Review #2: The Story Of 'Fiarr'

Review by thunderboom on Thursday, February 6th 2014

Good morning/afternoon/evening/midnight/early morning/late night/middle of the day! What do you expect, I don't know where you are. So, today I'm writing my second review on this account. I have chosen Fiarr by pricedown, a PPG game. Or PD for short. Hope you enjoy the review. Therefore: grab a packet of crisps, sit back and read. :)

Pre-thoughts

PD is a fairly new member to me. I recall him having a couple of accounts before this but the quality of his games back then weren't too good to be honest with you all. When I found this game I looked, on his homepage, at thumbnail. Firstly, it gave me the impression that the game was set in a cave and I saw fire. In addition, it all looked pretty neat. I didn't know what to expect in the actual game. I liked this thumbnail because I rarely come across a thumbnail that's not really revealing. Slightly, it got me hyped. As for the title, it confused my gold fish sized brain. At first I thought he spelled 'fire' like an Egyptian or whatever. Then I relied it must be the name of the character or place. Don't know where I got that theory from lol. I've spent too much time on this category, onto the next...

Game-play

I have mixed feelings about the game-play. The game-play was like the dodgy roads, it all runs smooth and fast until you run over a pot hole which ruins the experience. I'm bad with metaphors, we get it. The smooth road here represented the lag. Although there was quite a large number of objects in each level, the game still ran smoothly. Also, the action represented the smooth road. The action in this game wasn't one where you were avoiding things, etc. It was the type where you already knew where to explore next. I don't see this type of action in many PPG's, so well done PD. The pot holes represented the, almost constant, glitching. Example you say? So, in one part, you run across a spinning object and suddenly - you disappear. It's dynamo all over again. Also, the level shortness represented the pot holes. I mean, as soon as you started to get the grip of the level - you'd already finished it. Maybe there could of been some side quests to get into the next level, but that's for another time...

Hazards/Traps

The game presented a lot of hazards, in different forms. Some moved, some spawned and some were there just to look pretty. The range of hazards made the game stand and didn't show any repetition. No traps were actually visible to me in this game. I wouldn't count the glitching as a trap from the game... It's a trap from the almighty Geoff.

Difficulty

Throughout the levels, the difficulty increased. Meaning that the first level was easy and the last was a bit hard. I felt that it's a good idea to use the range of difficulty because the person playing can get further in the game and more determined to complete it. In a couple of levels, you needed to make sure you spare a couple of lives as a couple areas cannot be passed without losing a life. #Sacrificethelife. Even though I liked the range, a couple of levels had way too many lives that made you careless and clueless what you do with them.

Scenery

The scenery of the game definitely matched what the scene was, realisticly, supposed to look like. However, it was very simple. Just like Epico when he wakes up - boring, simple and drunk. I don't know how the texture was drunk but it sounds funny. The textures were to plain, bland... Gimme more synononononyms. They needed more detail to make the scene more realistic, as if you were actually there staring at the view. On the other hand, some of the graphics used fit the scene just like two puzzle pieces. It would've been much better if it was all detailed graphics to make the scene realistic. The scene sticked to one colour, it never ranged. The scenery was also very repetitive. A change of places in each level would be nice to see.

Creativity

For this section I can certainly and confidently say that this game had some nice features. However, without any story-line the game makes no sense. In two ways, this can be good or bad. It could be bad because it will make confusion on what is really happening and the main plot. Coincidently, this makes it good because the person playing can sit there playing brainstorming what the plot is really about. Some of the sections of the game stood out to me. A great example is how hyper some of the hazards can get. I think it had too much sugar. As for the objectives, they showed no uniqueness. It was really repetitive - if you're wondering, I do like the word 'repetitive'. There could've been a twist of objectives in levels that the player was not expecting. Side quests would give the game more: action, puzzles and possibly even creativity.

Ratings

Final Score

Our final score is... an average score of - 16/30. Even though it says average, that was a good score for a game from you PD. I was expecting something lower quality! :)

Feature worthy?

I wouldn't say it's quite there yet. Maybe re-make it in a separate project and try to improve it with time. There were many good elements but some let it down.

Conclusion

To conclude this amazing review by Thunder, I loved this game in different ways - I also disliked it in different ways. This game is a good all-rounder that you will enjoy. It's a short game that is a game will challenge you but not to the extent like Cycle. The game deserved this review and you should be able to remember it as sploder's: 'Big mini-game'. Have a: Good morning/afternoon/evening/midnight/early morning/late night/middle of the day! See you next time :)