GameHippo.art : ADVENTURE

Iter Vehemens ad Necem (or IVAN, for short) is a graphical rogue-like that is simple enough for the casual gamer to play, but has even more depth than most of the others. Don't let the confusing name fool you, this is a game that rivals that of Nethack in the sheer joy of playing it. Within the world of IVAN, you play a lowly banana picker. One day, you are on your break when you are called to the castle. The viceroy of this colony tells you that another colony close by may be plotting against him, and you are givin the mission to take a letter to this place. You are not told what this letter says (you can't even read it), why you should do it, or what you are going to get out of it. You are just ordered to do it. Yes, the story is pretty lame, but the gameplay easily makes up for it. As I said before, IVAN is a rogue-like, and plays like one. Most of the time, you'll be running through dungeons killing monsters that oppose you. However, this is definitely one of the highest quality, and most unique of all rogue-likes I've seen. The game is suprisingly simple to play for a rogue-like, the commands are simplified and easier for the people who don't want to read manuals and study control lists. Even through the simplification, the game retains some complexity in the vast amount of things you can do. When was the last time you prayed to a god in a game, and the god invokes his wrath to sever your arm off? Yes, by far one of the most unique things I've ever seen in a game like this is the body system. All of your body parts can be severed off, and it all drastically effects how your player works. If one of your legs is severed off, your encumbrance is severely reduced, and your movements are slowed. If you lose both legs... well, your only hope is to pray to your most appreciative god in hopes he will give you a couple of iron legs, or else you'll be laying on the floor until you starve or are killed by the unforgiving amount of creatures about (or you could use an amulet of life saving, but those are extremely rare). You also must pay attention to the amount of damage your body has sustained. Eventually, you will start to bleed in areas you have been hit in, which detracts from your health even further. Of course, you've still got all the things you loved from other rogue-likes here, such as polymorph, one of my favorites. The only things I could've hoped for is a character creation system. You always start out with the same stats and items, with no options to tweak him. However, your character starts out as a clean slate, which you build upon throughout the game. Depending on your actions, you can build up certain skills. Carrying enough items to weigh yourself down will increase your leg strength, and taking heavy damage and healing wounds through rest will increase your endurance. This also applies to weaponry, use your weapon in your left hand and you will gain a proficiency with that hand, and fighting with one type of weapon for a long time will let you level up your skills for that weapon as well. This allows you to build your own type of character to play how you want. IVAN's graphics are very good for a rogue-like game. Objects are nicely detailed for their small size and there are lots of nice little graphical treats to be found within the game. When you hit an enemy, or when you're hit, you will see blood splatter on the ground, if youï¿½re hit hard enough youï¿½ll see your character dripping in blood. Once a character is bleeding, you will see a trail of blood following where they went. If an enemy runs after you have critically hurt him, you'll be able to chase him down and slaughter him for that nicely deserved helmet you were admiring. The real downside (if you see it that way) is the extreme difficulty. Iter Vehemens ad Necem even means; Violent Road to Death, which aptly describes the difficulty level. Overall, IVAN a great game with lots of features to keep you coming back for more, even when you've been killed by that pathetic little kobold around the corner. Most people could probably find something here to love, but the difficulty of the game is so unforgiving at times you might give up on it and move on to other games just because you lost your favorite character you worked so hard on. IVAN is the closest example of a perfect freeware RPG I've ever seen, and easily deserves a 10/10. I've always been a big Nethack fan, but IVAN has surpassed my expectations for any freeware RPG.

PC REQUIREMENTS: 266 MHz CPU, 48 MB RAM

REVIEWED BY Sykz
STAFF RATING 10/10
USER RATING 8.8/10

FILE SIZE 1.3 MB
FILE DATE Dec 10, 2004
UPLOADED Mar 17, 2005
DEV TOOL C/C++ (generic)

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Wodan - The Trial

Welcome to the world of Wodan. Here, all land is made up of colorful hexagons aimlessly floating on an endless sea. This land is inhabited by goofy looking men. As if it wasn't obvious, these men have one thing on their mind: domination. Wodan - The Trial is a turnbased strategy game with an innovative set of rules. Once you start a game, a small world of hexagons will be randomly generated based on the guidelines you set beforehand. Each hexagon is evenly devided up between the players, and ownership is identified through each player's color. Players take turns recruiting soldiers, possibly combining soldiers, conquering enemy hexagons or soldiers, or the intense thrill of cutting down pesky trees. To add depth to the combat, soldiers can be combined to create more powerful variations. Soldiers of higher levels are used to kill lower level ones, while opposing soldiers of equal level can't move in to adjacent squares nor attack each other (until you get level four soldiers; this results in both men dying). You can also construct towers. These function as immobile level two soldiers that don't require the normal upkeep all soldiers use. When one player takes over every hexagon on the board, they win. The graphics are simple but don't look bad at all. I like the graphics of the tiny men as they stand around, waving their arms without a care in the world. There is no music in Wodan, and very few sounds. There are little beeps and boops when you conquer land and a silly, undescribable sound when you destroy soldiers or villages. Up to eight human or computer opponents can be playing at the same time. Even more, you can play with other people on the same computer, across a network, or even through E-mail if for some reason you so desire. Despite the unappealing graphics and near lack of sound, the game is a blast to play. Wodan should offer a lot of replay value, even if you just play with computers. The computer opponents can put up a good fight, but it's encouraged that you find some other folks to play with. To top it off, Wodan is a very accessible, easy to learn game with a small 741 KB filesize. After reading this, there is no reason you shouldn't be playing Wodan - The Trials afterward.

PC REQUIREMENTS: Direct X 5 or above

REVIEWED BY Sykz
STAFF RATING 9/10
USER RATING 5.6/10

FILE SIZE 741 KB
FILE DATE Feb 15, 2006
UPLOADED Aug 18, 2006
DEV TOOL unknown

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Legend of Shadow

As I'm sure your parents have taught you, you can never have too many ninjas. In Legend of Shadow, you fight off dozens of ninjas at once, all while navigating intense platforming levels and dodging shurikens left and right. You never really have too much time to participate in a huge battle, so as a result, you only have one attack button. This doesn't degrade the game, as the core of the gameplay focuses on platforming rather than fighting. Legend of Shadow's graphics manage to look good, and seem "retro" at the same time. The blood effects are especially satisfying; when you kill an enemy, he'll fly into the air or skid across the ground (depending on how you hit him) and blood will spray into the air, like gruesome red fireworks. Legend of Shadow's sound consists of clanks of swords against swords and shurikens, a satisfying slice when you hit an enemy, and great music resembling that of the Far East's. The sound is, in short, great. Legend of Shadow's level design is also very good. One section of a level is almost exactly the same as another, but the levels themselves vary greatly from eachother. The first level takes place in a dense forest, the second in a cave, the third in a castle, and the fourth in a village. At the end of each level is a boss, and every boss challenging, cool-looking, and fun to fight. The game also offers a good challenge, while not becoming frustratingly difficult. My only real complaint is that the game is too short; four levels, each taking (at most) ten minutes to beat. Not at all a long game. Still, it's not so bad playing through the game again, and it's actually average length for a freeware actioner.

PC REQUIREMENTS: Not specified

GAME AUTHOR DarthLupi
REVIEWED BY Mechalord
STAFF RATING 8/10
USER RATING 8.5/10

FILE SIZE 6.1 MB
FILE DATE Oct 01, 2004
UPLOADED Nov 15, 2004
DEV TOOL GameMake

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