Hide and Seek

Intro

"Hide and Seek" is two-player action game developed by calunio using RPG Maker 2003 that attempts to recreate the fun of playing hide and seek with your friends and family in a digital arena. Unfortunately I'm a bit of a recluse so I really don't have anyone willing to share a keyboard with me. So I was stuck trying to experience this two-player game with just one-player. As you can imagine this makes reviewing the game in some ways a lot more difficult since you really can't get the thrill of the chase when your chasing yourself. I'd also argue that this game is usually more fun in real life when you have a decent sized group participating. So being restricted to one on one duels does take some of the fun away in my opinion.

Gameplay

Due to the limitations of the engine this game requires both players to trust one another not to cheat. For example the game requires the first player to begin each round by closing his eyes or turning around as the second player finds a hiding spot. And while doing this the first player has to hope the second player doesn't immediately interact with the angel and win the round. At the same time the second player needs to trust the first player not to cheese out a capture by simply walking out of the arena and going got you when they emerge from the arena right next to the second player's sprite.

Another issue with the game is that the controls for the second player are extremely clunky. This is because the limitations of the system require the second player to control his/her character using the number keys. And I do mean number keys. If they try to control their character with the number pad they won't go anywhere. As a result the movement for the second player feels extremely wonky since you go up with 2, down with 4, right with 5, and left with 3. The second player also has to interact with the angel using 1 in order to win the round. And finally the second player can throw out taunts by pressing the 6. Suffice to say the control layout for the second player takes some time to get used to.

Another issue with setting up a match in this game is that the first player controls the camera. As such the second player is completely at the mercy of the first player in order to win. After all, the first player could use their control of the camera to make it next to impossible for the second player to find the angel even if they do get a clean breakaway from them. It also means the second player needs to move the first player in order to find a hiding spot.

Graphics

Graphically the game seems to be a mix of assets found within the RTP and those found in pretty commonly used asset packs. The only real twist here is that objects that would normally be impassable have more give here in order to allow for hiding.



Sound

On the sound side of things each area in this game has it's own theme going for it. As a whole these themes are okay in my opinion, but there isn't anything here I'd want to listen to in my spare time. If anything I'd say most of the music is comparable to elevator music.

Conclusion

I suppose back in the day when you had to travel to a friends house in order for multiplayer to function this would have been more fun, but with the advent of matchmaking services something like this just seems more and more outdated. Add in the long setup time and your left with a version of hide and seek that's probably less fun than going outside and touching some grass. Though seeing as how I don't have any friends to drag into fully testing this game I'm not going to set a score for this review, but I do agree with halibabica's score of 2.5 as being rather fair. After all, this game is hindered by camera issues, the lack of a computer controlled opponent, and some rather wonky controls if your the second player.