Impulse Buys and a Crystal Towers 2 profile
By ahoodedfigure 7 Comments
I have bought:
Magic Carpet
Ultima Underworld 1 and 2
Crystal Towers 2
I think that was it.
The first two I got through GOG; I've played the first few scenarios of Magic Carpet and, despite the controls not appealing to me (I always wind up losing altitude which I have to make up for by flying at weird angles. It's the only flight game that has me wishing I could have up on the mouse actually mean up) I love the setting and the way magic works. If you've ever played Populous, it's reminiscent of that earlier Bullfrog title but you're in the middle of the world this time. My favorite spell so far is the one that lets you CREATE AN INSTA-FORTRESS FROM THE GROUND. Nice. The action can get a bit repetitive, when all you're really doing is blasting monsters, sources of energy, and rival spellcasters by clickin', but the setting and music goes a long way. I stopped playing this after I realized it was going to give me 0% for found spells in that ambiguous way that games do-- does that mean there was no spell to find, or that I somehow missed it? Is my game ruined because I didn't find the thing, since I can't go back to a previous scenario from my current game? I still will play it some more, but I wonder if I should start over and be a bit more meticulous this time.
Crystal Towers 2 overview
Crystal Towers 2 has taken up the majority of my time. Rock Paper Shotgun brought the demo to my attention and I played the hell out of it. I fell in love with it, really, because it was the kind of platformer that keeps track of tons of different little tidbits, as well as letting you keep accomplishments even if you die before completing a level. There are no lives; you get endless continues, with only your willpower to finish a level or challenge being what keeps you from soldiering on. No grinding for lives is necessary.
The game resembles the old Sonic games in some ways, but the differences are such that it's almost a strong aesthetic nod to Sonic more than anything that actually has to do with gameplay. When your character gets hit, his health drops, and this health must be replenished by finding health vials throughout the level. Your character also has a magic reserve which you can use to cast various spells, some of which help you navigate the level, some let you attack certain monsters and bust through barriers. Both health and magic are limited resources which have to be managed. You don't have to think about it too much, but it pays to use spells and sacrifice health only when you have to, making this platformer more about thinkin' and less about diving straight into the level's maw.
Yeah, it's a platformer, with a style that reminds me a bit more of Commander Keen or Sonic than Mario, although not in the actual execution of the game mechanics. Your character's jump is strange, but easy to get used to, and the way the levels are designed you usually feel like you're given enough clearance for a jump assuming you were supposed to land it without spell assistance, so it's decent even if it's initially offputting. You hop on the top of many of the enemies to kill them, although some of them are immune to this kind of attack, and because you bounce after you kill an enemy, you can combine multiple hits to get points multipliers which can make your score skyrocket (and can assist in completing challenges). You [may] collect gems throughout the level which give you points (and 100 in a level give you a medal, although I'm not sure what medals are good for other than being proud), and if you're hit you lose half of the crystals (but unlike Sonic's rings, they don't count as health at all). There are plenty of secret areas and paths in each level which contain permanent health and magic capacity upgrades, new spells, rare items, and recipes for a crafting system you unlock later. These areas are sometimes only accessible through spell and ability upgrades, but unlike Metroidvania games, it's not as though you're absolutely stuck if you don't have item X.
Ze Challenge
Why I love this game so much, though, is that each level, once complete, has challenges which you can complete in the level you've just played. Rather than making this tedious, it's actually fun to have a different focus for the level. You already have come to know the basic layout of a given level, and you may have noticed certain enemies or suspicious clusters of gems, targets, or objects. The new task may have you interact with them in a certain way to achieve the goal, and you're usually immediately removed from the level once complete, so you (usually) don't have to worry about completing the level in addition. Some of the tasks include timed races to the finish, collecting a certain amount of crystals, earning a certain amount of points, taking out all of a type of enemy, AVOIDING what is normally a common task, or my favorite, completing a level backwards (among others). Each level has tons of challenges (unlocked linearly), and each completed challenge counts toward unlocking new levels.
It should also be noted that for most location-oriented challenges, it will tell you where the nearest target is with a rotating arrow. This keeps it from being a painful hunt for most objects, and the few objects that are truly hidden are often in clever places that aren't too difficult to guess.
The drawback for this sort of system is that eventually you may reach a point where the challenges pile up such that none of them are particularly easy to complete. In any game you may reach a point where you're going to have to practice a bit to get better, but since Crystal Towers 2 gets you used to the idea that if you get frustrated with one level you can just go to a different level to try to beat another challenge, so it spoils you a bit; if ALL available challenges are a bit rough, you may be tempted to put the game down for a while, or focus on harvesting crafting materials. I have yet to reach a point where I felt like the game had reached an absolute halt, but some challenges are a bit grueling, and they definitely get tougher over time.
This is the kind of game you can play in short spurts, or marathon through it if you want. There's a hub that connects all the levels together, and there are things to discover in the hub as you unlock more powers and levels. The game rewards experimentation and curiosity, so even though it's heavily challenging at times, it's my kind of game.
The demo is a good representation of what the game has to offer; the somewhat charming story at the beginning takes a minute or two to get through, but after that you will get a quick series of messages that will show you basic mechanics, and then you'll be shown to your first level. About the only thing that the demo doesn't show is how the difficulty ramps up in some of the later levels. You get quite a few levels and powers to mess with in the demo, and your saved game profile can import into the five dollar full version if you want it later.
Download the demo here. It has about 15% of the unlockable game content available, which suggests I have a lot more to explore now that I have the full version.
Any impulse buys you guys make recently?