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Into The Woods Again

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  • 10/25/2015 08:52 AM
  • 1858 views


A Game Made By: GreyInvidia
Created Using: RPG Maker VX Ace
It's A: SIMULATION Game
That Roughly Takes Around: 10 - 20 Minutes To Complete
And It's A... COMPLETED GAME!!!


Ahhh…nothing like playing a good ol’ scary game this time around - just in time for Halloween! And what sort of hellish game are we playing today, kidies? Well, it’s none other than… *looks on the box*

…Townlore 2.0… *confused look*



(What? Whaddya mean I still gotta do it? What promise!? What are you talkin’ abo…?)

Well, I’m going to ADDIT to my playlist and make it review # 51 and release it sometime in October. It will be interesting to see just how much has changed since the original Townlore…


(- Aw f*ck…)

Well - I guess we’re doing Townlore today, folks! (…again)

So…some of you might remember my old review on the original Townlore sometime around last year which was a game based off a creepypasta story created by GreyInvidia using RPG Maker VX Ace. While some enjoyed the game for what it was and what it did, I didn’t particularly like it that much… The real-time clock issue with constantly setting and resetting my system’s internal clock along with the desolate gameplay with the only big payoff coming from a semi-predictable jumpscare at the end just wasn’t worth it enough to me as a whole and it quickly got tossed into the trash bin…where all recycled games go!

While it wasn’t particularly a “bad game,” per say, especially for creepypasta game standards, it just felt rather flat and really wasn’t that much fun to play... So when I found out that GreyInvidia released an updated version of Townlore just about a month ago, I couldn’t believe that he decided to go back and rework on the game again. I mean, was there really any need for an update to this game? Either way, it got me intrigued that there could be a lot more to this new version besides good pixel art and a well-timed jumpscare. Even the new screenshots showing off some of the new features was enough to peak my interest again.

But I guess the main question here is does this game improve on its former predecessor in a big way and is worthy of the ultimate creepypasta game? Or is this just the same ol’ useless bag of bones that I reviewed ages ago.

Well - there’s no time like the present! Let’s go take that magical step into Townlore once again…

The Story


Oh no… NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN!!!


Once again, just like in the original, we’re given a small snippet of the supposive creepypasta at hand that comes bundled with the game before we end up straight diving into it... (Yay, more reading! *shrugs*)

While the original game provided a more comprehensive story centering around a police officer who happened on one of his nightly duties patrolling around town to find a cursed game that once belonged to a man who just committed suicide and gave a copy of said game to his son (father of the year, everybody), this new story is a bit on the short side and doesn’t waste any of your time by getting right into the thick of things. Basically, this guy gets a hold of the mighty, legendary game that is Townlore from one of his old work buddies and begins to try out the game despite his friend telling him otherwise… (Ba*tard, I’ll show you otherwise!)

After playing it for a little while and discovering that…



…the guy soon finds out like we all eventually find out at some point in time that you can just simply fast forward and rewind time by using the system’s internal clock function in order to see all the different events play out without having to go through all that painful waiting process. And after reaching a certain point in time and seeing now that he can pass through into the woods, the guy is uber-excited to find out what happened next…

…until he eventually starts taking that rat poison that he mentions earlier…

(…Poor, poor ba*tard… Even you were too beautiful for this world…)

Soooo, yeah…guy happens to die and says something about “not going into the woods,” and stuff, and “following the rules”. (Pfft…like that’s going to stop us!)

So, yeah, not really the most bone chillingist of tales to come from a creepypasta readme file – but whatever! Nobody really reads that crap anyway, so let’s get into the meat of the beast…!

…which really hasn’t changed all that much. The game starts off just like it did in the original where selecting a New Game brings you to this creepy, LSD like-world of a mess with a woman crying in the background with some heavy breathing on the side and the clock below going absolutely apeshit. Regardless of what you do and how much time you waste on this screen of uncomfortableness, you’ll be stuck here and simply have to restart.

