You see that yellow tint? That's simply due to my awesome black, tinted goggles!
PROS
- Unique Art
- Cool Soundtrack
- Unique World
- Gameplay Better Than Most Social Network Games
- Story Based
CONS
- Normal Missions are Boring and Repetitive
- Long Wait Between Gaining More Actions
- Lack of Environment Art
- Still In Beta
Recommended For:
Anyone who wants a game to play once in a while when bored on the computer.
Not-Recommend For:
Someone looking for a game to play for hours at a time.
Misfortune bares resemblance to usual social network games such as Mafia Wars and etc. but it tries to differentiate itself with unique art and more in-depth gameplay. Misfortune focuses on being more story based than traditional social network/browser games, so right off the bat it reminded me of Echo Bazaar. The game starts with introducing the main character, and having him, for one reason or another, end up in a random town with nothing but his own clothes.
The game has two different modes, or perspectives you play from. The first is when you choose where to go, what missions to do, and what to buy and etc. The second is a first person mode in which you navigate around a 3D space made up of 2D art. The actually character navigation and first person perspective is what first caught my eye, since it wasn’t what I expected going into the game. Within missions your main goal is to usually get to a certain place. What blocks your way are multiple puzzle mechanics such as finding keys and hidden doors, as well as combat with various enemies.
Although the game does uses a mechanic I personally despise in browser games, which is that it only allows you to do a certain amount of missions until you have to wait for your action points to refill over time. While I understand why games do this, as a gamer I dislike having to wait to play more of a game. So that is a bit of a pain but I guess is by now come to be expected of games like this.
The gameplay itself is pretty straight forward, you use WASD to move, and you click on enemies to hit them, and items to interact with them, and what’s important is that it works for the game. You can also use apples and first aid kits to heal yourself, but the game only tells you the hotkey for them once, so I wish it showed what key they are mapped to on top of the icon, as most PC RPGs do, simply as a reference to the player. The game also boasts RPG elements, so you can collect items and armor to assist yourself, as well as save up money from missions and buy weapons and armor in shops.
The game’s art style is a bit hard to define in words, but I’d say it’s “A seriously cartoony yet detailed art style”. The art does look great for a browser based game and while some things may be a bit over-the-top and cartoony (such as wearing a pot as a helmet) it only adds to the game’s uniqueness. The art was done by a children’s book illustrator after all, which clearly aided the game. The game also boasts a soundtrack, while it doesn’t have too many different tracks, the tracks it does have fit the game, but personally the combat one does get a bit annoying, but it’s still a browser based game with a soundtrack, which earns the game brownie points in my book.
The game’s world is an interesting and mysterious place. The game takes place in a dark and pirate filled city which always seems to have something interesting going on, while also having some steampunk elements. The world is displayed and portrayed well within the game and the art, except the same art is always used; you are always navigating around alleys of tan walled building with gates. It makes me think of a Dungeons and Dragons DM who only has one tile set and insists on always using them and as such always has the player’s missions take place in the same places, which gets dull after a while. I really would like to see other parts of the city portrayed, and I hope in the future more art is added to the game.
The game does have some nice progression, because as you get money, you get better equipment and skills. Farther in the game you can unlock more equipment like an optics shop which has some special optics which allows you to see enemies through walls, as well as even locating those pesky hidden doors for you! But, the problem with progression is that while the mission difficult is rated from 1 on, as you get better equipment and more money, the game decides “Hey! Let’s make level 3 missions as hard as a level 6 mission was for the player yesterday, without telling them!” This really does bug me, because what’s the point of having a difficulty curve, if it changes randomly.
Now onto the game’s main focus point, its story. The story is told in a few different ways, within missions there are certain dialogs that will popup randomly such as your Aunt getting attacked by four thugs, to a parrot insulting you, to a man arguing with a mechanical talking parrot. As well as special sets of missions you can get later on as you progress with “Fortune Points” which you have to get with real money or by completing offers. I played one of these mission sets, and the amount of points spent would have equaled $5. The missions are a bit more story based than the usually pointless missions, and also, the set I played had a moral choice or two attached to it, which I hope affects me in the future. Not only that but this set of missions unlocked that awesome optics shop I talked about earlier. While I’m not sure if I’d say it is worth five dollars, they do add some more flair to the game, so if you’re a fan you’ll probably end up trying a set of missions out some time or another.
Within dialog you mostly choose what to say, but certain skill rolls (just like in DnD, a roll of 1-20 plus any modifier) are also implemented which can have dire consequences if you roll low. The skill system itself in the game isn’t all that explained, since outside of combat skills, the only skill I was able to get up was clockworking and pick pocketing, both I had to learn by doing certain things within dialog. Overall the dialog system is pretty solid, they make a nice break from running around looking for keys, and some of the dialog options can be pretty interesting, as well as impacting your future within the game. The only problem I found was that the choices weren’t all that broad, I would like to have the option of saving my Aunt from pirates or not, not being forced upon it. If the developer adds more moral and impactful choices into the game itself, I can see it becoming quite a great browser game!
Overall if you ever get board and are sitting at your computer, which I bet you are doing right now, go check The Misfortune Beta out here. Either with your Facebook, or you can just create an account, so don’t fret all you Facebook haters!