Shattered Haven

[h1]A Paladin's Steam Review: Shattered Haven. Conflicted Feelings of Survival.[/h1] [list] [*]Genre: 2D Top Down Survival, RPG and Puzzle Solving. [*]Developed and Published by: Arcen Games. [*]Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux. [*]Business Model: Base Game [*][i]Copy supplied via press key from Arcen Games[/i] [/list] The Shattered Haven experience overall has a feeling of confliction. Like like the dev(s) were uncertain of what they wanted to make until the last figurative minute. There are underpinnings of a really great game here but its execution feels schizophrenic at times. I have to wonder if there were multiple developers involved that weren't on the same page. The overall mechanics aren't bad on their own but when combined together, leaves a rushed or incomplete feeling. It doesn't mesh together as well as it should. The difficulty can spike between easy and insane in an instant which creates an aggravating experience. [b]Overall Gameplay[/b] The graphics are ok for a 2D game, the music is pretty good but can be jarring at times when it switches style all of the sudden. Some tracks were apparently not done by Pablo, their regular soundtrack composer. Said tracks sound generic and completely out of place. Additionally, the control scheme isn't the best either. It doesn't feel intuitive though I find it difficult to describe why that is. I think if I had to point the blame at anything, it would be the weird inventory management system and wonky combat. Here's the problem with the combat: you have to get close to the monsters in order to kill/trap them. But those same monsters hurt you and knock you back if you get too close to them. Which can result in you getting knocked into a pitfall, other enemies or any other number of obstacles on the map. Which then probably results in death. It's incredibly aggravating to deal with during the game leading to the spikes in difficulty. [b]PC Settings and Options[/b] All of the PC settings you expect for a 2D game are here and then some. Arcen is always fantastic at making sure that their games run extremely well. Additionally, this game comes with all of the settings needed. Separate volume sliders, custom controls, V-Sync, resolution options (though it should be noted that the art scales weirdly so you may experience black borders at certain resolutions) and the ability to change the Game Save Directory if you wish. It also has a level editor & the ability to mod the texture pack. [b]Final Thoughts[/b] It's such an odd, clearly experimental game that I'm not sure which way I should go on this recommendation. It's good...it's bad...it's good but it's bad....gahhh, I just don't know. I definitely think adding more months of polish with the ideas presented here would have gone a long way to making this game better. I'm only going to recommend it if you're looking for an experimental 2D RPGish puzzle survival game. But be aware that this game has a quirkiness to it that will cause frustration if you let it. [b][url=http://kingisaaclinksr.com/2015/01/19/a-paladins-updated-steam-review-shattered-haven-conflicted-feelings-of-survival/]Read this review and more on A Paladin Without A Crusade[/url][/b]

So, a freebie from PC Gamer Mag. Yay! Described within as "A zombie game for those who dislike Zombie games". I'm not the greatest fan of Survival horror, as most Zombie games tend to be, so I thought I'd give ths a shot. It's... poor, to say the least. There is potentially a phenomenal story in there but the control scheme, lack of ingame information (or perhaps lack of clarity) and pre-8bit graphics let it down badly - to the point that, after a mere 45 minutes, I find myself not caring about the plot and just quitting without saving. It's not difficult to start with but where the items you pick up change slots when you enter a new area (and re-aquire them, in the case of portals) means that your control keys change frequently and this adds frustration to an already underwhelming experience. The concept behind the Greys is intriging however since they can only be hurt by iron. This means the things that you would typically find to use against a typical zombie horde don't actually do anything (like the steel axe). This unfortunately has the effect of starving the player of actual weapons, increasing the likelyhood of being touched (hurt) by the greys - a factor common in (and the primary reason I dislike) other Zombie games. Other items that you would expect to use in a sensible manner are ill-concieved at best. The aformentioned Steel Axe for example. Good for smashing windows, bookshelves, tables and 'thin' trees.and... That's it. Wooden doors are immortal - as are other trees (despite being virtually the same thickness due to the low quality graphics). This lack of versatility grates somewhat, since you only get 4 inventory slots and they fill up faster than one expects. I am glad PC gamer gave me a chance to test this. I wouldn't have even given it a second glance before and perhaps I would have missed out on something great. This is not great - it's barely even good. There are worse games out there, for sure but I don't think I'll be coming back to this one unless it gets a major interface, control and graphical overhaul.

From the developers of AI: Fleet Command and A Valley Without Wind comes Shattered Haven. Shattered Haven is a zombie survival game where the player is presented a variety of scenarios to overcome. The story follows Mary and Darrel as they flee from their once safe haven in search for their lost children. Shattered Haven can be played as a single player game or cooperatively. The player is put in an 'overworld' where the player must locate various portals that lead to individual challenges. The player must complete all challenges in a given region before proceeding to the next. The overworld provides a loose framework for these individual challenges and drives the overall progression of the game. Arcen, the developers, a small five man shop have developed several games since 2009; much more than the average indie developer in my opinion. Shattered Haven, like many games by Arcen, lacks polish. I have played a number of Arcen's games and they all have Arcen's signature mark of lacking polish. Shattered Haven is plagued disjointed and often conflicting artstyle, poor sound effects, bad UI design, and minor but persistent bugs. I am beginning to wonder if Arcen actually knows how to bring a game to completion or if they simply get bored of developing it and release it to market before it's truly finished. The premise of Shattered Haven is good, and I actually did enjoy many of the challenges it presented me and I was somewhat compelled to keep playing but the game's lack of polish caused it to miss the mark in my book. If Arcen had spent a little more time refining this game it could have been so much better. Shattered Haven does support USB controllers although I noticed there are some bugs. Overall I won't recommend this, although if you enjoy action puzzle games you might enjoy this. Score: 5.5/10

