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Review: The Spiteful Dead
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By: KarrLordofChaos | Published: February 5, 2009 22:00 pm | RPG Maker
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I originally played it way back when it first came out but I never got farther then the third card. I just put the game down and moved on to other things. This time I vowed to play the game from beginning to end. It's always important to play other's games so you get a deeper understanding of what has been done, and how each games comes together.

Here is my breakdown:

-The character depth was the best I've ever seen.

-I was also impressed with the use of color and the overall polish of things. The creative use of tiles and effects to make a futuristic setting was very impressive and definitely worth a look for anyone trying to create that feel in a RPG Maker 1 game.

-Many scenes where done well, like the fireside scene. This creativity could have spilled over into the games many black screen sequences.

-Many dungeons where like puzzles on their own so you actually enjoyed traversing them rather then just feeling like another dungeon filled with encounters.

-The excessive use of the wait command nearly floored my impatience, forcing me to wait staring at a black screen for a huge amount of time during the games many black screen story sequences. Speaking of which, these could of easily been built into a mini scene rather then have the player just read words on a black screen without even music playing in the background.

-I found the library puzzle to be a deal breaker. I had to traverse it many times and wanted to give up rather then find a shelf to return yet another book.

-The gun system and expendable damage items where top notch.

-To date this is the only game I've ever seen the trade system used and it shown. I can't imagine a better use of a trade system then in a game like this.

-The game scores a host of fun mini games like the zombie car slaughter and the wicked tank assault.

-There is some fun puzzles like capture the flag, and random map stuff that's innovative and makes your playing experience exciting. -I only wish the trade system included food which I needed more then ammo.

-I encountered only a few bugs, none of much forced me to restart (which is good, switching three cards is a lot of work). Bug one: A dieing error in which I died and was restarted at the beginning of the chapter. The entire scene replayed but I couldn't see anything. it was only during the final scene of the opening event of the chapter that the game found a shift default screen to repair the error.

Bug two: Occurred with the lore system where I was able to equip non performing lore skills on non lore characters and was able to attempt to choose from several lore skills that where clearly cut from the game.

Bug three: When I regained a character, I went back to try to get an item that required this character and it refused me with the same message as when I didn't have the character, even though I did.

-Some stuff I didn't like included an entire card's worth of improperly balanced battles where I had to restart many times due to punishing attacks and debilitating paralysis and other status effects.

-The harsh environment forced me to use my weapons more fluently yet didn't provide me with enough opportunities to gain healing items so I had to backtrack to get to a free sleeping location.

This is where the game gets top marks. The Spiteful Dead was fun enough that I wanted to play it again to the end. The game didn't feel like an epic which is very good considering its length.-Woot!

Overall I think it's a great game and by far the longest game I've played (15 hours of play time, 7 scenario cards). My biggest gripe was the games many black story scenes which bothered me. I found that I read them more often when they where a part of a visual scene and just wanted to flip through the text when they weren't - other designers should take note. Even still this was a good use of two days!

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