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The Daily Click ::. Downloads ::. Review Review: Ashley Evens, the Huntress of the Monsters
Alright, so this gets the max rating, simply due to really satisfying transitions. They're a little slow when you're trying to continue after getting killed, but at least they're simple and nice. Clickteam always had really cool transitions, and this is one of the games that like playing with them. From horizontal scrolling to screen shrinking before advancing to the next level. I do admit, the story is pretty interesting. I didn't expect that many cutscenes, especially near the end, and I certainly didn't expect them to be about the US and the antagonist treated like crap throughout his life! Regardless, they're not innocent for the crimes they've committed. Just because everyone treated you like garbage doesn't give you the right to gun them down, for crying out loud. It caught me off guard, but at least it didn't rub me the wrong way. It sounds genuine and I can't complain about that. The first cutscenes are short, leaving more room for new dialogues later in the game. When you start a new level, the background consists of a graveyard in front of a city view, which I find to be original. There's a couple of aspects in this game that are well thought of, but here's where I get to the worst part of the game. I dislike the gameplay. Why? Simple. The engine isn't polished, the movement is built-in with slight modifications, and you can't face diagonally. Sure, it's mentioned you can't face diagonally in the game's instruction, but I find it frustrating when you have to shoot projectiles (which look cool, by the way) and time them accordingly, while also dealing with an input delay. It's those games where the more you progress, the more you go up against enemies that are faster than you. The first two levels aren't so tough, and even the enemy that shoots projectiles which follow you around aren't so bad, but the ordinary skeleton enemy took me a while to beat him. You have to stay out of his sight in order to not make him shoot arrows, and you can focus on killing the easier enemy first, to make your like easier. I experienced getting in front of an enemy, accidentally letting them push me towards the skeleton's projectiles. After the entrance to the castle, you're greeted with a new attack variation. Instead of ordinary projectiles that aim at you, the red spheres that follow you around, and the arrows that can for some reason shoot diagonally with the high risk of colliding with them, you now have lasers that are as tall as the screen and as wide as the screen. So the way they work is they go from left to right and vise versa, and you need to reach the other side before they can touch you. Thankfully the speed isn't bigger than your movement speed, so you don't have to worry if you're slightly closer. Same applies for the top lasers on the later levels (I haven't encountered lasers rising from the bottom). I can at least appreciate here that you get an indication what the starting point of the next laser is, so it's good to keep an eye out when you 1. know exactly where it's coming from and 2. try to distance yourself from the enemy, because it's not just the lasers you're getting, but projectiles from previous levels too. The castle enemies as well as the final boss (Dark Lich, if I got their name right) weren't that difficult. They can stop their rectangular movement pattern whenever they feel like it, and it's really easy to get a good aim on them. So I'll be giving the gameplay a 6, because it doesn't have anything more to it other than being really simple and being ordinary in terms of how you move, not the control scheme, and because it doesn't appear to be that fun. It's cool that you can play this game with a controller, but I don't have one as I'm writing this review, so my next task will be to play it with a controller once I hook it up. Oh, and you're not immune to damage for a short period of time when you get hit. Your HP (green heart if it's the first layer of your health and red heart if it's the second layer of your health), making it drain faster if you don't avoid anything. The graphics are pretty good. I suppose they were taken from someplace elsewhere in the credits, more precisely a library of sorts. Even itch.io links. But I don't mind, they scream 2000s to me, so I'm happy with that. When I look at the castle entrance cutscene, it makes me think of the klik classic Naimistath. I only don't like how the ordinary skeleton looks as well as Bricklayer (the same person that gunned people down and talked about the government for too long), they appear to be resized, and that's inconsistent and ugly in my opinion. Pixel art shouldn't be looking like that. It's like if you took a sprite in MS Paint and just stretched it while it's selected, except the end result is a blurry anti-aliasing mess instead of extra pixels. I'll give the graphics an 8, just because I like most of them, except the two sprites I mentioned. It's alright, not that spectacular. I do find the title music to be cool in an atmospheric way, it's pretty creepy when it fades in like that. They are also taken from libraries, but again, they're not too bad. The sound-effect when that red sphere of a projectile follows you around is pretty satisfying to hear, and at no point did I want to penetrate my ears. I do however think the sound volume for the fanfare sound-effect is a little loud. It's good, but the volume level is slightly higher. Ever since I first wore wired headphones, I developed this habit of lowering down the volume by going to the Volume Mixer because I want my ears to be safe and sound. So whatever the game throws at me, I can always make it easier for myself. I also like the sound-effect when you throw a projectile, it's pretty fitting. So an 8 is enough for me, just so that I balance it properly with the graphics. This isn't terribly long. I was expecting it to be about 15 levels or more, but that's because I didn't take the time to read the description. Maybe it's the expectation that I had that made me think there's more to it, but it's fine like this. I'm giving it a 7, just because I know there can be more. If the game is slightly concentrated on the gameplay, then it could have more content, because then it wouldn't feel that difficult, facing new challenges. A natural progression would determine how hard it gets. I originally wanted to give it a 6 because of the gameplay that doesn't bode well with me, but since I'm well aware of the good aspects, I will give it a 7. If a game is REALLY unplayable, then I can't give it a rating above 5, but this you can beat and not worry if it will break at any point. I think the author of this game could give it a chance someday and work on it a little more. I do appreciate the time spent on the writing, and I do like how the cutscenes play out, but I think the game can be more fun if it wants to. It's okay to do it outside of the contest, because then you don't have to worry about deadlines. You're your own boss!
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