I liked AVWW. I wanted to like this game. But AVWW started you off with fire punches and kept the cheesy dialogue to a minimum. SH does neither of those things. In this game, you start by playing as some children who use Home Alone traps to fight zombies. Later on, you play as adults who do the same thing. Basically, the adults are as effective as children in this game. The dialogue sounds like it was written by a ten year old who doesn't read much. "(Laughs darkly)" is actually part of an actual line meant to be taken seriously. The cutscenes aren't much better. "Kids are funny. It sure is dark. I'm going home" is basically what I got out of the first poorly voice-acted specimen. The story is ridiculously rushed. Wake up, open a gate, zombies speedwalk in, silly adventure begins. At one point, a survivor simply guesses by looking at it that a portal will empty his inventory because they didn't feel like taking the time to let us find that out ourselves. Never mind the fact that he only saw the portal five seconds ago and shouldn't be accepting the fact that it exists yet. And finally, the gameplay itself is boring when it isn't buggy. When you're not just ambling about and clicking the "next" button, you're trying to get your AI ally to get out of the canoe so you can advance. Basically, if the worst of game-maker and rpg-maker got stitched together and stole the cute menu from AVWW, it'd be Shattered Haven.

Got this for £0.06 and it still isint worth the money. If someone were to come to me and say heres a free game and they gave me a code for this i would punch them in the face and piss on the code thats how bad this game is.

Arcen Games is one of those studios that I'm really glad exists, even if I don't rush out to buy every one of their games. Each of their titles is a unique mashup of incongruous mechanics and off-kilter storylines that, if nothing else, makes for a truly singular experience. And so it is with Shattered Haven, a zombie puzzle RPG that takes you through a strange and unpredictable tale of loss by making you kill monsters in inexplicably contrived levels. The catch is that this time, the aesthetic limitations and questionable design don't really carry the game. Shattered Haven is presented from a top-down tiled view, not unlike indie roguelikes such as Tales of Maj'Eyal. You always play as a pair of survivors in the post-apocalyptic landscape, either in co-op with another player or with the second character following you around aimlessly. The world is an open series of static screens wherein you will find portals that transport you to puzzle screens. In these, you must kill all the Grays (exotic zombies weak to iron) using whatever you find lying around, from thumbtacks to bear traps. There are quite a few interesting item interactions, but most of these are ignored in favor of aggravatingly gimmicky levels like The One That's All Pits and The One That's A Hedge Maze. There's a fair bit going on in the overworld, too, with additional foes to deal with, NPCs to speak to, and puzzles to solve. The story is some hackneyed garbage about losing your home and super zombies, and definitely wasn't enough to keep me playing. I went into this game pretty positive, being a fan of clever puzzles and off-beat games, but this doesn't really satisfy the urge for either. If the puzzles don't turn you off, the poor writing or eye-straining graphics will.

Sad to say I feel I wasted a lot of time on this. It had potential when I first started the game, disjointed story aside. Unfortunately, that potential disappeared after I figured out that everything you needed to do in the game was doing simple to absurd puzzles till they let you move to a new area, and some of the puzzles relying entirely on RNG to actually pass them successfully. A poor gameplay decision at best, since the RNG is as likely to kill you as the enemies you need it to kill, and if you die, the whole thing resets. The fact that 90% of what you pick up is useless to kill anything in the game, even the normal animals, is irritating at best. Why a Steel axe can't kill a spider or wolf, I will never understand. All in all, not a game I would recommend to anyone, even fans of puzzles or zombie games, since the controles are too floaty to function well and the game has a tendancy to spike lag every time the music loops, even on high end systems, which can result in killing you because your character suddenly jumps 2 or 3 tiles in the last direction you were holding instead of stopping.

arcen is a company that makes unique and mostly underrated games, but I'm pretty sure [b]shattered haven[/b] is their least known (and appreciated) title, which is sad because it's a really fun game that I'm sure a lot of people own because it's been bundled and sold for real cheap many times. it's a cool spin on the zombie genre (they're called grays here), you control a family of survivors, trying to make your way to, well, a haven, by going through many different areas (forest, swamp, snow, etc.) and completing basically unrelated levels by going through portals, some with more action, some with only puzzles, some mixing both. they're really cool, sometimes easy, sometimes frustrating, but also satisfying when you figure them out. the graphics might be a turn-off for some, but I like it, except everything's too tiny, the gameplay area doesn't even fill out the screen because there's a huge border around it for some reason. the controls can be tricky sometimes, partly because of the size of everything, but it never got me to rage-quit, which is saying something. the music's really good too. it's not a long game (ignore my playtime, I left it running in the background a few times), unless you're going for perfect scores on all the levels (and there are nearly 100 of them), but it's really fun, definitely worth a playthrough (or more if you're into new game+ kinda things).

This one was so bad I felt like I was being punished. :-(

The other reviews I have read for this game are right on the money. A promising, yet slightly disjointed game. Remeniscent of the old school NES dungeon crawlers and with some (I stress "some") well thought out puzzles, I could overlook the weak storyline and get stuck in. However the repetative nature, and buggy AI made it infuriating to play at times. I'm going to stick with it, and hope it improves as it goes along, but as it stands right now, I wouldn't recommend you buy this game outside of a steam sale, or a indie bundle