NeverEnd
It’s called Neverend, but within the first hour, you may wish it would.
Tags: NeverEnd Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Jan 18th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| NeverEnd (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Role-Playing (Other) | No | ||
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It’s hard to make an RPG fan like me hate an RPG, but give credit to publisher Dreamcatcher and developer Mayhem Studios for reaching such a hard-to-attain goal. From the moment the game loads, it screams, “amateur hour.” And really, that gives a bad name to amateur game developers, many of whom are merely talented but undiscovered and underfunded true talents. Neverend won’t be mistaken by an effort of any of those types.
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Instead, about the only good thing that can be said about NeverEnd is that… contrary to its title… it does end. The down side is that it ever really began. Although some of the art on the loading screens is not bad, the trouble really begins when the game itself actually starts. Your role is as the female head of a group of thieves; her name is Agavaen and after a successful heist, she and her group get wasted. When she wakes in the morning, all their loot is gone and the gang blames her.
That sets Agavaen off on her own, lonely adventure, completely ill-equipped for the task. Seeking to combine an RPG with the point-and-click adventure genre that Dreamcatcher normally specializes in, the end result is something that works on neither front, and will likely tick off fans of both.
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What sticks out most is the terrible controls in the game. Navigating a world that is, for the most part, little better than a 2D side-scroller, NeverEnd will definitely NOT bring back fond memories of GOOD side-scrolling RPGs like Valkyrie Profile. Attacking is difficult at best, and that’s if you can figure out how to manage it in the first place. After all, the game doesn’t even ship with an instruction manual, just a game disc and a map.
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As for game balance, there is none; even from the opening minutes of the game, you are just as likely to come across undefeatable creatures far too powerful for Agavaen to handle as you are creatures who are a cakewalk in battle. Of course, if you had some access to a reasonable amount of healing items, this might be more manageable, but the game delivers far too many battles for the amount of healing available before you get to a spot in the game where you can acquire more healing. This means a lot of dying and restarting, way too early in the game. So add insult to the injury of bad design.
NeverEnd is simply not a good gaming experience. No matter how desperate you might be for an RPG fix and how cheap this game is listed for once it hits the bargain bin, it’s simply not worth the time, money or hard disk space it takes to install it or try it. Stay away.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + The loading screens look pretty. | 2.3 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
– Nothing else looks pretty or plays well. – No instruction manual to explain the controls. – Controls are Intel 386-level clunky and awkward, anyway. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| NeverEnd may not be a computer virus, but that’s about the best thing that can be said about it. Avoid it at any price. | |
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Tags: NeverEnd
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Jan 18th, 2007 and is filed under PC Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
