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The Daily Click ::. Downloads ::. Review Review: Evasion
Now, those eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that i've reviewed this game within about 20 minutes of this game being uploaded. There is a good reason for this; Evasion is a very simple game in concept. Exceptionally simple. In fact, it is so simple it makes Forest Gump look intelligent! And is that a bad thing? Well, no actually! I compare the simplicity of this game to Tetris, the world's most successful game ever. The most important game in Nintendo's career. The game that was probably the biggest driving force behind the near-120 million world-wide Gameboy/Gameboy Color sales. Yes, this game can be compared to the mighty Tetris. Bear with me on this one... Firstly, this game relies on a "beat your own high-score" style of gameplay, the same motivator that drives people to play more Tetris. Just as you want to beat your highest lines score on Tetris, with Evasion you are fighting tooth and nail to last just that few seconds longer than your best time. Another similarity between Tetris and Evasion is the fact that after just 60 seconds of playing the game, there is little else to see of the game. The mechanics behind Chris Vermilya's effort are utter simplicity and as a result the game is as easy to pick up and play for you as it is for your gran. Utter brilliance! Let's get into the nitty-gritty though. This game does have its negative points, the biggest being the complete lack of a high score table. As mentioned above, the beauty of this game is that it drives to you defeat your highest score. So you do. Then you switch it off. Then the next day you try and thrash that time again, and then...... oh, where was my best time saved? The answer is "it wasn't, Jack!" This is a mighty shame and removes atleast half of the players motivation in trying to beat their high score. It actually removes most of the point of the game. Then there's the sound effects and music, or rather the lack of them. This is a medium that caters for those hard of hearing by eliminating the need for ears. Some kind of ditty tune (or three) in the style of Tetris's would have further added to the experience. It's not all doom and gloom though; as i said, this game is easy to get to grips with. You move your blue block with the mouse along a horizontal red line. This game encourages twitch-gaming and this makes the game very skillful. It encourages that 'one more go' factor, a feat rarely matched with other indie games. The power-ups are also useful additions to the main game. All five are very much different and none are useless. Some nice flashy explosions and woosh-like sound effects would have made them stand out that little bit more mind, though they do still work adequetly.
The range of colours are sometimes a strange choice (blue/black on red is not to everyone's taste) though they make sense when you realise they add to the challenge of the game. The vibrant colours of the power-ups also benefit from the darker backgrounds, further strengthening the reasons behind them. Main menus are not the most attractive seen before, yet the falling blocks and scrolling black screen when selecting options has the hallmarks of classy design. Graphics can be described as functional, rather than gorgeous. Evasion suffers in the lastibility stakes with the lack of a high score table (or even an online high score table, which would be even better!) and i hope a future version of this game gets made with this in mind.
A slightly flawed gem that easily deserves a sequel, Evasion is the sort of game that will appeal to those gamers who can see the glass half full rather than half empty. It may not appear finished or offer much atmosphere, yet those who are thirsty for something different to shooters and platformers on this site will not go far wrong. Not quite the block-buster this game could, and should, have been.
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