War of the Dead Part 2 (Shiryou Sensen 2)(MSX, 1988)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-7 Control-6.5 Challenge-6.5 Story-6.5
Level Design-6 Frustration-7 Fun-6* Originality-6.5
Overall Score-6*
+
Nice intro (artwork stills and text+minor animation)
Pretty good art direction
Some scripted events (radio broadcasts - similar to Metal Gear, terrorist attacks, unwinnable boss fight)
Some large and detailed sprites
Decent dialogue overall and dialogue text is fast
Diagonal movement and aiming
Some mini-bosses
+/-
Linear structure and at various points you can't backtrack to the previous area
Frequent save points (10 slots)
No more separate side view combat encounters and no more exp point leveling (here your life bar increases from beating bosses instead)
Can only hold one healing item at a time (they're not wasted if you try to pick up another one however)
Some item container contents respawn (drugs/medicine in the hospital for example) - they respawn even while in the same room if used up
No health refill after beating a boss
Very low rate of fire at first (only one shot at a time on screen)
Unlimited ammo for the default weapon and enemies don't respawn - not quite a survival horror game but it does have a horror tone and some surprise enemy encounters
Can't manually use the walkie talkie
Explosives and night goggles are used like keys
-
Choppy movement and the game runs kind of slow (feels like it's running at about 15-20 FPS)
Some control/interface issues (no strafing/blocking/dodging - even the first enemy is faster than you and you fight it in a cramped space (these design choices lead to unavoidable damage at various points), have to be moving from the south towards NPCs and touching them head on or dialogue won't trigger, no map system, your bullets only travel as fast as you can walk)
Some trial & error (finding Sayla behind her house, have to talk to the first NPC twice or you'll miss the walkie talkie item, scripting issues - have to explore buildings and talk to NPCs in the right order or you'll wander through empty buildings or be unable to find certain items such as the medicine quest item early on (stuff like this keeps happening and can get rather tedious), how to use the TNT on the barricade - need to stand in exactly the right spot for anything to happen, have to enter the sewer leading to the town hall from the left or it won't work+you then have to walk back and forth between the southeast of the map and some NPCs in an unintuitive way to make a key appear, sometimes poor directions given by NPCs)
Some dead space and boring backtracking (not enough enemies or other hazards)
Some spongy enemies considering how simple their patterns are
Cheap hits when entering some rooms
Various enemies get stuck on corners
No alternate weapons
Tedious centipede boss
Some plot oddities (the first NPC you rescue has nothing to say besides thanks and some other NPC dialogue is overly sparse ("bad things happened!" - like what?), )
Some annoying music
Pretty detailed but mostly non-interactive environment besides the item containers
Simplistic boss fights
Notes:
-*Playing at about 120-130% speed in BlueMSX made the experience more fun overall
Level Design-6 Frustration-7 Fun-6* Originality-6.5
Overall Score-6*
+
Nice intro (artwork stills and text+minor animation)
Pretty good art direction
Some scripted events (radio broadcasts - similar to Metal Gear, terrorist attacks, unwinnable boss fight)
Some large and detailed sprites
Decent dialogue overall and dialogue text is fast
Diagonal movement and aiming
Some mini-bosses
+/-
Linear structure and at various points you can't backtrack to the previous area
Frequent save points (10 slots)
No more separate side view combat encounters and no more exp point leveling (here your life bar increases from beating bosses instead)
Can only hold one healing item at a time (they're not wasted if you try to pick up another one however)
Some item container contents respawn (drugs/medicine in the hospital for example) - they respawn even while in the same room if used up
No health refill after beating a boss
Very low rate of fire at first (only one shot at a time on screen)
Unlimited ammo for the default weapon and enemies don't respawn - not quite a survival horror game but it does have a horror tone and some surprise enemy encounters
Can't manually use the walkie talkie
Explosives and night goggles are used like keys
-
Choppy movement and the game runs kind of slow (feels like it's running at about 15-20 FPS)
Some control/interface issues (no strafing/blocking/dodging - even the first enemy is faster than you and you fight it in a cramped space (these design choices lead to unavoidable damage at various points), have to be moving from the south towards NPCs and touching them head on or dialogue won't trigger, no map system, your bullets only travel as fast as you can walk)
Some trial & error (finding Sayla behind her house, have to talk to the first NPC twice or you'll miss the walkie talkie item, scripting issues - have to explore buildings and talk to NPCs in the right order or you'll wander through empty buildings or be unable to find certain items such as the medicine quest item early on (stuff like this keeps happening and can get rather tedious), how to use the TNT on the barricade - need to stand in exactly the right spot for anything to happen, have to enter the sewer leading to the town hall from the left or it won't work+you then have to walk back and forth between the southeast of the map and some NPCs in an unintuitive way to make a key appear, sometimes poor directions given by NPCs)
Some dead space and boring backtracking (not enough enemies or other hazards)
Some spongy enemies considering how simple their patterns are
Cheap hits when entering some rooms
Various enemies get stuck on corners
No alternate weapons
Tedious centipede boss
Some plot oddities (the first NPC you rescue has nothing to say besides thanks and some other NPC dialogue is overly sparse ("bad things happened!" - like what?), )
Some annoying music
Pretty detailed but mostly non-interactive environment besides the item containers
Simplistic boss fights
Notes:
-*Playing at about 120-130% speed in BlueMSX made the experience more fun overall