Upon restarting, you can now select Continue and actually play the game from here…and that’s where our story truly begins…

You play as a young woman named Pandora who lives in the mainland of town while studying at the university with the rest of her friends and associates. Pandora LOVES to collect strange and weird looking artifacts and specimens from the local caverns and show them to her college professor, Mr. Wolfgang. And when she’s not doing that, she likes to write articles, make games and even decorate her room whenever she has the time to do it. It seems like life is pretty darn good for her, it seems…

However, one innocent enough night while walking throughout the outskirts of town, curiosity seems to get the best of Pandora as she finds that the local watchgoat has fallen asleep and the entrance to the woods is now completely unguarded. Pandora has always been curious about what magnificent sort of specimens could be lurking deep within there but knows that she, like the rest of the townsfolk, have been warned constantly not to go inside, as it’s supposedly very, very dangerous in there. But this chance could be the only chance that she ever gets to go into the woods. And besides, “What’s the worst thing that can happen,” she says to herself.

Tsk, tsk, tsk… (Oh, Pandora, Pandora… What ever shall we do with you…?)

So, yeah, the story itself hasn’t really changed all that much in the grand scheme of things, but I do like how in this particular version that there’s a little bit more backstory on Pandora’s character than before. We find out a little bit more about who she is, why she’s currently living on the mainland, and we even get to go to the university that she’s studying in. Now that’s progression!

The Gameplay


Let me in already, you goat ba*tard!


So what exactly has changed this time around? Well, on the surface of things, it looks like quite a lot of improvements have been made since then, but, honestly, it’s pretty much the same old, same old expect for a few noticeable differences.

Once again, just like in the previous version, this game continues to use the real-time clock functionality that GreyInvidia continues to swear by and die by. And although it’s a key component towards the game’s initial design process in the beginning, I’m still not the biggest fan in the world of going with this said design choice... Part of the problem plagues around essentially “waiting” for the right moment to access a particular something that you either have to wait to play the game naturally at the correct specific time, or save your game, log out of the program, change your date and time settings manually, forcing to you eventually having to adjust the whole thing later on when you’re done, which is really tedious, and then going back into the game just to play a small portion of it. This game basically revolves around wasting your time. And although there are some fans of this game who didn’t mind this design choice, I still continue to question it and still continue to think that it was a bad idea.

Despite all of that, there are definitely some gameplay related changes that I felt worked out in the game’s overall favor, as one of my other key complaints in the original is that this game didn’t really have that much to do in it other than just walking around town and talking to a bunch of NPC’s with only one semi-predictable jumpscare in the end. Well, now there’s quite a few extra things to do that makes this game a bit more noteworthy to play than before.

First off, there’s a cave in the middle of town that you go to before your untimely trip into woods that allows Pandora to collect specimens and valuable treasures to bring back to her college professor for examining in order to earn some extra money on the side that she can use to purchase various interior decorations for her house, this includes buying some additional wallpaper, candles, a bookshelf, and a couple of other things to make her place look a bit more “classy”. As you wander throughout the cave, an explanation mark will pop up above Pandora’s head, and if you can manage to hit the decision key just at the right moment you’ll be rewarded with a particular item. (Finally, something worthwhile to do!)

But don’t get too excited about all that, as a couple of trips down to the caves will earn you more than enough money to buy pretty much anything that you need in the shop, which then makes this whole sidequest completely redundant after a while.



(Well, cave, you were fun while you lasted…)


The decorations themselves are a nice bonus to include, but it’s not really that fulfilling of a reward after a while, especially when there’s only around seven different decorations to buy in total.

Oh, speaking of that shop that I mentioned earlier – you can actually leave the f**king Mainland this time around!!! :D





But…it’s not as impressive as that might sound…

Yes, you can finally leave the mainland by boat, something that a lot of people wanted to do in the original version but never had the chance to do it before – well, now you can! If you can manage to get down to the west side of town before…I dunno, I believe it was around 6 o’clock? You can now catch a boat that can take you the other side, which includes a shop and the university that Pandora (gets her drug money from) goes to school to. It’s nice to finally be able to travel outside of town for a change, but there’s really not that much there other than just the “wow” factor for people who played the original that you can finally leave that sorry cursed of a dump town behind…(at least for a little while).

But other than those two editions, I think my personal favorite is the edition of a “second” screamer, which totally caught me off guard beforehand and I really wasn’t expecting something like that to happen, ‘cause I thought that the ending portion was the exact same one like the original, but it’s a nice way to close out the game with a proper ending like that. This is how creepypasta games are supposed to end, people, with a bang, not a whimper.

Overall, I like the new additions; it gives me more bang for my bandwith.

