HerbieG's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[CH9: Cyber Devil]

Hey, where is @Cyberdevil in the credits? ;-)
About the game... I know there are plenty of fans of these games around, but... I have to say that the type of games you are recently submitting is becoming a bit... monotonous, they are just the same type. Only that ability to change between 2 forms of Damien is a nice new invention. Looking back your games were showing much more of variety than now. I personally wish you could return to the games like the quickdraw series or games like Cyber Hell 2: i4AI.
Also at least some of reviews under your previous CH games include an information about problems people were experiencing with earning medals, but during all these years you did not add any kind of a medals storing and re-sending system - including for this game.

[Submazeness]

Warning! A glitchy game! Play at your own risk!
Generally I liked this game, but the glitches just destroyed my positive look at it, otherwise I would give it 4,5 stars. Also the gameplay could use some polishing.
1. Lots of times when you click the submarine at the beginning of the level it is starting to move with 2-3 seconds delay and these seconds are crucial if you want to get all stars from a level.
2. Also many times if you accidentally hit the wall in a small corridor you either get stucked on that wall or enter a neverending bouncing state-consider the level lost. Also... a submarine bouncing from the wall? Really? What is it made of-rubber? Just "a bit" unrealistic...
3. The worst and the most irritating glitch that has been already mentioned and made me stop play this game at one level of the Home Island after numerous tries. in this level you have to blast your way through the cannons and mines. And here is where the torture begins. When you hit a cannon/mine with a torpedo you can expect at least one of the problems listed below to happen:
- game freeze;
- game lag;
- no control;
- flash player crash;
- flash player stops responding;
- the whole browser stops responding or you need to restart it to enter the game again.
Below one of the reviews you admitted that you are a fan of hard games. That's good. But
remember: with creating a game with high difficulty comes high responsibility for its high quality.

[Exodus Mercenaries]

I am not going to be that harsh in my review as the others, your games are interesting, but indeed they need some polishing. You definitely have a problem with one thing: optimization. I remember playing your Exodus of the Tyrants 2 - which I actually liked, because it is a nice combination of an RPG and a tactics game, but both that game and the current Exodus Mercenaries tend to lag like hell very often. It can be caused by graphics issues or bad memory management. I finally found a way to make the Exodus 2 playable, but in Mercenaries when lots of enemies and projectiles are on screen the controls are becoming simply unresponsive. You have to find some way to deal with it. Also the current game would have been much better if you combined it with leveling system, like the one included in Exodus 2.

[Faraday's Flaw]

It's a very good and complex game, well done! But I would really wish that you could finally add some saving system to the bigger games like this one so you could pause playing the game and continue later, -1 star because of that.

[Floppy Pipe]

Oh c'mon, another flappy clone? Ok, the mechanics isn't irritating, but at least change the background. For some reason the current one with the add-on of the birds makes my eyes tired very fast.

Catomgames responds:

Hi HerbieG, It was made for fun, but it seems that this game is receiving so much attention! Thanks for your feedback, we will think about changing that distracting background

[Simudroids]

To be honest... I just hate these floaty controls that just throw you all over the place...

[Sisyphus]

An interesting new installment of Take a hike game with the use of Greek myth, good idea!
There are some things I would like to mention/change:
1. At the later stages you barely got time to put your fingers on the keyboard and if you get caught you are falling very fast, I managed to deal with it by keeping my fingers prepared while clicking start with my left hand using the touchpad, but that would not be a bad idea to give the player some time to prepare, like a board with "3, 2, 1... go!";
2. As I mentioned at the later stages you fall very fast, so it is only a matter of luck whether you will proceed or not. If you will get caught it is almost a 100% fail, because after you will click your way out of it you will be already too low to recover;
3. As for the luck upgrade: the next levels description is confusing: ow wait, I upgraded the chance of getting caught from 100% to 200% and even to 300%? So I actually made it worse for me? ;-)

AlexTheGreatish responds:

Thanks for the review, I tried fixing the things you told me.
1. You now have time to prepare before you start pushing the boulder
2. It now takes longer before you are able to get caught on a rock
3. I fixed the luck upgrade info, no clue why I didn't notice that lol

[Unsealed Door]

Knowing your previous games when I saw whose game it is I knew that it is going to be tough, but this is quite... brutal. Very unforgiving. Welcome to the hall of pain. There is one thing I would actually want to see improved though: at the current state the dash isn't very functional, it would be much better if I could use it while running down and being able to attack at the same time, to make it something like a piercing attack. Also in regard to the lifetime kills medal it would be good if the game had some kind of a counter for this, so the player would for example know for sure that his progress is being continued after returning to the game.

RainbowCemetery responds:

lifetime kills are reported in the web console when the game ends, though that's more something i forgot to turn off than an intended feature. appreciate the feedback

[Laser Bricks]

While the game itself is good I got some complains towards the stage 5 and probably 6 (haven't reached it yet):
1. They are heavy power-up dependent;
2. Can you assure that all the sequences generated by the game are possible to be passed? I tried the 5th stage numerous times and every time I was reaching a point in which I simply could not get through another wall of blocks because of lack of a proper power-up or not enough amount of time needed to dodge after cleaning the previous wall, or because of a brick blocking me the way to the red brick, which I was unable to destroy in time.
As I can see even the Author did not pass the highest stages ;-)

[Block Mystery Crew: Dracula's Castle]

Absolutely brilliant idea of using Lego for creating a game! An advice: to make the areas look similar before and after taking some things from it etc. place a camera on a small tripod. This will help you take another photo from the exactly same position.

selfdefiant responds:

Thanks!! I started using my dslr camera then found my camera on my phone took better photos but had that problem with not being the same position. I will figure it out and make it better next time. I had no idea how lighting and everything can effect the photo! :)