The Clones of Evil - Episode 1: The Galaxy of M!
hehe
Grelphy, he's posting with white-colored text... click-drag your mouse across the box to highlight the text there and reveal the "hidden message." :-)
While I personally can't imagine Keen and Mort being friends beyond a temporary alliance to achieve a mutual goal, I'm not completely averse to it in other peoples' work.
While I personally can't imagine Keen and Mort being friends beyond a temporary alliance to achieve a mutual goal, I'm not completely averse to it in other peoples' work.
Grrr, it's only because it appeared in a light post... my monitor washes out light colors. I can see (and even read) text in the dark posts, but the light posts...
</pointless rant>
And I personally think that using mort clones, androids, whatever, works best if they're very obviously not mort himself.
</pointless rant>
And I personally think that using mort clones, androids, whatever, works best if they're very obviously not mort himself.
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CommanderSpleen
- Posts: 1017
- Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2003 12:11 pm
- Location: The Land of Sparkly Things
- Contact:
Some late feedback!
Wow... I'm replying to a thread that's 15 months old.
During the insane hours of yesterday morning, I felt like playing a mod, and ended up choosing this one. I got frustrated and didn't quite finish it, but here is a chunk of feedback to offer for the levels I played.
Firstly, the M-shaped lollipops are a nice touch.
The arrows hinting at which direction to go in order to find a key area are useful, helping the levels to flow well.
Nice to see the someone using the patch that makes the doors clip like walls instead of jelly.
The underground areas have a nice ambience, especially combined with the colourful platforms. I'm tempted to say they're Keen6ish, but Keen 6 had a more organic feel. I'd say more like the original Duke games. In fact, the girder areas are also very reminiscent of oldschool Duke, so I'm assuming you took some inspiration from them).
Although the first time one comes across an underground area, it's difficult to tell if it's safe to fall down that pit. However, I believe there was a small section showing up just off the bottom of the screen, and after realising there's no other path but down it does become apparent.
The launchpad scenery in the first level was quite well done as well, as are the interweaving pipes above ground. And I was intrigued how you incorporated secret areas throughout the mod.
The first level is a bit too evil, IMKO. Those obstacle course spikes, perfect timing jumps and an insidious combination of creatures in the one small space detracted from my enjoyment of the level. Fortunately, the 10+ attempts were made a bit more bearable after applying the infinite lives patch.
Kudos on the shooting clone (robot). I like how you gave the same basic characters varying tasks (though as stated somewhere above, lacing Morts so freely does detract from his menacing stature). It's also interesting that one needs to employ strategic manouvers at one point (the pit of spikes that can only be pogoed over) when out of ammo.
That 'path' level was an interesting concept, but once you've played the mod once or twice you'll easily know which one to go down for the biggest reward. At least you can't back out when playing the mod through, since there's no way to die.
Grey is overused in your tileset, and later levels start to emphasise the limited selection of scenery. After collecting all the items, you end up with large areas of bare grey. Very dreary and depressing. You obviously put in a lot of effort in this regard, but many parts were nonetheless overlooked.
The girder maze was both interesting and infuriating. Interesting for its overall puzzleness and the way you used the arrow indicators, but infuriating for the gaping bottomless pit at the very start, which made for many, many, many replays after I kept making stupid little timing errors, which got worse as I kept playing.
That flashback to the oldschool Keen 1 domes was classy.
The map was rather arbitrary. Too many optional levels, and not a very well thought-out structure. Those cloudy starscapes overlapping the boundaries of the space platforms look nice, as does the overall map theme, but the fact that so few levels have any bearing on the story is somewhat disappointing.
I skipped the level obstructing the final one. Don't remember which it was, but you just tried to cram far too many traps and puzzles into one un-saveable space.
You used the shooting clones very well in the entry to the final level, and there are certainly some very nice elements following. However, again you tried to fit too much into too small a space. The overuse of the cloning tanks also degrades the atmosphere.
If the same level was broken up into several smaller levels, you would have had both the opportunity for an interesting map structure and a much happier Spleen.
After countless tries at the last level, I gave up and quit.
A well-made mod overall. Thanks for creating it. You used some very interesting experimental ideas, which worked out for the most part. However, the levels try to do far too much at once [I'm guilty of this same flaw in the beta releas of CKMB, but things shall be different in the final release], and the overall theme is disparate, obviously with little thought given to the bigger picture of how it all fits together.
Some of this may sound overly critical, but hopefully you'll be able to use this information as a positive reference when working on your next mod.
