MAX MCGEE'S PROFILE

@Max>> I like the atmosphere! Btw, is the first screen meant to be a spacecraft of some kind?

That when you bring a girl home at 4:30 the following afternoon with your hair in a mess and stinking of beer and cigarettes that it is humiliating to have her mom answer the door.

author=BlindSight link=topic=2017.msg34622#msg34622 date=1222625569
A concisely-spoken review, I admit, but I believe it's fairly proportional to what there was of the game. :]

Shadowrun: Missions
By: Max McGee

Writing/Characterization -- 8.5/10

Very simply put; the shining force of this game. Characters communicate with a suave subtley, and it's definitely clear that a commendable amount of time went into them. Dialogue is conveyed with a stark realism; not the fanciful rambling admitedly present in it's peer projects. The first ten minutes, I must say, do sort of seem as though they're meant to SLAM the player over the head with rhetoric (whoa exposition); but such is easily forgivable due to the generally engrossing dialogue.

Audio Design -- 7/10

Although passable, the soundtrack and sound design here makes few attempts to do anything more than simply get the job done. The midis are decent and do lend a small amount of atmoshpere to cutscenes and the like, but very little really stands out; leading me to believe that a negligible amount enthusiasm was put forth in selecting them.

Visuals/Presentation -- 5/10

Presentation seems bulky and awkward at times; almost occassionally on the boring side. Facesets switch back and forth arbitrarily for their respective characters; the mapping feels typically incomplete-- although ambient enough to get the job done in most cases. The battle animations and character poses seem downright lazy, and I'm sad to say that collectively the aesthetics are a disappointment.

Gameplay & Functionality -- 6.5/10

I'm not sure whether it was due to the largely incomplete status of the project or simply it's narrative-based design (which I personally have no grounds to criticize!), but I didn't happen to notice a whole lot of traditional gameplay here. The ability to congregate party members was a nice, open-ended touch, but in the end there was very little to gratify choosing one character over another-- rendering the entire thing relatively pointless.

The were a number of passability errors, and as far as I could surmise there was nothing left to do once your group had inflitrated the building. Quite a shame, because things had barely just started.

Overall -- 6.75/10

While conceptually this project seemed promising, there was simply too much hindering what I believe could have been truly entertaining. The dialogue, as mentioned, has genuine quality; but sadly I found that it wasn't quite enough to elevate the game beyond an average experience. It's worth a play-through if you're bored; but I suggest the creator direct his time toward other, more rewarding endeavors.

Thank you to everyone who had released something and an even huge-er thank you to everyone who took the time to play and review the releases! RS!IV was a great community builder.