Vikings!!!!! - Review #13

A Viking Tale is a game created by blackhole2

Hellooooo everyone! I wonder what you have been doing all this time I tried to work on Watch Dogs and get rid of some old stuff on Sploder Forums. I really missed my audience (yeah, right � audience). You are lucky to read a review from me at this time. You know, world cup, 2 exams, EGD is coming and I have to work on Watch Dogs which is an impossible mission to me, real life activities and applying for Editor? Man, that�s too much and I�m getting tired already but you know, work to get to success. As you all know, I have been applying for Editor 2 times and I published the review on the Main Site to let you know what I�m bringing new to my reviews and how good is my application. Well, it ended up very badly both times but I�m trying to kill my issues on grammar and judging games. Anyway, I have chosen a new game from Blackhole2 he released today (June 16) and really wanted to write a review of it. So, why not use it as my Editor Application? :3 Let me start the review by talking you about �A Viking Tale� old thread Blackhole posted on the Forums. I have to be honest, I HATE promises. You want to know why? You don�t have to promise someone that you will do this and that until you don�t know if you can actually do it. I�m talking from my experience through all these years on Sploder, also in real life. I am not sure if I can call all what Blackhole wrote on that thread promises, but before-release-information is surely important to those people who want to play your game, especially if the game is incredibly good at its first look. Anyway, to make all these promises clear to you, I am getting you to the real review of this game.

Review:

The game I�m reviewing is called a Viking Tale made by Blackhole2 using the Physics Puzzle Creator. This game is officially published on June 16, 2014. I have been pretty hyped for this game since October, but it seems that I already had forgotten about what this game was. xD The thumbnail was very appealing, the name of the game was catchy too. Finally, after its release, I decided to take a look at the comments since Blackhole is already getting a lot of feedback on his games these past few days. However, I just wanted to see what others think of it, and the only comment made by someone else apart from Blackhole was Kitkatastrophe23�s comment: �Awesome storyline! I also like the concept too! Awesome game! *thumbs up* *thumbs up*� xD Well, I expected people to be like �Oh, common, I can�t beat level 1 (which is the intro)� or �The worst geim eva, I don�t laik vkings and those hummers� so that�s a good sign for the first day of Viking Tale. :) The comment I told you before was the right feedback you could give to this game. However, you must get far into this game to be perfectly sure that the storyline and the concept are good. All started by a secret treasure on the top of the mountain, where almost all were frozen to death. Only one of them survived (the badbleep) and now he needs to rescue everyone and find the treasure. Sorry for the spoiler but ... if you are playing this game just to see the treasure, then you will be highly disappointed from it. It�s just a goblet. Wow, such awesomeness, much money, cool color. I was expecting more from this second objective of this game, but I�m not disappointed with the main task. You must rescue 12-15 vikings in total in different ways and that�s something I like it. The game is original inside the Sploder Community, but actually A Viking Tale is based on a famous Internet game so you can�t really say the concept is fully original. Anyway, I have to agree that this game has some really cool new stuff to Sploder which I haven�t seen anyone using them.

A Viking Tale is a perfect use of Physics Puzzle Creator. You may want to know why. This game requires time, speed and a great use of objects to fight against gravity so it can�t be your opponent throughout the game. Some of the Widgets and Physics used in this game are well done but sometimes their placement does not allow the game to run properly as it�s supposed to. I have talked with Blackhole to fix some minor things that really should have been fixed before the game gets published but still, the game is hard. It had the replay effect on me though. The controls does not have any flaws, unless you want to try to glitch to something and you suddenly end up stuck on one of the giant statue�s armpit. xD Now about the promises I told you before; this is what Blackhole said in his hype thread: �Levels will be increasingly harder (very easy, easy, moderate, hard, very hard, extremely hard, extraordinary, transcendent) Obviously, you have to expect for something innnnncredibbbly hard on level 9�. The game didn�t have the difficulty Blackhole said and of course, I have to point out that there is no level 9. I was honestly expecting a Boss battle in this game but I know that you actually can�t make one at this style of game. However, the position of levels can be changed so the difficulty would be like Blackhole wanted. It actually depends on what computer are you using, though. It can actually take 8-20 minutes to beat it. Some people might say that this game is easy and short because they have a slow computer so they have time to think when doing an action. Myself I have a fast computer which doesn�t allow me to play as slow as I want to reduce the losing streak on each level of the games I play. And, as we are talking about speed here, the game may be laggy in the creator, but it�s not in the published version which helps the gameplay. The game has a cold scenery feel and some really nice caves and background mountains but I would love a snowslip. I know it�s very difficult to make one in Sploder but you can actually use graphics and different Widgets/Physics to create one. The variety of the use of it would be wide.

