Re: New horror and adventure sidescroller, The gate!
Hello all,
I just had to try out this game, and give my thoughts on it. What I am about to say will sound harsh to some, but I am only expressing my opinions.
I did not expect too much from this game from the outset, because I knew what a bad rap these developers got from Psychostrike. I had nothing personal against Psychostrike. I did have my disappointments with it, and I ultimately did not purchase it after hearing the additional content. While I was moderately impressed, I was not sold. Had the game's price been knocked down, I would have had no problem buying it instantly. But I instead decided to make an informed decision. It's only a game, if you really can't wait to make an informed decision before you purchase a game, then that is a risk you have to take. And even if I had taken that risk and been disappointed, I would still feel good about my decision, because I did what I felt was right at the time. I would still be supporting an awesome Audioga
me development team, even if I thought their games were somewhat overpriced. And I may still purchase it at some point out of respect. I have no problem with that idea, I just have other things which are more important at the moment needing cash. After all, audio game development is hard, and it needs all the funding it can get. Also, you cannot compare these games to the free BK series, for example. Free VS. Paid stuff happens like that in the mainstream world all the time, and most people, when they see a free gem, will appreciate it for what it is, and from what I've seen, won't start comparing it to other products that are paid and using the freebies as the ultimate benchmark. I find it frankly a little silly to start assuming that just because we have a bunch of free games, that the paid ones should be even better. Those free games were scrapped together from a bunch of resources, by people who are in it just for the fun. They are not under any commercial obligation.
They know that when they make something free they're not getting anything back and are willing to take that chance. Therefore they want to make it worth the effort. But paid products need to get money back, there are no two ways about it. I personally feel a lot of commercial products have more shiny stuff on the outside than on the inside, but that's what sells it. Why are there so many music artists that you don't like, for example? Because they're still selling music, so some crowd likes them. Maybe you don't. The only way a commercial product can be declared as no good is when it doesn't sell. Bottom line. A lot of people feel that these games focus too much on sound design and not on gameplay, for example. But if that's gonna make it sell, then it needs to be paid attention to. If we feel that is not enough, it is our responsibility to say so in a constructive way. Besides, whether the sound design is good enough to make a game sell is a perso
nal choice which we all have to make individually. Since I am one of the most obsessive people I know when it comes to sound, I'd pay a higher price for a game with awesome sound even if the gameplay is not so good. But other people may just turn their nose up in disgust at the whole thing. It's just a personal choice we all have to make, and I wish we could keep this kind of nonsense about whether it's overpriced or not off the forum. If you want to pay for it, pay for it. If you don't, don't. If you pay for something and want a refund or don't think it was worth it, I'm sorry but you just made a mistake. I've been there and I know what it feels like. It's not pleasant, but life isn't perfect. There are ways to tell the developers what you want to say in a constructive way, and I am quite sick and tired of every single paid audio game that's more than $xx getting publicly bashed because of what we think we're paying for. W
hat we're paying for is different to every person, I pay more for good sound, other people pay for good gameplay, for example. And while the criticisms on The Gate seem to be under control now, I'd just like to read about the game and nothing else for a while...
Now back on topic.
Firstly, the game's presentation. While the sounds are certainly a lot crisper than Adventure at C: I still don't like them as much as I did Psycho Strike, probably because Philip may not have contributed his sound talent and resources here. Also the voice acting and overall characters did not feel genuine to me. Even though the game was advertised as a horror game, I could not get myself scared, though I will admit some of the sounds moderately immersed me, but only for the first few seconds. I found the game lacking when it comes to atmosphere and presentation. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Super Liam felt the same way, or at least had that vibe in it, and look how su
ccessful that game was. I am still able to enjoy The Gate because I am able to play along with its style, which, while not what I expected, is something I can enjoy. I felt the demo was minimal, and only showed a small fraction of what the game had to offer. I wasn't really sold until the third level to be honest, and then that's when I started to think it may be a cool game.
I do really enjoy the game even though I am probably being way too harsh on it. The music I think is really awesome, and some of the sound effects are really quite good in their own way. I like the way the game plays, even if it feels a bit unfair at times, but not so much so as to turn me away. I could see myself enjoying the game quite a bit, even with the problems I have with it. My advice would be to just try it and see what you think. Personally I find that it could be improved but is not bad where it is.
Beating the demo on easy was not a difficult task for me, which is yet anoth
er reason why I like the demo, I had very little frustrations while playing it and was through it in about a half hour. I could, if I chose, scale up the difficulty and get myself frustrated on purpose to see how much harder the game could potentially be. I am more excited to hear the new enemies and traps that are introduced, and I am actually alittle worried that I'll keep reading this topic and will have spoilers thrown around left and right. I want to be surprised. Ah well, I might as well just buy the thing while the sale is still on. I am tempted to do that anyway, and at least contribute to VGStorm development.
The rest of this post contains spoilers!
To those having trouble jumping over pits. You can do what Brad suggested and take a running jump, or you can walk up to the second squeaky floorboard and press up and right arrow at *exactly* the same time. I find that will clear pits, but if you press them too far apart or if for some reason your keyboard proces
sing is hindered, you may have trouble doing it that way. Do not tap the arrows rapidly, press and hold.
You can also jump rapidly by holding up and a direction, then repeatedly tapping up. For example, to continuously jump to the right, press up and hold right while continuously tapping up. You'll cover ground much faster that way, just watch where your jumps land!
With the grey lady, it took a few attempts, but I finally beat her by jumping from one side of the board to the other and not letting her get too far away from me. It just takes practice in timing. I think the ghosts she spawns move at the same speed as her, since I eventually had her and one or two ghosts chasing me and they were consistently right on top of each other.
The procedure goes like this: immediately shoot her with an arrow when she first appears and start jumping, trying to avoid her. To play it safe, jump from side to side of the board, shooting once every pass until she's dead. I h
aven't dared to take multiple shots per pass yet since she''s just too fast for my comfort.
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