Falling Short Of Excellence

Review by theimage on Monday, December 27th 2010

Flipping through the featured games page, I couldn't help but notice that more and more games were accumulating the page crafted by newer members, or just members trying for a fresh start at game making. Either way, one game maker that caught my eye had a handful of games featured. His username was sansander97: An acquaintance on the forum, but I never paid attention to any of his games. To be honest, before this review, this was the first game I've played by him.

Pre-thoughts

As said prior to this review in the introduction, I never thought much of Sander's games. I was neutral to this review at the start: I try to give every member (newer or older)-the benefit of the doubt. I've seem some innovative games made by newer members, so I was excited to see what Sander brought to the table in this game.

Gameplay

The gameplay of this game wasn't as functional as it could be, and a lot of wasted real estate was in this game. Close to the beginning of this game, there were two allies activating a switch poly (almost identical to the one found in the Flicker games by liv33vil). This would be a welcome addition to the game if it had a purpose. Unfortunately, as far as I could tell, it didn't. It was simply for decoration, or a pleasantry to the eye. Which, isn't bad in most cases, but lagged this game terribly. At times this game was overly lagging, but I expected this, since Sander warned players in the description. Which makes me wonder if he has acquired a super computer of some sort, since I was playing on my Macbook Pro. Jokes aside, this caused the gameplay to slow down a lot.

Action

There was some action in this, decent action sequences at that. At times, the lag slowed the action, but not too terribly. Not many of the enemies were cleverly placed, which is why the action sequences were decent. At the start of the game, there are lines of Zappers with four turrets surrounding the player. This seems like an okay idea, if it was purposeful. The action in the game was average. But that's okay, since this is the first game I've played by Sander.

Puzzles and Traps

A few puzzles permeated the game, but not many. In the first few minutes of the game, there was a trap-teleporting the player to a blank location. This has been seen in many other Sploder games before, but it would have been nice to see a message patronizing my efforts to win the game. But this is not so. Simple things like the ones listed above contribute to the overall fun factor of the game.

Miscellaneous

Everyone knows that I love a good, exciting storyline in a game, but this game lacked one. While I don't rate too hard on this section of the review, it's always nice to have a storyline to accompany the game. It immerses players that much more.

Overall Thoughts/Summary

While Xcellence is an okay game, Sander could do much better, I know he can. This game feels unfinished, and you should consider how you can improve games in the future before you publish them.

The Final Tally..

Final thoughts: This game is average, and feels unfinished. Polish your games before you publish.