Giveaway of the Day - Larva Mortus

Larva Mortus: A Review

Todays game was originally given away earlier this year (March). It received a positive 48% of 609 vote, which I thought was rather low considering the quality of this game, then again it is a more ‘on the edge’ sort of arcade game that will probably only appeal to a smaller group of gamers. The download size is 51.2Mb and once installed expands to 53Mb. You can read previous comments about the game HERE.

The game installs to C:/Games as default; do make a mental note of where it goes because the game doesn’t install any shortcuts, so you’ll need to create them yourself. If you want a shortcut in the Start Menu programs list you can find a tutorial on how to do so in the game discussion forums HERE . You’ll find a decent games manual in PDF format within the games folder that repeats what I’ve said below.

Game Story:

At the end of the ninteenth century dark forces shade the world once again. A brave agent experienced in exorcism and combat comes to face the incomming evil and fight loathsome supernatural monsters and horrific spawns of black magic.

Larva Mortus offers fast and entertaining monster-hunting gameplay. A cheesy horror atmosphere goes hand in hand with furious action splatter fest; everything accompanied by a creepy first class soundtrack!

Reference accessed 20th March 09

The Game:

Before you start the game you’ll need to create a profile via the ‘select player button. You can create as many profiles as you like. The options menu allows you to adjust various graphical aspects of the game, for example there are three styles of mouse pointer to choose from. There’s a toggle to turn the gore off, which is set to on as default. There’s also a toggle to switch between DX9 and OpenGL . It’s recommended that you have OpenGL.

There’s also a 16/32 bit toggle and a full screen toggle. The usual music and sound sliders can be found together with a master slider. Once these have been set up you’re good to go…..

When you start the game, the first screen you encounter is the mission map. Here you can select from three difficulty settings; easy, medium and hard. The default setting is set to medium difficulty, however before you can select the difficulty settings you have to scroll through a few windows that recounts the supporting story to the game; which is about an agency; that is dedicated to the investigation of paranormal events. You start as mentioned above, in the map room. You will see several envelops stuck on the map which contain information about the various missions open to you; that includes the location of the mission, the quests, and difficulty level, which is denoted by the number of skull and crossbones given to the quest. You’ll also see the mission objectives and a short story to set the scene. As you complete missions more are added to the map. (You can see what these look like by following one of the image links). You can read about each mission before you actually opt to complete that mission. Missions are graded on how difficult they are, starting with the lowest grade up to ones with 5 or 6 skull and crossbones. The lower the number of this emblem on the mission info sheet, the easier the mission is. You’ll find red envelopes which cannot be taken (but can be read until you’ve attained a specific level.

Along the bottom of the map are several buttons that give access to other areas of the agency; for example, the equipment room where you’ll find all the weapons you have. This room looks rather bare early on in the game, but as you start to collect better weapons, the room fills up. There’s also a button to the trophy room and a help button which details all the bonuses as well as basic information about the game.

Your first missions include tutorials to help you on your way. There doesn’t seem to be a way of turning these off, though once you’ve seen them once they do not reappear. Pressing F1 shows you information on the various controls you need to remember, F2 brings up a HUD that shows you useful information about your status. (see below for further explanations). Q will give you quick information on the task at hand. . Once the game starts proper, you use either the cursor keys or WASD keys to move and the Left and Right mouse buttons to fire primary and secondary weapons. The game is a top down perspective much like games like the RIP series and Alien Shooter, though the scale used is slightly larger with respect to characters, which look twice as large as the characters found in the games I’ve mentioned. (see links to alternative games below)

The left mouse button is used to fire your primary weapon, which at the beginning of the game comprises of a two handed sword which is useful for killing the numerous undead that are found in this game as well as a six shooter,. Secondary weapons include dynamite, which can be picked up and thrown using your right mouse button.. As you progress through the levels better weapons become available such as the shotgun, machine gun, flame thrower and even a crossbow. You can pause the game my clicking on P.

Bonuses, which can be found inside barrels and chests include extra ammo, armour that makes you almost invincible for short periods, a berserker power up that increases the damage you do to opponents as well as increases your résistance to attack, score multipliers (which can help to level you up) and fast walk. The games HUD shows your health staus as a red bar to the top left of the screen. There’s also a link to your profile, which can also be opened using Tab. The top right hand corner shows the bonuses that are active and to the bottom left are the weapons you’re carrying.. There’s a mini map to the bottom left, with a zoom facility, but this is of no real benefit because the dimensions of the minimap remain the same; only the image within the mini map changes.

