The White Album

Picked this one for a stream game as it seemed to have a really nice looking visual aesthetic that focused on solid blocks of terrain rather than your typical fade from solid to water.

Initially all was well and good. The games are explained to have been made while bored one day and felt like 24 Hours of ZZT games. Enemies are basic and the simple graphical style looks to be quick to work with.

The writing was offbeat and humorous! Some boards had narration presented on the board itself including little apologies for things that might become inaccurate later as the player defeated foes.

So it had some moments with sketchier writing. Lots of "you fight like a GIRL" level basic sexism that you'd find just as easily in a major studio's video game in 2006 as well as from somebody consuming that culture. It's not surprising to see. Surely this is just the author regurgitating stereotypes not out of agreement, but because we all understand the point they're supposed to be making.

But it just keeps getting worse? My fingers were crossed when I reached a brothel. Alas it's as you'd expect. Kill all "whores" as they're called. They're working with Dracula. At one point one on the street approaches you and gives the player the choice to shoot first or talk to her. The protagonist is pretty ambivalent about shooting her, and while there could be a statement there about how interacting with games means defaulting to violence and perhaps that doesn't need to be the case, Undertale this ain't.

The only other girl in the game is a secretary who the player admonishes repeatedly. I think it's supposed to be a joke but today it's not funny.

I eventually just stopped playing. The boards are nice to look at in the early worlds. The writing is entertaining in the early worlds. The gameplay is primitive, but this is just as much supposed to be a way to relieve boredom for the player as it is the author rather than a commitment. Making that commitment though just makes you want to keep going less and less.

I'll admit to liking these games.

Dwa's seven or eight games (found in 'The White Album' and 'How I Won the War') all sport simplistic graphics, good pacing, fun situations, and recurring characters. It's fun!

But they aren't without their problems. Most caves are too big and confusing, and you don't get enough torches to navigate them properly. Many enemies simply chase you down at full speed and clobber you to death. I suspect most of the problems are tongue-in-cheek, but they're still annoying.

Some areas require a bit of back-and-forth horizontal walking, so you can either turn the speed up and be destroyed by enemies or walk at a snail's pace.

... But I'll admit they have personality.

Meh. The graphics wernt bad. Its not really graphics that make a game, and since you didn't use the STK toolkit I wont rate you on them.

I like the game, and many parts of the story line. Its simple without being too noobish and its fun without there being a pile of monsters all over the place. = )

Having said that theres just one problem... Not enough health. Granted I could just cheat for it. But my little brother downloaded and modified (more like buggered up) my copy of zzt so I can't. (So I'm really firing exprience points at these creatures.)

And the game called death that is inculuded with it. You should work on that a bit. It kind of has no point...

Other than that this was pretty good. 4 out of 5.

A good game. Not the best graphix but some nice storyline. The cannaball vampire thing was a really nice idea. There was some improper content but otherwise it was one of the best games i have played