Apprentice 2 - The Knight's Move
 

Apprentice 2 - The Knight's Move

This game is made for free with the AGS engine and I think this is one is one of the best games I have seen with AGS. You are playing an apprentice named Pib. Pib is the apprentise of an old wizard that goes by the name Master. Your quest is to do three tasks for the Master so you can be approved a real wizard by the Academy.

The graphics in this game is very appealing, and you know by the look of most of the characters that there is a lot of work behind each and everyone. Most all of the characters have special moves and idle animations which makes the game a little less static than many others I have seen.

The scenery is also looking great, but could have been better some places. The world map however, I didn't like at all. Very little detail and the names that appear when you move your cursor over a location is "merging" too much with the background. This also applies to the "Willowbean" text. Maybe should have used banners or something in the background instead, cause the text really look like amatuer photoshop text merged right on to the map.

Some of the tasks were quite hard to figure out (thinking of the bucketpart in particullar), and some others too, but to be a short game I could really undestad why the time is howled.

The controls can be a little annoying in the beginning as you have to cirkle around to the same action if you already have used an action in the same area. Also not being able to cancel an action (eg. Look at "something") you have to wait till Pib have looked at the item to be able to give him a new command.

The Inventory and save functions are flawless.

Also I heard about an incident where you cannot obtain an item vital to go on in the game, and you actually have to restart, but the author wasn't aware, and I am sure he will fix this as soon as possible :)

Summary of good things: Graphics, concept and functionality of inventory and saving/loading. And this game is for free is a good thing ;).

Summary of not so good things: World map, some bugs and a part of the item/NPC interaction.

The music stands out superbly. It's better than in any amateur adventure game and better than in many commercial games.

Yep, the music is very good. Just forgot to mention it. But I have a feeling the music is much why the game takes over 40Mb. Anyways, with todays standards, downloading 40 Mb isn't that much.

I was impressed with the first game and Apprentice 2 really stands above even that title. The quality in the graphics, the sound, and the writing is impeccable. I started playing last week. I am really enjoying it! A great classic LucasArts style game.

I really like this game. If he adds voice he may be able to sell these game online.

"They", that is.

Yeah, they could probably get people to buy them but I don't think that would be the best route. Even if the games are great (which they are) they're not going to end up making all that much money, and they won't have the satisfaction of as many people playing them as do when the games are free.

Exactly. I wouldn't buy Apprentice II (unless it was published and distributed in stores, that is) because buying from the Internet is pain. Because App2 is low-res, I don't think thay could even find a publisher.

And voice acting in amateur games is horrible without exception. (Project Joe is going commercial so that doesn't count.) Besides, I enjoy imagining what the characters sound like.

Yeah, and it's a pain finding good actors, too! (But not at all impossible!)

--Erwin

I think they'd sell a decent amount of copies if they repackaged the game and website to look more "commercial". The quality of this game is good. It's just not promoted very well.

Well, they wouldn't need a publisher. Fatman was self-published.

And I have never heard of that game. :P That had to be some publishing.

Well, that's how independant games (and independant movies and independant music and independant literature) work. You can't expect to just KNOW about them, you have to look since they don't have the massive marketing engines of publishers behind them. Anyway, here's a review of Fatman from this very site: http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,297

Well, when I think of it, I think I saw Fatman at the AGS site, but that must have been when I browsed ALL the games. I belive I have seen one of the screenshots somewhere.

However, as an adventure fan, I have never heard of Fatman before in any other community.

Before I typed that they may be able to sell it online I was thinking that possbly they may get a publisher and clean it up a little and provide voice acting.



I agree also about it being impossible to find good voice actors. I laughed through the whole KQ 2.5 game. The voice acting is forgetable in that project.

The question still remains, however, why should they sell that game? A lot of the potential buyers would be like me who simply don't want to take the risk/can't buy stuff online. And in any case they wouldn't make that much money.