So, double-post, but...
Patrick asked us, the testers, if a few of us would be willing to put our thoughts together as a sort of "review" of the game. I'm going to try and refrain from spoilers as much as I can, but be warned; there might be a few mild ones in here somewhere.
So, anyways. Planet of the Z-Bots. Where to begin? I think I'll split my thoughts into five categories. Keep in mind these are just my opinions, so yours may vary once you've played it.
Graphics - Visually, PoTZ's graphical fidelity is somewhere between WA1 and MoFI - It doesn't have the same huge, jungle canopies that MoFI featured, but it definitely takes advantage of the engine's flexibility.
Something that I find quite nice, for that matter, is that textures have been used quite variably - Textures that would otherwise be seen only on the side of floor tiles end up being the side of a wall, for instance. Not a huge change, I know, but there's enough variation to make things look very nice.
The new level textures also look visually appealing, and several MoFI/WA1 textures have been given new tiles. Overall, the game does look quite nice.
Some of the new scenery models look a bit... odd when you put them next to ones from WA1/MoFI, but overall there's not too much of an issue - Everything still looks alright.
Speaking of Graphics, since I'm not sure where else to put this, one very welcome change from MoFI is in the Floing bubbles - When they're about to burst, they'll turn bright red for a second, giving the player time to get out of the way should something hazardous be inside. This is a real lifesaver and makes one late-game adventure (Patrick, you know the one
) much more tolerable.
Audio - Now, okay, there's not a whole lot to comment on here because not a whole lot has changed since WA1 and MoFI. There are a few minor changes that I think are for the better - For instance, if the player character flies into a wall (via spring or such), they now have a small "oof" voice clip, and NPC's now each have a different voice clip when talking to the player, as opposed to just using the player's voice "Hello!" sound.
In terms of new elements and their audio, there's not much to say - The sounds all fit quite well. There are a few sounds in there for Z-Bots that I find quite amusing, I think it's best if I just let you guys wait and see.
When it comes to the music: All of the new tracks sound great. There are five or six that I remember, and they're all fitting for where they're used (for that matter, Muzozavr, well done on the Uo soundscape, it's excellent.
)
Story - Without spoiling anything, the story is well presented. It's done in a way where people who haven't finished MoFI can get into the game just as easily as people who have.
There are a few callbacks to the classic trilogy (okay, like, two, but still), as well as some references to the other Adventures games, which really helps "complete" the Adventures trilogy.
Gameplay - Oh boy, where to start?
All the new elements cooperate with each other very nicely, as well as with older elements. While there are a few elements that act similar, every single one has a "purpose" to it. I can see some people coming up with devious puzzles once the Editor's released.
I think there's a relatively good balance of puzzle/action levels, as well as a mix of the two - Saying that, it's probably safe to say it leans a bit more towards Action than MoFI did.
Speaking of MoFI, that brings me to the last thing I feel I should comment on...
Difficulty - Now, okay, I suppose you could say this is really just part of the Gameplay section, but I don't care, here it is.
To begin with, the difficulty curve is definitely smoother than MoFI's. I'd say PoTZ generally sticks around a difficulty level between WA1 and MoFI, which I feel is just perfect.
Saying that, some of the endgame adventures most certainly rival MoFI in difficulty - However, there's generally a bit more "visible logic" in them. That's not to say that MoFI's adventures are bad, or that having a cleverly hidden solution is bad - Neither of those statements are true. As much as I've moaned about MoFI's difficulty level, I still love it, it's still a good game.
What I mean is that even in some of the harder PoTZ adventures, it's generally a bit easier than MoFI to piece things together properly.
(unless you're me, in which case half of these adventures come down to "omg is this possible")
One potential issue the player can run into here is that there's no "set order" for adventures in this game. Rather, after the "intro" section, the player ends up in a "central hub" where they can choose to head off to a few different areas in whichever order they like.
Thing is, some of the areas the player can go to are a bit harder than others. It's nothing too major, here - Generally everything around this "mid-section" it on an equal playing field, so the player won't have too much trouble.
In terms of length... Bearing in mind that it's variable, PoTZ ended up taking me about 13 and a half hours, about an hour longer than WA1. I'm not going to get into how long MoFI took me, because the answer would be "far too long".
TL;DR - PoTZ is great you should all buy it 11/10 points
