[EGD] Beneath The Shadows Once Again..

Beneath The Shadows II is a game created by startrekzooka

Game: Beneath The Shadows II

Maker: startrekzooka

Type: Platformer

Pre-thoughts

Whaddup peeps, Dudki here with another EGD review. Yeah, there are still not finished, however there are only about 5 games left and once they are done, we can go back our regular reviewing schedule once again. There were a lot of platformer entries in this years EGD, and among them was Beneath The Shadows II, by startrekzooka. Startrek is a pretty cool guy, and have had a lot of success with his games in the past, earning many features. He is very talented when it comes to making platformer games, and this being an EGD entry, I anticipated startrek to have done his absolute best with Beneath The Shadows II. Well, did he? Let's dig deeper into this review to find out.

First of all, fantastic thumbnail. Looks really interesting, it's appealing to the eye, and is very unique. You can tell that this game will have a lot of graphic work, and overall it looks like a well-crafted game. Seeing the thumbnail was what really made me want to play it and that's a good thing, when thumbnails can do that.

Review

So, is Beneath The Shadows II a good game, or a bad game? It's very interesting definitely. Startrek really showed us what he can do by making this game. The gameplay and storyline was well-made, and on top of that, Beneath The Shadows II features amazing gameplay sequences and graphics support. While the graphics created a whole new view of the game, I found that he may have overdone it a little in some of the levels. The first few levels are proof of that. Since both back-walls and regular platforms were made as the same graphic, and it was dark, it was a huge challenge for me to find out where I could stand and where I would fall through. However, when you weren't getting confused, the graphics actually made the game look very good. Each level was also different from the other, ranging from many different types of gameplay, and that's a good thing too.

Beneath The Shadows II also featured many action sequences. The action at the first few levels is very low, but slowly raises as you progress through the levels, and that was a really nice way of increasing the difficulty the farther you get, and slowly create more challenges for the player. The first levels are putting you up against very few enemies, while the last few will test your skills in large combat situations.

It doesn't seem that Beneath The Shadows II featured any puzzles however, I must commend Startrek for adding a lot of puzzling sequences to the game to compensate for the lack of actual puzzles. This forces you to always be on the lookout and stay on your toes.

This game had traps. A lot of traps. Way too many to be honest. The first few levels were okay, but from level 3 traps start to appear all the time. Everytime you enter a room a door will close, which means if you die, you're done for. If that wasn't enough, checkpoints only appear every once in a while so you would have to go through a lot of effort to survive until the next checkpoint and be safe. And i'll tell ya, I restarted on this game so many times because of traps. It's exremely frustrating and the amount of traps should definitely be lowered.

Startrek's use of scenery is amazing in this game. Beneath The Shadows II features tons of graphic work which help create the perfect scenery and look for each and every level of the game. I don't know if they all were Startrek's graphics, but they definitely went together well with the theme and gave Beneath The Shadows II a very unique feel.

You get a lot of power-ups during your journey. Some of these were necessary for you to aquire in order to complete the game, but others could be used as you pleased. I definitely like that Startrek didn't place too many necessary power-ups that, if you die, would result you in not being able to win. Instead, he did it with very few, while other power-ups could be used to help you in battle if you felt like you needed it.

I honestly felt like the placement in certain spots were a bit off. I found that some enemies and blocks would either be hard to reach, or just being hard to pass. The placement wasn't like that everywhere thankfully. I also found that many parts of the game actually had really good placement, while some levels seemed a bit off in placement.

Pros/Cons

Pros:

Thumbnail: The game had a very good looking thumbnail, and it makes you think that the guy who made this game knows what he's doing.

Gameplay: Overall, I found that most of the gameplay was done very well, and it ranging from a variety of different things.

Action: The game had action sequences that would slowly become more and more difficult and intense as you progress.

Puzzles: There were no actual puzzles in this game, however there were many puzzling aspects that you would have to face in order to get past each level.

Scenery: The scenery in this game was fantastic. I can't thank Startrek enough for making such unique scenery for it.

Power-Ups: Along your journey, you would come across a variety of different power-ups, placed to help you in future battles.

Cons:

Traps: There were honestly way too many traps. It ruined the fun that you could have had in some of the levels and the number of them should be reduced by a lot.

Placement: Most of the placement was good, however some levels was a little sloppy on the placement.

Ratings

Gameplay: 3.9/5

Difficulty: 3.8/5

Action: 4/5

Puzzles: 3.2/5

Traps: 5/5

Scenery: 5/5

Placement: 2.8/5

Creativity: 4.7/5

Overall: 3.7/5

I think 3.7 is a fair score for Beneath The Shadows II. The game was interesting, the presentation was nice, and the gameeplay was exciting. I enjoyed it.

Feature-worthy?

I would say so, yes. Beneath The Shadows II has a lot to offer and really gives the player something cool and unique. It does have it's flaws, but so does every other games. Excellent work, Startrek.