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ad6e99063403ba3191b0300ba57dc0a89ee019be9f6f35dcc8ecb45be76bbec3
overall_rating
4.468085106382978
47
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Absolutely loved Derelict Freighter (alkjam_plaw). A really big, satisfying area to explore, with lots of foreshadowing (seeing areas before reaching them) and revisiting (coming back to previously visited areas under different circumstances), Nice, tough but fair combats. I finished with 202 of 205 kills and 9 of 12 secrets. Weirdly, never found the double shotgun, which became a problem later on as it’s my favourite weapon for dealing with the blue enforcers that have energy shields that only come down when they’re about to shoot. Top quality map from (so far as I can see) a first-timer!
Northcentral Positronics (alkjam_dfl) has lots to recommend it, and there is something satisfying about how relentlessly difficult it is. (FInishing with with all 163 kills and all three secrets felt like an achievement.) But there was a slightly grindy feeling to it in the end, especially with all the underwater passages and then the sequence of ambushes. Those last parts felt hard in an unfair way that wasn’t as much fun as it could have been.
Subdural Havoc (alkjam_greenwood) is an enjoyable blast through a succession of rather improbable base rooms, with a satisfying cllimax in an open area, where the Trinity encourages nailgun use. Perhaps not especially memorable, but good enough that I played it twice.
Escape! (alkjam_alexunder) benefits from a little bit of narrative, and is pretty hard in its middle section compared with relatively easy beginning and ending. Nice, but not among my favourites.
Superportal (alkjam_daizenzetsu) is relentlessly hard after a relatively gentle introduction. Honestly, after a while, I started to find it a bit old that each new room contained a group of high-powered enemies to be fought with little or no cover. Each individual combat is fun, it’s just the repetitive nature of it that drags it down. The ending was satisfying, though.
High marks for Logistics of Chaos (alkjam_emeraldtiger). It hits all my pleasure points with a nice sense of exploration, good ammo/health balancing, and a satisfying mix of easier and harder combats. Loses some points for getting confusing in mid-game, when it’s not clear what to do or where to go after pressing the two buttons on the narrow areas above the central room, but I figured it out in the end.
Base Rush (alkjam_myki.bsp) is perhaps not especially sophisticated, but it’s a ton of fun – which is way more important in my book. It intersperses passages of exploration with several horde combats to excellent effect. Apparently it’s the author’s second ever map, I am looking forward to great things.
I was really enjoying Sunken Hopes (alkjam_ionous) right up to the final shut-in combat with its wave after wave of ultra-hard enemies. At some point, I just god-moded my way through and called the map done. Shame, as up until then I had enjoyed the sense of exploration, and the alternation of underwater and land-based sections.
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Tell Me It’s Raining (alkjam_radiatoryang) is, for me, a disappointing end to this jam – not because it does anything wrong, but because the thing it does well is not the kind of thing I enjoy. It’s a sequence of combat waves in a single arena, with no exploration at all: just fighting, with respawning health and ammo to keep things moving along. I fought my way through to where it goes back to Wave 1, but more from a teeth-gritted sense of competionism than out of enjoyment.
Anyway, the pack as a whole, while very good, falls a little bit short of the best new releases, so I’m awarding four stars.
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