Sacred Reviews: The Retreat




Introduction

The Retreat is an entry in the McBacon Jam contest on RPG Maker.net. A contest that was meant to bring various developers that normally don't work together to create a bunch of new games for the site. Unfortunately many of those new games aren't complete yet and in my opinion that means that aren't ready to be reviewed, but if I want to get a certain achievement on the site as part of a reviewing contest I need to take a look at them. With that being said The Retreat in its current form is just a short five minute tech demo. And being a short tech demo there isn't a lot of material for me to work with. So, I apologize now if this review isn't particularly helpful.

Story

The game starts out with a short intro about your character being the only remaining member of once elite unit known as the Foxy Raiders. And no, they aren't called foxy because the unit was comprised entirely of women. They are called the Foxy Raiders because they are as fast and cunning as a fox, and just as brutal and vicious when cornered. Thankfully there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. While your unit may have been slaughtered. They may have not died in vain since you did acquire the intel that will be needed to put an end to the demon menace, if you can reach the capital with it.

The writing of this game so far is pretty solid and the basic premise of the plot has created a solid foundation to build a game around. About the only decision I find questionable is that the main character feels a bit melodramatic, but not in a way that isn't understandable. Still I'd advice shifting it down a little bit after the opening. While a melodramatic character can be used to create a highly emotional atmosphere. They can also become rather annoying after a while as well.

Gameplay

The basic premise of the game is to avoid combat while navigating around enemy patrols. On the plus side this is a different approach from a lot of the RPG Maker games I've played. On the downside the sneaking around bit in this demo is pretty easy. As long as the enemies can't see you directly, they won't acknowledge you. And lets face it is pretty weird when an enemy doesn't recognize your presence when your running right behind them or are even pressing against them from behind.

Of course, the biggest problem with the demo is all of the bugs. There are four bugs that I came across over the course of messing around with the demo:

1) If you equip the bow while still keeping the knife equipped and try to access the skill menu during combat it will cause the game to crash.

2) If you equip only the bow and try to access the skill menu you are unable to use your only special skill.

3) If you get noticed by one particular guard in this demo it will cause the game to stall out since it won't be able to initiate combat for some reason.

4) The text for the bandana's description doesn't scroll.

Graphics & Sound

It looks like the game is comprised of tile sets and musical numbers that can be found in the RTP which means the game isn't particularly impressive or possess any kind of unique identity. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does make it hard for this game to stand out amongst the sea of titles already out there.

Conclusion

The Retreat isn't ready for a review, so it definitely isn't ready for any sort of final verdict on it's worth as a project. It does have the markings of a potentially interesting project and if the game is ever finished I might check it out. Though, that will depend on how busy I am at the time of its completion.