It was very moving. I have some good friends from PR although they are all in the US now - they were born there and joined US military and now live here. Great food!! Sorry - off topic..
Review: Spider The Secret of Bryce Manor an intelligent masterpiece Spiders are considered the architects of the nature world, but not many of us would find them very appealing...until now. Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor is not only unique in that you play as an arachnid, but its an intelligent game because it brings out the creativity in each of us. This is the type of game that doesnt pigeonhole you into one solution, but instead creates a journey where the solution is a matter of perception. With Spider, you embark on a journey through Bryce Manor where initially the task at hand is staying alive by trapping and sucking the life out of bugs throughout various everyday rooms and environments from the front porch and the dining room to the basement and the plumbing. Playing a spider doesnt sound that much fun until you realize that the devs have created something special most notably in the controls. In this game, you get a pretty clear idea of a spiders life, and thats quite the accomplishment. The controls utilize every aspect of the iPhone/iPod Touch platform, making spider movements fluid. While walking and jumping are straightforward, its the web spinning that really sets this game apart. You simply tap the spider, and swipe to create a thread, and as long as a geometric shape is created, a web will form. These webs can be created anywhere in any design as long as there is an anchor. I literally created rooms full of spider webs even after the portal opened just because I could. Each of the rooms has bugs, and the point of the webs is to capture bugs so you can feed. Sometimes its easier said than done in terms of capturing them, keeping in mind that silk is limited, and youll die if you cant curb your hunger in time. Of course, capturing hornets is a whole other story, but lets just say that the traditional web wont cut it. The environments are beautifully rendered and look like everyday lived-in places with family pictures, clothing hanging on racks to a dirty kitchen. Eat enough bugs and build enough webs, and a portal opens to the next room. But, wait a minute, soon you notice that even a lived-in place has some type of order to it, and from the looks of things, the residents left in a hurray many eons ago. Why? You get the opportunity to that figure out, and thats really where the fun continues because soon you unlock family secrets hidden in the deepest recesses of the manor. The exploration part of the game with the responsive control mechanics by itself would make this a full-featured, highly rated game. But the devs went one step above that and created a smarter game with a mystery is gradually revealed. This is easily one of the most innovative games Ive come across in all aspects from the storyline and visuals to the controls mechanics and ultimate payoff. Spider has several modes of play: Adventure, Feeding Frenzy, Hunger, and Precision. Adventure is the storyline and one that needs to be played in its entirety. As each of the 28 levels is cleared, a time is provided along with number of bugs eaten. A minor issue is that you cannot go back to previously completed levels, which would be ideal if you want to capture all the bugs, improve your time, or just practice web spinning. The other modes really tend to be more mini-game modes. Feeding Frenzy provides 3 minutes to see how many bugs you can eat. Hunger forces you to eat as continuously as possible before the hunger meter drains. Precision limits the spider to less silk and shorter threads. In terms of scoring, bugs equal points, and if you manage to move from cobweb to cobweb, you activate a multiplier effect. The game also has a set of 24 Webspinner achievements which provide awards for # of webs created, bug combos, web design (not the ones on the Internet), finding secret rooms, various other milestones for the other game modes, and for discovering the Bryce Manor secrets among others. Additional features include an online scoreboard and local lifetime statistics page showing things including total of bugs eaten and webs created. I always say that controls play a huge part in making or breaking a game. In Spider, the controls make this game and then some. Moving around and doing what a spider is supposed to do for lack of a better term feels natural. I never thought playing the part of a spider doing everyday things with a mystery thrown in would be this entertaining, and Spider pulls it off. Spider delivers a rewarding experience that doesnt insult a players intelligence. Your creativity is only limited by your imagination and of course keeping your spider fed. I highly recommend this terrific experience of a game. Albie Meter: 5 Stars (the spider control mechanics are top notch with a challenging premise; intelligent gameplay that should set itself apart from the rest of the pack; devs talent and creativity is obvious)
Ok that is it, I am skipping Duke and getting this. It looks so very interesting. Gives me the feeling of when Blimp was a pleasant surprise.
I have to say that I played around with Duke, and the controls take a lot of tweaking to get them to work, and even then, they don't work well.
Damn albie you just had to post your review and shadow mine huh! haha kidding. great review like always!
Couldn't agree more with Albie's review, this game just gets better and better. Even when you least expect it a small added touch can make you smile, my favourite example being the realization of just how frustrating a slippery bathtub can be to a spider. ...and Albie's review leads me to my first comment for update ideas (although he basically asked for it with the review): a level select. It'd also be nice if we could unlock an infinite web option as a reward (unless it's already in the game of course), because just jumping about the rooms is such a joy on it's own I feel the game would benefit from a "free roam/sandbox" kind of option. Another idea I had (although I can't think of how it would benefit the gameplay other than being amusing) was the ability to hang from a web. I figured the controls could work by tapping the spider to set the anchor, then holding your finger in place and dragging away from the spider with a second finger, to slowly lower it down the web. Then you could hang there, or even swing about a bit like the REAL Spider-Man Of course, it's probably more of a novelty than something really useful but as I said, this game is fun even without the objectives, so anything that added to the simulation of being a real spider would be a bonus in my book.
Hanging from the web would be a great idea, and maybe it's to snag a yet to be introduced bug. Right now, you have to use different tactics with different bugs. Why not make one of them hanging from the ceiling.
good games like this just pop out of nowhere while games like minigore get talked about for 5 months straight before release. I didn't hear not one thing about this game until today.
We apologize for popping from out of nowhere. Next time we'll attempt a better PR campaign! Better to exceed your expectations than not live up to them, though, right?
no I actually like it this way better. Thats all we need is another minigore crowd acting up again. Then the wait becomes painful.
Yeah I quite like this way to be honest. I'm sure it's better for the devs to start building a hype machine prior to release, but as gamers we get a lot of them... so a surprise is nice once in a while, and I've had two today ...Lunarcy being the other one.
I seem to be a lone voice on some things in this thread: -lots of good games came out the last few days. I think this should be 1.99 tops. -is a lite version coming out? -I don't like shill, and boy,is it ever here. -for being "perfectionists", there shoulda been a video already done. 9 days in the valley is pretty norm... what were you doing all that time being "full time devs"? -The game is beautiful, the site was interesting, but should of been done, especially considering you guys are experienced in this industry. And clean up the fingerprint smudges on the blue ink tiger, looks highschoolish. The fact I kept jumping around it the site gave it a mystery feel, which I liked. But if it was "just no time to finish", kinda kills the adventure. -Thanks to the vid posted finally by a member, I stuck around. -thanks to Albies review, it's downloading now. Update: ok, I splurged, and it's really cool. Get the other stuff straight and do updates, and you guys will pwn the 8lb Girlilla. As I wrote extensively here about "I DIG", which I bot at 2.99 mind you bc of pressure from Hodapp I still suggest droppin the price "soon" to get a foothold in the app store. imo
