Full Games List
Featured Games
New Games
Reviews
Images
Blogs
Game Updates
Images Feedback Summary
Game Design Highlights
Tutorials
Articles
Scripts
Utilities / Plugins
Resources
Engines
Engine Bulletins
What is Makerscore?
Past Events
Achievements
Forums
Post History
Chat
New to RMN?
Full Store List
RMN Music Pack (free)
Add Review
Subscribe
Nominate
Submit Media
RSS
James Cole, Dj Deodixx, James Cole, Dj Deodixx
Cap_H- 02/22/2015 07:34 PM
- 2594 views
I attended one of the James Cole's performances last year. So, It happened, that getting to know that he was dead, had been unpleasant surprise to me. And that he was an archeologist. From what I knew, he used to be philosopher and historian and was better known for being rapper and gears of war guru. He was the only popular person to ever speak about video games on TV in my country. And now he is dead. We should commemorate him with one of his great songs.
R.I.P.
Otherwisely the game is about investigation of his murder and it has no fight in it.
Story
The game is set in unspecified rather distant future. You play as the galaxy's most notorious detective. You have dumbo greenhorn and sexy female pathologist to accompany you. Suddenly James got killed and his baby is scared and refuse to speak with you.
Writing is rather poor. It has its moments and there was put quite an effort in library content. But It feels like devs had too much on their plate. There is interesting idea with false trail but again its poor executed and even tho the intention could be good, it doesn't work in the broken game.
The Owls are not what they seem to be.
Gameplay
Literally nothing works. This game is completely ill-willed. Your goal is to run around and investigate. Your two companions should help you in the meantime. They are completely useless, tho. Their only finding at the end of the game is that they hadn't found anything of interest. And you are completely clueless during the play running around and trying to interact with everything to see what happens. Most of the time, you don't know what you are looking for. Developers clearly forgot about the player here. S/He doesn't know the game as you do. Passing out on menu wasn't so brilliant idea either. Saving your game at the computer doesn't have any other function than to bother you and menu could be used as journal too, giving you hints on your investigation. You are forced to backtrack often too. And the final decision isn't based upon anything. I really have no proof but some unknown pages. It seems bit rushed to me too.
This image could be taken from an average tactics game.
Art
Graphics and music used are RTP. Music is annoying. I can stand use of RTP graphics and mapping is bearable. It doesn't leave dozen of free tiles between two objects and doesn't create any space paradoxes. It isn't nice, tho.
Faces all look the same with their generator fame and for the reason the whole male cast uses the one same suit.
Generally, this part is of the same quality as the rest of the game.
As player uncovers the story, he gets to know, that this orb has no place in it
Conclusion
Death of James Cole clearly is an early product of the developers. And Tho sucking hard, It has some positives too. Developers didn't work hard on custom graphics or trillion of items and custom battle system. They made their loose bearable. And they sure can make better next time. Bring up some custom or less annoying music is the first step to keep the player playing. Then give him/her some clue what is going on. Maybe try to stick with reality for the next time. These space orbs and lost civilizations are not really needed if it doesn't have real impact on the story's direction. And try to make characters charismatic. That's pretty important part for the game which is supposed to be about psychology as much as it is about 'puzzles.'
R.I.P.
Otherwisely the game is about investigation of his murder and it has no fight in it.
Story
The game is set in unspecified rather distant future. You play as the galaxy's most notorious detective. You have dumbo greenhorn and sexy female pathologist to accompany you. Suddenly James got killed and his baby is scared and refuse to speak with you.
Writing is rather poor. It has its moments and there was put quite an effort in library content. But It feels like devs had too much on their plate. There is interesting idea with false trail but again its poor executed and even tho the intention could be good, it doesn't work in the broken game.
The Owls are not what they seem to be.
Gameplay
Literally nothing works. This game is completely ill-willed. Your goal is to run around and investigate. Your two companions should help you in the meantime. They are completely useless, tho. Their only finding at the end of the game is that they hadn't found anything of interest. And you are completely clueless during the play running around and trying to interact with everything to see what happens. Most of the time, you don't know what you are looking for. Developers clearly forgot about the player here. S/He doesn't know the game as you do. Passing out on menu wasn't so brilliant idea either. Saving your game at the computer doesn't have any other function than to bother you and menu could be used as journal too, giving you hints on your investigation. You are forced to backtrack often too. And the final decision isn't based upon anything. I really have no proof but some unknown pages. It seems bit rushed to me too.
This image could be taken from an average tactics game.
Art
Graphics and music used are RTP. Music is annoying. I can stand use of RTP graphics and mapping is bearable. It doesn't leave dozen of free tiles between two objects and doesn't create any space paradoxes. It isn't nice, tho.
Faces all look the same with their generator fame and for the reason the whole male cast uses the one same suit.
Generally, this part is of the same quality as the rest of the game.
