Review #95 - The Thumbnail Sniped My Attention!

Review by creatingames on Monday, August 17th 2015
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Click to play Sniper

Sniper is a game created by futuremillionare

Game: Sniper

Maker: Futuremillionare

Type: PPG


Introduction:


Hello, and welcome to my 95th review. Today, I will be reviewing Sniper by futuremillionare. I remember futuremillionare making a HYPE of this game on the forums a little while back, and it looked fairly interesting, so coming into this game I was pretty excited. Futuremillionare being a member with 12 featured games, a few being PPG's, the same creator as this game, I had decent expectations coming in to playing it. This game got featured before I even knew it was published, so I was expecting some great things seeing as it got featured so soon.


Review:


Let me start off by saying that futuremillionare uses a really entertaining concept which I've seen used similarly on the site before, but I like how futuremillionare has put his own twist to it. When I've played these sort of games on the site before, they have been just a simple shoot the enemy, and I known I've seen this done by ravicale. But what I like about what futuremillionare has done is made it so you can only see certain parts of the game at a time, while the rest of the game is blanked off, similar to the concepts used in a few games before, but I can't think of a particular game that's used this off the top of my head. Futuremillionare has been creative to use two concepts into one to create an already used concept with a twist, and yet it still comes off quite simple. On the topic of simplicity, that's exactly what Sniper is. Futuremillionare uses three basic colours in this game, black, white and red, and in my opinion, it comes off very effectively. The maps aren't too overcrowded with objects, and futuremillionare has used basic shapes with graphics to keep this game looking simple yet atheistically pleasing at the same time.


One problem with experimenting with newer concepts is that it can be hard to execute them well, and in my opinion, futuremillionare hasn't used this concept as well as I would have liked it to have been. I feel as if in this game, you never know what you are doing, and it is based more on trial and error than skill, and it can get quite frustrating. The challenge in this game wouldn't be there without the trial and error factor, but I think this game would be better off either with looking for hints on what to do in the level, or with just shooting moving enemies rather than guessing what to do. On some levels, I think that this trial and error factor can come off quite challenging, because eventually you work out what you've got to do isn't the obvious option. In some levels it requires you to shoot certain objects so they fall on top of the heads of the enemies. This makes the game more puzzling but I get annoyed not having a clue what to do sometimes in the game because it shows the game maker expects you to already know what to do rather than working out what to do.


As I've already mentioned, the design of this game comes off simple but effective. Futuremillionare hasn't used any colours in this game other than red, black and white, and I like this because with colours and graphics the game would seem too complex to me and I like the simple setting because it gives the feel of actually being out at night and making it seem dull rather than it being a bright, colourful setting for a game where you find ways to kill people. The white flashlight with the blacked out outline makes it seem like you're using a torch at night and gives the sense of a bit of realism and story in the game, despite futuremillionare not actually inserting a story in to the description. On top of the simplicity of the scenery, the story is fairly simple with future using brief level names at the start of each level to give a simple explanation as to what the setting of the level is.


When playing this game, eventually I found it started to get a bit boring because the levels started to be repetitive in the way you always have to the same sort of thing. Each level was different but you were always required to have to shoot something and I never really felt as if the levels get more advanced meaning the difficulty of the game was the same through out and I started to get bored because there was nothing to look forward to for each level. I'd say that the length of this game is pretty much about right because it has a good amount of levels and by then you start to have had enough. Despite this game being quite boring, I some what found it quite addicting, but I think this is due to the game not being too long to beat and it ran pretty smoothly, because if it lagged you don't exactly want to go through it again. I think the smoothness of this game was all down to the simplicity to be honest, and despite the game having a nice concept to it, it's surprising that it's not too complex and this is what makes it a smooth game to play.


Positives:


- A unique concept with futuremillionare's own twist to it.

- Some interesting, challenging puzzles.

- No lag, perfect length - makes the game fairly addicting.


Negatives:


- Trial and error over skill.

- Eventually gets boring due to repetition.

- The game can be a bit frustrating at first.


Ratings (Out of five):


Challenge: ***/***** - The game was a little bit easy once you know what you're doing although can be frustrating to work out at first, but the puzzles do give this game a decent amount of challenge.

Design: *****/***** - A very simple, yet effective design. Not much of a colour range or any graphics, but in my opinion, this works out very well and gives this game its unique look.

Game play: ***/***** - The game runs very smoothly as it has no lag whatsoever. The concept is simple. The only downfall is the game relies too much on trial and error where I'd prefer it to be a skill based game.

Fun: ***/***** - Fun at first but eventually starts to get boring due to repetition. Despite this game being boring, it is somewhat addicting because of it being fairly short and having barely any lag.

Originality: ****/***** - A very interesting concept with futuremillionare's own twist. It would be better if everything was new but I think the concept was unique enough and was one I thoroughly enjoyed.


Overall: ___.5/_____
 

Conclusion:


Overall, this game deserves a 3.5/5. In my opinion, this game is very borderline of feature worthy. If it was up to me, I wouldn't quite feature it, but it's almost there. I'd say I really liked the concept used and the simplicity, but for me the game expects you to know what you're doing without any hints and that's what really let's it down in my opinion. If this game was based on finding hints and relies on skill rather than trial and error, then I believe this concept would definitely be feature worthy. But nevertheless, Sniper has just about grasped a feature this time round, and if futuremillionare was to make a sequel, there's a few things he'd need to work on.

 
 


Sniper Reviewed by creatingames on Monday, August 17th 2015. Review #95 - The Thumbnail Sniped My Attention! - A game review written by creatingames for the game 'Sniper' by futuremillionare. Rating: 3