Indies for the weekend

8-day-to-live

So we're going back a bit with this installment in the sense that the games covered in this installment all come from the same developer. As in this installment, where we covered the game from developer Jash Games. Here we'll be looking at the games that have been developed by Davis Productions. The main genre this developer has made games for is the FPS genre. And he has been publishing them at a pretty steady pace with last year being their most productive year yet. It's no surprise however that these games are made at such astonishing speeds considering that they are mainly asset flips made in Game Guru.

So what looks like their first game has a title that might sound very familiar in the sense that it's a play on the words of another popular indie title. Namely the forever-in-development zombie survival game 7 Days to Die. In this one, you will go through eight levels where each level represents a day in the game. This is also the amount of time that it will take you to get to the extraction point to survive the ordeal of a deadly virus that's either killed or turned people into zombies.

The story is not this game's strong point, but that's not what the intention of it is either. Instead, you get to move through various levels, ranging from abandoned towns, a highway, a cemetery and other various places to get to safety. On your journey, you'll find a great variety of guns to use with some being more fun than others.

Overall the game is pretty bland since you'll be basically shooting the same type of enemy that lacks any type of A.I besides running straight at you. Apart from some of the guns being pretty fun to shoot and the game offering some nice-looking skyboxes there isn't much on offer here. Thankfully though the game never overstays its welcome as it takes just around an hour to complete
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Gauntlet

Being released around the month mark from when the previous game was released this one finds you in castle-like environments fighting off various monsters. Like stated previously these games are just basic asset flips and this game even uses the same textures for the guns and our protagonists.

Being less ambitious than the previous installment, you'll get to use a fraction of the guns that the previous game gave you. Albeit that its the same guns you used in the previous game. However, one thing this game does better is the fact that it presents a greater enemy variety. Even though the "zombies" from the previous game make a return.

The areas you will go through though are very narrow and small where even the enemies will be struggling in order to get to you. It's not uncommon for them to get stuck in walls or be unable to get past a doorway. This is something that the developer struggled with in their previous game as well. So basically a month wasn't enough time for them to learn how to get enemies through tight spaces. The A.I is still the same as in the previous game, in which the enemies just head straight for you.

Overall this game is of lower quality than the previous one mainly because of the developer's choice to make players fight in tight spaces. Seeing that the developer at that point lacked the knowledge on how to move enemies through these spaces, makes their decision on implementing this type of level design quite odd.
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Cerberon

Oh boy, this one has the be the worst one yet. First of all, I need to complement the developer this time for trying something different. Since this time different sprites and textures are used for what seems the entire game. Totally new weapons, levels, and enemies are presented in this one.

You play as a space marine that has been shot down on an unknown planet on his way to Mars. You'll have to fight your way through the levels, killing the forces that shot you down and escape.

So what makes this the worst one? It's basically the whole of the horrendous shooting, bad-level design, and crappy enemy animations. The guns shoot way too slow. On several occasions, it felt like my presses weren't being registered which led me to doubt myself if I ever took a shot. The levels look like merged cargo containers that you move through, This is true for the various interiors you move through and not the outside environments. Half the time it felt like whenever you would open a door to another interior area there would be 4-5 enemies staring straight at you shooting at you in an instant. Making it impossible for you to react in any way before being shot.

This has been mitigated with the design choice of having your life instantly replenish you spent a second not being shot at. Of these three games, this is the only one that has enemies that shoot projectiles. However, you wouldn't have ever known apart from just taking damage because any kind of visual queue is missing which shows that shots are being fired. As far as enemy death animations go, well let's just say that it takes a while for the enemy to figure out that they are dead.

If you would ever feel the need to test any of the above-mentioned games, then I would say try the first one and skip the rest. But you wouldn't be missing much even if you decided to skip the first one as well.
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