Tech-Gaming Technology, Gaming, and Culture
Every day more and more future
gamers are practically born with controllers in their hands. Games
have been around long enough that former gamer babies are now fully
grown gamers, wondering how they can give back to their passion.
Because of this, the indie gaming scene has exploded in recent years
and is creating a new and exciting time for gamers. We are now in a
time when anyone with an idea can develop a game with very little
standing in their way. The worst games will be lost in time but the
best will survive and succeed. Everyone has as many chances as
they’ll fight for. It’s primordial soup for gamer developer’s soul.
CellZenith is arena-style shmup
developed by Faramix Enterprises Inc., founded by a small group of
DeVry students studying game development. Anyone quick to dismiss
such endeavors should remember that the geniuses behind Portal are a
few young former DigiPen students. Unfortunately, CellZenith is
nowhere near that caliber of game and it’s quite clear that these
developers are still learning.
Touted by the developer as “the next
Geometry Wars!”, CellZenith fails to live up to those claims and
does very little to shake-up or improve the genre. While the game
utilizes a somewhat unique camera angle somewhere between top-down
and a third person shooter camera, the results are a bit disorienting
and uncomfortable though tolerable. You also are given the option to
choose from increasing assortment of automated friendly “CELs”
(ships) with different abilities. There’s a little bit of strategy to
be had in choosing them before each mission. After that everything
else about the game is extremely mediocre.
The gameplay is comparable to a very
basic third-person shooter, just with an elevated camera. The
controls are even essentially the typical keyboard and mouse controls
found in most shooters. Your ship or “CEL” is equipped with a
main blaster and secondary weapons can be attained and switched until
expended. Your ship upgrades itself over time but in a barely
noticeable way. Power-ups and secondary weaponry are are left behind
by most enemies to the point of causing malaise and while some of the
effects and weapons can be fun to toy with there isn’t too much
variety. This amount of power-ups and weapons causes some balance
issues as well.
The AI is fairly dumb whether it be the
enemies, your friendly automated CELs or your captain. (When
friendlies don’t follow you through teleporters, it’s just bad
design.) Large firefights mainly consist of blasting enemies as they
bounce around attempting to do the same to you. This never really
changes partly because of the bland level and mission design. Despite
the somewhat detailed radar, maps are sometimes confusing due to
uninteresting scenery and the sameness of level layouts. Missions
seem to consist mostly of blowing things up until the captain is
happy. There was at least one time when the captain seemed to be
implying that I shouldn’t destroy certain devices. It turned out
those were devices I needed to destroy to complete the mission. There’s 4 “mini-games” included with at least 2 of them attempting some originality, but they end up feeling more like tech demos.
The graphics are decent with some good
particle effects but overall blandly designed with simplistic 2D
sprites being used in a 3D environment in what seems to be an odd
attempt at quirkiness. It comes off feeling cheap in the way that
objects and enemies in Wolfenstein 3D always appeared to be facing
you. The sound effects were pretty lifeless and barely stood out. The
music was decent but the orchestral techno beats ran together and did
nothing to pull me in. Lastly, the story is extremely bland and
despite being both a sci-fi fan and a fairly sympathetic guy I didn’t
really find myself caring about the events, characters or even the
technology.
Still, it’s hard to say CellZeinith is a bad
game, but it is about as generic as they get. It seems the developers
spent more time designing the game than actually playing it.
Everything works and I didn’t experience any bugs. It just wasn’t
very fun. Ultimately, the game lacks apparent heart. These guys have
proved they have technical know-how but I have to wonder if they were
passionate about this idea at all.
“Missions seem to consist mostly of blowing things up until the captain is happy.”
LOL! Good honest review.
at least the explosions look nice.
I dont see the Geometry Wars connection though.
How much does it cost to go to DigiPen? and is it just one campus?
Great title, TG.
its sad when I hear about bad indie games.
The name reminds of of an old TV set my parent had, that was a piece of crap.
LOL, I think they were just called zenith.
Thats kind of sad. What exactly makes it no fun.
I thought portal was made by the Half Life 2 people all this time.
Sounds like they need more people on their development team.
Thanks, I actually came up with the title this time.
Haha, I obviously could have put that more eloquently but why bother?
Yeah, the particle effects were kind of nice.
The geometry wars connection is a bit more apparent when you toy with the camera angle and turn off strafing. Even then it’s pretty different.
Yeah I agree, but there’s a lot of great ones out there too. Also, part of the point of this review’s intro is that even though were going to see some bad indie games out there, it’s cool that they even get a chance in the first place.
Like I said, it’s bland and generic in nearly every way. Anything this game does is done much better in other games.
The DigiPen students were hired by Valve, so we’re both right.
Not necessarily. Cave Story was completely made by one guy and it’s a great game with a lot of heart. A game’s developer needs to really love their game and I’m not sure these guys do.
Not sure. Check https://http://www.digipen.edu/?
So there’s no way this game could be ‘fixed’ to be a great playing?
Ive never heard of this game. When did it come out?
Is it shareware or what?
That second pic looks really boring. Nothing going on but the same damn floor texture.
Is this a retail boxed game? was in the final version? Excuse me but I’ve never heard of it.
Is there a link to the demo? I have a fascination with bad games for some reason. I have to try them and tell myself, ok it IS really bad. maybe Im a skeptic.
Id also like a demo link.
Nah, I thought that was funny!
Nah, I thought that was funny!
There’s no official demo. Probably because it’s not very good.
It’s possible but unlikely.
http://www.gamersdailynews.com/article-380-Anne-Reviews-CellZenith.html
9/10 at GDN, along with a gold award.
And another great review here: http://j2games.com/new/forum/index.php?topic=2706.0
Obviously, you guys are missing something.
One of the most respected game journalists in the industry, Bill Kunkel said, “CellZenith isn’t the next Gears of War, but it doesn’t pretend to be. It is a solid, neoclassic videogame entertainment package, however, and well worth every penny of its $20 price tag.”
Perhaps you guys need to spend more time with it.
Hey, if you’re a PR rep or developer, at least have the stones to leave your name. By the sound of it you are.
I played the game well beyond where I wanted to stop and nothing kept me wanting to play. If I’m missing something, it’s buried deep in the game.
Obviously, I mean no disrespect to the developers and I’m more than willing to try their next game. Like I implied, they have potential.
This review’s intro should show I have much love for indie games. My past reviews should show that I try to be fair. I stand by what I said.
See my reply to the above comment.