[b]A.D.M (Angels,Demons And Men)[/b]
I posted this review together with 18 images [url=https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/zack-2-celestine-s-map/][b]HERE[/b][/url].
[b]Introduction[/b]
When I wrote this review I’d spent approximately 4 to 5 hours playing the game, but due to the level design and movement issues (IMO), I found it difficult to progress. It may be that you don't have the same issue as me. I failed to even complete the first few objectives, which are necessary to progress, i.e. collect a key and pull a lever. I eventually found the key, then spent the next four + hours repeatedly dying and still haven’t found the lever. On replaying it almost two years later, I’ve still not been able to get as far as the lever despite now having spent over 13 hours in bite sized bits playing. I do think there are some issues that need work e.g. increasing the view area and movement speeds. For now it’s just too difficult for my slow reaction times to progress further.
RPG’s are my favourite AAA genre (for example, over the last few years I’ve played the Elder Scrolls Online for over 8000 hours, and at least the same amount on other Elder Scrolls games such as Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim and an equal amount of time on the later Fallout series (3, New Vegas, 4 and a little of the Fallout 76 online version). I’ve been playing RPG’s in various formats for almost 30 years; (my first one was called Darklands, which I bought on floppy discs back in 1992, then several years later, Planescape Torment and Baldur’s Gate), and cannot ever remember struggling so much at the beginning of a game like I have with A.D.M (Angels,Demons And Men). This is not to say the game is rubbish; in fact it seems like a decent unity RPG . I say this despite my lack of progress because I’m sure it’s my own lack of skill that is holding me back, plus I’m only playing it in short sessions in between other games.
[b]In Brief[/b]
It’s a challenging single player dark fantasy RPG with perma’ death and 2D graphics in the tradition of the old school cRPG’s of the 1990’s; for example Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment, Arcanum: Of Steamwork’s and Magick Obscura, and even the early Fallout games. However, I personally think the graphics are not quite as good as those. That said, graphics are not what makes a game in my opinion, so just take that comment with a pinch of salt. As with all RPG’s you level up through experience and like most fantasy RPG’s have access to a wide range of magical abilities and weapons, for example, Swift Blade, Bats Attack, Luminous Shield and Fireball to name just a few.
[b]The Game:[/b]
After the Smart Olive Games splash screen has completed, you are able to select from several language options that include English, German, Polish, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Japanese and Spanish. Once selected you have two game modes, but the second one is locked initially.
• Story Mode
• Battlegrounds
Unfortunately I’ve not unlocked battlegrounds, but I will eventually update this review to include some information about the mode. The story mode opens to a black screen with an intro' to the game (in really small type set), and which is voiced by a female as follows:
[quote]'' In order to save her dying lover, Mya, a witch of the order of nine covens cracked a seal on the gate of hell to steal its power. Accidentally, Cade and his demons were freed from hell. Now the earth must stand together in order to survive and defeat this new threat.'''/quote]
There’s also an extra’s, continue and quit buttons. Clicking on Story Mode will start a new game.
Once the intro story is finished a story board opens up with written dialogue between two characters Captain Vance and Alexander; (follow the link above to see the images that show the dialogue). The start of the game involves you finding a key. If you walk westwards along the wall for about 20 seconds, then move diagonally in a NW direction you should hit the golden key head on. If you start by going NE you’ll encounter the top of a cliff with what appears to be lava at the bottom; the game assumes you’ve fallen in and died, so you get a splash screen saying Game Over.
Control of your character is by using the WASD keys. I found movement frustratingly slow. Once you recover the key, you have to pull a lever. I’ve already spent several hours in multiple attempts trying to find the lever; and have only once managed to get to a 4th area, where I presume the lever could be found, but I died repeatedly. I'v not found a save progress button and although there is a continue button, I’ve not progressed far enough for an auto save to kick in, so when I close the game down I have to start from the beginning again.
The Extra’s button gives you access to the settings button which allows you to change the in-game volume, play in full screen or windowed mode (this can also be achieved by using the space button)
You can select from several options to run the game fast, which is great for older low-end computers or with the best graphics. The choices you get are Fastest, Fast, Simple, Good, Beautiful and Fantastic. There are no screen resolution options, but when in windowed mode you can change the size of the window by dragging the top left corner of the window to make it larger or smaller and you can return to full screen mode by the usual windowed method, i.e. pressing the button in between minimise and close window. The default window size is around 1920 x 1080.
The help button gives you access to the key bindings for three different characters, i.e. Angels, Demons & Men. Both the Angel & Man have 4 different magical abilities which are accessed via the keyboard, I = Shield level 3, O = Swift Blade (level 4), K = Sword Rains (level 6) & L = Blade Traps (level 1) for man, with an attack button ], the Angel uses O= Holy Sword (level 5), J = Nature’s Orb (level 1), K = Call of Nature (level 8) and L = Luminous Shield (level 1) with attack button I. Finally, the Demon has five abilities using the keys I = Iceball (level 1), O = Fireball (level 1), J = Call of the Dead (level 6), K = Bats Attack (level3) & L = Lightning Strike (level 8). You can see all the spells, the amount of Mana they require and the levels they are unlocked via the image image below. None of the key bindings appear to have an option to remap. All the abilities require Mana to use; the higher the level the ability is, the more Mana (usually) is required to use it. Your characters Health and Mana are indicated in the top left of the screen next to your avatar. The green bar is your health & the blue bar represents your
Mana.
[b]Conclusion:[/b]
The following is only my initial thoughts on the game. I’ve not progressed far enough to discover much (just over 13 hours). I found the settings always reset to default when I died & I would then have to reset them before starting again. Initially you only have access to the man & movement feels excruciatingly slow (like walking through treacle). The absence of a mini map and the short distances shown of the playing area makes it difficult to see what you’ve already discovered. Mini maps were common in some of the RPG’s I played 20 years ago. I would suggest to the developer that they consider adding a speed up potion or increasing the default walking speed and adding a run option, that could be stamina led. (these may be included, but I’ve not discovered them yet) In most RPG’s of this style, you can usually see much more of the environment. The short distances you can see make it very difficult to choose the correct direction to move in without seemingly wasting a lot of time. After 13 hours of game play I still haven’t discovered the whereabouts of the level I am supposed to pull after finding the key.
cont' in the comments section below
