An Altered Course

An Altered Course is a Puzzle game made with RPG Toolkit. And I’m going to off start of by saying right away that this game is not very good. But before I get into why, I want to explain some of my credentials of “How I know this game isn't good.”

An Altered Course is the second game I have played, and reviewed, for RPG Toolkit. So I sort of know what this engine is capable of and what a decentish game made with it should look like. And the other game I played that used this engine was pretty damn good!

Graphics:

This game features a very basic tile set. The ground, trees, rocks, and other tiles are decent enough to look at and mesh well with each other. What doesn't mesh well? Cut off tiles such as trees or mountains. This would have been much nicer to look at if the trees or mountains had been completed.



But what’s really annoying is that white flashing graphic that is always following your character. Right from the start of the game you will be sent into a epileptic seizure. And by god you’ll be ready to quite after just 10 minutes of staring at the same flashing image go on and off again. Luckily for you I forced myself to play as much as humanly possible before the game crashed…

Sound:

Simple and irritatingly repetitive. Okay, maybe it not that terrible. But combine the background sound with the cut off graphics and the flashing pizza symbol and it gets on your nerves real fast.

Game Play:

The first area is a forest maze. You need to walk around to find the correct path. Along the way you can read signs or talk to people to help you along your way. The area is split into a higher area and a lower area. There are also some hidden paths. The maze is pretty simple and boring to say the least of it. Though you will get equipment for your character that will give you more options in your game play later. What would have been really nice is an option to save anywhere. And considering that this is a pretty basic puzzle game I didn't see the reason why I couldn't do this. The final nail in the coffin was the C++ game crash. And because I didn't have a save file I couldn't continue my journey from where I was. And I couldn't convince myself to replay the portion I had already gone through. And thus I knew the fate of this game’s pending review.

Overall:

First impressions are everything. And the first thing that will be drilled into your brain upon entering this world is a flashing white symbol. For those with the patience to go on there may be a game to be found. Though the early levels have little, if anything, to offer in this dim hope. The most impressive part of the game was the title screen and the menu. If your not into that then there’s little else to be found here. I think I’m more than generous in giving this game a 1 / 5.