WARNING - PRETTY HARSH REVIEW
Okay so, I've played this a bit. Replayed it, even. And I'm still asking myself a LOT of questions about this.
Well, mechanically, this is
just fine. It's not perfect, and there's a few little issues with it, but for being a first time at using SOC, I congratulate you. I don't even KNOW how to make a SOC file. Though somethings are really, really off or simply annoying.
> The ElectroBuzz
Okay, let's start off easy. This guy is kinda broken, and kind of ridiculous. I boot up the level and FIRST thing I spot is a triple rail ring shooting towards me. Kinda extreme for such a small enemy, dontcha think? Plus, after that attack, he just stopped attacking. If I'm not mistaken, there's two of them, and I only got attacked by them once.
>The Crawler
Ugh, this guy. Firstly, he has WAY too much HP. I mean, 5 HP? He's a CRAWLA, not a BOSS. Weird HP aside, this guy moves EXTREMELY FAST. That shouldn't be a problem, really, if it didn't have those spike balls floating around him. You need to tone his speed a bit, and alter that HP. He gave a tougher fight than the actual boss.
>The Turret Mobile
The boss. Again, suffers from some of the same issues I have with The Crawler. First, it moves TOO fast. Secondly, his attacks are literally unreadable. Thirdly, he's pretty much a punching bag. His deadliest attacks consist of wimpy spike balls throws. Though, he constantly tries to run you over, instead of, WELL, shooting you. Like a
Turret would. The spikeballs he generates midway are pretty useless for him too, they're kinda small; and really easy to avoid. You should really try and emphasize the TURRET part of the boss. Don't make it a buffalo that charges at you, make it a deadly sniper.
Okay, now. This is where my biggest issue lies:
The sprite work. I mean, not everyone in the world is an artist, I myself, have issues drawing and painting. But... Have you compared your sprites to the original ones? All of yours lack shading, the colors are obnoxiously bright, and some sprites are just ridiculous. The boss is the biggest offender. His sprites consist of a photoshopped Turret on top of an eggman-less Eggmobile. And... Yellow tentacles..? Also, hitting it makes it
bleed. A machine that bleeds.
There's also this black crawla that just sits around doing nothing. And it also looks really, really, ugly.
I'm not telling you to make a perfectly good sprite, nor make it completely original; from the ground up. I'm just saying that you could have tried a bit better. Change up the colors, use SHADES, shadows, or anything that makes them pop out! They DO pop out right now, but
not for the right reason. If you could learn how to program SOC, you can also learn how to make sprites
beautiful.
I see potential in you, really. You just need to work a bit harder, and I assure you'll make wonders.
Anyways, congratulations on your first WAD release, man. Don't be afraid to work harder.
