LusciousPear
Savant
FYI -- you can read the game files pretty easily. If you're exhausted of death, it's fun to go in and pick up plot details.
Conclusion
I don't play roguelike games very often. My preference is to play games with enveloping stories and memorable characters and meaningful dialogue, and that's not what roguelikes usually try to deliver. NEO Scavenger starts out looking like it might be something new, an RPG with a fixed campaign and an otherwise random world, but all-too-quickly the campaign flatlines, and all you're left with are the random elements, which aren't strong enough to make up an entire game on their own.
Still, NEO Scavenger has the kernel of a game inside, it's still being updated, and it's not very expensive. It also has a demo, so you can try it out for little or no cost and see if the random elements work better for you than they did for me. But my take is, if you're going to try out a budget title, and if you want something reasonably new, then you're much better off going with Legend of Grimrock II or even Lords of Xulima than NEO Scavenger.
GameBanshee review: http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/115035-neo-scavenger-review/all-pages.html
Conclusion
I don't play roguelike games very often. My preference is to play games with enveloping stories and memorable characters and meaningful dialogue, and that's not what roguelikes usually try to deliver. NEO Scavenger starts out looking like it might be something new, an RPG with a fixed campaign and an otherwise random world, but all-too-quickly the campaign flatlines, and all you're left with are the random elements, which aren't strong enough to make up an entire game on their own.
Still, NEO Scavenger has the kernel of a game inside, it's still being updated, and it's not very expensive. It also has a demo, so you can try it out for little or no cost and see if the random elements work better for you than they did for me. But my take is, if you're going to try out a budget title, and if you want something reasonably new, then you're much better off going with Legend of Grimrock II or even Lords of Xulima than NEO Scavenger.
CARTEEEEEEEEEER
GameBanshee review: http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/115035-neo-scavenger-review/all-pages.html
Conclusion
I don't play roguelike games very often. My preference is to play games with enveloping stories and memorable characters and meaningful dialogue, and that's not what roguelikes usually try to deliver. NEO Scavenger starts out looking like it might be something new, an RPG with a fixed campaign and an otherwise random world, but all-too-quickly the campaign flatlines, and all you're left with are the random elements, which aren't strong enough to make up an entire game on their own.
Still, NEO Scavenger has the kernel of a game inside, it's still being updated, and it's not very expensive. It also has a demo, so you can try it out for little or no cost and see if the random elements work better for you than they did for me. But my take is, if you're going to try out a budget title, and if you want something reasonably new, then you're much better off going with Legend of Grimrock II or even Lords of Xulima than NEO Scavenger.
CARTEEEEEEEEEER
The only reviews I trust are Codex reviews.
GameBanshee review: http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/115035-neo-scavenger-review/all-pages.html
CARTEEEEEEEEEER
GameBanshee review: http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/115035-neo-scavenger-review/all-pages.html
Conclusion
I don't play roguelike games very often. My preference is to play games with enveloping stories and memorable characters and meaningful dialogue, and that's not what roguelikes usually try to deliver. NEO Scavenger starts out looking like it might be something new, an RPG with a fixed campaign and an otherwise random world, but all-too-quickly the campaign flatlines, and all you're left with are the random elements, which aren't strong enough to make up an entire game on their own.
Still, NEO Scavenger has the kernel of a game inside, it's still being updated, and it's not very expensive. It also has a demo, so you can try it out for little or no cost and see if the random elements work better for you than they did for me. But my take is, if you're going to try out a budget title, and if you want something reasonably new, then you're much better off going with Legend of Grimrock II or even Lords of Xulima than NEO Scavenger.
CARTEEEEEEEEEER
I'm implementing an open source neo-scavenger-like (http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...r-looking-for-foss-collaborators.96672/page-3).
I was wondering if someone could clarify how timekeeping works in NS. The player gets 5 actions/moves, and then the enemies move once? One hex? Or is there something more subtle going on?
Is this important for the experience?
How would you feel about roguelike timekeeping (enemies have a chance to act for every player action)?
I'm always suspicious when a review says something like "the story just ends suddenly." While it's possible they reached the end of the story, my first suspicion is that they reached the DMC and don't know what to do next. It's where NEO Scavenger's breadcrumbs stop and the player is expected to follow-up on clues next. I guess another valid interpretation is that the clues, or maybe that the game relies on this gumshoe approach at all, are not well-advertised.
potatojohn, all AI has a number of moves per turn, like the player. (usually 2-5, depending on their conditions and equipment) When the player ends turn, each AI walks the map until it either reaches it's current objective, encounters another creature, or runs out of moves.
I did briefly introduce a rogue-like timekeeping scale, where each hex clicked resulted in each AI also moving one hex. However, I found that this conflicted with the terrain costs per-move, as well as restricted the differential movement rates of creature types. (E.g. creatures could not move faster than the player without multiple hex moves per turn, and slower creatures were limited to 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc.)
I pretty quickly returned to the Civ-like movement rates, as that was a mechanic that I enjoyed more. (Civ's early game resource rush and explore phase is fun for me.)
Interesting. I have many questions if you don't mind...potatojohn, all AI has a number of moves per turn, like the player. (usually 2-5, depending on their conditions and equipment) When the player ends turn, each AI walks the map until it either reaches it's current objective, encounters another creature, or runs out of moves.
I did briefly introduce a rogue-like timekeeping scale, where each hex clicked resulted in each AI also moving one hex. However, I found that this conflicted with the terrain costs per-move, as well as restricted the differential movement rates of creature types. (E.g. creatures could not move faster than the player without multiple hex moves per turn, and slower creatures were limited to 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc.)
I pretty quickly returned to the Civ-like movement rates, as that was a mechanic that I enjoyed more. (Civ's early game resource rush and explore phase is fun for me.)
So much this. :DMy only real problem with this game is that it's always my first instinct to hit ESC to back out of a menu... but it just takes flash out of fullscreen mode.