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A Bad Game

  • Miryafa
  • 01/16/2016 09:45 PM
  • 2919 views
I was looking for a horror game to play, and I was disappointed. For reference, I typically dislike "action" horror games, like Resident Evil, where you get to fight off monsters, because the ability to fight off enemies makes a game not scary for me. But I was drawn to this game because of its popularity, and was willing to put up with some action if the rest of the game was good.

However, I don't think this game stands up as either an action/puzzle game, nor a horror game.

Note: I haven't played One Night 2, and don't plan to after playing this game. The author might have learned from their mistakes and the next game might be a lot better. But this review is only for this game, for the author and anyone who is thinking about playing it.

Gameplay
Maybe my first and biggest complaint: There aren't enough save points. I want to be able to save as soon as I start the game so I don't have to watch the intro again, and I wasn't able to (for no good reason, as far as I can tell). I also don't like the system of going to a specific room to save, especially when certain events (see puzzles below) cause instant death, forcing me to retread all my steps up to that point. Getting 2 save CDs does not fix this problem. I'd rather be able to save anywhere.

Second: There is no run button, and there is a lot of walking between events. The walking pace is reasonable, so it wasn't annoying to not be able to run in and of itself. But the way you have to go across the map several times (like to/from the basement after getting the Access level 2 card, or to/from the lab for different things) is frustrating. The events should've been closer together.

Then the battle system. Defensive items that you use when you clip into enemies are a fine concept. The problem, as others have said, is being forced to use the strongest first. I don't like being forced to use my cannons to kill mosquitos.

Speaking of which, 1.5 minutes between plasma cannon shots is too long. There's no way this was playtested, because it was nuts. It wasn't fun to run around for 1.5 min, three times, before being allowed to win the fight. It would've been better to just have a projectile weapon and shoot the boss a few times, or reduce it to 10 seconds charging time. Then I probably would've done it as intended. Instead, I got the bosses stuck on a wall and surfed the internet until the countdown was completed. A game that makes me want to leave it and surf the internet until it's over is not a fun game.

And speaking of that more, after the boss fight is over you can't use the plasma cannon at all. Why not? It'd be mostly useless for the large mobs of weak enemies, but even at a 1.5 min charge-up time, I could still take out one or two annoying obstructions with it. Especially with the huge amount of walking required in this game, and especially in the final area.

On a side note: there's a bug where the first time I finish a boss, the game crashes. I considered quitting when that happened, and only tried again because I was on the 100% ending path, and wanted to see it for myself (as opposed to on Youtube).

Finally, the puzzles. The first time I did the acid puzzle, I put 0 ml for all 3 solutions, because I wasn't sure I had the right numbers, and I was sure I didn't have MH-1 or MH-2. Then the mixture that I didn't put in formed toxic fumes and killed me. What?!

Then I did it right, and put the solution in the mixer, but accidentally hit 0 seconds. Despite not being spun at all, the mixture formed toxic fumes and killed me. What?!

Any time a player puts less than 450 ml in the mixing part, or spins less than the required number of seconds, the response should just be "it's incomplete," not "you die".

Then the locker-password puzzle. The person who made that word puzzle isn't a security freak - they're insane. You should never use both uppercase and lowercase letters in a password puzzle unless you tell the player exactly what the words are, and you didn't, regardless of what the note said. Solving the note required solving 2 puzzles, the first of which (how to read the note) doesn't have any clues at all and requires moon logic to understand. That should have been removed.

And yes, there were jump-scares. That was neat.

Plot
Two things stood out as bad:
1. The final boss talks... A lot. I think the author forgot this was a horror game at that point, because dialogue makes a monster less scary, not more.
2. The reason for a character's survival is "because plot." I don't have a suggested fix for that, because I didn't care about that character anyway.

The rest of the plot was fine. I don't get excited about sci-fi horror, so there's not much I can say about that part of the plot.

Graphics
I don't usually care about this in an RPG Maker game, but the antagonists stood out as having a designs that were not scary. I do not even care that my enemy has a scythe when I have a stun gun, an actual gun, and a cannon. The phantom dude looked cool, but not scary.

Overall
This game is not garbage, so I give it +0.5 above the base score. But there were a bunch of things I didn't like, and they added up, dragging the score down to a 1. I don't recommend this game.

Posts

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You do know it's an Adventure/Puzzle game, right? Adventure, meaning 'story-based exploration with action elements a la Legend of Zelda'. Not horror. It may have some horror aspects but it's not a horror game and was never meant to be considered one (else it would have been marked down as Horror, as that is an option that can be chosen under the genre options).

Scoring based on how scary it is pretty silly. You might want to rework your review a bit.
Well...
One Night is a survival horror game made in RPG Maker VX, released in late 2009. It holds the dubious honour of being the very first survival horror game made for the engine.

A frightening Resident Evil-esque experience, One Night challenges you to escape from "The Complex", a crumbling, abandoned research facility while being hunted mercilessly by the remnants of a long forgotten experiment.

Relentless monsters and difficult puzzles await around every corner - can you survive the horror?
Yeeeaaah, I guess I could at least see where this guy is coming from. But that's that.
Huh. Well colour me surprised. Creator should tag it properly then.

Now I'm miffed that creator didn't tag appropriately. Apologies, Miryafa.
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