Heartless Review: Notrium

[Ecorp99]

Notrium

 

-----------------------------

 

System(s) - PC

Year Released - 2003

Genre - Indie, Survival, Sci-Fi

Developer - Ville Monkonnen

 

-----------------------------

 

About the Game

---------------

Notrium. Such a strange name for an equally strange game. You play one of four character on an exploration space ship, but while exploring the Hive sector, th ship is attacked by missiles! You escape and get stranded on a planet called Notrium. I wonder where they got the name of the game from...anyways. You can play as the human captain, the android engineer, the psionic medic, or the alien stowaway. You manage to escape to the only working escape pod as the ship is destroyed. You have to steer your way through the missiles to crash land on the planet, and from there, survive until you can escape. Each class has it's own special abilities and attributes and they can all affect the gameplay and the ending of the game. Yes, this game has multiple endings. Depending on the class chosen, various journal entries will appear every ingame fortnight. Mother of God, I used "fortnight" in a sentence. No RPG games for a while. Anyways, no matter what class you choose, the gameplay is still basically the same. You have to find a way to survive and make stuff on an alien planet while tring to escape. Now, onto the story! Yay! Story time!

 

-----------------------------

 

Story Review

------------

*insert movie trailer voice herez A starship, by the name of Var' Equinalin, is exploring the Hive sector, when it comes upon the planet know as Notrium. Suddenly, missles fly from the planet's surface and slam into the ship. You run the the nearest escape pod, throw yourself in, and slam on the "launch" button, not knowing what's in store fo you, but whatever it is, it's better than what's here. *regular voice now* How was that? Did I do good? Do I get a cookie? Fine, I'll bake my own cookies. That's the story. The rest unfolds depending on what race you are and what ending you get, which I have no knowledge of because I fail at this game so hard. Usually this is the longest section. Uh-oh. This might be a short review. *gulp*

 

-----------------------------

 

Graphics Review

----------------

I won't lie to you, the graphics are impossibly amazing. Seriously. This game was made by one guy, I think. I don't know if he did all of the graphics himself, but if he did, we need to go on a crusade and accuse him of witchcraft. Lots of things are animated, and all of the animations are beautiful and smooth. The game is played in a top-down perspective, so everything is kind of flat, but it's a beautiful kind of flat. The day-night sequence creates awesome lighting effects. Man, every section is short in this review. I mean, the graphics review is usually pretty short, but this time it's really short! Um, the graphics in the game known as Notrium are the most amazing and spectacular representations of data by pixels that I have ever laid my eyes upon. It is indeed a greatness and stuff. There, that's a little bit better. Now, onward!

 

-----------------------------

 

Gameplay Review

----------------

Ok, this should help beef up the review. The gameplay is pretty sweet. Notrium is played from a top-down perspective, but unlike most top-down games, the player can move in any direction while facing another. Sort of like a first person shooter. It's a really nifty thing, allowing you to do so much more activities. It's like making bunk beds with your step brother. References asides, I really like the way it works. During the game, you find different items and objects around the terrain and stuff, such as plants, edible mushrooms, weapons, and machine stuff. You can take that stuff, combine it with other stuff, and make new stuff. Basically, this games about stuff. The gameplay mostly revolves around finding the tools and materials to make useful things, defend yourself against the alien peoples, and ultimately beating the game. Most characters start off with a weak attack and no weapons. Except the alien. That mo'fo' is strong and deadly. Like gas after eating cheese. Anyways, in contrast, the human is a little weakling and will probably die many times. Ingame weather also plays a large part in the game, but only above difficulty level "noob." Oops, I mean "easy." Heat and cold will affect your player, and if either reaches an exteme, you start to die. Standing in the shade or by a fire will help keep them balanced, but with the shifting day-night cycles, it's really hard. Luckily, you can make enviro-armor. Yay, science! Oh yeah, areas are also randomly generated. There areas are organized into blocks, and the blocks North, East, and West are explorable. The South is not. Nobody goes there. There's racism.

 

-----------------------------

 

Reviews

--------

Story 3/5

Graphics 3.5/5

Gameplay 4/5

Replay Value 5/5

Final Rating 4/5

Heartless Score B

 

-----------------------------

 

That's it for this review guys! Hope you enjoyed! Sorry about the absence of Review Wednesday last week. It was Spring Break, and I had planned to do a Review Weekend, but I got busy and wasn't able to. Really sorry! Sorry this review is so short, but I couldn't really say much. Oh yeah, I'll be getting internet soon, which means longer reviews! Yay! And, possibly YouTube series and video reviews on my YouTube channel! Not sure what will happen yet, but I want to do more because this is really fun, and that seems like a good place to start. Let me know what you think! See you next time!

[Ecorp99]

This didn't fit in the OP. The original website for Notrium is www.instantkingdom.com/notrium.