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FastCrawl |
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Developer: PawleyScape Publisher: PawleyScape Genre: RPG > General Released: Oct 09, 2006 Players: 1 |
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FastCrawl is dangerous. Not “dangerous”, like so many politicians like to
consider video games these days. Dangerous without the quotes. “To what?” you
might ask. It"s dangerous to my workday, my productivity.
FastCrawl is a dungeon-crawler that is fast. It"s really that simple. As the gamer, you select from four difficulty levels and from three length distinctions (short, medium, long). This determines both how long the game will last, and, of course, how difficult it will be. Short games are estimated to take about 30 minutes. Long ones are estimated at around an hour.
Once an adventure has begun, the gamer is met by a brief story splash screen. Each “story” is basically a scenario outline with spots for variables. The varying items will be what the quest of the adventurers is, where it is taking place and what the enemy involved will be. The adventuring party is chosen randomly (both in terms of character classes and number of party members) and everyone starts out with the same equipment set. From there, it"s all point and click.
Everything in the game is accomplished with the mouse, making it supremely easy to play, especially compared with most full-featured RPG titles, which tend to have keyboards chock full of quick-keys. The gamer simply clicks on an adjacent segment of dungeon to move into and the party moves to it. Once there, the map will reveal adjacent items. Click to open doors, right click to open locks. Double-click to equip items, double-click to de-equip. Very, very easy. The only real complication to navigating the dungeons is the “time-limit”. The party has finite supplies (which can be replenished through treasure discoveries) and each movement through the dungeon reduces the number of total supplies by one. Resting to heal up the party can eat up a much larger number, typically in the range of 10 to 15 supplies. This element doesn"t affect how easy the game is to play, though. Everything still plays just as easily as before.
Even
combat manages to be smooth. The setup for each battles looks as if it"s a
Magic: The Gathering card duel… but it"s not. On a grid with six slots for each
side (two columns of three) you place down a “card” that represents one of your
adventurers. The placement is important, as it will determine who can hit whom
and who can be reached for enemy attack. Units in the front row must be
eliminated before back row enemies can be reached, except with special weaponry.
Also, units can only hit units in squares they are adjacent to. So, the
front-center unit can hit everyone on the enemy team, but can in turn be hit by
all of them. The unit on the top of your front row cannot hit the unit on the
bottom of their front row unless that is the only front row unit remaining for
the enemy party, etc. It"s a simple strategic arrangement, but it adds a bit of
depth. However, most parties will only really have one layout that works the
best. Bruisers in the front, magic users and ranged weapon holders in the back.
It can be tedious to replace your units each battle, but the “Last” button takes
care of that for you and will place your units as they were arranged for your
previous combat.
After each level of a dungeon is passed, the party levels up. This means that the gamer can pick what direction they want their party members to expand towards. Warriors can focus on attack, defense, or some first aid work. Mages can change the spell-type they cast, improve their efficacy with wands or simply be a little more all-seeing. Rogues can improve their pathfinding skills, or their lock-picking or their attack and defense. Clerics can choose to improve their heal abilities, change to damaging magic or focus on combat. This allows for a little user customization of their party experience.
Everything
in the game is random. The dungeon creation is random, the items awarded are
random and even the way the items are generated is random. There are a number of
weapon and armor attributes that are cobbled together to form items. This can
lead to some pretty useless items as well as some totally awesome ones. It can
also lead to some comedy, as in the case of the “Frosty Sword of Frost” I was
awarded one adventure. The game"s randomness is its greatest edge and its most
critical flaw.
