Dynamite Jack has been designed and published by the creator of Galcon ‘Phil Hassey’, a one man wonder machine. The game is a 2D top down action/adventure/ puzzle game with a mesh mash of Stealth from the likes of Metal Gear Solid, with Bombs, the same type used in the Bomberman series. You get a total of 28 missions to play through, with a number of different types of enemy’s to escape from.
You play a captured space marine who has been forced to work the mines, in a dangerous place called Anathema. You decided that this is just not right and decide to escape the confines of your captivity. This is the start of your adventure, let the battle begin, destroy walls, dodge guards and much more.
To escape each level you will need to dodge or kill the guards, who are equipped with machines guns, scientists equipped with what we see as Laser beam type weapons, metal spiders and furry monsters. To help aid in your escape and combat the enemy you have a number of tools the most important of these is the detonator. The detonator gives you a surplus amount of bombs, the only downfall which is upsetting in a way, is you are only able lay one bomb down and any one time. The next weapon, well not really a weapon it’s the trusty Flash Light “You can blind the enemy with a bright light”, well not really, the Trusty Flashlight will lighten a field of view which is really needed so you will not fall down sink holes (Pits) or walking down a dead end tunnel “which we still ended up doing.” The best thing about the awesome Flash Light, it scares the living crap out of monsters “Yep they act like Gizmo, Bright Light, Bright light” and run away.
You will actually get to meet these monsters further down the game as you progress through the levels, they look like walking fur balls maybe a wookie from Star Wars, but I call them ‘Gizmos’ this seems more appropriate for them. The enemy soldiers have a wide area of sight as well, so be warned one shot and you are dead. Since you will see yourself dying a lot playing this game, the developers have added the option to turn off death animations “Well done”. Oh yeah there is also leader board tracking system which tracks almost everything even the amount of deaths you have gained through each level and the length of time it took you to complete, this is for everyone else to either see how good you are or how you suck at this game.
Carrying on with our adventure, you will find the most useful item to use, will be the Bomb, as it allows you to distract or kill the guards, they will also allow you to explore blocked off areas by clearing away walls. I have one issue and it may just be me, I would use the bomb to bait the guards to kill them, is it me or is the AI, the guards are sometimes just plain dumb, was it meant to be this way, whatever the reason it is, it is still fun to use this to our advantage.
Some of the levels can really test you, by not giving you bombs or your Trusty Flashlight, or just simply having an achievement attached to it which stats no use of bombs or flash lights. You can find these levels rather terrifying not knowing what’s in front of you, falling down the pits or even being chased by ‘Gizmo’.
As you progress though the game, it progressively chucks more obstacles in your way making it a lot trickier to complete. You do have one great advantage well two, one being unlimited lives “awesome cause you really need this” and second, plenty of well positioned saved points to aid you .The best thing for me was no loading times, which is fantastic since I died more times that I would like to say.
There is plenty of replay value as well from the in-game and steam achievement system, the main achievement has to be the’ Not Dying’ which I can tell you now is damn hard to get. There is also this the easy to use Map editor, create your own levels and share them with your friends and the community making this game endless “unless know one uses the map editor”.
Is this game flawed in anyway? Well the music score used which is not great, but for this style and design of game it does fit very well, to the over the top super load death sounds which made me shit my pants the first time it happened and maybe a few other times afterwards. Does the game get repetitive in some way? Yes as the game is limited to drop bomb; dodge, drop bomb; scare monster, drop bomb, hide. This is pushed to one side though by the achievement system as it will test your skills in every level; this also includes all the levels that are designed by users.
Overall Dynamite jack is a great piece of work from the developer and publisher ‘Phil Hassey’ that has brought together two of my favourite games, Bomberman and Metal Gear Solid or should I say Bombing and Stealthing. The game has plenty of replay value, challenges to keep any avid gamer interested. The controller system is perfect and easy to get used too; the sound score is just bang on to what you would expect to hear.
The game is almost bug free, maybe has an issue with dumb AI “sometimes”, however this game is pure simplistic and fun, with an extra challenge thrown in for good measure. Dynamite Jack is well worth your £3.99, so gamers get your wallets out, dust off your credit card and buy this game it’s well worth it.
Visit the developers Website:
http://www.galcon.com/dynamitejack/
Check out the Developers Blog:
http://www.philhassey.com/blog/
|
|
PC System Requirements
Mac System RequirementsDisclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