Levelling up is dependent upon collecting points. Every time you do level up you’re awarded free skill points which can be added to the attributes you possesof which there are several. There are 30 level ups in the game which gives you a lot of scope to tweak your characters attributes. You can access you attributes at any time by clicking the Tab key. The profile details the characters statistics such as the level you’re at, score, score needed to make the next level, the length of time you’ve played the mission, the number of kills and the number of times you’ve died as well as the characters attributes which include observation, construction, resistance, luck, walking speed and melee combat. There are also other info tabs that include details of active quests, the difficulty of the quest and the objectives. Theres an information tab that tells you what you are carrying. By hovering your mouse over individual items you’ll get information about it. It’s worth checking this out because some weapons are less or more effective against certain enemies. For example, when hovering the mouse over the ‘default’ 2 handed sword, it tells you that supernatural enemies are often very resistant against firearms, which is very useful information when you’re beset upon by hoards of evil looking monsters. To toggle between the weapons you’re carrying use the mouse wheel.

There are 30 monsters that include vampires, the undead and Werewolves, plus more species. There are several primary weapons including the default sword and six shooter and include a shotgun and dynamo gun.. Levels are randomly generated, so effectively there’s no limit to the number of levels you can play. There are several different environments ranging from underground catacombs to spooky mansions and dark forests.

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Reviews worth reading:

Initial impressions of Larvae Mortus – Rake in Grass forums

Follow to find reviews worth reading

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Images:

See images all on one page HERE

See images as a slideshow HERE

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Minimum requirements:

Operating System…………………………Windows XP/Vista

cpu…………………….…. 1.2GHz,

System RAM………………256MB

Graphics……………………OpenGL support (recommended)

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Video:

See video of gameplay HERE

See video of gameplay HERE

See video of gameplay HERE

See previous comments from Jan 08 HERE

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Conclusion:

Although this genre has been saturated with a variety of sub standard clones over the last few years, this one stands out above most of the others because of it’s upgrade system and the overall quality of production. It’s as good as my favorite top down shooter of the moment Zombie Shooter 2. It’s worth a good 8 out of 10 for playability and fun. The game is well made and looks good. Apart from Jets ‘n’ Guns this is one of my favorite Rake in Grass games. I even bought it via Valves Steam client despite having the original giveaway. Well it was part of a bundle so I couldn’t avoid getting it lol.
Alien Terminator Deluxe: (~38Mb)

The game installs without any shortcut so make a note of where it installs to. It installed to my root directory which is E: and then into my games folder E:\Games, however the root directory is usually C: by default so you’re more likely to find it at C:\Games\AlienTerminatorDeluxe. There is also no uninstaller, so to delete the game just delete the games folder. You’ll find the Gametop version, which I mention below does have an uninstaller, but you do get the usual browser opening when shutting the game down.

There’s a 4.35min video available to watch which will give you a good idea as to what to expect from this game. You can see it Watch video of Alien Terminator HERE

I’m off to the dental hospital in a few moments so haven’t had time to write up a full account of the game. I wasn’t given a download link for a demo of the game, however, I checked online and amazingly found the game for free at Gametop.

The Game

The first level is a tutorial level where you learn to maneuver your vehicle (using the keyboard cursor keys) to move around a maze like structure. The controls are a little twitchy; making it quite hard to control the turning of your vehicles, but it does get easier with a little practice. This is important as in later levels you have to maneuver around lots of objects. You’ll also be given the opportunity to try out the various weapons that you carry on your vehicle. The top mounted weapon is controlled by the movement of the mouse; the mouse pointer becomes the firing reticule and the fire button is the left mouse button; grenades can be thrown by using the right mouse button and the super weapon by using the space bar. All key bindings can be changed to keys more comfortable to the individual by going into the options menu via the main menu. Your main weapon can be changed from the default mini gun to a laser and pulse cannon using the mouse scroll wheel. It appears that all the weapons are upgradeable apart from the grenades, but I wasn’t able to confirm this as I only played as far as level 4 (the Jupiter level). You’ll find each level has a boss stage at the end of the level.

