Ever played left 4 dead 2? Remember how in some maps the zombie spawn are so hopelessly large you're expected to just run for the exit? this game features a lot of that. very fast paced shooter. melee staby stab is not worth using at all lmao. in the first stage i sat around finding pots and when i went outside, the game is lagging from all those shadow saucers shooting at me. i died. i farmed some souls, uh i meant shadow shards and leveled up my character in bonfire as much as possible. the best stage is the mineshaft stage mostly for parkour + shooter. i never thought i would see this in minetest considering the state of most mob mods being pretty tame. i never expected damage indicators too. i never expected a very fast responsive light orb. i could list more, but there's so much polished features... it's best to play it yourself. my only request is that i'd love upgrades to really beat up the shadow mobs after destroying the boss :p
i've seen this done before on a different video game, but nontheless i commend the developer's bold decision to implement this idea their own way. I cannot recommend for or against this unique gameplay. Whilst the present mechanics are sound, i do not feel the approach currently is good enough to have fun. one thing i would like to have in-game is to perceive the world differently. human have many senses beside the eyes for knowing our orientation and material properties of the things around us. it may not be fair to convey this information kinda visually though. a cool idea would be to look at how animals with poor eyesight navigate, for instance echolocation of dolphins. aside from that, i kinda question why this is an open world game? i seriously thought i started in an enclosed generated room. anyways, i sincerely hope this game gets an overhaul from the developer.
Chess... ehhh. Now chess with random events? Sure. I'm not a chess expert by any means, but i did find the random events fun regardless. Very polished implementation, along with its own engine! Sometimes the game can be unfair but that's a major part of the fun, seeing a random horsey just disappear only later on to not matter because i lost from a queen spawn. Another fun round is at turn 3, it became a showdown. didn't even get a chance to play chess normally lmao. Another fun thing that happened is how i'm definitely losing in the endgame but it doesn't matter cuz the chess gods smite the leftover computer's rook, leaving me for an easy queen promotion.
(I have not 100% the game) This is a puzzle game that involves parkour, lots of thinking ahead (and i guess behind too?!) and familiarity with the map. I expected for the music to have overstayed its welcome but it is still very nice to listen to. The story is pretty neat. The idea of time travel and using growth and decay to parkour and explore regularly inaccessable areas is very unique! The level design here is very well made, even if there's some jank here and there.
btw, i destroyed the crystal with only 3 stones and 4 plants. is the fourth stone necessary? i couldn't find it even with fly and noclip hacks.
A very neatly execution of a short adventure game! Love the story, love the charm of the music, love the classic feel of playing an RPG title. The NPC dialogs (or monologues i guess) and narrative sets the tone for the game. Game mechanics wise, it's lame. The "ominously float like a ghost" wand is a bit cheesable by spam clicking, unless that's intended (the parkour isn't bad imo, since it's at least more predictable to control compared to Glitch's dash). The blue fireballs wand is meh combat. The shrinking wand needs more ideas to expand on it. The boss room should make me use all three wands, and there's probably lots of ways to execute this. Overall, i was convinced by the premise wholeheartedly but the mechanics bores me. However, i still recommend players to try this game solely for its charm, plus it's very short.
Additionally, of course, a combination of engine limitations and bugs. The room transitions could use work. Falling into the murky water(?) sends you below the world, kinda ruining the experience. HUD animations for deaths would be neat. The boss cinematic bars don't work right with the hotbar.
These praises aside, there are gameplay elements I feel rather lackluster or plainly
boring. In the endgame, you realize that the bottleneck of building a palace or other large projects is none other than you,
the player character with only one pointer interacting with things. Automation in NC
is limited in its current form, leaving you to perform some tasks yourself to fetch
materials. Whilst you can setup stations, tools, infrastructure to make things easy,
you still have to dig things repetitively. Additionally, soaking and a couple of other crafts are very underpowered
leaving me wondering if I'll ever use them for anything other than specific challenge environments.
In the earlygame, it seems to occupy most of the player's play time.
Later, the player realizes this initial assessment couldn't be further than the truth. Mastering
the controls, environment and rudimentary interations to perform simple sandbox
things is but a droplet of what NC offers. Nodecore is actually a game about exploiting resources and mechanisms to perform more efficiently.
The true depth of NC is lies elsewhere than figuring out how to light a fire.
I like to think of NC being the sum of two gameplay loops: Exploration and Automation.
Exploring in NC isn't like in Minecraft or Skyrim. You explore the small stuff:
mechanics and interactions. Exploration in NC is more similar to fiddling
around with elements in puzzle genres like A Monster's Expedition, Infinifactory
or The Talos Principle. What makes NC exceptional here is that it doesn't present
itself as a puzzle ever, instead as a game where you feel inclined to understand
the nature of the world and environment around you. The eureka moments are precious, worth the many reviews here praising
it. This is a one-time experience, but that doesn't mean you should be completely averse to spoilers.
After all, there's plenty of games where spoilers and community help makes the game much more enjoyable.
What happens when you've done exploring? Well, if it ended there I would have called NC shallow and uninteresting. No, automation in NC defines it in my humble opinion. It is evidently designed with
more intent than the rather the sometimes baffling redstone world. In some ways,
I feel like I'm doing an assignment as you
translate concepts from real-life electric signals to virtual
optics. In other ways, I feel like playing Shapes.io or Mindustry
designing a factory to transmutate materials and calculating its efficiency in various points. Gameplay concepts of designing, iterating and fixing your contraptions is what I truly love about Nodecore.
Ever played left 4 dead 2? Remember how in some maps the zombie spawn are so hopelessly large you're expected to just run for the exit? this game features a lot of that. very fast paced shooter. melee staby stab is not worth using at all lmao. in the first stage i sat around finding pots and when i went outside, the game is lagging from all those shadow saucers shooting at me. i died. i farmed some souls, uh i meant shadow shards and leveled up my character in bonfire as much as possible. the best stage is the mineshaft stage mostly for parkour + shooter. i never thought i would see this in minetest considering the state of most mob mods being pretty tame. i never expected damage indicators too. i never expected a very fast responsive light orb. i could list more, but there's so much polished features... it's best to play it yourself. my only request is that i'd love upgrades to really beat up the shadow mobs after destroying the boss :p
i've seen this done before on a different video game, but nontheless i commend the developer's bold decision to implement this idea their own way. I cannot recommend for or against this unique gameplay. Whilst the present mechanics are sound, i do not feel the approach currently is good enough to have fun. one thing i would like to have in-game is to perceive the world differently. human have many senses beside the eyes for knowing our orientation and material properties of the things around us. it may not be fair to convey this information kinda visually though. a cool idea would be to look at how animals with poor eyesight navigate, for instance echolocation of dolphins. aside from that, i kinda question why this is an open world game? i seriously thought i started in an enclosed generated room. anyways, i sincerely hope this game gets an overhaul from the developer.
Chess... ehhh. Now chess with random events? Sure. I'm not a chess expert by any means, but i did find the random events fun regardless. Very polished implementation, along with its own engine! Sometimes the game can be unfair but that's a major part of the fun, seeing a random horsey just disappear only later on to not matter because i lost from a queen spawn. Another fun round is at turn 3, it became a showdown. didn't even get a chance to play chess normally lmao. Another fun thing that happened is how i'm definitely losing in the endgame but it doesn't matter cuz the chess gods smite the leftover computer's rook, leaving me for an easy queen promotion.
(I have not 100% the game) This is a puzzle game that involves parkour, lots of thinking ahead (and i guess behind too?!) and familiarity with the map. I expected for the music to have overstayed its welcome but it is still very nice to listen to. The story is pretty neat. The idea of time travel and using growth and decay to parkour and explore regularly inaccessable areas is very unique! The level design here is very well made, even if there's some jank here and there.
btw, i destroyed the crystal with only 3 stones and 4 plants. is the fourth stone necessary? i couldn't find it even with fly and noclip hacks.
A very neatly execution of a short adventure game! Love the story, love the charm of the music, love the classic feel of playing an RPG title. The NPC dialogs (or monologues i guess) and narrative sets the tone for the game. Game mechanics wise, it's lame. The "ominously float like a ghost" wand is a bit cheesable by spam clicking, unless that's intended (the parkour isn't bad imo, since it's at least more predictable to control compared to Glitch's dash). The blue fireballs wand is meh combat. The shrinking wand needs more ideas to expand on it. The boss room should make me use all three wands, and there's probably lots of ways to execute this. Overall, i was convinced by the premise wholeheartedly but the mechanics bores me. However, i still recommend players to try this game solely for its charm, plus it's very short.
Additionally, of course, a combination of engine limitations and bugs. The room transitions could use work. Falling into the murky water(?) sends you below the world, kinda ruining the experience. HUD animations for deaths would be neat. The boss cinematic bars don't work right with the hotbar.
These praises aside, there are gameplay elements I feel rather lackluster or plainly boring. In the endgame, you realize that the bottleneck of building a palace or other large projects is none other than you, the player character with only one pointer interacting with things. Automation in NC is limited in its current form, leaving you to perform some tasks yourself to fetch materials. Whilst you can setup stations, tools, infrastructure to make things easy, you still have to dig things repetitively. Additionally, soaking and a couple of other crafts are very underpowered leaving me wondering if I'll ever use them for anything other than specific challenge environments.
In the earlygame, it seems to occupy most of the player's play time. Later, the player realizes this initial assessment couldn't be further than the truth. Mastering the controls, environment and rudimentary interations to perform simple sandbox things is but a droplet of what NC offers. Nodecore is actually a game about exploiting resources and mechanisms to perform more efficiently. The true depth of NC is lies elsewhere than figuring out how to light a fire. I like to think of NC being the sum of two gameplay loops: Exploration and Automation.
Exploring in NC isn't like in Minecraft or Skyrim. You explore the small stuff: mechanics and interactions. Exploration in NC is more similar to fiddling around with elements in puzzle genres like A Monster's Expedition, Infinifactory or The Talos Principle. What makes NC exceptional here is that it doesn't present itself as a puzzle ever, instead as a game where you feel inclined to understand the nature of the world and environment around you. The eureka moments are precious, worth the many reviews here praising it. This is a one-time experience, but that doesn't mean you should be completely averse to spoilers. After all, there's plenty of games where spoilers and community help makes the game much more enjoyable.
What happens when you've done exploring? Well, if it ended there I would have called NC shallow and uninteresting. No, automation in NC defines it in my humble opinion. It is evidently designed with more intent than the rather the sometimes baffling redstone world. In some ways, I feel like I'm doing an assignment as you translate concepts from real-life electric signals to virtual optics. In other ways, I feel like playing Shapes.io or Mindustry designing a factory to transmutate materials and calculating its efficiency in various points. Gameplay concepts of designing, iterating and fixing your contraptions is what I truly love about Nodecore.
Few sandbox games are like this. 8/10