The Soundtrack


So Pandora had this thing ALL along…


If you’ve played the original Townlore, you’ll find that the music selection really hasn’t changed since the original game; all the same tracks from the original are there and present and left entirely untouched, which is the way I guess that the creepypasta gods intended it to be.

Out of all the changes that were made for this particular version, the music and sound department were left mainly unchanged, which I guess is just fine. But that’s not to say there aren’t any new tracks that were added to this version - oh no. This game actually has a couple of new music tracks.

“Forest,” which is used during the cave exploration parts, is what you would expect from exploring a dark, dank, creepy cave, as it has this unsettling vibe to it that makes you think that something along the lines is going to come out of the darkness and grab you eventually. While more up-tempo than what you usually would expect, I think this song works out just fine, but my main problem is, just like a lot of the music tracks presented in this game are that the length of the songs are extremely short and only uses a couple of notes in them which repeat quite often and listening to a track after a while can definitely start to get on your nerves. As for the other track featured, “Lazy Town” plays when you’re on the map screen after travelling by boat, and it sounds pretty good in-game, especially when its sped up, and it sounds like something that you would hear from Animal Crossing or from Super Mario RPG. This track doesn’t even sound like it fits in a particular game like this - but I like it, as it adds a bit of a lighthearted humorous charm to it that the rest of the game doesn’t seem to have. It’s not bad, actually.

I’m still not the biggest fan of this soundtrack as a whole, even with the new additions added in. The songs still come off as very short and repetitive in nature while not sounding nearly as pleasant on the ears. It does work for the game’s overall setting, I guess, but I wouldn’t call it a slam dunk.

The sound effects are used quite well to its advantage and it definitely contributes to the creepiness factor, especially with that heavy breathing sound effect that plays during certain parts and that Pandora crying clip. The overall sound department is just fine as a whole… I just wished that the music could be just as good…(maybe it’s just me).

The Aesthetics


Pandora: "…It’s night time, you dipshit."


Now I remember from the original Townlore that the graphical presentation for the game was pretty well done and it was one of my favorite aspects about it. Well, apparently this version of Townlore got a major graphical overhaul and it looks even better than before! Everything about this game just looks better, from the backgrounds that seem to have a lot more detail put into them, to the character sprites that seem way more alive than before, to the cool after effects, like the falling leaves from the trees in the forest area to the glitchyness effect when things start to go to shit. This game now just has that polished shine that looks absolutely fantastic and it’s probably one of the better looking creepypasta games out there now. I mean, I remember the character sprites looking a lot more taller, more proportioned and more human-like before, but now they’ve been shrunk down and have much better quality facial features and have a more distinctive style now. The game looks great, and it’s easily the better looking of the two. The only issue that I can think of that I came across was that Pandora doesn’t have a climbing animation for when she’s climbs latter’s and stuff that looks a bit weird to me – but that’s about it.

The End Result


Uh oh…it looks like the LSD is starting to kick in again!


I can definitely say that this version of Townlore is an improvement over the original one in every single way other than the initial creepypasta that comes with it. With this more superior version around, there’s really no reason to play the original one anymore, as I recommend that if you want to play any of the Townlores that you play this one and this one only – capiche?

As for the overall score, I’m having a bit of trouble particularly rating this one… As a creepypasta type of game, it definitely is better and more indepth than some of the other creepypasta games out there, and you can definitely tell that a lot of work was put into this one to at least try to cater to both fields. But as a game, even with the new mechanics added in, this game is still based around a lot of waiting around for the right parts to happen with very little happening in-between. Yeah, you can collect specimens and treasures to earn more money to buy new decorations for Pandora’s little hut, but after a couple of trips you can basically get all that you need and the decorations themselves really don’t offer that much of an reward as it’s more of a cheap way of tacking on an additional ten minutes to the game. Jesus, I’m torned!

I think this is one of the types of games that simply come down to the user itself. If you’re a fan of creepypasta-like games and are in the mood for something different while providing a chilling atmosphere then Townlore 2.0 might tickle your fancy. But for others looking for a more indepth horror-like game experience with something that’s a little bit more worthwhile, then this game probably isn’t for you. And as for the casual fan, like myself, you’ll better off playing something else.


Pandora: "F**k this. I’m outta here!"






OVERALL GRADE:
1.5 / 5 - D ~ Proceed With EXTREME Caution.