Whoosh! A wild DORA appears! A wild DORA used SAMEOLDBORINGFRIDAY! It's not very effective... a wild DORA used LINKDUMPFRIDAY! It's super effective! Sorry, kiddo, not even a Master Ball works against me. But luckily for you I've got some loot to drop, like some platformers, some dungeon-crawling, and a bonus film tribute to a popular indie art game. That's right, games and a movie.
Wild DORA used teleport! Wild DORA fled!
Thanks Tanks! - Regular tanks are ugly, but because I am a girl, I am required to be smitten by these adorably pudgy little tanks that you create and direct towards your opponent's base in this strategy game. Selecting certain tanks to deliver orders can be a little frustrating, especially when they start overlapping each other, but there's an appealingly propaganda-ish vibe about the whole aesthetic that is really enjoyable. War was never so adorable.
Contentric - How good are your reflexes? This game starts off easy as you zip around the screen collecting time to extend your play and try to avoid the black squares penning you in, and then starts ramping up the difficulty. Its replay value is mostly tied to how badly you want the highest score, so let me give you some incentive by telling you that my high score is somewhere in the vicinity of one million jillion points. So get waggling that mouse, junior.
The Enchanted Cave - I don't know what it is about roguelikes that fascinate me so much; they somehow manage to fill my brain with contented white noise, and I can lose entire days to them. This one sees you delving deep into a dungeon in search of sweet, sweet loot. You don't actually gain experience or level up when you fight enemies, so try to plan out each floor so that you get the most treasure chests and loot bags with the least amount of bloodshed. It's simple, but somehow quietly addictive in the same way Solitaire can be. The downside is the no-brainer gameplay, lack of any real narrative, and for the first few dozens floors what might be the most boring music loop in the history of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....
Project Flame Demo - This stylish little platform adventure game is unfortunately just a demo right now, but is definitely worth checking out. You play a... um... little miner dude investigating some sort of facility when a cave-in traps him underground. Fortunately, you've got a flamethrower! Just the ticket for those situations where you find yourself trapped in a place that could be full of invisible explosive gas. So give it a play and then show the developers their support, because in my experience, nothing spurs you to complete something like the knowledge that the judgmental eye of the public is firmly fixed between your sweaty shoulderblades.
Triggerman - Look, up in the sky! It's Trilby! It's The Spirit! No, it's... Triggerman! Apparently. This short, strange little stealth adventure title's biggest problem is that the controls seem to be actually fighting your brain, and you can't configure them to something more comfortable. Which is a same, because I'm always up for sneaking around mafia hideouts, using a grappling hook to attach myself to the ceiling before I give some poor good a few extra ventilation holes in his head. (You'd be surprised at how little extra credit this gets me on my resumé.)
Short Film: Every Day the Same Dream - You may remember molleindustria's sombre little piece of work Every Day the Same Dream. If you don't, you should go play it now, and then come back so you can watch this eight-and-a-half minute short film based on it by YouTube user Senikovski. It's well done and sombre, but for me personally it doesn't feel quite as emotionally affecting as its source material somehow. Still, it possesses some visually striking scenes, and is at least worth a watch if you're a fan of the original. After, we're all going to sit around stroking our chins looking profound until the assistant manager at Starbucks tells us we have to order something or get out. It'll be rad.
really enjoying Project Flame, and even the controls (which I thought sounded a bit complicated) were quite comfortable. Hope to see more of this demo soon!
Thanks Tanks has too much physics for its own good.
Haha, very true Mystify. By the way, here's a basic tip for Thanks Tanks:
Get a machinegun type weapon early on, then get speed. Those two stats are much more important than hp early on.
It is nigh impossible to fulfill side objective in the very first level of triggerman.
Contentric is fun, but kinda easy once you learn to alternate between moving the mouse frantically and keeping it mostly still.
I got to 4,977 pretty quickly and I do not feel like playing anymore; replaying levels 1-20 is too tiresome.
Triggerman is possibly the worst game I have ever played.
I just beat Thanks Tanks!
Oh, but how frustrating it was~! Especially the physics!
At the very end, I had about eight tanks at 25HP, multitude of flamethrower and long cannon etc, and all they had left was one measly defense turret. It was just a matter of time.
EXCEPT!!! Every time the turret hit my tank, my tank would fly in the air and land upside down in some ditch to be rendered useless! This happened four times in a row! Four 25HP giant tanks, flipping up in the air like they weren't made of anything but lithium metal! Are these tanks featherweight or something? They're not even getting hit by the heaviest cannon fire! Oh, I was so mad. At least I still won.
My method to victory:
The key priorities in the beginning of the game are long cannons. The way I would win is by building up 4 HP long cannon tanks at my base. With enough cannons, they would snipe any tank before they even got close to them to pose a threat. Later on, I complemented them with machine guns and flamethrower.
