Stimulated By The Simulation - [Death Of The Simulation By Zif]

Death of the Simulation is a game created by zif

Hey all,

JJS back again with another review. Ha. I say that as if I've been writing a lot... yeah... I haven't. It's been like 20 months since I've written a review. So what brings me back? Zif. Zif brings me back. What's zif? A knock-off pasta from an Italian restaurant? Not quite. You see, a couple of weeks ago, a member named Zif won the game boost auction with his game 'Enter the Stimulation'. It caught my eye because it was an Algorithm game, and as one of the few people who enjoy Algorithm games, I thought I had to give it a try.

Review number 45

To start off, I've been a vocal supporter of the Algorithm game creator, and I know that this creator isn't limited. You just need to show creativity and put in some effort, which is why I made sure to try out Zif's games, in my mind I had found a member with an appreciation for the creator and I wanted to keep him interested and help him improve, to possibly becoming one of the better Algorithm makers on the site in the future. This review won't only be reviewing a game, but I'll highlight multiple ways for Zif to improve his game making and take it to the next step.

This is the final game in the series, by the way, here are the links to all three games;

http://www.sploder.com/games/members/zif/play/enter-the-simulation/

http://www.sploder.com/games/members/zif/play/beyond-the-simulation/

http://www.sploder.com/games/members/zif/play/death-of-the-simulation-2/

REVIEW

I'm a big believer that the most important aspect for an Algorithm game is a storyline. I feel it pairs so well with the creator and truly allows you to build your game around it to successfully enthrall the player. Without being anything truly mindblowing, the Simulation storyline did interest. Basically you're in a digitalized world while your body is in stasis, and you go through a few story arcs within the three games. I won't mention any of them, so you'll have to go and play it to find out, but I was interested and I feel the storyline really culminates well in Death of the Simulation. The earlier games in the series did feel a little empty, but after taking on my advice, Zif definitely improved the games as the series went on. The storyline is a tick for me, it served it's purpose, got me interested and created a good atmopshere.

The gameplay in Death of the Simulation, as I've mentioned, is really taken up a notch from the other games. I felt that the atmosphere is taken up a notch and there are more action scenes throughout. It's a lagless game that flows well from level to level, however, something that happened more so earlier in the series but still applies to the later game on a lesser extent, is that some of the levels are rather empty and I felt Zif could fit a lot more into those empty levels. He may not have put in as much effort as he should have, and a level or two in Death did feel like a generated maze which is generally a big no-no for Algorithm games. I would like to see, in replacement of those in your future games some more altered level designs. Apart from that the level design was solid without being anything special and the gameplay was usually interesting.

The best action occurs when the whole game changes in terms of atmosphere, and I won't specifically say when in the game but Zif certainly has this down as probably the best feature of this game. While a fair bit of the earlier games and early on in this the action was a little lackluster, he really steps it up a notch in correlation with the storyline which demonstrated a nice cohesive flow with the game's events. This isn't a puzzle game so I won't judge it negatively based off that, but I think this game could have benefited with some more thought provoking areas or at least some action scenes that called for more strategy. I think the more organisation in a "room" styled action scenes in his future games the better they'll turn out, as generally in my opinion the hallway action (in which it's a narrow hallway with enemies placed in them) are too limited to truly feel intensity or enjoy them. This is because of how easy you can stealth kill them, or on the other hand how little opportunity you are given to dodge and escape their attacks.

Lastly, I actually think that there was so much emptiness in the earlier two games in the series, in that a lot of levels weren't needed or could have been combined with another one. Because of this I think the three game series actually could have been combined into a single game and Zif's want for a trilogy didn't allow him to truly condense it into a single game, or at least only a two game series rather than three.

Improve on the things I mentioned Zif, while maintaining the things you did well and you no doubt have a feature coming your way. If you haven't already, join the Sploder Forums (forums.sploder.com), where you can post your games to get noticed more and get better opinions on how to improve.

Rating: 3/5

Death of the Simulation is a very solid attempt for an Algorithm game, especially from a non-forums member. Improvement in a few areas will see Zif get a featured Algorithm game in the near future.

Zif, have a look at a few videos of some of the better Algorithm games on here, and play the ones in the Epic Game Library to help gain more knowledge of the creator and see what works and what doesn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsIDtMR5Lf0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWRs9uJJGko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s624Bb1d8UM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOThiEcOkQU

Keep up the good work so far Zif.