As player uncovers the story, he gets to know, that this orb has no place in it
Conclusion
Death of James Cole clearly is an early product of the developers. And Tho sucking hard, It has some positives too. Developers didn't work hard on custom graphics or trillion of items and custom battle system. They made their loose bearable. And they sure can make better next time. Bring up some custom or less annoying music is the first step to keep the player playing. Then give him/her some clue what is going on. Maybe try to stick with reality for the next time. These space orbs and lost civilizations are not really needed if it doesn't have real impact on the story's direction. And try to make characters charismatic. That's pretty important part for the game which is supposed to be about psychology as much as it is about 'puzzles.'
Posts 
Pages:
1
volke_locke
3232
View playlists
CloseThank you for your review.
I realize I am incredibly late in responding.
I'll explain by saying that I wanted my sister (who made this game) respond to your review, but she never ended up doing so.
I'm not at all sure what to say.
So, here's my response as the game's editor instead, I mostly fixed spelling.
I don't know who James Cole is. I'm sorry he died.
This game is part of an existing series of short stories that my sister wrote and some of which were published in local magazines and papers. It isn't her most widely published work. I fully understand why you don't get all the lost civilization stuff. You aren't part of this game's limited audience and I get that. It's kind of prequel. I can't help that you don't like the characters, this game doesn't make a good introduction I don't think.
I won't agree with you on charisma, as it would indicate that only certain kinds of people are worthy of having stories told about them. I may be misinterpreting what you mean by that, but normally when I hear something like that it tends to be from people who only like characters who are Space Dandy.
Even still, I would disagree that the writing is poor, just considering my sister's qualifications. It might not be of a style you like.
As for the gameplay, I have absolutely no idea how any of it works either. It took me 3 hours to play through it with help from my sister. The gameplay amounts to clicking on everything and talking to everyone in different patterns. I would agree with your review wholeheartedly here.
When this game hits 500 downloads (from all sites, not limited to RMN), I'm going to add a journal and new music to this game. I'll need to get permission (and help) to do this. I won't alter it without her permission. I don't understand how she coded the series of events, so I need her help anyways.
These are to alleviate your concerns and hopefully salvage it.
I think the journal would help with directing the player as to what to do next.
The space orb is part of an Easter egg, by the way.
I thank you for your review and your criticisms.
I realize I am incredibly late in responding.
I'll explain by saying that I wanted my sister (who made this game) respond to your review, but she never ended up doing so.
I'm not at all sure what to say.
So, here's my response as the game's editor instead, I mostly fixed spelling.
I don't know who James Cole is. I'm sorry he died.
This game is part of an existing series of short stories that my sister wrote and some of which were published in local magazines and papers. It isn't her most widely published work. I fully understand why you don't get all the lost civilization stuff. You aren't part of this game's limited audience and I get that. It's kind of prequel. I can't help that you don't like the characters, this game doesn't make a good introduction I don't think.
I won't agree with you on charisma, as it would indicate that only certain kinds of people are worthy of having stories told about them. I may be misinterpreting what you mean by that, but normally when I hear something like that it tends to be from people who only like characters who are Space Dandy.
Even still, I would disagree that the writing is poor, just considering my sister's qualifications. It might not be of a style you like.
As for the gameplay, I have absolutely no idea how any of it works either. It took me 3 hours to play through it with help from my sister. The gameplay amounts to clicking on everything and talking to everyone in different patterns. I would agree with your review wholeheartedly here.
When this game hits 500 downloads (from all sites, not limited to RMN), I'm going to add a journal and new music to this game. I'll need to get permission (and help) to do this. I won't alter it without her permission. I don't understand how she coded the series of events, so I need her help anyways.
These are to alleviate your concerns and hopefully salvage it.
I think the journal would help with directing the player as to what to do next.
The space orb is part of an Easter egg, by the way.
I thank you for your review and your criticisms.
I hope that I haven't festroyed your or your sister's ambitions back then. As You may see I'm not the best developer either. I had reasons to make this review crushing back then plus I found it witty.
I see that you managed to make a better scoring game since then, So I might give it a try.
I write myself and I know how can a change of format crush your story due to production limitations, missunderstanding etc.
I see that you managed to make a better scoring game since then, So I might give it a try.
I write myself and I know how can a change of format crush your story due to production limitations, missunderstanding etc.
volke_locke
3232
author=Cap_H
I hope that I haven't festroyed your or your sister's ambitions back then. As You may see I'm not the best developer either. I had reasons to make this review crushing back then plus I found it witty.
I see that you managed to make a better scoring game since then, So I might give it a try.
I write myself and I know how can a change of format crush your story due to production limitations, missunderstanding etc.
It's quite alright. I certainly understand the motivation. That other game would be my first attempt at a game. It's certainly more ambitious than this one, but I can't say much more about it than that, lol.
Pages:
1
