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Sunday 13 January, 2008
GAMEPLAY
In continuing to play Mayhem my thoughts on game are based mostly around its very fast paced (and sometimes short) game play. Since you jump right into the action, there is no story or character development even attempted, its simply "blast the tanks". While for some games this might be a detriment, here it really is fairly irrelevant, after all, the game is based on a single screen, has no movement, character, dialog, or even a beginning sequence. Here the whole point is action, and lots of it, and it delivers quite well.
The game is interesting to play due to its novel use of physics in trying to bounce your shots and tanks off of each other in order to maximize damage. You also are giving a limited number of points as you destroy tanks in which to spend on upgrades and new ammo types for your weapon, giving the game a bit more longevity and variety.
In the end though, this simple action is both the games greatest strength and weakness. It allows the player to quickly enter the game, play for a bit, and leave at his or her leisure without too much of a time commitment, but because of this simplicity and pace, it lacks depth and that immersive quality we often like to find in games that we play for long periods of time. The game is at its core a simple arcade shooter with a few novel twists in the form of simple physics involving the tanks bouncing around the screen.
DESIGN
As far as innovations go, use of more complicated physics in simple arcade games has been around for a while now, but often it is over done (e.g. Plasma Pong) or simply for visual effect with no real impact on gameplay. In this game the physics and momentum of varying sizes of tanks and projectiles have a real effect on how you play the game, without being over bearing and requiring too much thought or precision. HOWEVER, because it is physics heavy and there is lots going on on-screen, its performance can lag even on high end machines despite its very simplistic yet pleasant graphics.
The level design here is almost too simplistic and cuts down on replay value, all levels and game types are simply waves of enemies approaching from the right, and you must stop them from getting to the left... simple, but could use more variety, even if its just in the form of randomly placed obstacles.
As for what I would change, if possible I would work on optimizing the physics engine so its not quite so performance intensive, and would find a way to add more variety to the level structure. Also the feature of the "stability" of your shots I would remove. In game, the more points you have, the more stable your shots are, if the are unstable, there is a chance they explode when you try to shoot damaging your gun, which is a frustrating and random effect, that instead of adding any tension or fun to the game, simply adds an element of annoyance.
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