Review: Mushroom Age
Just because my new computer is finally set up and going, I decided to try out some Reflexive games ’cause this computer can actually access the website (my old laptop was having trouble loading the site for some reason). I finished the Mortimer’s Time Paraodox first, and then decided to try the Mushroom Age. Boy, was that a mistake. This is perhaps the worst seek-and-find game I’ve had to endure from Reflexive for a while and it just makes me mad thinking about it. Yeah, it’s that bad, so be forewarned.
Graphics: The graphics for the Mushroom Age is mediocre at best. It’s not something wonderfully done, but it skates by. However, the items that you need to find are either too obvious that there poses really no challenges at all, or too bland that you can’t see it even if it’s in front of you. I read elsewhere that the Mushroom Age uses a technique where some items don’t appear the first time you search a scene, and you have to go and search another scene first, find as many as you can first, go back to the first scene, and some new items will pop. I’m not sure if they really utilized this technique (because frankly, I highly doubt that the producer of this game really are that intelligent…) but it kind of feels like that sometimes. I’m just not sure if it’s because of the poor graphics or becasue of this new technique that they uses. The animation used during the time-travel makes me nauseous, what with the too-bright colors and the continuous swirl and the bright dots that gets on my nerve after seeing it the second time, and at the end I always turn away when my character started to use the time machine. Yes, it’s that annoying.
Music: They incorporated the voice over for the game, which, at first, I thought was quite impressive and interesting. But the badly-done voice over soon wears off its charm (and this happens very quick as well), as too many mistakes from the voice over can be found by people who aren’t picky at them, not to mention for me who grew up with good voice over Japanese animations. The main character, Vera, was played by a girl who was probably on a high dosage of anti-anxiety drug, because there is absolutely no emotions in her voice at all. I mean, (a bit of spoiler alert) if your fiance with whom are you getting married disappeared without a word and the only clue is his mentor, a crazy professor, wouldn’t you be mad and borderline hysterical when that professor isn’t telling you where he is? But no, she was all tired and slow-speaking and perhaps just took her meds that she’s sleepy, and she is like that throughout the story. It was grating on my nerves very early in the game. Other voice overs are bad to borderline decent, with fake accents so bad that you’d wish they drop it. The background music of this game is stock and crappy, and the sound effects are similar as well. In short… I’d turn the speaker off. You’re not losing much anyway.
Gameplay: Like I said in the graphics part, some site that talks about this game says that it uses a technique where you can’t find everything in one scene at the first go. This supposedly-interesting schematics only further infuriates the player, however, because the game is set up that, unless you’re looking for the same item over and over (find 15 eggs, for example), you are stuck with whatever shade you are presented with to find first. That means if the top bar has 4 items for you to find, you are to find them first before you can find others, and nothing else even if it is obvious that the item is one of the thing you need to locate. Each of the found shade will be replaced by another, and if you’re unable to find one first, you’re stuck. Adding on to that, some places of the scene can be “turned over” and uncover items underneath, and they are indicated with small bright stars when your mouse move over there. What’s frustrating is that sometimes the stars don’t shine if your cursor move over too quickly, and that presents serious problem becasue aside from those stars you are left with absolutely no clue as to what to do. Not a very thoughtful game, this one is. Aside from this irritations, there are some mini-games the game forces you to play, and while the first time it was charming, they make you repeatedly play it for what seems like forever, until you are this close to shutting the game down and uninstall it (or smash your computer… one way or another.) The story plot is crazy, and that’s putting it mildly. There are so many inapporpriate dialogues in this game, and they are meant to be funny but are not, and it’s just downright disturbing and makes you want to punch someone. I think I endured this game from beginning to the end just so I can write this review…. The things I do for people I love (you readers)…. lol
Overall: Let me see, what is the verdict… This game is not worth it! That should sums it up pretty nicely. When you add bad music, bad characters, bad voice overs, bad music, bad story plot…. What are you left with? A horribly-done waste of time of seek-and-find that’s not even challenging. There are other wonderfully done seek-and-find out there for you lovers to try, and you would be highly disappointed with this game. The producers try to be humorous with the game’s contents, and they fail miserably. In short, really, this game isn’t worth it at all. Not your time, not your money, not even your hard drive space. Yeah, this game is that bad.
How are you, superb blog.