Curiosity Gets The Better Of Me... Again!

Oblivion is a game created by swallowthesun

I don't know swallowthesun very well at all, he's a complete stranger to me, mostly everyone is because I'm somewhat new to this great website. I've stumbled across a few games made by Swallowthesun before, and they included A Game Of Thrones 1, A Game Of Thrones 2, And Oblivion. I had a tough time deciding which I'd do my Review on. I loved the fun, scenery and enjoyment of A Game Of Thones 1, and 2 for that matter, but Oblivion seemed to have the ability to make me want to play it more then the others.. I simply can't tell you what it is, because simply I don't know why, maybe it was the title, did I pick the wrong game? Oblivion was enjoyable enough, so hopefully this review will be enjoyable. I guess that is up to you to decide.

A fun and gripping start to ANY game is probably the most important thing a game maker must keep in mind and possess in a game to keep the target audience happy. On plenty of games, I see comments of hatred towards the maker because it's "too hard" or even the occasional comment of "zis iz stoopid ur a nubb". How annoying would that be? Games that lack fun and enjoyment right near the start of the game is bound to annoy many users and have members give up in the early stages, not seeing all the game has to offer. Before even playing the game I could tell I was in for a ripper game, based on the comments alone, the audience reaction was rock solid, a lot of members enjoying the game. I bet I would, too.

The thumbnail was one of the very first things I looked at for Oblivion. The look of pure beauty, well, maybe not the Hell theme of it, but the perfectly selected tinge of red for the background, some lava here and there, some trees without leaves in the background and a staircase to the right of the Hero. The staircase could lead into whatever, who would know? I'd have to play this over and see where it leads to, there's a degree of curiosity in that. There was nothing that supplied more curiosity to the brain was the storyline swallow included. Hell is Heaven? Hell is Paradise? I can't get out, or can I? All these thoughts rushing through my mind, leaving skid marks round the edges and causing the car of curiosity veering on the inside, sticking behind the others for the final straight and smashing on the final turn of the brain course, leaving my large degree of curiosity left to be fulfilled to play the game, it then may be answered...

Finally time to talk a little about the actual game. How about we kick this review off with the Design? Well, the design of Oblivion was pretty darn good. Going back and forth through hallways became a reality early in the first level, go up there, get a switch, come down, find numerous powerups, go back, use powerups to open up recently enclosed areas etc. It was something that actually was rather entertaining, normally there are 2 possible outcomes when a game has this. Either it gets dull, repetetive and let's face it, boring. The other, is when it actually provides a sense of entertainment, for this, I'd say the game itself needs to include a fast and enjoyable pace, going back and froth through lag is a no no, something we ALL hate, don't we? That's what the design had, the contents of the numerous levels included a lot of hallways and adventurous zones to explore, everything there was there for a purpose, each path included a reward needed to obtain a position in the next room, next level, or even the completion of the game, It seemed carefully designed and tested. Certainly was well made.

Oblivion introduced some fantastic pieces of scenery in the game. Including that background and the colour of red, purple, orange etc throughout the levels, offering a lot to the look and feel of the game while also keeping the context and mixing of the colours pretty well to provide a look of beauty throughout the game. If games lack scenery, in my personal view I get bored pretty quickly, like using default platforms, using blank backgrounds, and sometimes no walls can get pretty dull. Swallowthesun included a mix of how the scenery went in Oblivion, underground areas, hallways with backwalls, and even just sometimes the colour and context of the background was enough to keep me occupied. At that he even had fountains with a pipe in front early in the game show and look like the water was actually pouring out into a stream. Nice job there. Something that I was curious about in the first level was near the cave ins there seemed to be some curvy platforms, I was bazzled by that, I'll never know how or what they were and how they looking like that. On level 2 my opinion varied, but I quite liked the selection of purple and orange of the sky.

A game without placement is in reality, and overall, a game without thought. What is a game without thought? A game that includes mindlessness, and dull, non-entertaining game play. Placement is important in keeping your games standards up to scratch. I'm interested at what swallowthesun has done an aspect such as this. The enemies were definitely well placed in level 2 onwards, as none fared a place in the first level which seems an introductory level in my view. Curiosity gets the better of me a lot, you don't say? You may have read that plentiful times so far in this Review, at the start of level 2 I took an initial direction to the right. Of course that little wise owl was advising me not to go that way, but silly me, thinking there'd be a reward, or possibly a shiny crystal at the end of it, I got wedged and stick in between a trio of enemy swarms, there was no chance at all that I could escape. Awesome placement preventing me from escaping. I guess the storyline was right, maybe I couldn't escape? *Refreshes page*.

Oblivion didn't include a whole lot of puzzles in it's grip, there were a few smaller puzzles added in, however much they weren't creative at all. If you're going to used some puzzles already seen before, there must be something new added in, a new challenge that isn't supporting the cause of your already stored brain knowledge. Say what, add in an extra thing or two to make those puzzles slightly more difficult and I'd mark it up one. There were a few excellent traps in and around the game, as I mentioned that area where the owl was persisting with me to turn back, I ignored the stupid thing, continued on my merry way and found myself trapped in between waves of enemies. Oops?

What is a game without enjoyment? I'll tell you what, not much. As I mentioned near the very start of this review a game that fails to impress at the beginning is a sign to a lot of members the game isn't worth it, I hate games that are boring, everyone does, and with a passion. Not only did this game prove different from the rest and display fun, enjoyment from the very beginning, backing me up with my opinion, it also included CHALLENGE, something you need to carefully incorporate into the game to get the mix between fun and difficulty.

PROS

Scenery

Fun & Challenge

Design

Placement

CONS

Puzzles

.,;:The Ratings:;,.

Design: 4.5/5

I was quite intrigued at how this would fare, but turns out the game's design was right up there as one of the best aspects in the game. Many hallways, many rooms, and even those often seen wide open exploration zones, Oblivion had it all and swallowthesun did a swell job.

Scenery: 5/5

Rarely I rate things 5/5, but something as great as this deserves it more then anything. I've mentioned it twice and I'll mention it again, a perfectly selected tinge of red with some old and died out trees for the background on certain areas, while other areas had orange, purple, yellows, etc. It included a large range, a wing span full of enjoyment and taking flight into The Oblivion did show signs of beauty.

Placement: 4/5

Pretty good in most areas, and slightly lower in others. What I think is the best thing was the way you weren't let off easy in some traps like I mentioned earlier. Most of the enemy placement seemed up to scratch.

Puzzles & Traps: 3/5

The puzzles were nice yet simply uncreative, I'd of liked very much to see a few extra aspects added in with those puzzles to produce a new and even better puzzle or two. But never mind, a few solid traps lifted the bar.

Fun & Challenge: 4.5/5

Swallowthesun possesses the skill to perfectly match to aspects completely opposite eachother, yet when mixed together they record greatness in the game. A game is nothing without fun, a game is nothing without challenge. Piece 2 and 2 together with my score, little hop-along, and you'll see I thought this was higher then an ordinary saspect or two, well done.

Total: 4.2/5

Feature Worthy?

So I hear you ask me my biased opinion on the worthiness for a Feature displayed in this game? A piece of art, a piece or amazing gameplay faring in the Oblivio, the Paradise, the Heaven and the Hell. My opinion is like no other member intelligent enough (you don't even need to be intelligent) to know this game is worthy and deserving of it's Feature, and those 6000-odd views from the Featured games page. Yes, this is feature worthy, I wouldn't attempt to disagree either.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed.