MadCap's Game Reviews - "Ib"

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Well, further reaching for my indie cred, I’ve played Ib.  What is Ib? You might ask? A pretty big deal in the indie community, it would seem.  Developed by “kouri” using the RPGMaker 2000/2003, it’s a freeware horror game in which you take over the body of a nine year old girl in order to be freaked the hell out at various points inside a demonic art gallery that Tim Burton and Vincent Price are vying for as a summer home.  One major bit of praise that I will give this game is that it excels at creepiness.  Not necessarily scary at points, but it does have its fair share of downright creepy and unnerving moments.

The plot starts out with young Ib (seriously, “Ib”?) being brought to an art gallery by her dear parents who, apparently not thinking letting an oddly silent nine year old run amuck in a public place could possibly go wrong, let her run amuck in a public place.  Walking among the various exhibits and portraits, Ib eventually finds one that causes the lights to flicker and makes everyone else in the place seemingly vanish.  From there, Ib must figure out how to get out of this crazy Van Gogh and paint her way to a happy ending.  Well, actually, one of several endings and only one of them is “good” (and take a wild guess which one I didn’t get!).

The game plays rather simply on your PC – oh, that’s right, I haven’t done a strictly PC review yet.  Applaud me…okay, moving on. – using the directional keys to move Ib around, the Z or Esc key to access your inventory and the shift key allows you to return to the main menu (at the cost of all your unsaved data being lost).  Ib can interact with objects, which she must do to solve various puzzles ranging from simple to rather complex.  I applaud the creator for coming up with several puzzles I actually had to think about, regardless of the fact that puzzle games are not generally my forte.

And luckily (for me, at least) the puzzles don’t run on the insane adventure game logic of old. It’s really as simple as getting a key to open a door instead of, shall we say, trying to fashion a handle for a trap door while carrying a sledgehammer that you could have used to just smash it open.

And that brings me to the combat.  There is none.  You’re a nine year old girl trying to fend off the forbidden love children of Picasso and Lovecraft.  To me, this brings the game closer to ‘scary’, and thus is a lot better.  If I were a nine year old girl packing a BFG à la Doom or Dead Space, it would make the “horror” elements of the game a lot less horrific, if not entertaining for an entirely different reason. I’d put this more akin to Amnesia.  You can’t fight, you can only run around and avoid as best you can.

Your health is measured by a rose that Ib acquires. When enemies hit you, the rose will wilt.  Ib can take up to five hits before you must restart from your last save point, which are books you can find within the world.  Ib’s rose can be restored using vases that can be found usually near the save points or in areas were puzzles might require you to take a few hits.

All in all, this game is good and the puzzles can be quite challenging.  I’m going to put up a bit of a spoiler warning before I spill what my only real gripe is with this game, and that’s this – there’s no explanation.  Throughout the entire game, there is literally no explanation for how what’s happening is happening.  You do find out over the course of play just who is behind it and what’s happening, but there’s no explanation as to how.  Of course, the game doesn’t really think it needs to explain anything, and I suppose it is kind of me nitpicking, but that sort of thing bothers me.

All in all, though, it’s a great game.  Definitely gets a recommendation from me, and best of all, it’s free!  What more could you ask for?

Ib is now available for download from the internet. Just Google it!

This review is based on (what else?) the PC version.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Cthulhu Saves The World"

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Cthulhu is a name that everyone knows.  Wait, you don’t? Okay.  Created by writer H.P. Lovecraft, Cthulhu is a giant squid god who waits beneath the sea to spread madness and chaos when he awakens.  Regardless, he’s a pretty big part of the culture, being the subject of various stories and even a few episodes of South Park (no, I’m serious).  He’s also been the subject or a part of many a video game, such as Call of Cthulhu, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, and Scribblenauts.

Of course, out of those three games, I’ve only played the third one and the Great Old One’s appearance in that game is actually very much similar to how this game goes.  An indie game available for download from the Xbox Live Arcade from Zeboyd Games, the game details Cthulhu arriving on Earth to bring chaos and destruction.  However, almost as soon as he arrives, a mysterious stranger in silhouette uses some magical ritual or another to deny Cthulhu of all his grand evil powers and leave him washed up on a beach somewhere.  Thus, having read the text dialogue of the Narrator (and showing us that the Fourth Wall will soon be in many, many pieces), Cthulhu begins an epic quest to regain his lost power by becoming a true hero.

Waaaaait! Where have I seen this beThor?

This game just gets me for the humor.  Cthulhu himself is just hilarious, and makes cracks about just about everything from the style of gameplay to the various NPCs we run into, and even his own mythos.  He starts taking on followers because, in his words “The great Cthulhu requires groupies! You shall do.” And he doesn’t really quite grasp the whole ‘true hero’ concept, but he does try, bless him. And outside of the Great Old One, there’s plenty of humor in all sorts of places, such a follower called Umi – a water mage – wondering (in a completely not ironic way, I might add) what it must be like to be named after your profession.

The game itself is a shameless throwback to the early 90s style of JRPGs, with everything from the Final Fantasy-esque battle system to the soundtrack.  It’s really neat and well done and shows a lot of love and respect for its inspirations, which I have to say I really admire in developers.  Always nice to see developers paying homage to where they came from, so long as it’s not shoehorned into the game in some way that’s ludicrous (oh, hey there, Duke Nukem Forever!).  In this case, the influence is everything to this game, and it shows. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Zeboyd isn’t afraid to poke fun or invert some of the clichés of JRPGs. 

Now, mind you, I don’t usually care for JRPGs, but this game really got my attention and I really enjoyed it.  It shows the real effort and thought that went into crafting it, even if I’m not big on the turned based combat.  Really, that’s my only gripe about it, and it’s not really that big of a deal.  The game still works and its enjoyable, which is all I can ask for.

…so, I have my Indie cred now, right?

I mean…Minecraft, and now this…so…I have it, right?

…Right?

Cthulhu Saves The World is now available for download from the Xbox Live Arcade, and from Steam on PC from Zeboyd Games.

This review is based on the Xbox 360 version.