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    rwcarter's Schizoid (360)

    [September 28, 2009 11:00:14 PM]
    GAMEPLAY

    I first tried Uberschizoid some more. Once you really focus a bit, you can start to get the hang of your thumbs working together; but I'd really like to hear from a psychologist exactly why it's such a challenge. I don't think it's a left-brain/right-brain sort of thing, I think it's something totally different. I've never played anything like it.

    But my friend begged me to go back to normal mode, so we did. We encountered powerups this time. Essentially, they are icons placed on the playing field; when a player runs over them, it follows the player. Then when the second player comes up and touches the icon (behind the first player), its power is activated. We were introduced to bomb powerups, which were very useful against the new enemy: suns.

    The suns are indestructible, but if they touch you, you die. They are a yellow color, so that they are obviously not red or blue and therefore not on the same hierarchy as normal enemies. They bounce around the field, and if you wait too long they will multiply! The only thing that can destroy these suns are bombs, and those are rare, so they really forced us to speed up and beat levels quickly before the suns got the chance to kill us!

    DESIGN

    The challenge curve is awesome. It feels very linear, but also pretty steep. This is a challenging games, and levels will need to be played more than once; sometimes, many times, as we definitely found out this go around. Most levels fit on the screen, but some don't, and the ones that don't are just that much more challenging because you don't know exactly what enemies might be just beyond the screen edge, until you venture that direction.

    The graphics and audio don't hinder gameplay at all; they are very futuristic and flashy looking, and the particle effects are great. It is a very excellent looking game to go along with its amazing mechanics.

    This is obviously a game of emergence. Especially discovering powerups, it was a nice surprise and added another touch to the game. I can only imagine as the game progresses further, there are more enemies, more powerups and more strategies to employ, but the basic gameplay remains the same.

    Overall, the authors took an innovative idea and simple controls, and formed a really amazing game.
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    [September 28, 2009 10:53:50 PM]
    SUMMARY

    Schizoid is a game of few rules and simple mechanics, but exciting gameplay. It is primarily a two-player game, in which each player controls a ship-like vehicle/creature - one is red, the other is blue - by using the joystick. No other part of the controller is used during gameplay, so it is extremely easy to pick up. The red player can touch red enemies to destroy them (they destroy immediately on impact), but if he touches a blue enemy he dies, and vice versa for the blue player. Both players have a collective 10 lives; when one dies, both players are given a short period of invulnerability and the dead player respawns at the location of the live player. In addition, players can move through each other without any sort of damage. Together, these fundamental rules create amazingly challenging, exciting, and cooperative gameplay.

    GAMEPLAY

    This is surely one of the best small games I've played so far. My friend and I had an absolute blast trying to cooperate to get through levels. We quickly found out that it's best when we stick together, because when we separate, we end up getting cornered by enemies and then are destroyed immediately. It's really a challenge to try and cooperate at this sort of level, keeping track of colors and baiting enemies to the other player, and in turn following the other player to destroy his baited enemies.

    I like the balance that is created by only having 10 collective lives for every 7 levels. Not only are the lives shared, so they are a resource that both players have to manage together (which of course, further emphasizes cooperation) but as the levels get harder, it becomes more important to ration your lives so that you can go 7 levels only dying less than 10 times.

    There are two distinct types of enemies established fairly early on: I don't know their names, but I call them lobsters and stars, because that's what they resemble. The lobsters are slow-moving, and move towards the opposite color regardless of the position of the same-color player. They are easy to eliminate. Stars, on the other hand, are introduced very early on and are a stark contrast. They move almost as fast as the player, and they repel the same-color player at a similar magnitude to that of their attraction to the opposite-color player. Stars are difficult, we quickly found out.

    I think that this being a game of cooperation makes it frustrating when there is a skill gap between the two players. It's really a test of patience when one player is performing flawlessly, and the other player is constantly using up all 10 lives. This sort of thing happened, and I was getting frustrated, but at the same time I was aware of the frustration, as if it were designed into the game. I think this is the sort of game that should be presented during couples' counseling; it really forces the players to work together despite their skill levels. I need to play it more often, if only to find more patience.

    Also one last note, there's another game mode, a one-player mode called Uberschizoid. I tried it for a few levels but it is really mind-bending! You use one controller, the left stick controls one player and the right stick controls the other. So you have to use both thumbs and control two objects on the screen at once. It is completely disorienting, and it's a challenge that I'll have to come back to next time.
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    Status

    rwcarter's Schizoid (360)

    Current Status: Playing

    GameLog started on: Monday 28 September, 2009

    Opinion
    rwcarter's opinion and rating for this game

    An amazing game, which uses simple mechanics/rules to its advantage to create a very fun two-player experience, or a very challenging single-player mind-bender.

    Rating (out of 5):starstarstarstarstar

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