[EGD] A Perplhexing Trial

Review by moolatycoon on Wednesday, July 19th 2017
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Click to play Hexagon World

Hexagon World is a game created by yellowwaffle

Hello everyone and thanks for reading another one of my reviews. Hexagon World, a game created by yellowwaffle, was published for Epic Game Drop, a competition hosted on the forums that essentially gets lot of game creators to put up their best work all on one day at once. Essentially its a way for both new and old talent to showcase what they can do, and in the process we discover a lot of the best up and coming gamemakers. Yellowwaffle is a relatively C-List game creator with a couple good features, and Hexagon World is very similar to another game he created back in October known as Hexagon Skylands. The game uses a hexagon tile aesthetic to create different worlds where everything fits together neatly. How does Hexagon World stack up against its predecessor and the rest of the EGD competition? Lets dive in.


The first sign of recognizing a good game is looking at how much effort was put into the aesthetics. Hexagon World recycles the visual concept from its predecessor in order to create its universe of hexagon shaped land masses and enemies. Overall I think this is an excellent visual style and the way Yellowwaffle uses it to create seamless cliffs and different 3D terrain on a 2D creator is brilliant. Many PPG creators try different techniques to try and make their worlds come alive as 3D, but Yellowwaffle's method here just looks the best and there were very few if any parts of the game where I thought the decoration looked messy. The game's scenery is also an improvement over the original, featuring a greater variety of terrain and more additional decoration which just helps the world come alive. From jungles to deserts, and snow covered plains, there is just a lot to look at and everything looks just amazing considering what he is working with. Most of the enemies and bosses also have well put together designs and a good variety of different styles, which also helps keeps the game feeling fresh, even if the gameplay isn't switched up a whole lot. This art direction is one of the coolest styles I've seen on this site and I think it deserves considerable accolade from just how much he accomplished here.


Despite having an incredible art style, a lot of game makers are able to competently construct beautiful environments for the player to be distracted with. The gameplay is the element which can seperate a decent game with good aesthetics to a great game. The gameplay in Hexagon world is for the most part a switch hunt which involves running around the world and destroying all of the enemies while avoiding all of the landmines. I think this simple concept is executed well in Hexagon World. All of the key hunting, while maybe a little underwhelming as far as gameplay goes, is not too obstructive as to not get in the way of the game's excellent art style. That being said, I would have liked for something a little more stimulating. The ppg is a creator that you can accomplish almost anything with and I think Waffle could have implemented some cool action sequences or puzzles into the game in order to spice things up a bit. I will credit him on his usage of enemies in this game. Each level features a new pair of enemies, one bulkier patrolling one, and another which shoots some sort of projectile. As the levels progress, the enemies get stronger and can take more hits before going down, and Waffle gets pretty creative with how he creates some of the enemy paths (the fireball enemies in Level 7 in particular were very well made). The variety of baddies to take down and work around presented an extra layer of complexity on the gameplay, which made the switch hunt formula a bit more acceptable as to distinguish each level from the next. Both of the boss fights that we encounter in this game were also very well made (I completed the game not logged in). The final boss in particular was one of the more creative that I've seen in a while and it diverts from the typical shoot this one guy a bunch of times idea and evolves that into a more enjoyable concept, which is why I would consider it one of the best boss fights made on the ppg. All this in consideration, I think Waffle did a decent job making each level seem fresh, but in actuality I would have a liked a bit more of a concept than "find this key, open this door"


A very difficult feat to pull off in a creator with as limited space as the ppg is keeping the game from being too linear. I think Yellowwaffle does a very good job in this aspect, as the level design in Hexagon World seldom goes for one straight path. Now, sometimes the backtracking does get a little annoying, but it can also be a good opportunity to admire the work Waffle put into the scenery. The Level designs are all very unique and feature a variety of terrain to explore and rarely does it feel like I'm only moving in one direction the whole way. The desert level I think is a good example of how Waffle mixes up the directions in a way that is acceptable not too annoying. Another thing I appreciate about this game is that it is very appropriately paced. Often times, in ppgs especially, I am stopped in my tracks by a sudden spike of difficulty. While the last level of Hexagon World is a much higher difficulty than the first, never do I feel like the game unfairly jumps to a challenge I am not prepared to handle. I died enough times in this game, but I didn't die to the point where I wanted to quit out of frustration because of one element of the game that is jacked to an unreasonable possibility. Waffle does a good job of preparing you to deal with the next set of tough enemies and each level is appropriately ordered so that the difficulty increases with each one rather than being sporadic. Overall the level design was very well made.



Ratings:



Presentation: ____.5/_____
 
Creativity: ___.5/_____
 
Enemies & Traps: ____/_____
 
Level Design: ____/_____
 
(Re)-Playability: __.5/_____
 
Gameplay: ___/_____
 

Verdict:


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-=Decent=-




Well based off my ratings, this game borders on excellency (literally a 4.0 is excellent). Compared to its predecessor, this game is just a massive step up in what Waffle has been able to accomplish, and I think this is where Waffle is going to be given a little more attention in the future if he continues to produce this level quality of game. As far as EGD goes, there is some tough competition this year, but I can see it as a Top 10 Finish at least just based on all of the effort that is clearly put into this game. Great work Waffle, I expect greater things from you to come. Play this game at least once if you haven't already.

 
 


Hexagon World Reviewed by moolatycoon on Wednesday, July 19th 2017. [EGD] A Perplhexing Trial - A game review written by moolatycoon for the game 'Hexagon World' by yellowwaffle. Rating: 5