Oh, sure, life is terrific with all your fancy RTS's and FPS's and MMORPG's and ROUS's and other acronym-able gaming genres. Developers spend years honing polygons, designing levels, and basically making the experience as complicated and creative as possible. And that's just great. But for now, let us forsake those years of planning and millions of dollars in budgeting and explore an exercise in minimalism. e7, a new sci-fi adventure game from Jgames, gives you a simple mission: save the Earth... on a planet that seems to be composed of a material that can only be described as "waterbed."
You are luke, a small probe dropped from a larger spaceship onto the surface of a strangely gelatinous hostile planet. Somewhere to the east is e7, a bomb pointed directly at the Earth (the physics of planetary motion notwithstanding. just... go with it). Of course, the global economy has left the "Strategic Offensive Weaponry in Dire Earth-Threatening Circumstances" budget of NASA completely underfunded, so you'll have to deal with the hostile robots—here co-starring with deadly lasers—in some other fashion. Fortunately for you and the rest of humanity, your probe is its own weapon, as pressing the [down] arrow will allow you to sink a bit into the surface of the squishy planet and propel yourself Juggernaut-style at your enemies. Your commander will provide hints and encouragement as you go along, but otherwise you're on your own. Proceed in this fashion through 20 levels of surprisingly varied gameplay and disarm that bomb—for Earth!
e7 is lovingly understated and beautiful, from the rush of wind and light piano track that convey a simultaneous sense of isolation and hope, to the silhouetted foreground scenery overlaying a distant and imaginative landscape. The gameplay is simple, to be sure, but the central mechanic is fun to learn, tricky to master, and wholly satisfying once you've reigned it in. You're likely to experience some aggravation at later enemies, especially at the one that locks in on you with a particularly potent laser, but it's the good kind of aggravation that can be subdued with a little patience. My only real complaint with the game is that it sometimes takes too long to destroy enemies. I mean, they all require multiple hits and all must be destroyed before the portal to the next level is opened. Of course, this is but a drop in an ocean of delicious Jello, which, incidentally, is also sort of how the planet's surface behaves. See what I did there?
Thanks to Brian and Pe-ads for sending this one in!
Yay! for the Princess Bride reference (Rodents Of Unusual Size)! :D
I cannot figure out how to do the walljumping level at all. I can never get enough power to actually jump across to the opposite wall. Any tips?
Well, I finished it. Not sure if there was a "better" ending.
Either way, that was a beautiful game. I love the atmosphere and music.
start on the lower edges so you fly in an 45 angle on your first jump. when you hit the wall immediatly press down unil you sink in quite a bit and then releas. dont bother correcting your path and simply do this until you are all the way up.
hope that helped.
Tempus42
I had trouble as well but I managed by going just left or right of the start and aiming a strong jump at the opposite wall and continued this all the way up, once in a while you have aim directly at the opposite wall rather than across and up to build up how far you sink into the wall so you dont loose jumping power, if that makes sense?
Walljumping is easy once you get the hang of it.
Once you make a strong jump into the wall to get started, just press down and the bot will dig into the wall. Don't press left or right, because that weakens your pit and you might end up falling right off the wall. Keep holding down and wait a moment for the bot to sag a little lower than the cusp of your pit and then let go to fling into the other wall.
Anyone manage to:
get to the ship on time? Or is it designed that way?
[Let's try to keep potentially spoiler-revealing comments in spoiler tags. Thanks! -Adam]
I don't know if it's bug or feature, but it seems to jump even if I'm holding down - so sometimes it jumps high, but sometimes low... (Ubuntu OS)
Sector 17G is just beating me up.
me too :(
Got it...
Waggles,
I believe it is designed that way, and that that is the message of the game.
This was a very nice atmospheric game, why I enjoyed it enough to comment, and that's a first ^_^
An interesting game. Fantastic atmosphere. The music, sound effects and graphics are all top notch.
The gameplay itself left me just a little cold. There's a certain repetitive nature to it. As the reviewer points out, enemies take just a few too many hits leading to protracted battles. I also felt that you had to face the same challenges over and over again.
That said, overall I enjoyed the game quite a bit. It ends strong.
A nice relaxing game. Beautiful music. Very easy. Very nice. I played it through twice but I still
don't think that you can get back to the spaceship in time. I went as fast as possible and there's no way I could have done it. If you have, tell how. I want to know if you can!
