Admirable Sploder Game 02: *The Most Dangerous Game*

The Most Dangerous Game is a game created by futuremillionare

Admirable is a strong word. It's used when there's something so good you... well... admire it, look up to it. If I found a game that I like enough to admire, that's a sign of a good game. That means that everything I review is really great in my humble opinion. This game, however, pretty much dictates the line between an admirable and an alright game. That being said, this game is still pretty good, I wouldn't be reviewing it if I didn't believe that. So, who made it? Futuremillionare? Well, I haven't played any of his games, with the exception of Unleashed, which I'll get to. I didn't know what to think about this game before playing. I thought it wouldn't be too great. The thumbnail was good, though. So, onto the game.

Review

I'm going to be a tad blunt here, this game is bad at settling you into the challenge. It's first level is tough, really tough. I beat it on the first try, sure, but I still found it to be too hard for a level that is supposed to settle you into the game. This could be excused by the fact that the description says this isn't going to settle you in. I, however do not find this to be a valid excuse. FM could have put in a level that shows falling to the arena. That level could have been easier than the other 5. This bothers me because there's no reason for the plot to be like this. Following my advice might take some tension and excitement from the game, but I think the fact that a game is that hard kind of kills it for me. It has to still be fair. So the first level didn't do a good job of adjusting you to the game.

On the subject of difficulty, this game is HARD! I know that's the plot of the game, but, again, the plot comes last. There is no reason for it to be there. The difficulty is at a really high level and has no reason to be. Even worse than that, I think the difficulty here is forced. The only thing that causes the challenge is the enemies. If they moved along fairly, this wouldn't be an issue, but I digress. The thing that ruined the difficulty all together was the fact that they can switch directions at any time. This makes for unfair luck based points where you don't know when the enemy will switch direction. This is *cheap* difficulty. I don't like games that involve luck and to see it be used in an already hard game is hard to wrap my head around. If that widget was taken from this game entirely, it would have earned at least 10 extra points.

The placements here is the glue that holds all the bad things about the game together. The placements is what causes this. The jumps are hard to make at times but for the most part, they are perfectly fair. It's the *enemy* positions that annoy me. The widget that changes their direction makes them impossible to predict. I realize I have already said enough about it, but it really hurts the game for me. That's three things in a row that damaged this game. Yikes, this is really going downhill. It's time to discuss what the game did right.

One thing the game pulled off exceptionally well was the artstyle. It seemed simple and easy to follow, which goes great with the game at hand and makes it simpler and easier to follow. On it's own the art is actually pretty good as well. It shows as a simple world that is supposed to be a below-the-ground arena. And it has a blue sky... that's... odd. Anyway, the art is a good addition to the game that is nice to look at and may take your anger away from constantly losing; which WILL happen.

The story might not make too much sense, but it builds up tension and accurately describes what the game is about. It tells you about the difficulty of the game and that you have no training beforehand. I did say that it kind of ruins the game, but the tension really tells you what you're up against. There isn't much to say that hasn't already been said, it's a decent plot that builds up a lot of tension. Sure, it gets in the way of difficulty and does some damage to the game, but it still gets you pumped for the game. Not bad in my books.

How fun is this game? It isn't that fun. It keeps you playing (for wrong reasons, mind you), but it isn't fun doing so. This game is actually kind of uncomfortable to play sometimes. It's fun at first and the scenery is kind of fun, but other than that, nothing really screams "fun".

Now, before you complain that I didn't talk about this in my first review, I will have given it a four out of ten for this topic to replace music choice (which I won't talk about anymore.). The subject here is production value, how much effort was put in and how good and original the ideas are. For this, it's quite decent. It didn't quite use the most effort but it doesn't stop me from thinking this had some effort. OK, let's take the elephant out of the room: the widget I talked about earlier was a lazy move at worst. I have told you about how much it annoys me. It was a lazy move that ups the difficulty for no reason. Apart from that, the production was quite good.

So, how did this game stand as a whole?

Here's the final score:

Total: 40 Points

Conclusion: Do I think this is a feature worthy game? No, not really. This one did a few things right but unlike Switched in my last review, this one has a few glaring issues. As far as admirable games go, this one only just makes it. It had good points like the production and art, but when it comes to difficulty, this one REALLY falls short. I am sad for this game. Why? Because this one had potential. Get rid of the widget, make a level before the arena and fix up the plot a little and this game would definitely be feature worthy in my eyes. I guess it is what it is. If you like tough games, try this. If not, you may not like this. As it stands, this is the borderline between alright and admirable and I guess that's enough for me. Signing out.