Eine Verschmutzung

Eine Verschmutzung is a short and interesting RPG. Seemingly inspired by Nintendo DS games where one uses a stylus to draw runes and cast spells, this game offers a brief romp to explore a dynamic form of level grinding.

The spells themselves were impossible for me to understand properly without having a look at the read-me file, and even then the whole system is not very intuitive. You are given a limited amount of time and mana to draw lines with various elements and effects on the enemies, which can be enjoyably hectic when have to time key presses to give you the right spell and element on your pallete for the situation.

Leveling up gives you attribute points to attribute to various (seemingly redundant) skill categories that are not explained. I leveled them evenly since I had no idea how any would impact my combat when I only had spells to attack.

The premise of the story is unique; the epic quest to save the world has already ended and you FAILED. You are living in the big enemy monster's nightmare world now as his play thing. Your only option is to fight your way through monsters, but the emotions of sorrow, anger and hate only fuel the monster you hope to take down. It's a clever idea that I would've liked to see explored more deeply.

This game is SHORT. At only four maps, the only thing keeping you from blazing through the game is the encounter difficulty ramp. It's not too hard to level grind and brute your way through. I would've liked to see a greater build of tense combat, but this was beside the point of the game.

Graphics are minimal; character sprites have a sort of EGA Sierra On-line game charm to them. The environments are seemingly ripped from Zelda games. Music isn't exceptional but is suitably haunting.

There are some bugs in the game; sometimes I would die when I had more than adequate health to continue playing; and the rate at which I leveled up seemed strangely uneven. I could get two consequtive level ups for gaining 10 EXP, but then fight several battles worth several hundred EXP without one. Quirky but does not break the game.

Overall, I enjoyed Eine Verschmutzung well enough. It's certainly worth the modest time it would take to play through.