Other than that, a really nice little game. After playing Depict1, I wasn't very trusting of the voice, but it proved to be ok. The levels were so easy that once you mastered the mechanic it was just simple. *nods*
Laughed at the Depict1 comment from TheMusicGirl. I got through and got really depressed at the ending.
The death of inanimate objects saddens me.
Won the game, a good piece of art and work indeed.
The game seems to be designed that you die on the planet to add emotion, the ending couldn't have been different without the sad music and the poem in the end.
Anyway, loved the puzzles and the random scenes (note the scene where the terrain is more jell-o than ever with no need to jump and no enemies, it's more like to invoke atmosphere, to amaze us about the fun and weird properties of the planet). Hope to see more of this.
I'ma sucker for games that look pretty and this one certainly gets two thumbs up in that respect :)
I had unexpected pain when using the game's jump mechanic - holding the down key desperately hard while I wait for evil lasery robots to stop shooting causes my middle finger to ache... :S Didn't stop me from playing though!! :P
Do we ever find out exactly WHO wants us dead so badly?
I HOPE there's only one ending. I didn't like 60s to save the queen. It seems almost impossible to get that time.
I hate walljumping...
Great game, beautiful to play, nice feel and fun.
Crap ending.
Hmm I got to 12G and decided I didn't want to play any further after dying twice. Not what I'd call a fun game or relaxing for that matter, felt very cold. Nice graphics and physics tho.
I don't like
that if you can't get back to the space ship (I actually couldn't find it, I got to the rock face and started going back the other way) that you don't get another chance, the game just ends...
Yeah, I couldn't manage to:
Get to the ship on time. Can anybody else?
ROUS? Rodents Of Unusual Size?
...I don't believe they exist.
My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
Inconcievable!
Princess Bride FTW!
I liked this game...sorta. I really wish there had been an option to skip a level after some amount of lives lost or elapsed time. I would have liked to try all of the levels but I just couldn't master the wall jumping. On games like this an author could reserve a different ending for 'all' levels complete and still give us klutzes a chance to finish. I feel like I've turned the page in a book to find a bunch of blank paper. :(
It is short and not boring.
a sad but good end
Walljumping isn't easy, but you can have really nice control over it once you get the hang of it:
Once you hit the wall, hold down. While holding down, lightly and repeatedly tap the direction up the wall. The object is to stay in the middle of the pit and not gain any momentum up the wall or slide back down. If you do this right you can position yourself in the pit and launch with as much control as on the ground.
Yeah, needs multiple endings, maybe. As it is, it has pretty much zero replay value. And that poem/song at the end is godawful :D As it is, I gave it a four, for the great visuals and mostly fun gameplay.
@menschenjaeger
Thanks for stating it: I was reluctant to comment on the dreadful banality of that ending poem (people get so touchy about that kind of criticism), but I'll reinforce your comment. The game itself is well balanced between establishing a mood and achieving fun, novel game play. It has little replay value, at least immediately, but rare is the art that one feels like experiencing again right after taking it in the first time. This game tries for artistry and achieves it, then loses its way a bit at that ending ("Hey, go real fast... nope, no way: you're dead. Well, here's a crappy poem in your honor.").
Haha, I totally agree with TheMusicGirl, I found myself going, "Why should I do what you say??" and I was all wary... :D
Great game though... Sad end. :( Nice poem at the end too... :)
I thought this game was just right. I didn't mind the ending. It felt like it added to the moody atmosphere.
A suggestion for the ending:
I think there should have been an ending cinematic showing the ship taking off without the probe and a final transmission stating something to the effect of: "There was no way you could have made it back to us in time. It was unexpected, and we're sorry. Your sacrifice will always be remembered."
@scrundle
I think that people get touchy about that kind of criticism because it's on the brink of trolling. There's nothing constructive about it. This is a community for gamers and developers to coexist and symbiotically gain something from each other (which I feel is why JIG is the best casual game site out there). If you're only a gamer, you can't possibly understand the heart and soul that a developer puts into their creation. When it's a small personal project (like many casual games are), it's even more a part of the developer's lifeblood. To simply state that something is "godawful" and dreadfully banal... well it's just more destructive than constructive. It doesn't reinforce the creator's ingenuity or even really help them. You could, at the very least, suggest a poem/song that you think is more appropriate for the game. Many developers that get reviewed here actually DO read the comments and reply to them.
