Gentrieve 2 is a "Metroid"-style 3D action game featuring completely random & customizable worlds. The year is 3080. Mass Generators are creating everything, everywhere. However, thieves often steal Mass Generators in hopes of creating robot armies & fortresses. Thieves are terrible programmers, though, and their creations become uncontrollably hostile & fortresses wildly convoluted. It is your job to clear out these fortresses & return the faulty Mass Generators. Be warned, when the Mass Generator is taken offline, the fortress will soon implode!
Gentrieve 2 is a fascinating experiment in procedural generation. Gameplay is 3D Metroid-style -- a room-based FPS platformer -- but genre is less important here than the ideas the game presents and the mood it effectively sets.
In the style of roguelikes and dungeon crawlers, each play-through provides a unique experience through random generation, right down to the texture of the walls. The aesthetic is refined (dark, retro-futuristic) and I'm constantly propelled by my curiosity and eagerness to get a glimpse of the next area.
Phr00t is chasing an ambitious idea and emphasizing all the right elements.
Very fun!
I've lost more time to this game (and other phr00t games) than anyone has ever spent on any (Theme name here)-Ville game on FaceSpace. I attribute this addiction to the level of environment originality that procedurally generated worlds can provide. The game is as polished as a one-man team developed game can be. It really shows that the author is more of a coder and conceptualist than any sort of professional graphic artist, but it helps to give the game a sort of 'abstract' quality. The sound effects aren't spectacularly unique, but they're form-fitted, and work well with the great soundtrack.
It's games like these that define the 'independently developed' genre.
It's an ok game, that felt kind of empty... :|
another hit from the master!
From what I've played on the demo it is a decent game, But a few major short comings are present. Random generation is always messy, the game isn't very difficult(Bosses and even enemies are easily 'broken' by hiding in cover and shooting them while they cant shoot you) and it is incredibly short (Although this may just be the demo). While I do appreciate the game as a nice little experiment I don't see it worthy of the price being asked. I would however like to commend phr00t on his efforts and I would love to see what improvements could be done on the next instalment if there is one.
Phr00t provides again, with another procedural game! I just hope it keeps getting worked on a bit... It could use some additional eyecandy.
*Press "M" for map, I didn't realize there was one at first. You'll need it.