Alrighty, I promised a review and here it is.
I have mixed feelings about this game. I also decided to make shorter reviews from now on (unless I get carried away) so I can test more games and write about them without it being a chore.
So lets dive right into dust, shall we?
Dusk is a first-person adventure hybrid. While the adventure-puzzles are extremely well developed and the best I saw in an FPSC game so far, the shooting and the action is just okay. I don't want to spoil anything in this review and I do not want to describe the entire game.
It holds up a solid athmosphere. You can almost feel the abandoned building and smell its dusty air...it really is that well done. I have to point out that astek works with immersion and lightning here...the actual visual effects and graphics are just okay but that doesn't stick out at all. Even though it looks like an upper middleclass FPSC-Game it feels far more
real than various AAA titles.
It starts out without any real explanation and I was really exciting to find out what was going on. The story was told pretty good through notes and loadingscreens (that didn't add up so well).
We later get info through an emergency broadcast on television, we get to that later.An other brilliant touch was the way we could interact with the environment. I was able to search and investigate almost everything in the first 3 levels. Every action narrated by Astek (I guess). He did this pretty good. His voice blends in and doesnt feel out of place (and I'm glad he agreed to do voice acting for Shavra, hehe).
The puzzles are what this game really shines at. They are unexpected, well developed and not obvious...they do also not feel forced like in most FPSC titles and are actually really fun. The player spends a lot of time in the same location without getting bored of it and there are a lot of things to discover. Astek was really creative here. I would go far enough to concider the first few levels of this game an FPSC prime example. They are original, fun and do a lot with its setting.
In most FPSC games...we search keys and switches. We do this in this game too...a lot BUT we also get to dive in the sewer, fight an aligator (way to add an urban legend to a game...nice semi-easteregg), use a phone, use an axe to break down some boards, solve a classic image riddle, make a phonecall and discover a secret passage. Fantastic!
I already mentioned the place's haunting ambience. The sounds are also adding a lot to it even though I'm surprised of how little sounds you actually use to create this effect. In the first build, the (zombie?) walking inside the room with the bloodstained bathroom really gave me a creepy vibe and the corpse looking at you as you enter this one room on the third floor actually spooked me
Everything is really dense so far.
I also have to mention that the building follows a certain logic that makes it seem believable. Most fpsc games just tie random rooms together that no sane architect would ever come up with. This one doesn't. And everytime the protagonist mentions a certain room...I knew where it was located.
Another great touch is how it actually turns dusk in the third level. Where bright sunlight used to blind us in the first 2 levels, we can now see a sunset. (and automatic floor...why??) This is a really neat addition to the already very solid ambience and overall feel.
I already feared that astek would really take the zombie route in after the third level loadingscreen...but I am now convinced after a (really great) emergency broadcast on the tv. I'm also informed that I'm in Pensylvania. (Which is not a city, but a state. Yeah...I just googled that...I always thought it was a city :S)
After this FPSC piece of awesomness, I was expecting Astek to take the zombie route the right way and maybe scare me a little bit more. However while loading level 4 I had to help my mother cutting the bushes in the garden...and as I came back I had the strange impression that I was playing another game... or... well...
Astek just jumped the shark.
I'm serious...the game dies after level 3.
We are now in an underground laboratory where we shoot zombies (that look like decaying corpses out of a swamp). The leveldesign swaps its logic and athmosphere with fancy scifistuff and things that make now sence. (one of the terminals actually says "flight control".) The rooms are boring and have no substance...dont get me wrong, they are okay and the fog effect astek added here saves it a little from being downright mediocre. The doors use a wrong shader and glow like neonlights. We are also not able to investigate our environment anymore. Switches that open doors are clumsy pads awkwardly attached to these scififurniture thingies...I guess Astek figured out that nobody would actually like to explore this level. Some of the tubes that are there...for... well, we dont have a reason, but they glow and thats cool right? Yeah, anyway: the tubes use wrong specular maps which look a little awkward. (I dont know why I'm actually pointing this out...the whole level lags any of the greatness the former three levels had)
We do even get some corny music playing.
The loadingscreen for level 4 seems to tell us that the protagonist is infected aswell...or something (?) Granted, this would explain why we arent able to investigate the environment anymore. However, its a bit of a strange turn of events as the player doesnt appear to show any signs of this "infection". (Also...where do all these countless clonecorpses come from...why are they decayed so much... I'm nitpicking? Sorry!)
So in Level 4 we actually have a pit filled with green liquid. Yes Astek gives us after all this awesome build up a pit of green goo... and a computer that looks like some end 90's terminal...which doesnt add up to the rest of the environment. However, I was out of ammo and didnt seem to get away from the computer which kept telling me "wrong password". The 2 zombies there killed me and I decided to remember the game as something great instead of something mediocre...so I stopped playing at this point.
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Rating: 65%
- 20% rather poor after level 3
- 5% small design flaws such as Nazi symbols on the lockers
and slightly repititive props. This includes enemy sounds later
on.
- 2% Slight lack of story insight
- 3% the game crashed 3 times while playing. Here I know that its
not really your fault so I dont substract much.
- 5% Some corny music that felt out of place (especially the
organbit and this...whatever it was in the lab)
Sound: A-B (pretty good, even though steps, monsters, jumping, impact etc. could use work)
Visuals: B- (they where okay and didn't really matter much in this game)
Comfort/performance: A (nothing to report, good keyboard layout)
Scripting/Gameplay: A+ (lets just count the first levels here, shall we
)
Music: C (ahem...no)
Story: B (Zombies and labs...but I give it a B because ASTEK has been putting effort in the way of telling it and letting the player "feel" it)
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Conclusion: A promising FPSC game that started out as something outstandingly special and ended up being your typical FPSC Game.
Would I recommend it?: Dusk is a game that every FPSC user should play. I would strongly recommend it to every FPSC newbie as it clearly shows how great your game can be
without fancy graphics and overdone shadereffects.
I would also recommend it to First person adventure lovers, but only if they are actually in the mood for some corny shooting later on.
However, this is not a game I would buy or recommend to the majority of gamers due to its flaws later on.
This was my review, I hope you enjoyed it and I certainly hope to see more games with this potential soon
Everything here is just my personal opinion, nothing else.
Forgive me for my grammar
-Wolf
Matter is energy condensed to a slow vibration, we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively Theres no such thing as death,life is only a dream,and were the imagination of ourselves.
