[EGD] Why Glory Isn't Quite The Glory Master Was Hoping For

Glory is a game created by master106

Wow, another Lordeldar review? What is this?

Hello again, Lordeldar here for another EGD review and my 42nd review in total. Today I will be reviewing Glory, an arcade by Master106. I recently beat the game and wanted to give Master some feedback so here we are (I promise this one won't be 2000 words).

Pre-thoughts

Master is an interesting game maker. While Master has a few (7) features under his belt, I don't find myself playing many of his games. When I do however, it is normally his annual EGD entry. The two that come to mind are Light Tower and The Truth 2. Neither of these games are really anything special if you ask me. Light Tower showed understanding the PPG creator but didn't really offer anything interesting or fun when it came to gameplay and The Truth 2 was an ok platformer but boasted an annoying wall jump mechanic that lead many to dislike the game. Glory however, isn't a PPG or a plat. I can't recall playing any arcades from Master but looking at the hype thread it seemed like it would be a solid game, even if not spectacular. Other than that, I have no idea what to expect from Glory but I'm excited to see what it offers

Review

So, I load up the game and immediately I am greeted with a generic looking level with some ~okay~ looking trees. As I traverse this early level I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed. The level can simply be beaten by holding right arrow and jump. While there are enemies present, they are merely there to attack you and can be easily avoided. The same can be said for a lot of the early levels really. There are some occasional fights where you have to actually defeat the enemy to progress, but they don't offer anything interesting in terms of combat. A problem with the arcade creator is that the combat is quite slow and dull. It can however be spiced up by adding in other hazards or multiple enemies spawning at the same time to keep the player interested. Once you get to around 1-5, Master does begin to spice things up with the gameplay but this is where other flaws of Glory begin to show.

The placement in this game is incredibly poor. Throughout the whole game there are several sections where there will be an enemy or a hazard that is almost impossible to pass without taking at least 1 hit. I would like to bring up 2 examples of this poor placement. The first one I would like the talk about is the ice stage (Can't remember the exact number) in level 2. This level has several cases of enemies positioned in ways where it is almost impossible not to take a bit of damage to get through, including a section where you have to jump up to a platform above you with an enemy moving around which was a guaranteed hit. Another example is the first section of 2-6. There is a timed section where you need to hit a switch and then run through before it closes. Seems fine right? Except for the fact there is an enemy right next to this switch, which is in a small claustrophobic area. Once again, it is almost a guaranteed hit and can slow the player down which is NOT what you want when doing a speed section. Also, lasers. There were several sections where there would be a group of lasers that alternate put right next to each other in a way that is unavoidable to the player. Why would you think this is a good idea?

Now, this might not be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that health and lives are also poorly placed. Health was very scarce and I often found myself just running past enemies on low health. This of course isn't a viable strategy when there are enemies that are almost guaranteed to damage you. Even with health upgrades to lessen the impact, it still feels like a cheap way to challenge the player. I would also like to point out that Master completely misused the infinite lives mechanic. He tried to use it as a way to reward the player for getting half way into a level. Sometimes however, the player starts the level limping, helplessly searching for that infinite lives crystal to save them. Once you find the lives, until level 3 there are no checkpoints to go with it. This can be annoying as you go back to the start and once again find yourself searching for those infinite lives.

This brings me to my next point. The game generally feels inconsistent. It almost feels like this is a learning experience for Master, as the first few levels feel very bare bones, almost as if Master was just putting things into the creator to see how things behaved, although not in the way that everything just kills you in 5 seconds like some �first games�. There is nothing wrong with doing this to try it out, but it feels really sloppy once you get to the later levels and more complex hazards start showing up and you compare them to earlier on. It almost feels like you are watching someone learn the ins and outs of the arcade creator as the game goes along. Master also posted screenshots of the later levels of the game in his hype thread posted months before the game was actually released. I don't understand why Master didn't put in a bit of time to revise these earlier stages and make them a bit more interesting now he understood the creator better.

