Incitement

OVERVIEW:
When it comes to a good SciFi RPG, it would seem that RPG Maker games have always been in the minority. Even amongst more popular titles such as Lost Land Ruin, Alter A.I.L.A. and Iron Gaia, this is a genre that gets drowned out by mainly fantasy and survival horror games. And then along came Celianna’s Futuristic Tileset and Matseb’s growing use of these resources, and we’re slowly starting to see an upward trend of these kind of games.

To be fair, when I first played this game, I couldn’t help but note similarities between this game and Matseb’s previous project, Central Impulse. Oddly enough, at the time that I was observing these similarities, it never dawned on me that both had been made by the same person. I tend to download so many games in bulk and take my sweet time getting around to playing them, that I usually have to remind myself why I downloaded the game in the first place when I do.

Incitement’s already garnered enough interest around the various communities; but oddly enough it was never reviewed here before. And frankly, I was on the fence about reviewing it myself. It was a decent enough game, and there is a lot of potential here, but there is a part of me that still can’t help to compare this game with Central Impulse, preferring the former over the latter, at least as far as the game play is concerned. At the same time, if Matseb is determined to continue making Scifi role playing games, the least I can do is to provide as much feedback as possible in hopes he will continue to modify the formula and continue to churn these out.

GAME PLAY:
At this point, it should be obvious to the readers that I was not particularly fond of this game, at least in comparison to Matseb's previous project, and it really boils down to the actual game play. Being as it is a SciFi game, the primary focus on weapons and skills come from the use of guns and lasers. Instead of Magic Points, you are given Ammo Points, and every form of attack (including standard attacks) requires ammo. You do wind up acquiring ammo packs to restore precious ammo, and these are more common than not, but it still doesn’t completely prevent the problem that if you run out of ammo and you don’t have any packs, your character is useless in combat. Why not allow melee attacks from your gun when you are out of ammo? Hitting the enemy with your weapon would still be a better alternative than sitting around getting butchered.

Another problem I have with the game is the fact that gold is practically scarce in this game, requiring a bit more resource management than what a standard story-driven rpg may usually require. Without gold, the use of inns have been replaced with hospitals and healing zones, many of which are free, but ammo doesn’t get restored by these (naturally). Items are fairly high priced, so upgrading to the newest gear is a chore, since a large portion of those funds is usually reserved for stocking up on ammo packs and restoratives.

Now, I understand the concept of not having robotic enemies drop gold. But why weren't alternative methods used? A mechanical enemy could easily have dropped scraps that could be sold for gold, or bartered at shops for a discount on weapons, equipment, and items. At the very least, it’d be something if we could have at least ripped the weapons and ammo off our enemies once they have perished. Any of these would have made the lack of gold in this game a bit easier to handle, and would have made sense in the environment this game takes place in.

Unfortunately, this becomes a bit of a domino effect. With so little gold, the player has to decide on whether to spend what little they do have on either restoratives or weapons / armor. Because things are high priced, though, getting upgrades for everybody is going to take quite a bit of time. But the more you spend on ammo packs, the less gold you will have for upgrading your equipment. At the same time, without ammo packs, you will eventually run out of ammo and not be able to fight in combat. But since gold is limited, you are also limited on how many ammo packs you can eventually purchase, which means that grinding is out, and even fighting everything in the course of a dungeon (without running from anything) can also bare consequences.

It’s a conundrum that is difficult to solve on its own, and can be a heavy deterrent amongst casual gamers looking for something a bit more relaxed.

Had the game offered more variety, such as an open world full of exploration, and had it been designed more as a dungeon crawler of sorts, I could applaud these decisions for the challenges they created. But since the primary focus on this game appears to be the story, and the game is strictly linear for the most part, the game felt much more exhausting than it needed to be.

At the very least, though, the battle system is much more fluent this time around.



My rating for Game Play is 1.5/5. While a difficult challenge is always welcome, balancing issues need to be addressed. And in a game where gold and resources are scarce, other alternatives may be necessary.

STORY:
While the game play may be the weakest part of the game (at least in my own opinion), the story is the strongest. Matseb hasn’t failed me yet when it comes to his plot devices, and his writing seems very well thought out and handled with precise planning. While the plot unfolds, your characters are traveling from one planet to another. Each time, a larger chunk of the story is revealed, and each time with impressive results.

The pacing is very well handled, and it never seemed as if the story was being rushed or dragging on its heels.

At the beginning of the game, the player realizes that the humans, who were previously rescued from their dying home planet, may be part of a larger experiment. A revolt has taken place, and due to their unpredictable nature, all the humans have been targeted for extermination. You quickly take the roles of Maddock and Carelia as they try to unravel the mysteries behind the revolt, while also trying to stay alive.



Every character that joins the party all seem to have something to contribute, at least as far as the story goes. There is a heavy amount of detail on character development here, and it's easy to empathize with each of them, regardless if they are human or alien, flesh or mechanical.

My rating for Story is 5/5. The game features one of the best SciFi stories I’ve seen in a long while, and the pacing works very well here.

RESOURCES & LEVEL DESIGN:
Another strong win here. Between the use of tilesets and the careful selection of audio (many of which are from Joel Steudler), the game does not disappoint. The mapping doesn’t try to be anything more than it needs to be – no heavy use of parallax or over cluttering the environment with details – and yet it is far from being bland.

The music strikes an appropriate cord regardless of the town, dungeon, or story segment. As far as I can tell, nothing was ripped or “borrowed” without permission, and everything (including the audio) came from the RMW store, if not from the RTP or other contributors.

Perhaps one of the best pieces used is Joel Steudler’s Underworld Schemes, appropriately used for some of the story revelations, and which sends chills through me every time I hear it, it’s that good.




My rating for Resources & Level Design is 4/5. Very good selection, and handled very well here. Matseb may not go out of his way like some other mappers, but he doesn’t cut corners either.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
This is the problem with scoring. If I am to balance resources with game play and story, this is easily an above average game. But the issues I faced with the game play impacted my overall impression of the game as a whole, and almost kept me from playing it all the way through. Therefore, I felt it was necessary to bring the score down one star.

Final verdict is 2.5/5.