Well, the most important aspect for me was the placement and the scenery at the first time I looked at the game and it still remains. A Viking Tale needed focus on this two qualities, otherwise would lose all the good appearance and the game would be a totally mess, not interesting and maybe boring. Blackhole kept his game fresh with the concepts used and all the placement and scenery was not repetitive which I was afraid of it before playing. However, the level designs are interesting and nicely done. It had the feeling that everything was frozen and the place was all covered by snow. Anyway, the level design is mostly made with the drawing tool which is harder than using graphics to me. People like arts with drawing tool more than a graphic because the work is more tedious. You can take a look at the thumbnail which is a huge well designed viking statue (I�m not informed a lot about vikings) and level 6 which has 2 opponents standing at both sides, also having different powers and look. That�s cool man. On the other hand, the placement is average. The reason why it�s not above decent is because sometimes the mechanism used in this game does not work as they are supposed to be, resulting as a retry of the level which keeps happening throughout all the game. Still, the idea of placement gives some points. I have taken some pictures while playing the game showing some little flaws I found with the placement.

http://i.imgur.com/RsKBTMk.jpg - Floating tiles get stuck.

http://i.imgur.com/YiWyjLJ.jpg - I accidentally pushed the baddie there, but still I don�t feel like this is supposed to happen.

http://i.imgur.com/7keEHOA.jpg - The frozen viking get stuck on other viking�s head (I think Blackhole fixed this)

Finally to the puzzles and traps. A Viking Tale is more focused on these 2 aspects than any other part of the game. This two are a great example on how Sploder is evolving and who is inventing all these stuff. The entire game is puzzling which keeps you all the time thinking how you are able to solve them by using different ways of thinking and different ways of proceeding. I don�t have any cons about the puzzles because mostly of the game is good apart from the glitches. Blackhole gave some hints about the game but still they are mysterious and you may not understand what they really mean, but still try to find yourself a way to solve the puzzles. You can call the glitches as traps if you want, sir. You will suffer if you don�t have luck starting from level 3 and above. There are so many ways to lose this game and only one to win. The frozen viking does not rotate where you want, the hammer might disappear if you keep it close to the frozen viking when it touches the boat or the ground, you can easily glitch out the level and many more. Why every game must have something really bad and on the other side something really good? :/ Can you guys bring me something good to me? I�m waiting to review a splodeing perfect game here (which will never happen because none of the games are perfect � nothing is perfect).

Before getting to the final verdict, I want to let you know about Pros and Cons.

Pros:

-Appealing thumbnail and attractive name.

-Average length.

-Fresh ideas.

-New concepts.

-Creative and enjoyable.

Cons:

-Too many glitches (for some of them is creator�s fault)

-Clich� storyline.

-Really hard.

� and the overall rating of A Viking Tale is � 4/5. Yayyy! The game was enjoyable even though it had those annoying glitches. It had an appealing thumbnail, great design with interesting concepts and scenery, fresh ideas on each level and the most important, creative. I tried to ignore the glitches, the missing Boss battle and the clich� storyline and I�m giving my opinion. This game is a great use of Physics Puzzle Creator and better than decent. Why? Because all the reasons I stated above you piece of toilet paper. xD I have to say this is a feature worthy game because of its quality, also the quantity of objects and ideas used. Is one of those games you have to play when you have free-time. After all, it�s Blackhole�s game, right? He is good at everything (Gerald is better, I assure you). I have to go now and sleep with my imaginary girlfriend. Take care of yourself � peace.

This was my previous Editor Application and I passed. Basically it means that I'm an Editor now. :)