HerbieG's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Recoil]

I didn't like one thing from the very beginning: the controls. I always preferred arrow keys to move. Could you add something like "swap controls" button?

[Terceris]

2 stars for the effort. The game itself is a bit chaotic and very unpolished. Few things:
1. Some of the enemies are simply invincible, I can stand just next to them shooting and they take completely no damage, so you already know one bug.
2. It would be good to have a grenade quantity indicator to know if you still have some.
3. You write: Marecans no longer shove you on contact, in fact they are still annoyingly pushing me all around.
4. In my opinion the firepower is not strong enough and the grenades do not make much difference since they do not cause significant damage.
5. Does the game have a saving feature? It seems a bit longer, so it should have one with a level select option.
6. If you could implement one - the upgrade system would be good since you are encountering stronger and stronger enemies and you still have only your basic, too weak weapons.
7. It is weird that you can shoot through the elements of the stage.
8. I sometimes even noticed that some Marecans were shooting at me while not being turned towards me.
Not to be just critical: I definitely like the music in the game :-)

Illummix responds:

1. Sometimes the bullet despawns before it hits the Marecan, resulting in it not taking any damage. I have fixed this in v3
2. I have implemented a grenade quantity indicator in v3. Thanks for the suggestion.
3. They used to fling you across the stage, and i meant to make them annoying. Every game needs an annoying enemy!
4. The grenade power has been doubled, and the firepower was increased by 1.5
5. It does, and im pretty sure that it works on newgrounds.
6. I actually have an upgrade system implemented, but it is not ready yet. I will try to get it done by v4 or v5.
7. That probably should be removed.
8. Its a bug that started coming around during early development. Im fixing it.

Just remember that some animations are placeholders. Im working on creating new and clearer ones. They used to look good, but one Stencyl upgrade completely screwed them up.

[CAZE]

For me the hit detection sucks. Many times I was moving just almost inside the vertical walls with no death, while the corners seem to be very oversensitive. It happens especially when the ball is moving to the left. Also many times I already passed the moving block, but suddenly the game decided to make a joke on me and decided that in fact I got killed (Oops, sorry! Maybe next time I will let you win!), even if I was already moving for a moment away from the block. And one more thing: I earned the first medals while being away and playing on a different computer, but after I returned I cannot earn even a single one.

[El. 5 War]

At first i wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do, but when I realized it the game became really fun :-) And once you teach your left hand to switch the elements fluently, you can easily master this game. Obviously you need some upgrades for this, but at some point I didn't even need many abysses, because the subsequent elements weren't jumping out too fast. My only problem was the lag I experienced when reaching higher scores, it made me lose the game few times.

[Earth Taken]

Game taken! Completed with all achievements unlocked :-) This game is AA - Absolutely Awesome! The graphics, the gameplay, the plot and the most important: the atmosphere, everything made in a brilliant way! There is only you and your skills, with a bit of upgrades. The challenge of directing the survivors in the best way, the fun of finding secret places, everything absolutely perfect! It just seems impossible that so good flash - not PC - game could have been created. One of my new favourites :-)

SeethingSwarm responds:

Oh that's awesome! I'm glad you liked the game and thanks for the kind words :)
I'm especially happy that you enjoyed the atmosphere of the game. I really wanted to get the mood right with this game series and it's so nice to hear that you appreciate it. Thanks!

Hopefully you'll enjoy Earth Taken 2 just as much. There are a lot of new stuff in that one. Oh, and there might also be a third Earth Taken in the near future, but it's kind of a secret still, so shhh! ;)

P.S. I'm a firm believer that it doesn't matter what software you use to make games. The only thing that matters is the final product, the game itself. Technically this game is still a PC game even though it was made with Flash, but I know what you mean. Flash is more powerful than most people realise, but I think I'm starting to push its limits a bit, especially with my latest project, an upcoming game called Enter The Flesh Again. That game is still heavily under construction, but it's already bigger than all of my games combined and there's still so much to do. I'm just hoping that I don't break Flash before it's done :P

[One Hundredth]

I encountered a bug which prevented me from progressing further: after I clicked one of the numbers the game behaved like I had clicked the "take" button and the game stopped responding to any clicks, making me unable to do anything. This leads me to #1 suggestion:
1. Add a saving feature - urgent!
Furthermore:
2. I think that my set of medals is all possible for now. Or maybe somebody will be extremely lucky?
3. You should consider adding upgrades that would stay after purchasing, the constant ones, not one-use-only.
4. And/or consider making possible to buy more than one item of one kind, otherwise I doubt if anybody will be able to finish the game - or be patient enough to do this.

[Arcade Thief]

It's quite fun! I only got one question, why my scores aren't saving? I clicked "submit score" and... nothing.

[Spooky Island Survival 5]

Ok, it was probably one of your most frustrating games for me. I don't know for how many months I was stucked being unable to find the light to get pass the dark corridor... In one of the reviews I found a clue saying that there should be <<SPOILER>> a spot to light... now that was unfair! ;-) I mean I was constantly thinking that I should find something else to make some light there and clicking on the dark place will always give the same result: "you cannot see...". The usage of water was also tricky. And who would need all that sugar in a cave? Anyway, another good game! :-)

[Cute Critter Carnage]

Got the hardest medal... oh man, my hands hurt... why did I have to play these clicker and masher games earlier today? Great thing that the game doesn't punish you for missed shots... It's a hard one!

[Countdown Letters]

Ok, after looots of tries I finally got some of the big medals, got 116 points after adorable word "adoringly" - finaly something easier and normal ;-) But some of the words presented by the game, especially as being the longest one in a round are weird. Also another thing: not sure if anybody else had that feeling, but many times I had to click the mouse button really strong, otherwise the letter would not get selected. Anyway a really good game!