“RE-LOAD” Games (on) Review

These are the reviews from the games featured on the show RE-LOAD: Games on Review that aired on Binus TV. There were 3 games featured: Snowman Defender, War of Creatures, and Necrolands.

Snowman Defender

Snowman Defender is a mobile game developed by ValourHearts Games and/or Dwi Satria Widarso, a student of Binus’s Game Application & Technology. The premise is pretty simple, snow monsters are attacking and you have to protect your friend, the snowman, by fighting off the snow monsters.

Graphics wise, they went with pixel art. The art is great and easy to look at, albeit not really detailed, also it’s pretty cute so it certainly appeals to all. As for the animations, the movements are pretty limited so they are only good. The music is nice, by being a little tense and it fits the graphics quite well.

Now to the gameplay itself, by evading enemy projectiles while also shooting the enemy, you have to stay alive and keep the enemy from reaching your snowman. By doing this, you may fight for the highest score, and also, the longest time. It starts off slow, but it gets more intense by the minute, becoming some kind of bullet hell game, which, makes the game more challenging and fun. Enemies also have a few variations. Other than the normal ones, some has faster speed, while others also have higher health. While you are shooting the enemy, they sometimes drop power ups. Power ups range from shields that protects you for a moment, freezing the enemies in their place, to shooting rapid fire snowballs. These power ups are a nice addition, not only that they help you, they also add variation to the game.

The gameplay is overall pretty good and simple so anyone can play, but it lacks replay value because there isn’t any progression system and goals (missions, challenges), but in the case of Flappy Birds though, it really helped. If you really enjoy the endless genre and want to keep breaking records, I recommend this. (8/10)

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War of Creatures

          War of Creatures is a card game developed by Indharto & Susanto, that are also students of Game Application & Technology. As for card games themselves, I have little experience as I only have played some of them, such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Hearthstone, and Pokemon, though, not extensively. Lore wise, if I’m not mistaken, are about religions and clans fighting. These clans and religions all fight because all of them believe that their god is the one true god, each enforcing their believes on each other, through violence it seems. Seems kind of familiar.

The gameplay is pretty unique by combining traditional RPG elements and card games. From what I saw and heard from the show, the creators took some gameplay elements from popular card games such as Hearthstone with their mana system (in which every turn you have limited mana that are used to play the cards) and others. They also have phases like Yu-Gi-Oh! draw, mana, summon, and battle each with their own respective things to do. When talking about the RPG elements, they implemented a hero class system and also a level system for the heroes. As for the card arts they haven’t finished it, yet, considering this might still be in pre-alpha state and changes are still being made.

They actually didn’t show any real gameplay on the show if I’m not mistaken, and if you only listen to their explanation once, it might be confusing. At first glance this game might be too complex for players, and it might even be that way. But for card game enthusiasts and people who are willing to learn, this might have potential to be a very fun game. (7/10)

Necrolands

          Necrolands is a “twin-stick shooter” game developed by Yuven Charles and Todo Daniel. The game itself is horror themed, but uses Indonesian ghosts and locally inspired items.

3D graphics is a plus but the colors and textures are too bland, especially when the field you are in has only trees in it. The UI and icons are also not that great. For a horror themed game, the style they used is rather cute, with our character and ghosts having a round head and somewhat bright colors. The “tuyul” and “pocong” are especially cute with their smile. The music is scary enough to build suspense as the ghosts approaches and keep us on our feet.

The gameplay is pretty good for a “twin-stick shooter” but considerably slower than most. The game looks simple on the outside, just surviving against hordes of ghosts by shooting. But the game is rather deep with so many variations of characters, ghosts and also items. Your character does not only represent you visually, but they also have their own unique skills to use against the ghosts. Items can also be bought using money earned from killing ghosts, and each item also have their own uses such as life steal, health regeneration, damage, and plenty of other things. For the ghosts, they used Indonesian ghost that we all know and fear, such as “tuyul”, “pocong”, “leak”, etc. These ghost also vary in size, power and speed, so plan your moves accordingly. There are plenty of modes too, from endless mode, boss rush, and even fighting only one ghost of your choice, if you hate one in particular.

This game looks pretty good but it is an unpolished gem, a really unpolished one. The gameplay is a bit slow and graphics wise it needs to be better. Considering it probably is still in alpha state, these things are common. But overall, the game is easy to play and accessible enough for people because of the graphics and gameplay. If they actually are going to improve the game, it has potential to be something incredible. (7/10)

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