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The Daily Click ::. Downloads ::. Review Review: Lode Runter 2
I'm sure TDC members make installers just to annoy me. Fair enough, some of the larger games can justify it if they want to have all their music, data, graphics files and all that gubbins in separate directories, but particularly for games that just contain an EXE (and possibly a CCA or GAM) I completely fail to see the point in it. And it clutters up my nice neat Start menu as well. This is one of the games that is justified in using an installer, but is unique in having a registration code that you have to fill out before you can install the game. Especially when the code is displayed in the same place as where you have to enter it, it seems as bad as the fake "Loading..." screens that inexperienced Clickers put in to try and give their games a bit of professionalism. However, after all that, Lode Runter is certainly a decent game. In fact, as you probably saw from the score, more than a decent game. It opens with a very professional looking menu, with an anime-styled header as is so popular these days, and arcadey Mod-sounding music that reminds me of one of the old Epic or Apogee shareware games. The use of the System font in the options menu makes it look like a Microsoft game... which might not be a good thing... and the menu sliding-around sounds are taken from the door sounds from the original Doom. (My knowledge of old games is unbeatable!) There's even a demo that plays if you leave the game for a while, adding to the whole professional feel of this program. If there's one thing I don't like it's that the English used isn't terribly good - it's been translated from French, and the ReadMe remains in French but with English headers for some reason. Still, never mind. I've not even got around to telling you about playing the game itself yet and I've already heaped praise on it. The graphics are small but very well drawn indeed - a lot of time has obviously gone in to this. The controls can be confusing at first because of the lack of English documentation, but the gist of it is that you use the traditional arrow keys and Shift to dig in front of you. A tutorial is provided during the early levels. The object of the game is simply to collect all the treasures in the level, avoid the guards (provoking some Benny Hill-esque chases along the way) and eventually get to the exit. With such a simple game concept, it would be easy to think that this would get repetitive, but the author has made sure that each level is as different as possible - the graphics for the blocks and scenery in each level change entirely each time. The levels are also well designed, and keeping with the original they only take up one screen. This lets you see the locations of all the guards easily, and also ensures that you're not put back too far when you die. An extensive level editor is also provided, the kind that would have been very welcome in many games of the shareware age - levels are fully customisable even down to which music and tilesets they use. I'm well aware that this is beginning to sound like an advert for the game rather than a review, but I can honestly find nothing wrong with this game. The gameplay engine is very solid indeed, and I couldn't find any bugs in it at all despite its obvious complexity. I've been throwing Tens around a lot more than I used to lately, but with games of this calibre it's no wonder.
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