Pro Adventure Testers Needed!

As some of you probably already know, I've been working on an adventure series under the title of Brundis. I refuse to create these adventures on a sub-par, moderate, or even good level. They have to be awesome. There for, I need my testers to be able to pick up on subtle problems, find glitches, and jugdge difficulty well. Also, it should be noted that this series is rather mature, and if you aren't a fan of gore, you don't really want to test these very much.

Any volunteers should let me know asap, and I'll hook you up with the beta part 6 as soon as I can.

how many do you have left to go?

I'm not much of an adventure-creator myself, but I design games in Smalltalk and can pick up bugs fairly quickly. I don't mind gore, it doesn't really bug me. I can test for you, if you like.

Cheers,
3DBlenderRender

3D: That would be awesome, you're on the job.

Dark: Unless I make a change in my original plans, there will be 8 more, including an epilouge. However, three of those will be in the same setting, so it won't be quite so bad.

Not exactly a gore fan over here. And my computer is so low-class, I can only play complicated adventures on low graphics. I'll be sure to play your Brundis adventures eventually, but I can't exactly get the full experience, so good luck.

That's unfortunate Gelo, but it's okay. I hope you enjoy them when you do play.

I could test and adventure or two

“Brundis, Part 1”
Mudo (Modkon117)

A review of the GA by 3DBlenderRender

First, I’ll give a quick rundown of bullet-points which will show the ratings I give to the various aspects of the Gameplay. Then, I’ll move on to the in-depth workings and intricacies and/or bugs found in the level. Finally, I’ll mention what was perfect, and what could be improved upon. However, before beginning, I’ll give a quick list of my pet-peeves in adventures and/or games in general, and strong points.

Pet-Peeves:

- Unintentional poor grammar or spelling. If there’s a spelling mistake here and there, fine, but everywhere?
- Long fights with bosses which are stupid/have 30,000 health. Fights should be quick and exciting.
- 1 act, no plot. I don’t like Ape-style plots. “Find banana. Eat banana. Talk to chief.” There needs to be a twist.

Strong Points/Bonus Points:

- Good atmosphere. Music that fits, attention to mood and placement, and excessive detail.
- Scare/Humor factor – I love a funny or scary adventure, not just a lukewarm “Ah, I could go either way, pfft.”
- Surprise – Plot twists are awesome.

BTW, sorry Mudo, I had to play in the editor, I don’t have C&C.
Alright, anyhow, playing as first a cruddy “Captain” I then switched to my better captain, because I kept getting murdered in the first part.

Alright, here we go, with the quick ratings:

Action: 3/5
Atmosphere: 2/5
Surprise: 4/5
Detail: 2/5
Scare Factor: 3/5

Now, I personally hate it when people just review something and never explain what they liked or didn’t like. So, I’ll explain in detail what I liked, and did not like. And so, without further ado, the lengthy section of the review:

Action – Personally, I found action more exciting with a wimpy captain who had stealth. Although the first part is near-impossible with a terrible captain (Lvl 2 Bite), and the rest is certainly impossible, the landmines can be used in a fashion so as to blast enemies away. This is stinkin’ fun with the little guys, as they fly away.

With an insane captain, the fighting becomes…well, to be honest, a little boring. I just stunned, retreated, fired, jumped, stunned. It was kinda boring. The two big dudes near the end were more interesting, as they starting kicking my butt at one point, but with the power-ups available, were easily taken down.

Atmosphere: I was really disappointed in this. When the guys attacked me at the beginning, I thought I was in for a very-well scripted, awesome atmosphere. However, the cheery blue sky was just…ebbing away at the rating. It’s so dang happy! Everyone and everything is getting brutally murdered to the happy blue sky. Now, I admit, I didn’t expect the casket of little freaky demons to launch from the sky, but it would work just as well at night. The lack of building was really disappointing to me, as was the lack of little rocks, and objects, etc.

Alright, now the good things in the Atmosphere were the effects chosen to explode, and the sound. Given those sounds in a creepy environment would have had me awed. I loved the moan as I waded in the river, that was unexpected, and I knew I was in for something. It was perfectly timed, and fit the mood excellently.

I suppose I’m rambling a bit about this atmosphere thing, but it’s really important. If there had been a camp, or base for the enemies you meet in the beginning, with dust and flies buzzing by the gore, I would’ve loved it. Some eerie landscape with creepy monsters…well, freaky, to be honest.