Random adventures means that the game is always fresh. However, random adventures mean that the game is by and large devoid of depth. Now, with a name like FastCrawl, a gamer shouldn"t be hunting for depth, but its important to note that for RPG fans. FastCrawl is more like an arcade-RPG, to be played for the distraction and to snag the highest score. I"ve yet to tire of FastCrawl and have been playing at least one adventure for each day of the week. That being said, there are times where FastCrawl can be supremely frustrating because of the way adventures are generated. It really sucks (there"s no more eloquent way to phrase it) to start an adventure in a dead-end section of map where there"s obviously a hidden door in one room, but your stats aren"t high enough to find it right away. I"ve spent dozens of turns moving in and out of a room trying to get my characters to see a doorway that wouldn"t show up. Lame. It"s also entirely possible to spend an hour playing through an adventure and get to the last encounter and find its something your party simply cannot win. Without specific weapons and armor, a showdown with a couple of firegazers is almost always fatal to your party. Trust me, you"ll see what I mean. With no save function for each adventure (you can"t even close the application and have it pick up an adventure where you left off), the gamer can run into some highly disappointing endings.
Graphics
Everything
is decent looking in FastCrawl. The user interface is clean, and the art is
solid. However, the overall look to the game is very minimalist. The art you see
when you start the game up is really pretty much it. You"ve seen it all at that
point.
Sound
FastCrawl has all the typical spell cast and melee hit and door unlocked sound effects, but where it stood out aurally for me was with the music. The score for the game is a sweeping, grand collection of tracks that is perfect for the genre. Good stuff.
Gameplay
FastCrawl managed to strip down the complicated nature of the RPG without taking away the fun. The game is easy to play (point and click) and easy to learn. Altogether, it makes the game very easy to play.
Concept
Well, it"s an RPG without the depth. I"m not saying it"s not fun, but there isn"t tons that FastCrawl brings to the table in innovation. It"s well done and I enjoy the concept, but it"s not pushing any envelopes.
Value
FastCrawl is a well put together title at a decent price. For $20, gamers will get basically unlimited adventures. It"d be fun to see a future release feature a leaderboard so that gamers can post up their high scores, since that IS the end goal for the game… but, hey, the game already got a “+” for Value.
Recommendation
For fans of RPGs that don"t like to be weighed down by meddlesome stories and cutscenes and endless wandering from place to place, FastCrawl is made for you. Gamers that simply want a fast, playable adventure game, FastCrawl is made for you. Die-hard RPGers that love them some storyline, try the demo. FastCrawl might not be for you. For the record, though, I"m leaning towards BUY on this title.
FastCrawl is a dungeon-crawler that is fast. It"s really that simple. As the gamer, you select from four difficulty levels and from three length distinctions (short, medium, long). This determines both how long the game will last, and, of course, how difficult it will be. Short games are estimated to take about 30 minutes. Long ones are estimated at around an hour.
Once an adventure has begun, the gamer is met by a brief story splash screen. Each “story” is basically a scenario outline with spots for variables. The varying items will be what the quest of the adventurers is, where it is taking place and what the enemy involved will be. The adventuring party is chosen randomly (both in terms of character classes and number of party members) and everyone starts out with the same equipment set. From there, it"s all point and click.
Everything in the game is accomplished with the mouse, making it supremely easy to play, especially compared with most full-featured RPG titles, which tend to have keyboards chock full of quick-keys. The gamer simply clicks on an adjacent segment of dungeon to move into and the party moves to it. Once there, the map will reveal adjacent items. Click to open doors, right click to open locks. Double-click to equip items, double-click to de-equip. Very, very easy. The only real complication to navigating the dungeons is the “time-limit”. The party has finite supplies (which can be replenished through treasure discoveries) and each movement through the dungeon reduces the number of total supplies by one. Resting to heal up the party can eat up a much larger number, typically in the range of 10 to 15 supplies. This element doesn"t affect how easy the game is to play, though. Everything still plays just as easily as before.
Even
combat manages to be smooth. The setup for each battles looks as if it"s a
Magic: The Gathering card duel… but it"s not. On a grid with six slots for each
side (two columns of three) you place down a “card” that represents one of your
adventurers. The placement is important, as it will determine who can hit whom
and who can be reached for enemy attack. Units in the front row must be
eliminated before back row enemies can be reached, except with special weaponry.
