A Game With Some Guidance!

Review by ckmbud on Sunday, July 17th 2011

This is a Review on Guidence by Sack, and my first one to!

Pre-Thoughts

As I was scanning through the "Game Sharing" category on the Forums, I noticed that there was a thread, started by Sack saying "[Official Thread] New Game. ['Guidence'] (My Greatest Game?)". That caught my eye completely, especially coming from a nice gamer. Before I clicked it I realized he spelled Guidance wrong, but it doesn't ruin the game at all so that was okay. He said on and on how it was his greatest game, so I went ahead to play the game. I also remembered Sack from his creative Platformer game called Cold Silence, and it had quite the difficulty! When I got there I realized that it was a Platformer which I like playing so I continued on and saw that the game looked amusing, but didn't look super difficult. Was it what I thought or what Sack said? Well, let's step on to the Review!

Aim Of The Game

As I went forward into the game, I had figured out why it was called "Guidence". The owl would guide you around an amazing hazarded trap field, to make things slightly easier. The owl would tell you how to use things and what you should use them for, and also a bit about enemies and hazards.

With help from the owl, you must solve some puzzles, defeat loads of enemies, and avoid hazards. When you've done that you've won the game! But sometimes, there'd be twists where you'd have to use your skill and/or your imagination to solve or unlock the things to a whole new area!

Creatitivity

As it was a skilled Platformer game, the creativity wasn't at it's best. I thought that Guidence had an average, if not a little above average creativity level. It had a pretty normal plot, and design, but one puzzle on the other hand was quite nice, and nearly tricked me! So the creativity was pretty good.

Plot/Story

This is more than a game that has a story wrapped around it then a story with a game wrapped around it, meaning what ever wrapped around it, is what is smaller than the other. The story is where your in the middle of nowhere, you get chased by a ferocious lion, and tried to run off showing your scarred, bloody face to the public. As you run, you get lost, and meet a nice owl sitting on a tree branch and asks if you need help.

To me, it's a typical plot where your lost, and trying to destroy enemies, avoid traps and hazards, and solve mysterious puzzles. It's similar to most plots.

Puzzle

There was only one real puzzle in this game, and that was a clever grenade trick. It nearly got me, as you previously heard, and I thought that it fit in very well with the game. That puzzle was one of my favorite aspects of the game, aside from the Enemy Placement.

You could maybe count a shutting cl0ser as a puzzle, or maybe jumping on blocks over lava, but, I still thought the one terrific puzzle, fully filled this category!

Scenery

The scenery of Guidence wasn't all that great. It's because there's no background on the first level (Doesn't apply to the 2nd and 3rd), nor theme set to the game, so it doesn't look like a great scened game. But I thought that the block pattern and design, set a nice scenery to the game itself, so I'm happy for that half of the scenery.

Enemy, Health and Block Placement

Enemy Placement:

The Enemies Placement was terrific, in my opinion, especially where the Archy's were placed! The Archy's were place in a spot where they would simply, give you a loss of health, and pretty quick too. Some other enemies were placed in an ordinary spot, and maybe 1 was placed in a bad area.

Health and Power-Up Placement:

Always the Power-Ups were placed in an off-trail area, meaning somewhere where you have to get off of the trail to receive them. They're wasn't any health placement but there was some lives and checkpoints to help with the lack of health. Also all of the lives you earn, in my opinion, were needed to succeed.

Block Placement:

I enjoyed the Block Placement a lot, as it was a beautiful aspect to the game. As, at one point there's a ramp tile, than staircase, then ramp tile, then staircase, and I really thought that looked nice. And also, there were some great placed obstacles.

The Placement was really good, in my opinion!

Amusement And Addictiveness

I thought it was really amusing, throughout the entire game, but at the same time, wasn't so addicting. I felt that I could leave at anytime, mostly from the difficulty of loosing, but I thought that I could beat it, so I stayed to continue on the game. It was fun to think my way through Guidence, and fighting the enemies, but the few times I lost, the urge went away.

After-Thoughts

So Sack was right, it was a really good game, but like I said, it wasn't super difficult, so we both were correct! I really enjoyed this, especially the placement of the Enemies, and the grenade puzzle. I just wanted to thanks you, Sack, for making that thread! Great game all together!

Thoughts For The Future

I would like to see more of an "Underground" like game. From Guidence, the last level with the underground area, I really enjoyed. Also, no matter how annoying it is to do, but please put a background, if you make more above ground levels. An last off, maybe a few more puzzles next time, use your imagination, Sack!

Pros

The pros in this game, were great! First of all, the Enemy placements where magnificent. They were in those just right spots! Also I loved the one grenade trick. It took me a minute to figure that one out because it was very clever. Also, I liked how Sack put the Power-Ups in at nice times, and when you needed them

Cons

So, the cons of the game, were not so great. Starting off with the first level. I didn't like the non-back wall. Sack really should of added one, no matter how annoying it is to do. Also, in the first level he gave you a yellow and a green key to go through doors in, and made it so you had to look for they keys again in the second level to open the doors, even though you can already open the doors, because you got the keys in the first level. Those were the 2 big cons.

Ratings Out Of 5

Remember what I asked you Sack! Feature worthy? Difficult decision for me, but probably yes. This has been a Review from Ckmbud.