabouts are while all you ever see are really people and a few dogs and weird alien things, these are done well. The people are all various and sport different looks, and you won't have any trouble differentiating most of them, especially your main hero. Aside from the random NPCs which you'll mostly meet at a skating rink and the enemies, almost every NPC has their own unique look, and you will see many animations from them as well - from looking around, flashing, transforming, turning green, life is given to these NPC's more than a typical OHR game. Considering you will see the walkabouts for the rest of the game, it was a great part on the authors to put so much effort into the walkabout graphics.

Unfortunately, the only downfall is the poor animation when they walk. While this can be attributed to the OHR's limited capability of only handling two frames per direction, the people could at least look like they were walking more realistically - this problem has a tendency when your characters move left or right.

Nonetheless, this will only be a minor issue in the game.
 
Storyline
    While the story unfolds itself and links questions as your progress throughout, it could have also explained itself more thoroughly.

You are Kevin Burkeen, a typical high school student, except for the fact you are a member of a secret agency. You started out by working in Walmart then quickly made your way into becoming part of this group. You are internationally famous and people seem to know you even if you haven't told them your name.

The game's story is divided into levels - there are 10 in all, and each one ranges from short, moderate, or moderately lengthy. The beginning chapters introduce characters you'll get to know and go through Kevin's daily life.

However, as Kevin gets into more brawls that don't make sense and people act really strange, Kevin begins to astray from his daily routines and begins to search for a reason as to why people are irrationaly attacking him without good reason and seem to be after his neck.

This is as far as I'll go. The rest of the story unfolds itself as you progress through the game, and things that didn't make sense such as random attackings (you know how it feels - playing an OHR game where someone attacks you just for the hell of it) by random people and having some unknown chick come up to you and want to be your boyfriend will begin to make sense. You just have to play through it.

Sadly, you are left feeling a bit empty once the game is over. There are still questions that you will have hanging in your head, and the story is sometimes poorly executed - while there is a certain moderation of story progression should be made without making the player feel like they're too stupid to understand what's going on, there should also be a moderate degree of explaination so you can understand what is happening. In short, more dialouge is essential for explaining the main story. Once you finish the game, even if you catch most of it, you'll still be wondering, "Why is he...?" "What is his organization...?" "What were those...?" As stated, this game was supposed to be part of a chronicle, and the story cut off as it did because there was supposed to be a second part if enough people played the game. It seems the authors did not feel enough people played (and from the download count I hav e to agree), so they never made the second part. So you will be left hanging, wishing all your questions would be explained in the sequel.

On the other hand, this game is spelling and grammar error free. There are one or two minor spelling errors, but nothing serious so tat u cat undrstnd wt dyre sying. Some of the dialouge boxes also have not been trimmed properly, although I'm not sure whether or not they're intentional as it is usually with a specific person. The moments where Kevin interacts with his friends and people he meets has a touch of decent humor, and you will find yourself giving a little smirk every now and then.

If the next piece of this chronicle is created, my suggestion is to elaborate on the story and make it more explained so we are left less confused about the slightly vague storyline.
 
Gameplay
    This is where the gameplay shines, and also has its biggest problems.

The game is heavily plotscripted - in fact, without plotscripting, this game would be nothing more than a standard OHR game. The plotscripting not only moves the story along, it is also where you see all the special little effects and also fight the battles. There are no fade out, fade in battles, as it all takes place right on the map screen.

The gameplay consists of progressing through each level - in every level, you will be fighting. The game attempts to make a Zelda-like RPG, and succeeds for the most part. You press the ~ button to lunge forward and punch, and this is what you will be doing throughout the rest of the game. Pressing Ctrl will allow you to dash a few steps, and these are the only new controls you need to know.

When you're not fighting, you're wandering through the different areas - school, the skating rink, your local neighborhood and through an airplane. Usually you'll have to wander through the area until you reach your given objective, although sometimes you will have to go through a puzzle to make your way through. In this case, the puzzles are mazes, the most notable one being the escalator maze in the airport level. I have never seen a puzzle like such in the OHR before, and it has been executed fairly well.

