Today we have another Xbox live indie title for review, a game called Ophidian Wars: Opac’s Journey. Opac’s journey is a platformer in the purest sense of the word with no enemies to fight or puzzles to solve, just traversal of the level. I’m going to state up front that I didn’t manage to finish this title I rather only managed to get through what I Imagine is about half of the game but we’ll talk why a little later. The basic premise is that you are a member of ancient race of ninja like shadow-men trying to reach the surface of the large tunnel structure you live in. In general the story is rather vague and the why of your journey to the surface was never adequately explained but it thankfully serves as just window dressing to the gameplay which is thankfully very well done. To start off with though let’s talk a little about the presentation.
The visuals share a lot with other platforming titles featuring distinct Metroid-esque caves made up of rock squares and a very elaborate gothic character design like that of Castlevania. The look of the environments doesn’t change too much from level to level with the exception of a minor palette swap to the surrounding walls. Beyond that items look good and fit with the semi-gothic feel of the character design. Half of the presentation is of course the music which is sadly rather bland, it consists of the same ponderous slow techno-esque beat repeated ad-nauseum but thankfully after a good ten minutes or so you just end up tuning it out.
Time to talk about the gameplay and the reasons why you should actually buy this game. The platforming is expertly crafted giving you what feels like a great amount of precision while at the same time providing you a great challenge through well made level design. There are six power ups to find and all of them provide a major change to the gameplay giving you the ability to do things such as glide, stick to walls, and double jump. Each power-up can be further upgraded and each upgrade makes using the power-ups a little more fun. Crafting a good upgrade system is normally something indie games have a particular trouble so it’s great to see this game do it so well. All that said though there is one major problem that holds this game back and prevents me from giving it full marks, there is no save system! I can understand a reverence for classic games, which something that this game is clearly has, and emulating them in your own game design is all well and good but don’t remake the problems of those games. Worse than not having a save system is at no point is it said or implied that there is no save system. In fact when you quit it says unsaved progress will be lost which implies that there is a way to save in the first place (which while it’s possible I never found it if it’s that well hidden that’s a mistake all its own).
All in all I would definitely recommend this game and you can be sure it will provide a good weekend afternoon of fun. Unfortunately though because of the issue with the save system and the rather non-engaging story I can only give this a 4 out 5 stars, still worth while but short of perfect to be sure. I still plan on playing more of this title myself and spending a lazy sunday at some point finishing it off and that desire to keep playing after the review is something few other xbox live indie games have achieved.
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4 comments
indienerds.com
20/07/2010 at 7:15 am (UTC -8) Link to this comment
Very nice review – one small correction though … there is one riddle in the game and it needs you to spell a word with your controller. I didn´t manage to solve it, but i finished the game anyway – it´s really a great title.
broitman
20/07/2010 at 7:28 am (UTC -8) Link to this comment
Definitely looking forward to finishing it when I get the chance. I got to that puzzle you were talking about before I did my review but was unsure as to what it was and ended up putting the game down to have lunch. When I got back and tried to load my save… well you know the rest.
BSquared
23/07/2010 at 9:45 am (UTC -8) Link to this comment
Broitman, I am thirteen years old, and was wondering if you could review the game Phat Fly, which I recently released my first indie game. I could not find any contacts on this website, but if you let me know, I can send you a code that allows you to download the game for free.
broitman
23/07/2010 at 2:54 pm (UTC -8) Link to this comment
Of course I will, You can send me an message at our site’s email halfbeardhud@gmail.com and we’ll get to talking.