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Dark, atmospheric, sci-fi exploration

There is a void in the world of RPG Maker games. That void is the lack of science-fiction games. Kryberia steps forward to fill that void.

The story follows three soldiers investigating a mysterious mountain facility: Sid Jones, standard infantryman, no great hero, just a simple man following orders; John Gustav, dashing Brit and explosives expert; Kent, the commanding officer who, naturally, refuses to divulge exactly what the nature of their assignment is. As you explore it becomes quite clear that something has gone horribly wrong at this facility and you must race to complete your objective before a mysterious and unnamed enemy accomplishes their objective, which is probably bad news for you.

Balance 2/5:
Combat in Kryberia is fairly simplistic, you encounter enemies randomly as you explore and defeat them using fairly standard abilities. Occasionally a different kind of encounter challenges you though, such as a ghost that will only attack if provoked but offers a substantial reward, or a boss that can only be killed by a certain attack. Unfortunately, you are given no indication what this certain attack is so it is quite easy to lose the fight because of this lack of information. A somewhat challenging twist, at the beginning of the demo you are given only a limited supply of healing items before a full heal option is made available. While the resources provided are barely enough, it can create quite a bit of tension as you desperately try to accomplish your objective before you die. Finally, enemies seem to have far too much agility making it almost impossible to run from some fights.

Level Design 5/5:
Featuring some truly impressive visuals and boasting phenomenal atmosphere, Kryberia is a joy to explore. There are often multiple paths to each objective, and each accomplishment opens up a little more of the game world. Part of the fun is figuring out just what that switch you just pressed changed. The tileset choices are excellent and lighting effects are actually used properly for once, creating a suitably spooky atmosphere.

Characters 3/5:
There isn’t a great deal of dialogue in Kryberia, but what is there is effective. We learn the motives and personalities of the characters in short order and get a little bit of insight into each of their personal backgrounds in the military. Most importantly, the tension between your three characters builds consistently which will almost certainly lead to important plot events later.

Storyline 3/5:
The story opens with some shots of an aircraft landing, and then our intrepid hero sets off to scout, and we are introduced to a second party member. From there, the incredible exploration aspects of the game take over for a thrilling experience. We are told plot events only very cryptically and the game never gets caught up in exposition, letting the player discover things for themselves. This score is dragged down about because sometimes the text scrolled completely on its own and pressing any button skips it entirely, which annoyed me greatly.

Music and Sound 4/5:
The music is really quite stunning in this project, creating a suitably dark atmosphere without ever becoming overwrought. It relies heavily on ambience, and makes excellent use of sound effects for both monsters and the various machines located throughout the facility. The battle music is fitting and keeps the dark mood without causing whiplash.

Overall 4/5:
A very promising project making use of a highly underutilized medium and making great use of atmospheric elements, anyone who enjoys horror or science fiction would do well to give this game a try. My only real complaint is that it’s just too darn short.

Posts

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Seriously, if people offered to help me along with this project I would continue it. As is, I just don't have the time to go at it alone because of my real life career.
Hmm... maybe I was a bit of a softy on the game's balance. And, yeah, the text scrolling thing got me once or twice - it probably should be fixed!

Great read as always, Solitayre!
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