Aside from this, there is not much else. After each level, you will be sent to an area where you can save then walk up a bar to progress onto the next level. On this area if you use the debug cheat, you can find a secret mini game like Excite Bike.

Why I used the debugging will be explained now - there are a LOT of bugs. Being plotscriptting heavy, your punches won't always land, your character will be misaligned with the tiles, and after completeing the second to last level, the game has a script error, which results in you having to use the F5 to find your character, then using F11 to go back into the area to continue the game.

This is the only major problem. Other problems probably cannot be truely fixed, and I am not an avid plotscriptor. However, the effort clearly put into the plotscripting shows that perhaps, the best that could be done was done, so the minor bugs must be looked past and debugging keys should be used when needed.

In any case, the game is actually pretty fun, and unique from standard OHR games, and while at times it may get a little boring, you can still have fun.
 
  Battle
   
You have a certain amount of hitpoints - 160 to be exact, and this is depleted as enemies attack you - ranging from bums, dogs, secret agents, and even alligators. Some of them die with one hit, while others will take several hits to be beaten. When you make a hit, they will flash red and this indicates you've hit them. If you get hit, you have a surprised look to indicate they have successfully hit you.

When you have others with you, if your first character loses all their life, the next one steps up to be the one to fight - but if you lose all the characters, you will lose. Also, if something fatal happens (which is rare) such as you get axed in the head or shot, it is a game over regardless of who dies. It's a good thing you can get other buddies to fight, as you will need them in the tougher later levels.
 
  Map Design
    The map design isn't bad, but at times it isn't the best either. Most of the levels where you must wander will be straight forward and you will be told if you're going the wrong way. This will tend to have you walking long routes to get to your next objective. At other times when you're in a building, it is designed for the most part like the building, such as a mansion or the airport, so it isn't too bad.  
  Balance
    The game balances between traveling, fighting and reaching your next objective to progress the storyline. The battles routinely gets tougher little by little, sort of like Fire Emblem. For what the game is going for, it has a pretty good balance that is only upsetted if you have a problem due to plotscripts.  
Music
    From what I understand, Rob Winchester himself composed the music (stated in the credits). This makes the music in the game all original - while the music is not wonderful pieces of art such as created by Jazz Man, it usually captures the mood and you'll find little quirks and favorites, like the screen indicating you're at the next level, or the cell phone ringing. At times however, the music does get repitious and irritating, but with a fair distribution of different music, you won't be left irritated too long.  
Enjoyment
    I actually enjoyed this game. I downloaded it because I saw it on the random game listing, and it took me a little while to get started but once I did, I finished it all in one play through (the game rates you at the end and apparently, I finished it really fast). If I knew there were secrets I could find or something of the like, I would definitely play again. In the meantime, I enjoyed this hour of adventuring as a psychopath.  
Final Blows
    This game shows what hard work and dedication can create - I don't know if the authors have created previous games, but this game would be like their signature game - if only they had done the rest of the chronicle!
One of the few cutscenes you'll get to see - well done too.

One of the few cutscenes you'll get to see - well done too.
Final Scores
Graphics: 8/10.0
Most of the graphics are good, particularly the walkabouts as they are unique. The maptiles can be a bit boring to look at sometimes, but overall this game sports nice visuals.
Storyline: 7/10.0
The story is good - it unfolds and links things together, brings back characters you forgot about, has a touch of humor, and it's more or less, spelling and grammar error free. If only they elaborated more!
Gameplay: 8.5/10.0
Gameplay is important, and the efforts put into this one clearly had to be time consuming. Different objectives and several puzzles take you through ten different levels, each giving you something different from the last. The different styled battle system is a plus.
Music: 7.5/10.0
Original, which is a plus, fits the mood often, irritating at times.
Enjoyment: 9/10.0
Hey, if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't have written such a long review now, would I?
Overall Grade: A-
Final Thoughts
    Short, but definitely worth the time it takes to play. A storyline that actually unfolds, tons of well done plotscripting, a Zelda styled battle system, original music, and of course, it's a completed game! Give it a try now and maybe you'll like it.  


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