Gallery: 5 Color Pandora

My mini-review of 5 Color Pandora.

Under the Garden

Under the Garden is a great stylish pixelated 2D game with very unique gameplay. To me it is very reminiscent of Minecraft and I would classify it primarily as a wildness survival game with elements of creative sandbox building, a genre that needs to be made into more games. But like Minecraft, Under the Garden suffers from a lack of direction and purpose that will turn off many people (including myself).

In game you cut down trees for wood, mine rocks for items, pick crops and hunt for food, and explore to find items and house pieces. The house pieces are used to build and grow your house and any other structures you want, and can be placed anywhere. Your house, and any other places with fireplaces, serve as waypoints and refuelling stations as you return to them when you die, or simply choose to, and being in them is the only way to refill your health without consuming items.

My mini-review of Under the Garden.

Adam's Venture: The Search for the Lost Garden

Adam's Venture: The Search for the Lost Garden is the first episode in a new episodic 3D platforming exploration adventure game with some great visuals and a interesting story. In the game you play Adam, a archeologist in search of the Garden of Eden and a typical arrogant adventurer. 

The game really has some of the spirit of a point and click adventure, with some logic and inventory puzzles that would fit well within such a game. But unfortunately these puzzles are one of the least appealing aspects of the entire game. The “logic” puzzles, for example, are for the most part just the same puzzle over and over again; Which is simply finding the correct order of three sentences, a very quick thing to try all solutions for and you are given no hint to any possible order other then what would make logical and grammatical sense, so you very well might have to do this. The second main problem I had with the game is the emotion, or lack thereof, of the characters. In this area I just felt their was something missing right from the start, and particularly hated the way the protagonist takes off his hat to brush his hair with his hand. And even at platforming it is not particularly good, as I found the characters movements to be somewhat jerky and unreliable when jumping. Not that all of this does makes a huge difference, it is still a great looking exploration game.

Another topic I want to cover is the plot. It is a moderately interesting and based on Christian myths. But one thing that I do not think the game is is non-violent or that it teaches you Christian values. Sure, their are a few specific examples you could use for both of these, but I would say taking the game as a whole it does not hold true to either of these ideals. For non-violence their is a scene in the game with a gun and the imminent threat of death because of this and multiple ways for both you and others to die in the game, some sounding very gruesome. I also don't think their is any substance to any Christian values claim, but don't particularly want do some exhaustive analysis. Another topic that counts in my negatives for this game is the advertizing, I found it to be particularly unethical in its misleading and downright lying advertizements (which is only compounded by its Christian nature in my opinion).

Now I have said a lot of bad things about this game, but I did enjoy it and while their is a huge amount of room for improvement it is still a good unique title that I wish to see more games from. And the only real problem I have with it is how it seems it is being advertized, which more likely then not is in the publishers area of control (not that that is not a reasonable excuse not to buy a game).

Dear Esther Remake

The Dear Esther remake, a indie game I have been following for awhile now, recently made a huge announcement on its development blog. It is getting a full commercial Steam release in the summer of 2011. Along with this announcement comes the launching of the games website.

OK, so time for some back-story. Dear Esther is a 2008 art exploration Half-Life 2 total conversion mod made by Dan Pinchbeck, a game and interactive media teacher at University of Portsmouth, UK. It received almost universal prise for its deep and unique story, music, and beautiful environments. Almost immediately after the release of the original game this remake has been in the works. This remake is a total redoing of the entire game: improving the graphics, redoing the music, and I believe changing all other aspects of the game as well.

I cannot over-stress how much I am looking forward to the game; It simply looks and sounds fantastic.

Important Links:
Original Dear Esther Site: http://www.thechineseroom.co.uk/esther.html
Dear Esther Remake Dev Site: http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther
 -> Images: http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther/images
 -> Music (original): http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther/downloads/dear-esther-soundtrack
Dear Esther Remake Site: http://dear-esther.com/

Pictures (click to enlarge):

Mirage

Mirage is new indie game that while it might not be technically feature complete, it could be considered a full game. It is an action exploration game, with emphasis on the exploration. Never since Knytt have I felt such joy from just exploring the game world, and Mirage is far more beautiful in my opinion.

The environment is not quite dark but more grey and alien. And it is very detailed and beautiful for a indie title. You play as a swarm of shards of glass and you fly around this environment exploring and fighting monsters.

It does suffer from some technical issues, apparently the graphics is tied in with the physics so if you set the graphics too high you might not even notice anything except that the game becomes unstable. Fortunately, it is hardly noticeable, graphically, when the setting is lowered.