While we're on the subject of inconsistency let�s talk about the scenery. It can be very hit or miss. Some levels make good use of custom textures and look rather pretty, while others look incredibly barren and like there was no attempt made to make them look appealing in any way. Unlike the gameplay, this isn't a case of scenery getting progressively braver. It's just all over the place. One level might look appealing and you're like "Nice that looks cool" and the next just looks like default textures with no effort made into the background or anything. It's strange and it almost feels like the game has been made by 2 people except neither put an effort to change what the other person did. I would also like to add that in 1-6 Master has a used a white blocky texture for everything, causing everything to blend together and it's sometimes hard to see what is what. I will give Master some praise for the aesthetics during the boss battles however, all 3 of them were very pleasing to the eyes and made good use of what the arcade has to offer for scenery

You know what, we've been mean to Master so far so let�s give him some praise. While not outstanding, the boss battles were generally solid and showed a good understanding of the arcade creator. There were 3 bosses, one at the end of each level. The first 2 bosses were solid and had a few mechanics which - while they aren't something that'll blow your socks off - do a good job of spicing them up. Sadly, the third (and final) boss is the weakest of the three, not really offering anything of interest. These bosses show that if Master keeps it up and takes notes from this review he does have potential to be a decent arcade creator.

Let�s talk about creativity now. Once you get past the first level (Which doesn't really offer a lot at all) you can see that Master has made some creative sequences, even if the execution is far from perfect. He has made use of various objects and hazards in an attempt to create sequences that are a bit more interesting. Things such as ice platforms, cascade blocks, spells, timed switches, vines and other climbables have been used. Something Master could maybe try in the future is using link logic to create more complex and interesting sequences in the future. Another complaint I have is that while Master has tried to include these sections, I feel like he could've put more time into testing. I was able to cheese a couple of sections using upgrades (In 3-3 there was an acid section with cascade blocks that because I had full health upgrades I was able to just run across without worrying about being low health). Talking about 3-3, at the end of that stage there is a section with air climbables (Idk what you�d call them) that took me about 10 minutes to eventually get through, this was an incredibly annoying section and once I worked out how to do it I still found it tedious to execute. There are many more examples, but I don't want to make this too long. Despite an attempt to make things more interesting, it still feels like you are just holding right arrow and jumping to get to the end of the level and advance further.

Another small note is the story. Glory doesn't seem to have any kind of story at all, with the player just travelling through levels and a bit of dialogue saying "You did it!" at the end of the game. While a story is not 100% necessary to a game, I think an adventure game like Glory would benefit greatly from having one. The game almost felt a bit directionless at times because there was no story (In game or in the description), but it seemed that you were going somewhere and you did something (Judging by the dialogue at the end). It was quite weird to me, and it would've probably made the game feel a bit more interesting if there was at least a little bit of text somewhere giving the player an actual goal to achieve in the game

One thing I will say before ratings is that while this review is quite negative and focuses mostly on the problems with the game, Glory is not as bad as this review makes it seem. Other than 2 sections which I previously mentioned (Timed section in 2-6 and end of 3-3) I never really felt like I was getting bored to the point of closing the game forever. I can't say I was having a huge amount of fun playing, but at the same time I can't call Glory a complete snoozefest. Let�s get to the ratings though

Pros:

Decent boss battles

Varied use of hazards

Some scenery (But not all)

Cons:

General inconsistency in gameplay and scenery

Uninspired first level

Lack of story makes the game feel a bit directionless

Very poor placement

Ratings

Gameplay: 4/10

Scenery: 5/10

Placement: 2/10

Difficulty: 6/10

Creativity: 5/10

Overall: 4.5/10

That's a 4.5/10 for Glory. It's okay, but it doesn't really do anything to set itself apart from other arcades and has a few serious flaws that Master should think about fixing in future arcades. EGD has a lower standard for featuring games and was on my list for games that should be featured for this EGD, but outside of EGD I would not feature this. Hope this gives you some insight Master on how to improve in the future. And yeah, this was almost 2000 words again. Sorry.