For the last level, the final push to defeat their super tank was essentially two 25HP flamethrowers and two 25HP plasma cannons. That poor giant tank didn't hardly last a second. I definitely recommend keeping at least one flamethrower just in case the enemy has one, as well.
Enchanted Cave is an excellent take on the classic Rogue games.
If only I could remember to use the wings, but I just get carried away with the pillaging and keep getting killed!
I love concentric and the movie :) . Hasn't finish the movie yet, my internet is so slow :( .
Project Flame has had a lot of work put into it but it's like they went out of their way to make half the game working out which parts of the level you can interact with, and having elements you can activate look identical to items you can't is frustrating.
Why you can't exit a door to the left/right by simply walking left/right is beyond me.
Pretty to look at but wasn't much fun to play.
I didn't mind Thanks Tanks! for a diversion, even with the overturning tanks and bosses that can't climb gradual slopes.
Has anyone figured out how to use healing items or cast spells in The Enchanted Cave? I've tried clicking them, double clicking, dragging them over my character to no avail. I did find after hitting every key on my keyboard that "m" mutes the background music
Unfortunately I cannot edit my previous comment, I was finally able to use my "minor heal" spell by dragging it over my character in the shop on level 9. Still not quite sure why it didn't work before as I had full mana...
@Jayce
I had the exact same thing happen to me on the final level.
Triggerman refuses to start for me.
Wake the Royalty, which is also from ArmorGames did the same thing.
It'll look like its starting, the lay button works, but when I get to the mission select screen clicking does not work. The buttons flash if I hover over them but they don't do anything.
I'm running Firefox 3.6.3 on Windows XP if that's any help.
Oh, what do you know, it was what I was dreading.
If I register an account and log into armorgames.com the game works!
You smell, armorgames.
Enchanted Cave is loads of fun. I think my only beef with it is that if you die, you have to start over completely. It should allow you to load from last save. Getting kicked back a minimum of 10 levels and stripped of all but artifacts is definitely enough of a penalty.
Re: the toppling tanks... Did anyone else think "The enemy's gate is down" seeing them blast between their wheels, stuck on their sides? :)
Enchanted Cave. I have been having a lot of fun with this game, even though it is quite repetitive I still can't seem to stop playing it. I think that might have something to do with other games of this style I have been frustrated with lately (mostly Desktop Dungeons).
@Innou You can normally use minor heal anywhere, other spells you have to drag over your character/the enemy after initiating combat.
@Zazazu Since the enemies do not move, and you pretty much know exactly how much damage they are going to do to you, there is really no need to die. Unless of course you get a bit too greedy like I sometimes do.
The Enchanted Cave:
Any way to get to the things behind the walls?
I have run across a few enemies that I cannot get to, also in the shops there are items behind walls. Is there no way to get to these?
@SHA: The items in the shops are for display, although they are pretty tantalizing. ._. I haven't seen any enemies I couldn't reach myself...
Can anyone tell me how to get the Shadow Hunter achievement? Do you have to be decked out in assassin's gear or what?
Nevermind on that last one.
There are two that I have come across one where it was E= enemy C=chest W=wall H=Hall S=Stairs
If you can understand the diagrams you can see the problem.
No way to get to the center enemy behind the chests
WECEW
WCECW
WWWWW
No way to get to all 4 enemies
WWWWWW
WEEWSW
WEEWHW
WWWWHW
Also when in the shop if you put more items in the sell than you can see they disappear and you get nothing for them.
@GQWeasle: My problem, both times I died, was thinking I had just enough HP to make it to the next shop and being hit at the top of the range a baddy could do at that point. Knew I was taking a risk. Just didn't expect to be stripped and thrown back to the beginning the first time and thrown back to 39 the second time, when I had died on 80+. Plus, when you die, you lose all or almost all of your artifacts. It may be linked to how far you are...I know that the first time I lost all but those Eye of * items, and the second time I retained a couple of equips.
I've reached the boss several times so far but have yet to get one last eye, so I'm dipping in and out of the last few levels before I quit. Character is pretty overpowered at this point.
For strategy, these are the lootables you should focus on in order of importance:
1. Gems = increase your stats. Replay the same 10 levels several times using your escape wings and you'll be rolling in stat boosts.
2. Gold chests = these are artifacts and will stay with you after you use your wings of escape. They also tend to sell for high amounts of gold, which you can trade for potions.
3. One-shot kills = easy enemies = easy coins.
4. Treasure chests = items within are typically worth more than what you'd find in a money bag.
5. Money bags = they have money.
Always keep an artifact of each equipment type with you so that when you use your escape wings you won't be stuck with the lowest version of equipment at level 79.
