Silver Creek Falls: Chapter 1 – PC Game Review

Silver Creek Falls Chapter 1 is an RPGmaker title that serves as the first chapter/teaser for an ongoing game. It is available on Steam and is a free chapter. One thing to keep in mind, is this is an RPGMaker game, so expect your standard birds eye view, cutesy 16 bit style anime graphics and over sized headed characters. If you enjoy those aspects then yer set! Otherwise beware!

The game so far has been getting rave user reviews, however I am mildly disappointed..and I will tell you why!

First, the game has no guidance. While playing the game I first investigated 1 of the 3 crime scenes. After looking around a bit, it didn’t tell me what else to do. The car wasn’t allowing me to enter it. So, I remembered a sentence used by the deputy that neighbors had called the police the night of the murder. So, I assumed I would check in with the neighbors!

None of the neighbor doors were interactive so i tried the ones across the street. One let me enter, and inside was a tape, that essentially ended day one, and assumed I had visited crime scenes 2 and 3…which I obviously hadn’t! At first I thought “Well, maybe there wasn’t a crime scene 2/3 even though the NPCs were talking about evidence that I hadn’t encountered or seen.” However, when checking the Steam store front page for the game, in the screenshots area are screen captures of 2 crime scenes that I didn’t see. so, it’s a safe assumption that I accidentally skipped them.

The story seems disjointed, however that COULD be because it let’s you skip through a big chunk of the game(Seriously developer, you REALLY need to patch that and change the police station to a separate instance that doesn’t phase in until after certain objectives have been met, or at least add some guidance like “Ok, well….crime scene 2 is north of here, let’s check that out next”.

There is no combat in the game, at least in the chunks that I played, however the type of game isn’t really a combat game. It’s less RPG and more story driven adventure/interactive fiction.

Will I buy any future chapters? Not if this is any indication of what the future chapters will be like. The story seemed interesting, but the skipping two crime scenes thing? That’s a major flaw in my opinion, and is something that SHOULD have been prevented, and could have been with a little extra elbow grease.

Yes, I know it’s free…and for a free game it’s ok(Though annoying), however future chapters will cost $$$ and like I said, if this is the amount of effort the developers are going to put into them as well? I’ll pass.

Pros

• Interesting Story
• At least one scene with voice acting.
• Cute 16-bit graphics
• It’s free! DUH!
• Decent controls for a KeyBoard game.

Cons

• Bugged! Can skip half the game.
• Bad BAD voice acting. Not sure if sheriff is southern or from new orleans..or somewhere else.
• No controller support.
• No way to go full screen(That I saw?)

 

RATING: 3.5/10

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Good-bye Mr. Monk

If you have not yet watched the final episode of Monk called Mr. Monk and the end Part 2 then do not read any farther, as this entry does contain spoilers if you haven’t seen it. Come back after you’ve watched it though 🙂

ok! Onto the blog post, which again may contain spoilers, you are warned.

Well, tonight marks the end of an era! Tonight, the final part of the two part series finale aired. This show will be missed. It’s one of the few shows still on the air, that I have looked forward to watching each week for many years. The episode managed to tie up all the loose-ends, which I must admit, I did doubt they would be able to tie it all up in a nice little package with a pretty bow, but they did!

One of the things I missed about the episode was the monk classic “Here’s what happened” followed by a black and white scene of the crime taking place. However just because the show didn’t have that didn’t mean the show was any less spectacular. Also, it would have been nice if they tied the whale into the series finale a wee bit more. However I loved every minute of it, and for the most part was kept on the edge of my seat. 

The only thing I would have changed about the episode, would have been the  TAIL ending. When Monk is going into the crime scene, I would have had it where Molly was the victim. I mean, they didn’t show who the victim was, so I still can in my mind imagine that’s who it was. I know, a lot of people probably are thinking “What?? That’s horrible! Why would you want that kind of ending??” And the answer is simple, it puts Monk back full circle. Also, that ending would have had a surprise factor, it would have pulled at peoples heart strings. It would be an episode to remember and would say “Hey, Monk lives a life thats full of danger. Not everything in his world has a fairy tale ending.” Also, it would leave the possiblity open for a reunion movie.

All in all however it was a great finale for a truly fantastic television series.