During the insane hours of yesterday morning, I felt like playing a mod, and ended up choosing this one. I got frustrated and didn't quite finish it, but here is a chunk of feedback to offer for the levels I played.
Firstly, the M-shaped lollipops are a nice touch.
The arrows hinting at which direction to go in order to find a key area are useful, helping the levels to flow well.
Nice to see the someone using the patch that makes the doors clip like walls instead of jelly.
The underground areas have a nice ambience, especially combined with the colourful platforms. I'm tempted to say they're Keen6ish, but Keen 6 had a more organic feel. I'd say more like the original Duke games. In fact, the girder areas are also very reminiscent of oldschool Duke, so I'm assuming you took some inspiration from them).
Although the first time one comes across an underground area, it's difficult to tell if it's safe to fall down that pit. However, I believe there was a small section showing up just off the bottom of the screen, and after realising there's no other path but down it does become apparent.
The launchpad scenery in the first level was quite well done as well, as are the interweaving pipes above ground. And I was intrigued how you incorporated secret areas throughout the mod.
The first level is a bit too evil, IMKO. Those obstacle course spikes, perfect timing jumps and an insidious combination of creatures in the one small space detracted from my enjoyment of the level. Fortunately, the 10+ attempts were made a bit more bearable after applying the infinite lives patch.
Kudos on the shooting clone (robot). I like how you gave the same basic characters varying tasks (though as stated somewhere above, lacing Morts so freely does detract from his menacing stature). It's also interesting that one needs to employ strategic manouvers at one point (the pit of spikes that can only be pogoed over) when out of ammo.
That 'path' level was an interesting concept, but once you've played the mod once or twice you'll easily know which one to go down for the biggest reward. At least you can't back out when playing the mod through, since there's no way to die.
Grey is overused in your tileset, and later levels start to emphasise the limited selection of scenery. After collecting all the items, you end up with large areas of bare grey. Very dreary and depressing. You obviously put in a lot of effort in this regard, but many parts were nonetheless overlooked.
The girder maze was both interesting and infuriating. Interesting for its overall puzzleness and the way you used the arrow indicators, but infuriating for the gaping bottomless pit at the very start, which made for many, many, many replays after I kept making stupid little timing errors, which got worse as I kept playing.
That flashback to the oldschool Keen 1 domes was classy.
The map was rather arbitrary. Too many optional levels, and not a very well thought-out structure. Those cloudy starscapes overlapping the boundaries of the space platforms look nice, as does the overall map theme, but the fact that so few levels have any bearing on the story is somewhat disappointing.
I skipped the level obstructing the final one. Don't remember which it was, but you just tried to cram far too many traps and puzzles into one un-saveable space.
You used the shooting clones very well in the entry to the final level, and there are certainly some very nice elements following. However, again you tried to fit too much into too small a space. The overuse of the cloning tanks also degrades the atmosphere.
If the same level was broken up into several smaller levels, you would have had both the opportunity for an interesting map structure and a much happier Spleen.
After countless tries at the last level, I gave up and quit.
A well-made mod overall. Thanks for creating it. You used some very interesting experimental ideas, which worked out for the most part. However, the levels try to do far too much at once [I'm guilty of this same flaw in the beta releas of CKMB, but things shall be different in the final release], and the overall theme is disparate, obviously with little thought given to the bigger picture of how it all fits together.
Some of this may sound overly critical, but hopefully you'll be able to use this information as a positive reference when working on your next mod.
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Stealthy71088
- Posts: 583
- Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:54 pm
- Location: NY
That's interesting. Genius314 started posting a month before I did. He's an old timer?
This mod really impressed me when it came out with the puzzleness of the levels. I still consider it as one of the best mods released to this date. Granted, Thats a pretty big category that I dont narrow down very much, but...
This mod really impressed me when it came out with the puzzleness of the levels. I still consider it as one of the best mods released to this date. Granted, Thats a pretty big category that I dont narrow down very much, but...
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CommanderSpleen
- Posts: 1017
- Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2003 12:11 pm
- Location: The Land of Sparkly Things
- Contact:
Hehe--I went back and played the first few levels of this again--this is very well presented. The title screen sets the tone, and the dark colors give it a creepy mood.
Sure, there's a lot of grey, and you really used a ton of those clone tanks, but the gameplay in certain parts is very well constructed--there's a definite sense of flow. :) Congratulations again on the successful release!
Sure, there's a lot of grey, and you really used a ton of those clone tanks, but the gameplay in certain parts is very well constructed--there's a definite sense of flow. :) Congratulations again on the successful release!