Thanks Tanks:
Im stuck after tutorial.
I have 8 prestige points so cant by parts, need 10. I cant get more than 46 points for this battle, so its still 8 everytime and i cant go through second battle w/o upgrades.
What did i do wrong?
Enchanted cave - What a dull ending... Otherwise, a fairly good difficulty increase.
End
A line-up of the tougher monsters, and then the merchant. He takes about 400 health points. Then he disappears and NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS.
Hint on surviving
Don't get too exited on looting. Use the wings when you think "Oh, just *one* last monster, I still have a few HP left".
And finally, check the monsters' stats (click the monster) beore you go slashing wildly. Sometimes you can *choose* between a frog and a golem.
The Enchanted Cave has the item management I've been dreaming of. Why couldn't this be in every dungeon?
Now I'm getting greedy and I want a sort function by element type.
Finished Enchanted Cave - it was pretty easy once I stored up some money to buy some much needed potions. That, in fact, is my tip: buy potions. Equipment is very common in treasure chests, and the more Artifact equips you can find, the less money you have to spend in the shop. Potions, on the other hand, are rare, and they are the only things that can keep you alive.
For those who find roguelikes daunting, this is a good game to start off into the genre. Granted, some others (ie Castle in the Winds) are a lot easier, but this teaches you how to predict your battles.
I especially enjoyed The Enchanted Cave, it was the most easy going roguelike I ever played, and it got a good balance between perks that improve your forever, and shorttime stuff. It was much less complicated than most either. I still didn't understood what most of the stats actually did, but simply the more the better got me through it ;-)
The end was a bit dull however. I don't expect a baffling end-animation from a free game, but a little story text would have been nice.
Enchanted Cave was fun enough to get me playing through to the end, although it does have some rough edges. Some of the items seem to imply that they are designed for a spell caster type play style, but with the massive costs involved in keeping your mana up, this isn't really feasible. Especially since you forget all the spells upon using your escape wings, another annoyance. Also it bugged me that you got less heal and mana returned per gold point as you got to the higher level potions. It would be cheaper to buy a ton of the low level potions and chain them together, if the shops only sold more.
All that aside, it was still quite an enjoyable little time waster. The description is perfectly appropriate. "Fill my brain with contented white noise." I love it!
My word, how annoying is Triggerman?? I loved the idea, but those controls are awful! As I'm stuck on Lv 4, I don't know if there will be any more weapons, though this could be improved by mapping the pistol to left-click, and the grappling hook to right-click. Maybe...
My word, how annoying is Triggerman?? I loved the idea, but those controls are awful! As I'm stuck on Lv 4, I don't know if there will be any more weapons, though this could be improved by mapping the pistol to left-click, and the grappling hook to right-click. Maybe...
Enchanted Cave is fun, but a little too shallow for my taste. The presence of attack spells and magic gear give a nice illusion of choice and gameplay depth, but really the spells are too slow and expensive to be worth the time (and that's forgetting the annoyance of micromanagement).
Really the only stats you need are
Enough damage to kill most baddies in your first hit, before they can hit you. And the rest in physical and magic defense. The rest is superfluous.
Still, it hooked me enough to sink more than a few hours into it.
Important bug note for Enchanted Cave - the Eye of Earth achievement is bugged and will not register. I'd been trying off and on for three days (can you say "Completist"?) to get that last one, even restarting from the beginning. Then read on the comments on Bored.com that this has been a problem for someone else.
It would be nice to know the bosses stats. If he gets to hit first that would explain why you do not "finish". His Agility must be above that of the people's characters who got to the point.
"boredbob 14 hours ago
Game Update: Final Boss is no longer insta-killable Earth Eye bug is fixed Freezing when opening a chest is fixed. Eye of Wealth now shows other info as well Magic is kept permanently like artifacts 1 MP is gained with every kill. Potion prices and a few others changed."
The Enchanted Cave has kept me going for a few days and when I was finally ready to kill the boss, it was easier than I thought it would be.
However I did not get the achievement of "killing the master"... Not even after I killed him a second time, and a third time ...
Me not like!
Enchanted Cave: You get the Shadow Hunter achievement by equipping an artifact "Ninja Amulet" that gives you 10% insta-kill chance. Get one insta-kill to gain that achievement.
I really started to enjoy The Enchanted Cave, until it seemed I'd have to beat it all in one sitting. Whether I use the menu option to "save", or just quit (usually after escaping, in hopes that I could just start a new game with all my loot still in tow), every "relic" I find is lost if I close the browser window. I even tried to adjust my settings to fix this but still I lose everything the moment the window is closed. I realize this may not be the developers fault, but that part ruins my whole experience. :-S
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