Review for Sour City

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SwordPlay
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Review for Sour City

Post by SwordPlay »

Review of "Sour City"

WRITING
The dialogue seems like typical stoner fare. Hilarious, i suppose, but also clunky and understated, which is a shame, because it is witty.
Here is an example from the opening scene:
Some good lines of dialogue are scattered around here and there, but buried underneath poor structure.
Expositional text works well to introduce scenes, and the game's cinematic sequences are quite good.

SOUND
Sound effects are used quite well, which is to say, they work fine.
Chapter 2 opens with god-awful static which hurt my ears, and was soon followed by a piercing shrieking wail of sirens, which I did not appreciate.
Please turn the volume down.
Was there music? I didn't hear any.

GRAPHICS
The art in general is good.
Things are created with respect for proportion and form, yet suffers from poor colour, contrast, shading and perspective.
n general, things/objects look (reasonably) like they are supposed to.
Furniture looks great. Bricks look good. Grass has odd depth. Sewer sludge doesn't ooze :(
Enemies in combat were interesting to look at (if placed oddly.), and so were attack animations. Hero graphics were hideous but decently artistic.
Character portraits are.... hideous... I suppose that's intentional.
It needs some work, but it definitely has a strong artistic foundation, and much of the artwork is clear, comprehensible and interesting (especially "falling into hell")
Some of the artwork is really quite good, but juxtaposed oddly or with minor flaws

MINIGAMES

There are some cool minigames, but they start with little warning. Having a pop-up display or HUD would be nice.
I really enjoyed the skateboarding and the falling in hell, but the cycling one was annoying. The falling in hell bit can be triggered again when Johnny and George meet, thereby triggering a glitch where you can replay that section with Johnny in your party and ending up with more characters than you are supposed to have.
There was also the odd glitch (the bottleneck in hell knocks you through a wall) and strange level design (the skateboarding section has square patches of tarmac surrounded by grass) but it was ultimately charming.

COMBAT

I didn't use many combat skills, and I made it through the first dungeon (sewer) eventually, using no items or skills (except for the life recovery skill)
It was frustrating due to large maps and slow combat.
I found the Liquid Nitrogen and it added a cool effect to my punch!
That is a cool feature, but it was hidden away.
Combat had quite a few options, but not much description for what each thing does.

GAMEPLAY
It was mostly linear, and I simply wandered from scene to scene picking up items here and there and enjoying the writing.
It is actually done quite well, and does not feel stale or shoehorned.
The constant movement and switching of scenes definitely works in its favour, and this could be an interesting game if it was fixed up.
I stopped playing when I managed to get 2 Johnny's in my party through (presumably) a glitch, and it autosaved over my latest file, and I didn't really want to go through the sewers again, so.... yeah...

THOUGHTS

This is definitely a game to enjoy being played high or drunk.
I'd like to see more games from this author, and it was very interesting with novel plot and concepts.
However it is quite flawed, and there were a few "glitches"
It also auto-saved :( I think it is possible to auto-save in a slot inaccessible to the player, which should be used instead.
Players take ages for a turn. Dungeon was too long to traverse. Falling in hell can be triggered twice leading to a replay of that entire section!
Graphics could use some fine-tuning.
Last edited by SwordPlay on Thu Jun 15, 2017 5:41 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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