Warbears
www.warbears.com
This game is a 2D puzzle game where the player controls a squad of crime-fighting bears, called the Warbears. Each warbear has its own unique ability and in order to win, the player has to use them in the right order.
The story starts off with the scene of the crime. The Warbears have just arrived at a house where hostages are held captive. The Warbears have to find a way into the house without alarming the crooks, kill them, and save the day.
Controls are simple. You control one Warbear at a time. This is strictly a game controlled with just the mouse. By clicking on the Warbear, the current actions pop up and the player has to select one. The Warbear will then perform that action, triggering some other event to happen. Players have 3 Warbears to control at the start of the game, while a fourth one will appear mid-game.
Gameplay is interesting and fun; sometimes, players have to find novel ways to solve the puzzles presented, in others, the solution to the problem is a logical one. For instance, a grenade that is thrown up the roof will get sucked into an air-vent if the fan is still switched on, causing the grenade to fall to the top floor and detonate, killing the hostages and losing the game. The solution? Switch off the fan, and the grenade no longer gets sucked into the air-vent.
Art style is cute and funny, with the Warbears looking fuzzy and all deserving of a hug. The enemies (also bears) look rather dim-witted and are of the same sprite. The Warbears, however, have their own individual sprite, each looking according to his role. For instance, The Warbear which is in charge of the technology (GPS unit, mainframe hacking) has the stereotypical glasses and is quite dorky looking, the one who engages in melee combat looks like a ninja, etc. The art is simple: the sprites are clean and neat-looking, but it works very well in this game. I wouldn't want to see how the entire game would be ruined if he had used some other art style.
What I like about this game is how the game designer incorporates other genres of games into this game. For instance, to hack into the building's computer mainframe, the user has to successfully memorise colour codes played in sequence, very much like that of the colour memory game Mr Simon. Toward the end of the game, when the Warbears have saved the hostages but the crime lord escaping, the Warbears engage in a hilarious race scene. The player has to press the motorcycle throttle and when the Warbears are in position and ready to fire their rifle at the enemy, a target will appear and the player has to shoot the bullseye of the target in order for the Warbear to hit the enemy.
What is frustrating for this game, however, is the lack of a 'back one action' button. When the player has done something wrong, he has to restart the entire level, going through the entire actions again. This is really bad especially when you're almost at the end of the game. It would have been better if the game auto saves after every action and the user has the option to go back one action if he does something wrong. This saves time prevents frustrating resets. The entire game took about 30 minutes to complete, but I probably spent almost an hour on this game considering the resets I have to endure.
However, this game is overall really interesting, I love it. In fact, I went to visit his website for the other warbear series and played it immediately after I finished this one. Gameplay remains the same with the other games, except that the Warbears are in a different situation.
Rating 8/10
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