The basic set up of the game play is to destroy a building that holds the force field generators, then go collect the energy sphere that was initially protected by the force field. As soon as you collect the sphere you are attacked by hordes of aliens. As you progress the levels get steadily harder.

You’ll find several bonuses in game. You need to pick these up quickly as they disappear within around 20 to 30 seconds. These include the following:

A…….Armor (health)
S….…Super Weapon
G……Adds 10 grenades
T…….Time deceleration

Your progress is automatically saved at the end of a completed level. Failing to complete a mission means you have to start from the beginning of that level. You can replay any completed missions.

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Conclusion:

Alien Terminator Deluxe plays well, though can become a little repetitive at times. I found it was quite enjoyable the first time around, but because I was taking notes while playing I kept losing my health and having to restart the level, which did make the game feel much too repetitive, however once I completed my notes I was able to progress. I think this is one of those games that you’ll either love or hate. It’s basically on the lines of Alien Shooter and games of that ilk, which I posted links to the other week.

I did find the vehicle difficult to control at first, but with practice it became much easier, but I was never really happy with it. Trying to catch bonuses sometimes became frustrating when trying to maneuver to catch them, especially in later levels where there are lots of obstacles to maneuver around; only for the bonuses to disappear before I had the chance to collect them.

The lack of a developers web site is worrying. We’ve has several games from Some Company; I’d expect to see some sign of a developers credentials and previous work if I was going to purchase this game, though as mentioned below, this game is free all the time at Gametop (very recent addition), so there’s no need (if you know of Gametops existence, lol – by the way, there are a couple more new games available from Gametop).

I’d still give this 7 out of 10 as I think it’s a great game to fill in the odd ten minutes here and ther, the graphics are good and it gets progressively harder.

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Music.

The music fits well with this game. An energetic techno sound, however, if you wish to exchange the six tracks that are in the music folder all you need to do is re name the files to the ones within the folder which can be found by following the path:

C:\………………..\Alien Terminator Deluxe\Data\Music

The music is in the MP3 format which is handy as it simplifies the process.

Slideshow of in game images:

http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss160/Whiterabbit04/Alien%20Terminator%20Deluxe/?albumview=slideshow

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Similar games available for free:

If you missed today’s game the good news is, its available via Gametop as a 27/7 download. You do of course get the browser opening to Gametops home page every time you shut the computer down, there may be pop ups depending upon what security you have and you do have to uncheck boxes to ensure no toolbars or your browser home page is changed.

Get Alien Terminator Deluxe HERE

The following game is similar to /alien Termination in that you use a vehicle. You can get the same game with two different names from different free sites,

Crimson Road aka Humvee Shootout

Get Crimson Road HERE

or

Get Humvee Shootout HERE

RIP3:

Get RIP3 HERE

Ariel fire:

Get Ariel Fire HERE

Absolute Survival:

Get Absolute Survival HERE

The following game doesn’t have the annoying window opening up when you close the game down:

Theseus: Return of the Hero:

Get Theseus: Return of the Hero HERE

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This is my first time in the Giveaway Game area. I have to say I’m impressed with the number of offerings given by the developer Rake in Grass.

I was looking for some small games to put USB Drives and I found so many. I’m sure my nephews will love them.

My Aunt who is 72 years old also plays some of the smaller games, solitare, card games and so on. So you have a wide variety of people. It’s just a matter of getting the word out to them.

I’m no gamer, but my 72 Year old Aunt will love some of the stuff I’m gong to buy her and my newphews will love playing games when they shouldn’t – like at school.

Both of my grandparents were avid gammers in the 1990′s so, don’t think it is just teens and some early 2 year olds. You have a large audience out there.

Thanks, I’m no gammer but I’ve been looking for weeks and this has been the best I’ve found for the size, need and ages I looking for.

Vidimo Se!

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…..Moderators Comment….

Hi Steeler, check out the free games synopsis over in the forums. You can find it HERE. There are over a thousand good quality free games available for download. We (me, Wizzard, reverseOrder plus a few others) have tested every game for virii and the sites are safe to visit. The synopsis hasn’t been updated for several weeks so there are loads more games to be added when I have the time. You can find all of those games in the games discussion thread under the title Week such and such – Free games for the weekend. You only need to go back several pages to around week 56 . Any game before that will be found in the synopsis. Were at the en of week 64 at the moment.