I felt the poem to be appropriate and think it added to the mood of the game. Not everything has to be a masterpiece to convey mood and emotion.
I have to agree with you guys. The game was- is amazing. Though it is a sort of mindless playing, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the ending was... realistic. There's one question I have though, does anyone know where to find the music that comes in the later levels? I wanted to hear it again so much that I played it twice. -sigh-
the bomb says something on it can anyone read what it says its too small
I really, really like the overall feel, but 17G is ... not worth it. It's too much effort to get to the enemy on this level and then there's no way to effectively combat it. After about 80 attempts, I've given up.
none of the sectors are difficult if you follow the commanders instructions, i find it also helps to
when fighting groups try to hit one on the way back down too
did anyone else notice the writing on the bomb?
it says arrival date december 21 2012
Voqo: disable key autorepeat in keyboard settings. Flash doesn't seem to understand them on Ubuntu.
Now back to that damn pit...
how do you get past 17G??
I dunno if it's just me or not, but all this game is is showing a rocket ship, and saying "MISSION OBJECTIVE #1" "ITS FORCE IS HUGE" "EARTH WILL BE DUST" but it never goes to any game, just sits there and repeats those, in random orders at times, I've waited for a long while and it still says that, showing the rocket ship, I also have no working speakers so unless there is a 30 minute dialog at the beginning, it's not working...
Dont know why, but im sinking in wihtout pressing anything and if I press the downkey I start to jump. I couldnt manage the walljump because of that. Is that feature or bug?
Use open suse (linux)- may be important !!??
I love the music from this game, yet i don't know the name. I would love to get it so i could actually play it. so could I get some help on that?
Awesome game. 5/5. Sector 17G took me a while to figure out. It's actually not all that hard when you have the right idea:
To get past the huge spike patch, you need to launch yourself from as much elevation as possible. Go up the hill to the left and launch off the part where it just begins to flatten out into a plateau. You should be able to clear the spikes easily, even go a ways beyond.
For the enemy, the tactic I used is this: strike him while his laser is inactive (it will be black, and not glowing red at all). Then when his laser starts to glow red, run for cover (either right or left, whichever gives you more clearance). Form a valley in the ground by pressing down. If you're right in the bottom of your "valley", his laser won't be able to reach you. Wait for the laser to finish, at which point the enemy is susceptible to being hit quickly once or twice until his laser starts to glow red again. The emphasis is on quick hits, not powerful ones, and avoiding the laser at all costs since you're practically dead if the laser hits you. Once the laser times out, get close to the enemy and hit him again. Later, rinse, repeat until enemy is dead.
Hope this helps :)
i have no idea how to do the second wall jump 1, i can wall jump good but cant kill the enemy before it kills me, please help! this game is very good 5/5 but it has some hard bits and i think there should be a skip level after so many fails.
Great game,
I don't really think there is a way to get back to the spaceship on time, I got all the way to a brick wall and started going back the other direction. Plus there is the poem at the end; I think this is the way the game was meant to close.
Walljumping wasn't that hard once you get the hang of it
45-degree angle jumps back and forth
- The enemies aren't that hard, you just have to avoid staying in their line of fire for too long... in other words, a short burst won't kill you, but lining up for the perfect shot and not evading will. Keep in motion, hit enemies on the way down too, and try to hit multiple enemies at once by hitting from an angle from one side or the other.
I finished it... was that the real ending? O_O
It's a beautiful game.
People seem to hate the ending, but I like it.
I'm pretty sure it says December 2012 on the bomb, probably a reference to the 'end of the world' thing. I think the humans did betray the little robot, even if the game didn't come right out and say it. You did all the hard work, while the humans just sat there and said 'good job' after you repeatedly risked your life to save them. Then they leave without you. I don't buy the whole 'we had to get out of the atmosphere' thing. If they can invent a robot with that amount of sophistication, they can invent a ship that can leave a planet in less than a minute. Maybe it's a message saying how little we think of our machines who do so much for us and get thrown away without so much as a 'thank you'. Just my thoughts.
I've finished the game about 20+ times,
and I've never gotten to the bomb in time. I even know where it's supposed to be and the time runs out long before i get there. Pretty sure that's the way it's supposed to end :)
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