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Well, I don't want to go in the woods anymore.

  • MKID232
  • 09/16/2010 03:06 PM
  • 1391 views
Kidnapped, which was originally titled Maniac House (which I'm pretty sure was named after the old NES game Maniac Mansion) is a horror/puzzle game created by DarkGamer. This is his first game with RMXP, and is easily one of the better first attempts I've seen.

Characters 3/5
There are five main characters in this game. You play as three of them.

Jessica
She's the INTELLIGENT one group, and is used to read notes, read books, and solve puzzles that require thinking.

Bruno
He's the STRONG one, able to move stools, break down doors, operate switches that are too heavy, and swap his own color palette at the end of the game.

Mike
He's the TALL one, able to get out of reach objects, and play piano...

John
He's the KIDNAPPED one, able to sit in a room waiting patiently for his friends to get him out of there.

Kidnapper
He's the Kidnapper, able to make this game have a reason for going into a creepy mansion to solve puzzles.

As you can see, these characters are two-dimensional, but they have enough differences from each other that make them unique. Especially Bruno. No one else is able to change there entire color in one day.

Story 3/5
Jessica goes to pick up John from his house so they can go play at the park with Bruno and Mike. Bruno and Mike say they want to play hide and seek in the forest, and call John and Jessica cowards for wanting to. John doesn't want to be a coward, and so they play hide and seek with Jessica being IT. Jessica manages to find Mike and Bruno, but not John. After hours of searching, they come to the conclusion that John might've been...are you saying that...Yes, I am...so John has been...KIDNAPPED by the creepy guy in who lives in the mansion in the woods. The creepy guy isolated himself from society after he lost his daughter. They say he used to have someone bring him his groceries once a week. Jessica and Company decide to break into the creepy guy's mansion and rescue John in anyway they can.

As you can see, this plot is an excuse to go into a mansion and solve puzzles, but it's a good excuse. However, after the weird intro sequence (The characters are standing on black nothingness, nearly every time a character goes somewhere (except when John, Bruno, and Mike go into the forest) the screen fades to black for five seconds before fading back, making the intro longer than it needs to be. And you have to go through this intro every single time you make a new game.

Map Design 4/5

Other than the weird space-y intro, the game takes place exclusively in the mansion. And the tile selection couldn't be better. The entire thing looks like a dirty, unkempt mansion, with cobwebs in the corners, holes in the walls, and stuff just laying around. (Sounds like my room.) Nothing seems out of place in the mansion. Well, except for this one door with a color wheel on it that looked done with MS Paint, but other than that, and the fact that some of the maps are a little big, it works really well.

Gameplay 4/5

This is where the game shines. As I've said twice (soon to be thrice), you solve puzzles in a mansion. They are generally the simple "Use item A on object X" puzzle, but they all work well. However, you have to switch between characters to solve different puzzles. Need to break down a door? Bruno is your guy. Need to read a secret note? Jessica can do it! Need to play the lone musical instrument that you use to get a password for a door that once you know makes that part useless? Mike can do it...once, plus one other puzzle that involves his height, which he can't even solve without a stool to stand on. Yeah...Mike's pretty useless. The character you'll probably be spending most of your time with is Bruno, since there are a lot of doors that need to be broken.

But don't break them too fast, or the Kidnapper will catch you! How? With the concept known as the Noise Meter! (Spelled Metter in the game). How does it work? Well, while your character is walking (slowly) through the mansion,opening doors, solving/failing puzzles, and breaking down doors, the noise meter goes up. If it reaches the end, the kidnapper knows you are in his house, and it's GAME OVER!!! If you stand still, though, it goes down. So you have to be careful not to make too much noise. The problem, though, is the noise meter can sometimes be too strict. If you bust down a door with 1/8th of the meter full, you can pretty much cause a game over. And sometimes it acts weird. You'll be walking and it will go down for a sec, but then it'll go right back up. After a while, though, it becomes second nature to wait until the noise meter goes all the way down to break down a door or solve a puzzle.

Replay Value 2/5
This game is around 1-2 hours in length, depending on whether you know what you're doing or not, or if you so happen to use the walkthrough that you can download.(I'll admit, I used the walkthrough for a couple of the confusing puzzles.) After that, there's not much else you can do. You can try playing through the game again to see how fast you can go (plus the 10-20 minutes it takes to go through the intro), but other than that, this game is replay-retarded. No special bonuses, no secret puzzles, nothing.

Overall 4/5
You know, for someone's first game, it's very good. I don't know how long it took to make, but it all works. Sure, the characters are paper-thin, Mike is essentially useless, the noise meter is unforgiving at first, and the characters move like they were walking through molasses, but you can overlook this problems easily, and enjoy this great game. Do I recommend it? Well, only if you like adventure game style puzzles. And if you do like adventure game style puzzles, then this should be on your To Play list for RMXP puzzle games.

Posts

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This is a good review. Makes me want to play this game. :D
Thanks, glad you did like it. Thanks for considering it my first compelted game :D
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