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Thursday 6 March, 2008
GAMEPLAY
Similar to the last session, I enjoyed the platforming levels but disliked the levels that focused on challenges that completely changed the control scheme and play style. This world had two challenges like this, although admittedly I didn’t find them as difficult (and therefore as irritating) as the previous one. I noticed that these challenges required further suspension of disbelief than usual. In this case, one challenge involved a character being challenged to a race and then given a well-guarded item by the antagonists for winning, while the other involved sending a character with no combat or stealth skills after an item, forcing the player to provide him with cover fire.
Apart from their divergence from the core game mechanic, I think I often disliked these levels because they were required to progress in the main game, giving me the impression that I was being forced to do something that reasonably shouldn’t have been required. I noticed this because I found some optional challenges to be much more rewarding. The timed challenges, in particular, were fairly difficult, forcing me to complete levels with near-optimal performance. However, they weren’t required to progress in the game; they simply unlocked developer commentary for the level, which, as a game design major, I enjoyed a good deal. (I even heard them mention in passing the observation on enemies that I had already noted for the design section.)
DESIGN
The game combines the usually cartoony style with a darker, more subdued atmosphere. The former is apparent through the character design, with colorful models of unusually-proportioned anthropomorphic animals, and through the crooked, angled appearance of a lot of the environment. (For example, the sides of the ladders are illogically jagged.) The colors in the environment, however, are darker and more uniform, and it is perpetually night or evening in the levels. The music is similarly rather soft and subtle, only picking up when you fight an enemy or set off an alarm.
One interesting notes is that it is often apparent how an enemy will attack even before you are spotted. Close-range enemies carry large, conspicuous weapons, projectile users idly toss around their weapons of choice, and one enemy that attacks you with belly flops practices the attack while standing by. The bosses’ styles of attack are similarly apparent: the first actually tells you what he’s about to do, and the second predictably uses the pair of large guns he’s carrying. However, the first boss switches to a different attack style when he’s almost out of health (probably intended as a surprise), and it isn’t initially apparent in the second boss fight that the bullets are impossible to avoid without cover.
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