| Them's Fightin'
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48 hour contest games are generally pretty quirky, and Achilles Oasis is no exception. A unique battle system, a painfully typical storyline, all wrapped up in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s always annoying to accurately rate a contest game, since I know that Fernurion was under extreme time limitations, but since he has tentative plans to expand the game, let’s dive right in.
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| Graphics |
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Well, you can tell what everything is, and some of the desert maptiles are fairly unique, but there’s not a whole lot of effort put in to make Achilles Oasis look pretty. One place the graphics need a serious boost are in the battles. They’d pass muster on a normal game, but since the whole gimmick of the game is that each enemy has a weak point you can target, an “Achilles Heel” if you will, you’d think enemies would have some sort of obvious attack point. But nope, whether you’re fighting wheeled gators or headless robots, it’s going in completely blind, which is hardly fair to the player, and not at all rewarding or fun.
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| Storyline |
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Bluey is a tribe member in a small desert village, wandering aimlessly around with his identical friends until a scream from his chief’s hut alerts him to trouble. By virtue of being the first one to get to the hut, and really the only person who cares what happened, the Chief sends Bluey on a mission to save his mysteriously kidnapped daughter. *yawn* It doesn’t get any better, folks. What little extra story Achilles Oasis has is just as contrived and forced, including the mysterious villain’s reason for its kidnapping, and worse, the ending of the game gets the player stuck in an infinite loop text box. I know the constraints of the contest were fairly strict, but this is simply rotten storytelling.
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| Gameplay |
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From bad to worse, I’m afraid.
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Battle |
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The meat of the game is in the battles, but really, there isn’t a whole lot here. In every battle, Bluey can choose from eight points on the enemy to attack, ranging from the head, tail(even if the monster doesn’t have a tail), and even the groin, which you’d think would work on pretty much any monster. If you select the wrong spot, you Fail and have to try again. Luckily when you get the right spot, one hit will kill most enemies. There’s no way to tell which spot will work on any given enemy, and in fact, even memorizing which enemies die from which attacks is fairly useless, I ran into two types of wheeled gators that looked identical but died from different attacks, which was a very nasty surprise. The final boss, with or without good equips, is nearly impossible on the first try, so I suggest the player take advantage of using F2/F3 to save/load and keep trying out different targets without having to go through the whole dungeon again.
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Map Design |
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A magic carpet helps you get around the desert map quickly, which was a nice touch. The game’s single dungeon has a variety of find-the-switch and push-the-box puzzles. Decent considering the size and scope of the game, but the puzzles are obviously there to extend the player’s time in-game and nothing more.
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Balance |
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Without using OHR’s F2/F3 save/load feature, and without proper equips, Achilles Oasis is nearly impossible. You stand a good chance of missing an enemy’s weak point even if you know where it is, regardless of your equipment. Did I mention the equipment is very expensive? Add to that Bluey has three points the enemy can hurt, any random battle can easily wipe you out as you frantically pound the space bar hoping to actually hit your opponent.
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| Music |
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Not terribly good, not terribly bad. It fit alright for the game, but I wasn’t impressed with any of the selections.
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| Enjoyment |
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I was initially interested in the concept, but the execution and unfair battles quickly soured the experience. There was nothing in game to keep me engaged in playing, and the whole experience was a chore.
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| Final Blows |
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Achilles Oasis simply needs a lot more work to become a decent game. Everything but the battles is very weak, and the battle system needs serious work to become fun instead of cheap and annoying.
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Mmm, push-box puzzle. |
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Final Scores
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Graphics: 4/10.0 |
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Minimalist, or just minimal effort?
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Storyline: 1/10.0
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Completely terrible. |
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Gameplay: 3/10.0 |
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Good ideas, bad design.
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Music: 5/10.0
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Mweh. |
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Enjoyment: 2/10.0
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Only if you're more interested in the concept then the game. |
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Overall Grade:
D |
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| Final Thoughts |
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Fenurion, for a contest game you had some good ideas, but you need to work on engaging the player’s interest in your story and world. I like the idea of a weak point for each monster, but your design for it needs serious work before it becomes anything but a pain. I know you didn’t have a lot of time to create your game, but what Achilles Oasis needs now is a lot of your time to become good. The concept is there, it just needs your effort. |
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