Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW -- October 17-23 or something like that, I think...

Taking time from trying to finish a review to do this. Same rules apply, where I judge reviews and pick three, with no more than one per person eligible.

And with no further ado, here are the winners! And with a lot of reviews, you really earned something if you placed today!

THIRD PLACE

hastypixel's Skyborn (PC)

Huh, Kemco's not the only company making all sorts of indie JRPGs. Their games are cheaper than these, even with the Bundle sale, but interesting. You did a good job of explaining what works and doesn't work here, and much like a Kemco game, there's apparently a solid foundation that's somewhat let down by how, as you said, "There's no getting away from the fact that this is an Indie RPG". It's a good, comprehensive review with only one real flaw: it could use a bit more organization, as sometimes, you'll be making a point and then suddenly shift directions and comment on something else out of the blue. For one example, just look at the last paragraph before the "What's fun?" and so on conclusion. You're talking about how the graphics look good and suddenly segue into "The things Skyborn does well are marred by the things it doesn't get quite right." To me, that's the sort of statement that leads into what didn't work -- not a conclusion after you've already done a good job of mentioning all the things that didn't work out. Still, as I said, this is a very detailed look at a game I hadn't heard of that was able to break into the top three this week.

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SECOND PLACE

EmP's Umbrella Corps (PC)

Oh…wow…this was interesting. I hadn't even heard of this RE-based title and for good reason, I guess. I think the main thing I liked about this review was simply the tone, where I got the idea you played this game and found it almost impossible to take seriously in that, "Yeah, it's bad, but there's something kind of funny about it" sort of way. The zombie jammer stuff was kind of neat and your "almost disbelief" at how players move more quickly while slithering on their bellies and how the cover system doesn't really work was really effective in portraying a game that's not good, but not a complete loss, as it does provide a certain amount of entertainment (even if inadvertently).

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REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)

Nightfire's Darkest Dungeon (PC)

For the second straight time that I've done RotW, you win and EmP gets second. Interesting. This is just a legitimately effective review, as you talk about how fun and cool this game was, highlighting all sorts of neat elements such as the quirks and insanities a character might gradually get inflicted upon him or her, as well as how that ties in with the rogue-like setting. And then…boom. It all goes up in smoke because a vocal group of players decided the game HAD to be a lot more difficult, leading to the designers adding all sorts of annoying, "fake difficulty" things that detracted from all the stuff that worked. Seems there should have been a better way to make the game tougher like, I don't know, nerfing that good character build that was overpowered, but what do I know? Anyway, this was just an awesome review to read. It wins.

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And that's that for this week. Tune in later to see more reviews getting judged by other people.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

Thank yooou! And gratz to EmP and Hasty, too. There was a lot of good competition this week.

The saddest part about the whole Darkest Dungeon thing is that the developers could've mitigated a lot of the damage done to their game by simply shrugging their shoulders at the community and saying "we don't care". After all, Darkest Dungeon was still a really good game back in its Early Access days even if it wasn't perfect; they just needed to find a way to be okay with that and improve on what was already there.

The problem was never that Darkest Dungeon was a bad game; the problem is that players are a clever bunch who will always find the best, easiest way to break a game no matter what, and when they do, they will tell the entire internet about it. That's just video games for ya; there's nothing anybody can do about that. But I suppose with a kickstarter-backed game it's far riskier to ignore the community than it would be with a retail title, and the developers must appear to listen and respond, even to the worst ideas the community has to offer...

placid like acid

Yeah, I agree with that. It's just a matter of finding the right balance between taking in feedback and remaining true to your vision. To me, immediately placing certain aspects such as corpses into a "on/off" slider deal would have worked in a "if you want more of a challenge, activate these options!" sort of way. Or creating another difficulty level where afflictions happen more often and corpses exist. Or simply nerfing good party builds.

I think, from what you said, what they did feels more like making knee-jerk reactions to a vocal group's criticisms that detracted from the game for other players, who hadn't put the effort and time into breaking the existing game and, therefore, were really left wondering why "hard" became "impossible" overnight.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

Congrats to Hasty and Nightfire on well deserved spots. Congrats to me, too. And on OD for getting this out with only a little prodding.

Corps was dumb and pointless, but it does have a kind of goofy adorableness to it if you look hard enough. Doesn't matter though; Res 6 is my Silent Hill: Downpour. A game that's lost so much sight of what it should have been it's made it practically impossible for me to go back to a series I used to love.

For us. For them. For you.