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A solid, good game!
Mitsuhide_The_Vagrant- 01/15/2009 07:12 PM
- 927 views
"Desert Nightmare"
review by Mitsuhide_The_Vagrant
Desert Nightmare is basically an action/horror game. It was created by Kelven and translated by AznChipmunk.
You take the role of Sandra Richmont. She and her parents are on a trip to California. After stopping at a gas station, she and her parents begin to argue. While Sandra is in the bathroom, her parents end up leaving her behind! Well Sandra treads onward to the closest town alone and ends up in small community called Dusty Creek. What she doesn't know is that this town has a dark and evil history...
Graphics:
From what I understand, most of the graphics were custom made. They are damn good, too. I didn't recognize any of the chipsets, which probably backs up the fact that they were custom made. I personally believe this was the game's strong point. I'm not a graphics whore, but this game was visually beautiful. There were nice lighting effects emanating from lights and windows. Buildings and other structures cast shadows. There were also alot of pictures made for the game; most of them were made well, too. One aspect about the graphics I enjoyed was that anytime you got a game over, there was a different animation for it depending on the way you died. I thought that was pretty cool. Kelven even stuck pictures in the maps to use as windmills and ceiling fans, which I thought was a nice touch. The CMS was designed well, too. I have no complaints in the graphics department; A+ Kelven.
Score - 5/5
Music/Sound:
Another great aspect of "Desert Nightmare". All of the music was MP3's, which helped the game feel more realistic and gave off a nice mood. The sounds effects were used well and at the right time, even the woman's scream when you got a game over was good. A little annoying, but good. There's not much else I can say about it, except I'm giving it a perfect score. I liked both the music and sounds; another A+.
Score - 5/5
Gameplay:
The game was essentially meant to scare the player (I believe), but that never really happened. I was actually disappointed. However, that doesn't mean much in terms of gameplay, which in Desert Nightmare was pretty simple. There is no battling in the game, so basically the game was a series of puzzles with cutscenes in between. There technically where two different types of gameplay: puzzle solving and enemy encounters. Puzzle solving was straighforward. Locate items and use them to help solve both environmental puzzles and the like. You sometimes were given clues through notes you picked up on how to solve the puzzle. However, the puzzles got repetitive and weren't very hard to solve, and they didn't get any more difficult as the game went on. The other method, enemy encounters, was a little different. When an enemy appeared, you had to interact with the objects in the area to either trap, kill, or escape from the enemy until you could progress further in the story. It was something I'd never seen before in an RM2K3 game...and I liked it...alot. Bravo, Kelven for a pretty inventive system! Another noteworthy aspect was that almost all of the objects on each map were able to be interacted with. You could look into barrels, open drawers and cabinets and much more. Though you rarely found items from these things, I think it still deserved an honorable mention. Overall the gameplay was good, but I'm taking off a point for repetitive and pretty easy-to-solve puzzles.
Score - 4/5
Story:
This is where I feel the game let me down the most. Don't get me wrong, the story was well thought out and delivered it exceptionally well, but I'll explain a few aspects on why I was disappointed. I won't spoil anything, but in the last area of the game you find newspaper articles lying about that explained what exactly went down in Dusty Creek. I personally was still confused about some things in the end, and though sometimes that doesn't bother me, I didn't think it was explained clearly enough. The other aspect of the story that I didn't like was the monsters. Where did they come from? What was there connection to Dusty Creek? It may be possible that I missed this info, but I don't think it was there. All in all, the story pretty much delivers, don't let that aspect of my review shy you away from this game.
Score - 3/5
In Conclusion:
The positive aspects of "Desert Nightmare" shine through the negative. With great sound, graphics, and gamplay, this game is very entertaining. If you've got about 3 to 4 hours of spare time, go ahead check this one out.
FINAL SCORE...
review by Mitsuhide_The_Vagrant
Desert Nightmare is basically an action/horror game. It was created by Kelven and translated by AznChipmunk.
You take the role of Sandra Richmont. She and her parents are on a trip to California. After stopping at a gas station, she and her parents begin to argue. While Sandra is in the bathroom, her parents end up leaving her behind! Well Sandra treads onward to the closest town alone and ends up in small community called Dusty Creek. What she doesn't know is that this town has a dark and evil history...
Graphics:
From what I understand, most of the graphics were custom made. They are damn good, too. I didn't recognize any of the chipsets, which probably backs up the fact that they were custom made. I personally believe this was the game's strong point. I'm not a graphics whore, but this game was visually beautiful. There were nice lighting effects emanating from lights and windows. Buildings and other structures cast shadows. There were also alot of pictures made for the game; most of them were made well, too. One aspect about the graphics I enjoyed was that anytime you got a game over, there was a different animation for it depending on the way you died. I thought that was pretty cool. Kelven even stuck pictures in the maps to use as windmills and ceiling fans, which I thought was a nice touch. The CMS was designed well, too. I have no complaints in the graphics department; A+ Kelven.
Score - 5/5
Music/Sound:
Another great aspect of "Desert Nightmare". All of the music was MP3's, which helped the game feel more realistic and gave off a nice mood. The sounds effects were used well and at the right time, even the woman's scream when you got a game over was good. A little annoying, but good. There's not much else I can say about it, except I'm giving it a perfect score. I liked both the music and sounds; another A+.
Score - 5/5
Gameplay:
The game was essentially meant to scare the player (I believe), but that never really happened. I was actually disappointed. However, that doesn't mean much in terms of gameplay, which in Desert Nightmare was pretty simple. There is no battling in the game, so basically the game was a series of puzzles with cutscenes in between. There technically where two different types of gameplay: puzzle solving and enemy encounters. Puzzle solving was straighforward. Locate items and use them to help solve both environmental puzzles and the like. You sometimes were given clues through notes you picked up on how to solve the puzzle. However, the puzzles got repetitive and weren't very hard to solve, and they didn't get any more difficult as the game went on. The other method, enemy encounters, was a little different. When an enemy appeared, you had to interact with the objects in the area to either trap, kill, or escape from the enemy until you could progress further in the story. It was something I'd never seen before in an RM2K3 game...and I liked it...alot. Bravo, Kelven for a pretty inventive system! Another noteworthy aspect was that almost all of the objects on each map were able to be interacted with. You could look into barrels, open drawers and cabinets and much more. Though you rarely found items from these things, I think it still deserved an honorable mention. Overall the gameplay was good, but I'm taking off a point for repetitive and pretty easy-to-solve puzzles.
Score - 4/5
Story:
This is where I feel the game let me down the most. Don't get me wrong, the story was well thought out and delivered it exceptionally well, but I'll explain a few aspects on why I was disappointed. I won't spoil anything, but in the last area of the game you find newspaper articles lying about that explained what exactly went down in Dusty Creek. I personally was still confused about some things in the end, and though sometimes that doesn't bother me, I didn't think it was explained clearly enough. The other aspect of the story that I didn't like was the monsters. Where did they come from? What was there connection to Dusty Creek? It may be possible that I missed this info, but I don't think it was there. All in all, the story pretty much delivers, don't let that aspect of my review shy you away from this game.
Score - 3/5
In Conclusion:
The positive aspects of "Desert Nightmare" shine through the negative. With great sound, graphics, and gamplay, this game is very entertaining. If you've got about 3 to 4 hours of spare time, go ahead check this one out.
FINAL SCORE...
