Game Review

Graphics (n.) The use of animation and visual effects to stimulate the senses	v (Poor)	The graphics in this are very basic. Animations are non-existent and your main character looks like well... an eye. Yes, an eye. The title screen is pretty cool though, especially considering the title is made using only circles.
Sound/Music (n.) The smooth blend of atmospheric sounds and original harmonies	(Very Poor)	I couldn't hear anything in this game, but then again I recently broke my PC Speaker. But I've went through the code and found nothing that would invoke the PC speaker anyway.
Gameplay (n.) The precision of control and involvement of character within its universe	vv (Average)	It's reasonably fun to go about this maze and even more fun to beat scores. But this game is too simple and the game runs way too fast for my machine. Speed selection in this game would of been nice. Controls are easy to understand, but there's no pixel by pixel movement, it's all tile-based. Besides the speed problem the main character is pretty easy to control. Also, I've found this maze to be 100% complete and with no bugs in it, which shows that a lot of time has been put into this game.
Story (n.) The creativity and presentation of the game's critical plot	v (Poor)	There really isn't much of a story to this game except to try and escape from the Maze.
Replay Value (n.) The timelessness of the gamer's delight, such that the experience can be repeated again and again	vv (Average)	When you finish Mazes of Misery, it will give you some stats including how long it took to finish the maze. After finishing it I felt like doing it again to see what time I could get next. It can get addictive at times. The main problem with this game though is the lack of variety. A random maze generator would have been cool. Different enemies besides electricity and spiders would have been good adjustments as well.
Challenge (v.) To strike the mental nerve in such a way as to stimulate human thought and reflexes	v (Poor)	It's challenging on a PIII 500, I can tell you that. But overall there isn't any real challenge besides dodging spiders and other dangerous things. All you have to do to dodge enemies is time yourself before moving on. A variety of puzzle challenges could have added a lot to this game.
Fun Factor (n.) The overall entertainment value as maintained throughout the adventure	v (Poor)	Mazes of Misery is definetely worth a look. If you're into mazes, you should love it. Overall, this game has a lot of room for improvement. There's a sequel coming out to this soon, and hopefully it will improve on the things that this game failed in. Steve Morrow's next game Should be one to look out for. Mazes of Misery Reviewed by Antz
Players	1 player	Genre: Puzzle Game
Rating		To solve: 30 min Final Rating: 8/35

Download

To download Mazes of Misery (9.45KB), click here. wTo run this game, you must have any version of Microsoft QuickBasic. wTo play Mazes of Misery, unzip the file and run "MISERY20.BAS" from QuickBasic.

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The Highs: It's complete and has a neat title screen.
The Lows: Major timing issues that make the game extremely fast on newer machines.

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