I loved your creatures, as they weren’t just the ‘ol black spider that’s Epic in size, with 34 billion health points. They were…happy. But murderers. It was backwards, and had a “Freak” sensation to it, which fit really well.

Surprise: Well, I sure didn’t expect the little monsters to creep out from there, that was excellent, Mudo. But the rest was…predictable. Fight this batch of dudes, then these bigger dudes, then this stronger, faster dude, and then…I didn’t care for that. If there was some running, or enemies which would murder you in an instant unless you led them into a trap of some sort would be perfect, but there was none of that.

Detail: Y U NO PUT IN BILDING? Seriously, why were there little to no buildings? And there weren’t many little guys strutting about for no reason. I liked the creepy pink faces and meat. That added some nice detail. But really, buildings are a must-have for me, as well as little pointless but cool-looking effects to add pizzazz.

Scare factor: Well, I think this is a bit unfair for me to put in, as you’re just setting the series up, but there was only one moment when I was afraid I was about to get brutally murdered, which was when all those little men creeped from the meteor and swarmed at me, with that freaky groaning sound in the backdrop.

Alright, so, final rating? 3/5, but I’m definetly going to play the rest of the series.
Sorry if I’m a bit too fussy, I just want to point out as much as I can.

Cheers,
3DBlenderRender

Wow, I honestly have got to say, that was perhaps the best review I ever got. However, I'm a bit afraid that you can't judge this mission properly without C&C. I'm fairly certain that at least 75% of the creatures involved use C&C parts, and if spore replaces them, the entire feel of the adventure is going to completely different, and the combat will become unbalanced. However, the way you phrased it, it sounds like you can still see the adventure properly when in editor. I don't know how this is possible, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now.

(EDIT: Checked the adventure, without C&C, you should only be able to view two creatures correctly. Of the two, one of them is a non-combative scenery animal, and the other is dead!)

As for your rating, I completely agree. Part 1 was by far, the worst of the Brundis missions. The only part of it that I thought turned out very well was the surprise landing of the %s. In Part 2, you can expect much more detailing, more buildings and scenery, and a much MUCH more involved plot. However, in my defense, let me explain something.

When Brundis was originally announced and developed, I lied to the community HARDCORE. I had a very different series going on as well, the 0% series, and I stated that these two series were seperate. Part 1 of Brundis was meant to be a mind-blowing shocker. I don't really know how this applies to anything, but it's a true fact. ;)

Anyway, thanks a million, and I'd love to hear your reviews of the rest of the series, especially when you begin to play the better adventures. (Part 1 was crummy, Part 2 was decent, Part 3 was good, Part 4 was better than that, and at Part 5, I finally got my crap together, and it's great, if I do say so myself.)

I have to agree 3D on one thing: you do fall back on combat a bit. it can be a bit of a trudge knee deep in %s from one story point to another. maybe some puzzle or varied combat?

Yeah, combat is one of the weaker points in my missions, but in spore, it can be hard to make it really good. I think that it is alright in parts 4 and 5, and in the upcoming 6 and seven, I've made a pretty big step in making it better. It's more condensed, so you fight harder for shorter periods of time. Part 2 is probably the worst in terms of combat, I'd say, it takes ages, and is very repetitive. Part 5 is simillar, but much improoved, in my opinion.

Dark_Heroics wrote:

I have to agree 3D on one thing: you do fall back on combat a bit. it can be a bit of a trudge knee deep in %s from one story point to another. maybe some puzzle or varied combat?

Yeah, I was just writing the second review, and indeed, the combat is annoying. If you could use some more inventive kills (I.E. Killing a tough beast by using a combination of luring into jump-pads and springing in turn onto mines, or blasting a nearby explosive barrel or crate.)

Action's useful for making things interesting and providing a challenge, but you need to move to make things fun. That's why melee-ing various low-hp enemies or blasting into the sky with landmines is so enjoyable. Or, fighting large foes with high-hp by blasting, then running back, then going in.

Action needs change. Otherwise you could just put a piece of tape over your keys to hold 'em down while you get a Chili-Cheeseburger. (Runescape, anyone?)

Anyhow, that's my thoughts on action.

Cheers,
3DBlenderRender

Hello!

3D that was an awesome review.
Can you please try my War of Galaxies adventure and write a review about it?
If you do then write th review in a PM.

Thanks!

Bence657

Hmm... I can review some adventures. But only on Friday and weekends.

Cheers,
RazorKnight