[GSRRS] I Sense Impending Doom

Dark Days is a game created by mat7772

So this is my first review for my new reviewing and rating station: |GameScope| Reviewing and Rating Station. This review is made for Mat7772, as he posted his game Dark Days, and got a rating of 94/100!

Introduction:

Loads of games were entered in the EGD 7 (Epic Game Drop 7: an annual game creating competition in Sploder), but only a few of them got high rankings and made it to the EGL (Epic Game Library). Mat7772 entered his masterpiece, Dark Days. Mat is known as a skilled game creator, so it was no surprise that his game placed 5th in the overall EGD7 rankings, and managed to get its own place in the EGL. In this review, I'll be talking about the things that made this such a brilliant game.

Review:

The thumbnail is the first thing we see in a game, so let's start with that. Honestly, the thumbnail wasn't very appealing. This game was loaded with exciting, action-packed moments where there were enemies present and the amazing scenery of this game could be seen. It is possible to change the thumbnail to your desires, so I strongly think that Mat should have changed the thumbnail so that it would be more appealing and attractive.

Dark Days was an adventure game, with a slight open-world feel to it. Our main aim was to restore a stolen statue, but because of the open-world bit in it, we didn't always have to be working, and fighting and solving puzzles. Mat gave us opportunities to look around the map. We also had a choice to do side-missions. These side-missions were well-designed, and rewarded you with precious armour and weapons, that would be of great need in the future. Many games in Sploder have side-missions, but most people don't give it much importance, and often the side-missions are of poor quality. But Mat gave them the same importance as the main mission, giving us side-missions which were equally as exciting, so skipping them would mean a loss of entertainment, and a loss of valuable power-ups.

The scenery in Dark Days was excellent. Mat did a commendable job in maintaining the dark and gloomy mood throughout the whole game. This made the game more tense and scary. Mat included decorations which matched the dark mood in the game. He also took advantage of the lighting effects option, and used them very well. He managed to use them in such a way that the surroundings would be slightly dark, so that we wouldn't be able to see any incoming enemies, adding to the tense mood.

There was a lot of action in Dark Days. Mat included a wide range of enemies, so you wouldn't get bored of fighting the same enemy over and over again which was clever. And not all levels were just full of enemies as that would've been very repetitive. Some levels kept the story moving onward, others were fighting scenes. And inside all these levels, Mat added a couple of unique and new puzzles. This prevented the game from being a full-out action game, and kept us interested in the game. I, being more fond of puzzles, would've liked to see more of them, but unfortunately that was not to be. But that might have just been because I didn't get far in the game. And traps, well, I didn't see any. Again, that might have been because I didn't get far in the game, but I would've liked to see some traps.

The placement was pretty much fine. He didn't place power-ups in places where you couldn't reach, and he placed enemies in places where they could easily reach and hurt you. He could have maybe combined the enemy placement and the lighting effects to have an enemy placed somewhere in the corner of a room or corridor in the darkness, where the enemy could shoot/hit you, but it'd be really hard for you to find him, or reach him, forcing you to move on quickly. Just an idea that may or may not have been cool.

Pros:

-Scenery - Created the tense and scary mood of the game, and it was maintained throughout all of it.

-Action - Lots of action, just as you'd expect in an action/adventure game.

-Gameplay - Had a nice storyline, and I particularly loved the side-missions in it.

Cons:

-Lack of puzzles - Maybe some more could have enhanced the experience.

-Lack of traps - If just a few were added, possibly at the start so you wouldn't lose much progress, it might make the player more cautious and scared of any future traps.

-Thumbnail - Wasn't very appealing, could have been changed to be more attractive.

Ratings:

Scenery: 5/5

Action: 5/5

Puzzles: 3/5

Adventure: 5/5

Gameplay: 5/5

Placement: 4/5

Overall: 4.5/5

Feature-Worthy?:

Most definitely! A game with awesome amounts of action and adventure, backed up with great scenery deserves to be featured. The gameplay too was amazing, with great side-missions.

How to improve it?:

Like I said earlier, I would've loved to see some more puzzles and a few traps. They could've enhanced the experience, and maybe made the game even more interesting. Also, the thumbnail could be improved to make the game more attractive to people who scroll by it.

Thanks for reading this review!