Proto Raider

[table] [tr] [th]Goal[/th] [td]Bearing the only ability to mainly jump while auto-moving, reach the exit while dealing with various enemies and obstacles[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Experience[/th] [td]Played a variety of 2D platformer video games, but it's more rare for me to play a game that requires one button throughout the game, being a sub-genre within the puzzle platformer area[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Setup[/th] [td]Played it in default windowed mode, playing the keyboard with the space bar, with the default medium speed[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Content[/th] [td]63 levels with 3 green treasure chests in each level to collect[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Endgame[/th] [td]Collecting all of the 3 green treasure chests in each level beyond reaching to the end, although it's necessary to collect enough of them because there are barriers that require a certain amount of treasure chests to pass through the level[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Bought[/th] [td]2017 Steam Summer Sale for 0.49$[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]Playtime[/th] [td]3.875 hrs (232.5 mins) spent with the mindset on collecting 3 green treasure chests in each level before moving onto the next level[/td][/tr][/table] [b]My positives[/b] [list] [*] [b]The chiptune soundtrack used during the game is pretty nice, a bit repetitive, but nice;[/b] looking at the local files of the game, these aren't original music that was made for the game, there are from a music composer named Vibe/CRC, who released the album "Essential Chiptunes" on 2008. The files have metadata that shows link pointing to https://silentowl.bandcamp.com/ - for which there is an album page being https://silentowl.bandcamp.com/album/essential-chiptunes - which even the page explicitly mentions the name of the game that uses said songs, most of them from the album. [*] [b]The amount of obstacles to face, equipment to use, and bosses to defeat keeps it feel from feeling too dull, as they feel novel without overstaying their welcome.[/b] [/list] [b]My negatives[/b] [list] [*] [b]There are levels that are determined by luck more than skill when trying to finish them;[/b] starting on level 5, you are introduced with brown boulders that fall down onto the bridge at random that harm the player upon just touching them, including the fragments of the boulders. Due to not being able to turn around in that level and only jump while moving forward, the lack of control due to relying on luck makes it feel less satisfying when finishing them, these unsatisfactory feelings worsen when focusing on collecting 3 green treasure chests on such troublesome luck-based levels. The following levels are considered to be luck-based overall: level 5, 14, 16, 18, 21, 26, 29, 35, 44, and 49. Out of 63 levels, 10 them are luck-based levels and they stand out in comparison. [*] [b]Board signs that have a blinking exclamation mark during the levels cannot be reread again;[/b] I can understand not being able to have the text pop up to interrupt the gameplay again, since you already read the text when first encountering them, but there is no way to be able to re-read them besides having to create a new save file to get to that level to be able to re-read the text. This seems to be a minor thing, but I enjoy reading through the text and accidentally skipping it makes me feel bad when I missed out. [*] [b]The volume strength for music and sound effects when setting it to 33% is too loud especially when wearing a headset microphone;[/b] excluding muting, there are three being 33%, 66%, and 100%. There is no way to lower it down further while still being able to hear the audio without having to adjust the volume at a computer system level. [*] [b]There are no Steam achievements to keep track and validate how much I played through the game[/b][/list] [b]My eehs/neutral feelings[/b] [list] [*] [b]In the options menu, the typeface and color scheme can be changed;[/b] I didn't try them out after finishing the game, I guess it would be pretty neat for some form of replay value on seeing how the levels look like when it deivates from the original default settings.[/list] Sadly, I honestly don't think I would recommend this overall to others, even within the puzzle platformer video game genre, mainly because of the luck-based parts of the game that don't feel good to play through when encountering them, since you spend more time than necessary to finish them through. The people who made the game and the levels appear to have realized this since the some of the later half of the levels, there is some control over the obstacles to overcome and bosses to defeat that are normally luck-based, by being able to perform actions to dodge from being harmed. Level 64 can't be finished since it's the end screen, saying there will be more levels to come through updates; unfortunately, there hasn't been any more updates since then.

[h1][b]Not Recommended[/b][/h1]

Proto Raider is an auto-runner game with a unique art style. I love anything that brings back the old retro feel. The music in this game is also nice and relaxing. Overall, the whole game's style fits together nicely. The goal here is to guide your proto man to the exit of each level. Think that is easy? You'll have to pick up the key, and, optionally, 3 green chests first. The only items that keep you on the screen are yellow arrow "walls" that bounce you back in the opposite direction. You will need to think about your overall path to be able to pick up all the items and reach the end of the level successfully. One mistake and you'll have to start the level over. Not as bad as it sounds, really - the levels are not that complicated and when you fail, you don't feel like you just spent too much time to give it another go. Once you think you've gotten the hang of the game, it throws in a new mechanic such as a scuba suit or wing suit, or some type of dynamic environment that you'll need to overcome. With 63 actual levels of play, I was able to get through the game in about 3.5 hours total, and I enjoyed the game immensely. There are some random enemy (or falling object) spawnings on a few levels that can become frustrating, but that's the worst of the frustation in my opinion. Most of the game is simply relaxing and requires timing of jumps. You can adjust the speed of the game, as well as tweak the font / color options as well in the options. If the Steam preview video and screen shots make you wonder if you should get this, I'd say, yes, definitely go for it, you won't be disappointed! Additional Notes: In the credits you'll see that it says more levels are coming soon, but to my knowledge, the game has not been updated since August 24th 2016, and never actually updated with additional levels, so I wouldn't expect any new ones any time soon, if ever. Though, for the price ($3.99 as of the review), you still are getting a good solid and unique experience. If you enjoy the background music and want the OST, you can use/play the included MP3s in the Game's Data\Sounds directory - bonus!

Too simple. Music is too loud. Graphic choices are bad, for example the fire on the ground that kills you, which has the same graphics as torches on walls that you can safely pass through.

Графика выше всяких похвал, а геймплей на кончике пальца (так как управление только прыжком, либо на ЛКМ либо на пробеле). Игра состоит из уровней размером с экран, в которых нужно либо дойти до двери сперва подобрав ключ, либо ещё и три сундука собрав. Направление движения изменяется приспособлениями на уровнях.

I really wanted to like this game, since it has such a nice ASCII art and graphical style in general. But there are two big issues with game mechanics that make it hard to recommend: The first issue is that the jumping mechanics feels very weird: jumps feel unresponsive and collision response (with walls and ceiling) is inconsistent and just feels wrong. The second problem is related to the level design. The levels are non-determenistic and in many levels your ability to succeed depends on things that are out of your control: like some platforms that has to spawn in exact right spots. To complete such levels you have to restart them many times which is extremely irritating and it feels like the game is just wasting your time. However, if those issues are fixed, that would be a really nice little game.

Really cool style for a platformer. But the one-button control to just jump wasn't really fun. It isn't very hard at first, but was a little too one-dimensional in game play that the art style couldn't fully overcome. I wish it was a full control platformer in this style. Worth a try, runs fine on my Win10 Alienware GTX 1080 in full screen on my TV.