Review - Escape From Monster Manor
Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 4:02 am
My first official review! Don't be too cruel!
So I just got this game in the mail yesterday and so far, I really really really like it. It's simple, sure, but it seems more like Alone in the Dark than Doom to me. You have twenty shots and you better make them count, as I've found out in that STUPID SPIDER LEVEL. GAAHAHHAHA.
I remember thinking at first that it seems like a fairly easy game and the first few levels are fairly laid back. The ammo flows like wine and none of the monsters would take cheap hits at you. If you got too close, it was your own damned fault.
Then I started shooting wildly at the spiders and missing. A lot. Then I went looking for ammo and found more spiders and the ballerina ghosts with the knives. Bad situation. That's when the game shows what it is. It's not DOOM. It's not run and gun. It's "ohmanohmanohmanineedammonow." I think it does its job swimmingly in this regard.
They also made the importance of keys very noticeable in the first level as well. The long hallway towards the end of the first level. Lots of doors. A single key. Of course, there are extra keys in each door. It's the first level after all, but right away, it made you think about what you wanted to do with the key and which door would be the best route. I think that is really highly commendable. It doesn't tell you directly to think about which to use but if you're actually paying attention, you get it. I love that kind of stuff. So much better than a tutorial. I actually LEARNED from it instead of rote memory.
I dig the Gumby on PCP look of the monsters. They have some depth to their look compared to the enemies of, say, Wolfenstein. It's just a nice touch. That stupid ghost that kept popping into the board in the first level caused me to jump a couple times too. I'm not gonna pretend I'm not a coward!
The textures of the walls and such are a little bland, but it's pretty much par for the course at the time. It reminds me of a lot of the old shareware games I had on my computer as a kid, so it's a tinge of nostalgia in its favor. The sound is a bit mixed for me though.
I've been totally converted into using the headphone jack in the bottom of my controller when I'm playing by myself. The immersion with a pair of headphones is pretty sweet. It doesn't seem like much at first but after you play it like that, I feel like I'm missing something when I don't use them. It also makes some things way more prominent than would be noticeable otherwise. Like the annoying screams and cat hisses out of nowhere in the soundtrack of Monster Manor. At first, I thought "Heh, those sounds are kinda cool." After the 300th time I heard the cat hiss, I got a little upset.
The music also started getting on my nerves. The first couple levels were okay. Nothing great nor nothing upsetting. Then level 3 came on. Awful circus music with the remixed voice of the annoying narrator. It was like a 12-year-old kid's first attempt at making a remix of a song from Monkey Island after recording it on an 8-track from his PC speaker. Unbearable.
The sound issues aside, the game controls really well. I was shocked at how quickly I was able to adapt to the controls. Sure, it's super simple, but I've become so used to twin stick controls that I have a hard time nowadays on some of these older ones. Either way, I was able to get to it immediately and had no issues. The actual scrolling of the game is fantastic, looking smooth with few jitters in the movement. Not to bring up Demolition Man again, but this puts the DM FPS levels to shame. It should, since it's entirely a FPS game but still. Fantastic.
I really like how easy the map is to use as well. It's just two buttons and POP! There it is! No loading, no waiting, it's there. It's easy to read and it tells you what you need to know. What else is there to say about it? It works!
I think I come off a little harsh in the above review but honestly, I really enjoy this game. It's simple and it's fun. I'm actually pretty easy to please with this stuff. If I like the first bit of the game and they keep the rest of the game like that, I'm satisfied. That's what this game does. It starts out and stays the same with a bit more challenge as you go. It's exactly what it presents to you from the beginning and totally worth picking up.
So I just got this game in the mail yesterday and so far, I really really really like it. It's simple, sure, but it seems more like Alone in the Dark than Doom to me. You have twenty shots and you better make them count, as I've found out in that STUPID SPIDER LEVEL. GAAHAHHAHA.
I remember thinking at first that it seems like a fairly easy game and the first few levels are fairly laid back. The ammo flows like wine and none of the monsters would take cheap hits at you. If you got too close, it was your own damned fault.
Then I started shooting wildly at the spiders and missing. A lot. Then I went looking for ammo and found more spiders and the ballerina ghosts with the knives. Bad situation. That's when the game shows what it is. It's not DOOM. It's not run and gun. It's "ohmanohmanohmanineedammonow." I think it does its job swimmingly in this regard.
They also made the importance of keys very noticeable in the first level as well. The long hallway towards the end of the first level. Lots of doors. A single key. Of course, there are extra keys in each door. It's the first level after all, but right away, it made you think about what you wanted to do with the key and which door would be the best route. I think that is really highly commendable. It doesn't tell you directly to think about which to use but if you're actually paying attention, you get it. I love that kind of stuff. So much better than a tutorial. I actually LEARNED from it instead of rote memory.
I dig the Gumby on PCP look of the monsters. They have some depth to their look compared to the enemies of, say, Wolfenstein. It's just a nice touch. That stupid ghost that kept popping into the board in the first level caused me to jump a couple times too. I'm not gonna pretend I'm not a coward!
The textures of the walls and such are a little bland, but it's pretty much par for the course at the time. It reminds me of a lot of the old shareware games I had on my computer as a kid, so it's a tinge of nostalgia in its favor. The sound is a bit mixed for me though.
I've been totally converted into using the headphone jack in the bottom of my controller when I'm playing by myself. The immersion with a pair of headphones is pretty sweet. It doesn't seem like much at first but after you play it like that, I feel like I'm missing something when I don't use them. It also makes some things way more prominent than would be noticeable otherwise. Like the annoying screams and cat hisses out of nowhere in the soundtrack of Monster Manor. At first, I thought "Heh, those sounds are kinda cool." After the 300th time I heard the cat hiss, I got a little upset.
The music also started getting on my nerves. The first couple levels were okay. Nothing great nor nothing upsetting. Then level 3 came on. Awful circus music with the remixed voice of the annoying narrator. It was like a 12-year-old kid's first attempt at making a remix of a song from Monkey Island after recording it on an 8-track from his PC speaker. Unbearable.
The sound issues aside, the game controls really well. I was shocked at how quickly I was able to adapt to the controls. Sure, it's super simple, but I've become so used to twin stick controls that I have a hard time nowadays on some of these older ones. Either way, I was able to get to it immediately and had no issues. The actual scrolling of the game is fantastic, looking smooth with few jitters in the movement. Not to bring up Demolition Man again, but this puts the DM FPS levels to shame. It should, since it's entirely a FPS game but still. Fantastic.
I really like how easy the map is to use as well. It's just two buttons and POP! There it is! No loading, no waiting, it's there. It's easy to read and it tells you what you need to know. What else is there to say about it? It works!
I think I come off a little harsh in the above review but honestly, I really enjoy this game. It's simple and it's fun. I'm actually pretty easy to please with this stuff. If I like the first bit of the game and they keep the rest of the game like that, I'm satisfied. That's what this game does. It starts out and stays the same with a bit more challenge as you go. It's exactly what it presents to you from the beginning and totally worth picking up.