Recent reviews by exomo

Nice programming game with cute graphics and backstory, but lacking diversity in the levels. If you are into programming games, it's worth a try.

Here are some of my thoughts about the game (note that it's MY opinion, feel free to disagree):

What I like:
- I like the graphics and how the levels are designed visually. Of all the programming games I've played so far, AlgoBot has probably the nicest graphics.
- There is a story line that leads you through the levels. It's a nice addition.
- Commands can be entered with keyboard shortcuts, which helps to avoid the somewhat clumsy drag&drop of commands.

Biggest downside for me:
The levels lack diversity. The game wastes a lot of potential by limiting the set of commands and even more important the control structures.
- What can the robot do? It can move, turn, push buttons, and pick up or put down stuff. That's it. The only goal ever is to carry stuff (that can be "objects" or "variable values" from one point to another and move the robot to the exit. I am missing some more complex interactions, like e.g. manipulating variables in a way, for example.
- You are limited to a single branch instruction and three functions which you can use to create loops. For one level, the branch instruction can only ever compare two variables (=, <, >).
- With the given limitations, you are very limited in your algorithm design. Most of the levels come down to finding a path and finding a way to reuse repeated parts of it in functions. Finding the path is usually pretty much straight forward, identifying a part to loop is not too hard either given the fact that there can only be one loop.

Now, don't get me wrong. This might sound as if I didn't like the game, but that is not true. It's fun solving the puzzles and some levels are still tricky enough to find a solution within the optimization target. It's just that I think Algo Bot could be even better with a little more freedom in algorithm design.

Other things I think could be improved:
- UI for level selection. It's consistent with the story ang general graphics style, but it's not very comfortable to get an overview about which levels you have "fully optimized" or not and select levels to replay.
- When you enter a level you have no clue what the target performance is, so you have to first solve the level before you can see whether you have to optimize it further. I'd like to have the target displayed in the level along with the count of currently used commands, which is also missing.
- Replaying a level has no option to completely skip the story. Everytime you restart a level you have to skip through the story dialogs, when you finish it you have to click through story dialogs again before you see the result. If you have to restart a level several times to optimize it, this gets annoying.

I tried to point out some of the downsides, and even if the list of upsides is much shorter and has less detail, my overall rating of Algo Bot is positive. It is quite a fun programming puzzle game, just a little too short/easy for my liking.

Super Spiel, sowohl alleine als auch mit Freunden zusammen.
Ein dickes Lob muss ich mal für die großartige Modbarkeit aussprechen.

Auf den ersten Blick: "Meh, ein Diablo Klon"
Nach dem ersten Level-Up: "Was ist das denn für ein abgefahrener Skill-Baum?"
Nach einigen Stunden Spielzeit: "Ich kann gar nicht mehr aufhören!"

Ok, man kann wohl kaum abstreiten, dass da so einiges von Diablo abgeschaut ist, aber das muss ja nichts schlechtes sein. Dafür ist es kostenlos und macht eine Menge Spaß. Was Skills usw angeht recht komplex, man braucht wohl so seine Zeit bis man das so richtig verstanden hat, man wird also durchaus auch gefordert und muss nicht nur klicken bis die Monster umfallen.

Eines der besten Puzzle-Spiele die ich je gespielt habe.
+ Interessantes Spielprinzip:
+ Knifflige Rätsel, die Schwierigkeit steigt langsam an und es kommen immer wieder neue Elemente/Spielmechaniken hinzu.
+ Alles lösbar, aber man braucht schon mal ein paar Versuche. Wo hat sich nur Jeff schon wieder versteckt? Wie schafft man das bloß ohne so viele Ritter zu braten?
+ Tolles Level-Design, witzige Waffen und Hüte, man gewinnt die Ritter einfach lieb (und dann schickt man sie leider in den Tod :D)
Alles in allem macht das Spiel einfach Spaß und fordert dabei die grauen Zellen ein wenig (oder auch mal mehr).
Was leider auch keine Selbstverständlichkeit ist: Sehr gute Qualität (keine Bugs bemerkt, wirkt nicht unfertig), ich kenne die alte Version nicht aber Done to Death macht einen durchaus "runden" eindruck.

Ich kann "Life Goes On" nur weiterempfehlen, wer Rätselspiele und etwas morbiden Humor mag ist damit sehr gut bedient.

Spieldauer: Erster Durchgang etwa 9 Stunden, aber es werden noch einige mehr, bis alle Level in den Vorgaben sind und Jeff endlich satt ist.