Halloween Contest 2013 Review 003: Scare Spree

[Gizmog]

The third game released for the Halloween Contest is a continuation/remake of Moogle1 and RedMaverickZero's Scare Spree, a name long-time followers of the Halloween Contest are probably familiar with. I remember not particularly caring for the last incarnation, so I was very curious to see how this most recent model was going to stack up. The answer is: Pretty nicely!

If you've played The Mercenaries mode in any of the recent Resident Evil games, the gameplay will come pretty easily to you. You choose a character, you choose a map, and you then have a limited amount of time to run around and scare as many people as possible. Like in Resident Evil, chaining together combos will multiply your points per scare and is crucial to achieving a high score.

You have three options for scares. The basic attack is what you'll want to use most of the time, and is where you do something spooky and spook the guys around you. You can gain little bits of extra time this way, though I can't tell if it's because the enemy is looking at you or because you're close to them. A more situational tactic has your character stop moving and lure the foes to them, though it can be hard to time it right and keep your combo going. You can also just sprint into a guy to scare him, though this doesn't fill your combo and is really more of a punishment for being sloppy than an actual attack.

Once an enemy has been scared, they can't be scared again. They'll try to stay out of your way afterwards, though it gets hard to tell sometimes who you've scared and who you haven't. Some kind of indicator, like an exclamation point floating over their heads might make it a little more obvious, and a little more visceral to boot. New victims spawn seemingly at random, and you can never be sure if it's luck or skill that brings you right into a herd of fresh meat.

A good performance will unlock new characters. Each level has four of them to reward you with, depending on how well you score. Care was taken to give each one their own unique aesthetic and cool animations, though mechanically they seem identical. I should also mention that it counts the two characters you start with as "FREE" rewards for their respective stages, leaving you with only one easy-tier character to unlock and kind of crimping your early sense of achivement.

One thing that surprised me was the sound design. There was a seperate credit listing for screams on the download page and I naturally assumed it would be very in your face and obnoxious. The screaming is actually very nicely balanced with the rest of the sounds, and it was only after two hours that they really got to be the nuisance I was expecting. Surlaw brings his best spooky voice and makes a great announcer. The music sets a perfect, professional tone for the game, though the opening organ chords were just a little too reminiscent of Final Fantasy 6s for my taste.

On the downside, it is pretty easy to sprint into someone who was just off the side of the screen and mess up your combo. I don't have a phone so I don't know, but I would imagine this would be an even bigger problem on the smaller screen of the Android version, available for a buck on the Google App store. Some kind of "radar", or positioning the camera further in the direction the player was moving, ie: Not centering the player in the middle of the screen might help in that department.

They included Game.exe instead of Scare Spree.exe, so you have to choose Scare Spree.rpg every time you play, which is kind of annoying and could potentially be a turn-off for people who aren't familiar with the OHRRPGCE. There's also not a way to quit the game once its in progress short of closing the window, which can be frustrating if you want to cut a bad run short and start over.

So, is it worth your time? It's an extremely polished, professional quality game. It's still a little bit goofy because of the OHR trying to do high-speed actiony things, it's a major let-down that the characters seem to be functionally identical and with only three stages there's not as much replay value as the game listing would have you believe. I played for about two hours and unless there's major action in the high score contest, I'm probably done with it. Still, I had fun in that time and it's very rare to see a game with this kind of production value. From a designer's standpoint there is room for improvement, but it's the kind of little stuff that turns a good game into a great one, nothing major.

I've never reviewed a game that was also for sale before, and where I don't have a phone it's way harder to judge that department. Feels weird to be "influencing the market", so to speak. It's definitely a good representative of the OHRRRPGCE's capabilities and I'm glad that it's on the Google App store as such. But, is it worth your dollar? If you're comfortable paying a buck for an hour or two of fun, you'll definitely be able to get that much out of Scare Spree.

[Meowskivich]

I dares beat the high scores of gizmog, have at you!

[RMZ]

Excellent review and excellent points! Thanks for taking the time to both play the game and review it. It sounds like you enjoyed it. Yes the original game left a bit to be desired, but there are ideas forming of what to do to take Scare Spree further next Halloween.

[Meowskivich]

HAX!