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Washington D. C. gets medieval on us.
pianotm- 05/21/2017 10:19 AM
- 734 views
Name: The Bamford Tenement
Developer: DoctorRocket
Story: You're a drifter looking for a place to stay in Washington, D. C. and you find the Bamford Tenement; a building full of the most delusional people you've ever seen. Well, they all have things they need you to do. I'm pretty sure this whole game is an allegory for insanity.
Hey, bro! Like, these huge maps are, like, totally my jam.
Writing: Story and setting are interesting. Grammar and syntax isn't bad, though I have run into a couple of awkward sentences. This game mostly focuses on the sidequests. The characterizations are bit bizarre, and often fairly clever. For example, the strangeness of the twins is very nicely presented, and seems to be a representation of codependency, while Dr. Badman's eccentricity and overtly controlling nature are very reminiscent of paranoia.
Gameplay: This is a very straightforward RPG that only uses RMVXA's basic combat engine with no alterations. Most of the gameplay consists of solving the puzzles presented by the tenants of the tenement. Most of the quests are fetch quests or seek and find quests.
Mm-hmm, yeah. This is pretty much what a mugger in D. C. looks like. That's what meth does to a man.
You need to go from person to person, basically building trust, earning money and building your inventory. Most solutions aren't obvious, you'll often need to complete one quest to start another, and many quests compliment each other. Combat is as basic and dull as it comes. I'm not sure it even makes adjustments to the battle engine.
Graphics: RTP, and mostly amateur in execution. Maps tend to be large and empty, or conversely over-crowded with objects. Little effort is put into making maps look nice.
Aha! You also know the old cabinet-in-a-wall ploy, I see!
No effort is made to shift-map, meaning the carpet is just laid with no care to how it is supposed to look. The positioning of objects is sometime haphazard and the chipsets used reflect nothing of a modern city. Only the medieval RTP tiles are used to represent Washington, D. C. Maybe Washington, D. C. of the early 1800s, but Doctor Badman receives a package by helicopter! An effort should be made to at least make the setting match the appearance and vice-versa. If modern tiles weren't available (and there are plenty of free resources with modern tiles), then a story set in an earlier time period would likely be a good idea, or a city other than a modern metropolis. There are plenty of cities today that still look like the middle ages.
These carpet borders need to be shift mapped.
Music: Straight RTP; a bit on the noisy side. The wind effects used at the front of the tenement have a weird, ticking loop. It's very noticeable.
Man, the Department of Health would have kittens if they saw this place!
Conclusion: Gameplay is poorly balanced between well made quests and poor, non-existent combat design. Your mileage may vary. The game works, and it has a lot going for it. It really needed more time and energy spent on design, on taking as much care for combat and presentation as for story. Still, I can't say it's a bad game.
Developer: DoctorRocket
Story: You're a drifter looking for a place to stay in Washington, D. C. and you find the Bamford Tenement; a building full of the most delusional people you've ever seen. Well, they all have things they need you to do. I'm pretty sure this whole game is an allegory for insanity.
Hey, bro! Like, these huge maps are, like, totally my jam.
Writing: Story and setting are interesting. Grammar and syntax isn't bad, though I have run into a couple of awkward sentences. This game mostly focuses on the sidequests. The characterizations are bit bizarre, and often fairly clever. For example, the strangeness of the twins is very nicely presented, and seems to be a representation of codependency, while Dr. Badman's eccentricity and overtly controlling nature are very reminiscent of paranoia.
Gameplay: This is a very straightforward RPG that only uses RMVXA's basic combat engine with no alterations. Most of the gameplay consists of solving the puzzles presented by the tenants of the tenement. Most of the quests are fetch quests or seek and find quests.
Mm-hmm, yeah. This is pretty much what a mugger in D. C. looks like. That's what meth does to a man.
You need to go from person to person, basically building trust, earning money and building your inventory. Most solutions aren't obvious, you'll often need to complete one quest to start another, and many quests compliment each other. Combat is as basic and dull as it comes. I'm not sure it even makes adjustments to the battle engine.
Graphics: RTP, and mostly amateur in execution. Maps tend to be large and empty, or conversely over-crowded with objects. Little effort is put into making maps look nice.
Aha! You also know the old cabinet-in-a-wall ploy, I see!
No effort is made to shift-map, meaning the carpet is just laid with no care to how it is supposed to look. The positioning of objects is sometime haphazard and the chipsets used reflect nothing of a modern city. Only the medieval RTP tiles are used to represent Washington, D. C. Maybe Washington, D. C. of the early 1800s, but Doctor Badman receives a package by helicopter! An effort should be made to at least make the setting match the appearance and vice-versa. If modern tiles weren't available (and there are plenty of free resources with modern tiles), then a story set in an earlier time period would likely be a good idea, or a city other than a modern metropolis. There are plenty of cities today that still look like the middle ages.
These carpet borders need to be shift mapped.
Music: Straight RTP; a bit on the noisy side. The wind effects used at the front of the tenement have a weird, ticking loop. It's very noticeable.
Man, the Department of Health would have kittens if they saw this place!
Conclusion: Gameplay is poorly balanced between well made quests and poor, non-existent combat design. Your mileage may vary. The game works, and it has a lot going for it. It really needed more time and energy spent on design, on taking as much care for combat and presentation as for story. Still, I can't say it's a bad game.