Also, units can only hit units in squares they are adjacent to. So, the
front-center unit can hit everyone on the enemy team, but can in turn be hit by
all of them. The unit on the top of your front row cannot hit the unit on the
bottom of their front row unless that is the only front row unit remaining for
the enemy party, etc. It"s a simple strategic arrangement, but it adds a bit of
depth. However, most parties will only really have one layout that works the
best. Bruisers in the front, magic users and ranged weapon holders in the back.
It can be tedious to replace your units each battle, but the “Last” button takes
care of that for you and will place your units as they were arranged for your
previous combat.After each level of a dungeon is passed, the party levels up. This means that the gamer can pick what direction they want their party members to expand towards. Warriors can focus on attack, defense, or some first aid work. Mages can change the spell-type they cast, improve their efficacy with wands or simply be a little more all-seeing. Rogues can improve their pathfinding skills, or their lock-picking or their attack and defense. Clerics can choose to improve their heal abilities, change to damaging magic or focus on combat. This allows for a little user customization of their party experience.
Everything
in the game is random. The dungeon creation is random, the items awarded are
random and even the way the items are generated is random. There are a number of
weapon and armor attributes that are cobbled together to form items. This can
lead to some pretty useless items as well as some totally awesome ones. It can
also lead to some comedy, as in the case of the “Frosty Sword of Frost” I was
awarded one adventure. The game"s randomness is its greatest edge and its most
critical flaw.Random adventures means that the game is always fresh. However, random adventures mean that the game is by and large devoid of depth. Now, with a name like FastCrawl, a gamer shouldn"t be hunting for depth, but its important to note that for RPG fans. FastCrawl is more like an arcade-RPG, to be played for the distraction and to snag the highest score. I"ve yet to tire of FastCrawl and have been playing at least one adventure for each day of the week. That being said, there are times where FastCrawl can be supremely frustrating because of the way adventures are generated. It really sucks (there"s no more eloquent way to phrase it) to start an adventure in a dead-end section of map where there"s obviously a hidden door in one room, but your stats aren"t high enough to find it right away. I"ve spent dozens of turns moving in and out of a room trying to get my characters to see a doorway that wouldn"t show up. Lame. It"s also entirely possible to spend an hour playing through an adventure and get to the last encounter and find its something your party simply cannot win. Without specific weapons and armor, a showdown with a couple of firegazers is almost always fatal to your party. Trust me, you"ll see what I mean. With no save function for each adventure (you can"t even close the application and have it pick up an adventure where you left off), the gamer can run into some highly disappointing endings.
Graphics
Everything
is decent looking in FastCrawl. The user interface is clean, and the art is
solid. However, the overall look to the game is very minimalist. The art you see
when you start the game up is really pretty much it. You"ve seen it all at that
point.Sound
FastCrawl has all the typical spell cast and melee hit and door unlocked sound effects, but where it stood out aurally for me was with the music. The score for the game is a sweeping, grand collection of tracks that is perfect for the genre. Good stuff.
Gameplay
FastCrawl managed to strip down the complicated nature of the RPG without taking away the fun. The game is easy to play (point and click) and easy to learn. Altogether, it makes the game very easy to play.
Concept
Well, it"s an RPG without the depth. I"m not saying it"s not fun, but there isn"t tons that FastCrawl brings to the table in innovation. It"s well done and I enjoy the concept, but it"s not pushing any envelopes.
Value
FastCrawl is a well put together title at a decent price. For $20, gamers will get basically unlimited adventures. It"d be fun to see a future release feature a leaderboard so that gamers can post up their high scores, since that IS the end goal for the game… but, hey, the game already got a “+” for Value.
Recommendation
For fans of RPGs that don"t like to be weighed down by meddlesome stories and cutscenes and endless wandering from place to place, FastCrawl is made for you. Gamers that simply want a fast, playable adventure game, FastCrawl is made for you. Die-hard RPGers that love them some storyline, try the demo. FastCrawl might not be for you. For the record, though, I"m leaning towards BUY on this title.
By: Michael Scarpelli
Posted: Thursday January 25, 2007
Posted: Thursday January 25, 2007
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