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Too Young to Die.Too Fast to Enjoy.

Good morning!
oh well this is not a good day, at least for our unnamed protagonist in Shattered City: Magnitude 9.0, a young guy with a pretty flashy jacket that is travelling on a bus to... well, you decide since the game starts with some questions about our hero protagonist. But hey, these choices are just for flavour since they won't matter during out short adventure.
Really short.
I mean it took me 9-10 minutes to complete, and it's not particularly difficult, but this is also a good thing since everyone can probably spare 10 minutes to play this game. But let's go back to our protagonist: he is travelling, when disaster strikes! A terrible earthquake interrupts his travels and he finds himself alone in an area devastated by this natural event. That is not stopping, so our hero has to reach a safe area, soon.

The game is a simple (and you can guess it, very short!) survival in which we have to walk a lonely road from right to left, finding and using a couple of items to overcome some obstacles and performing some quick time events that become progressively harder and may wound or even kill our protagonist if not performed correctly. Finally there is a little "choose your own adventure" part with a black screen, and then the game ends... we the protagonist survival if you do well!


Oh yeah, you'd better. This reminds to me of Final Destination 5 bridge collapse scene! Gosh!

Our hero may sprint for a limited time before needing to recover, but it does not seem to be really useful since you can simply walk for all the game. There are few interactions and no other human beings (or animals) and the area seems to be evacuated, anyway our hero will often talk to himself. Uhm ok!

I think I explained more or less everything, but I forgot to mention one of the best things of the game: the graphics! Well these are custom and besides the cartoony portrait that displays various expressions and emotions of the main characters, there are some nice scenarios that look realistic and believable, even if they become a bit repetitive after a while: it's a long road with bus, cars, barries, more cars, another bus, cars, barries and... ok that's all. It's a couple of screens with a road and a long bridge. But yes, this is just a survival adventure, not an epic or complex story!

Final Verdict
Shattered City: Magnitude 9.0 has a charming appearance but unfortunately is really short and with limited interactivity. Aestetically it's pleasant but like for Another World (a game I mention because has some similar visuals) and some other games it ended before I could appreciate it fully. It also left lots of question unanswered: where are all the people?
What happened? Is our hero finally safe or not? Why these questions in the beginning?

Uhm ok, I'm probably asking for too much anyway (the game has no real story, besides a simple "survive!") it's enjoyable for what it last, pretty easy (I died only once), and you can also save anywhere if you really want to!
What's my advice? Try it, you have nothing to lose, except for maybe ten minutes. No more!

Posts

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Thanks so much for taking the time not only to play my game, but also write such a long review (I mean seriously, there's more words in your review than in the game lol)! Also thanks again for the feedback, I particularly like how you said the scenery was a repetitive. That's very true, I didn't see it at the time!

"Our hero will often talk to himself." This made me laugh, thanks for the good joke. I think that's my own personality showing through in my writing hahaha.

Thanks for the compliment on the graphics too!

Idk if anyone really cares, but the thing about the story, or the lack of a story. I had one intended, and the og game title was, A Kaiju, an Earthquake, and a Backpack Cat, but I had some repeat veterinary visits that just turned that story into a real pain to write. And if you aren't having fun game designing, then why design, right? I might revisit that story someday, it has a lot of things that fascinate me, earthquakes, kaijus and cats.

Second to last, thanks for giving my character a gender. I was really curious to see how people would see them. But mostly I think people have said male, the game shouldn't have any gender specific words, but maybe I did make a blunder and one fell in there.

Finally mega mega mega thanks again, and I'm really sorry I didn't see this review sooner. I didn't even think anyone cared about my weird earthquake game lol. Also thanks for the 3 stars, it's cool to have a review on a game I made. I think with a game like this, someone could really be mean and say nasty things. So I really appreciate your review style, and the time and effort you took

If anyone is curious (Ba dum tsh), I've been working on a creative writing game that I hope people will enjoy one day.
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