Totally Free Games Review #1 -Synaesthete

Made while Juniors at Digipen, 4 students Zach Aikman, Joseph Tkach, . Towns, and Andi Maneri created a game that focused on what they thought Synaesthesia was like.  Calling themselves Rolling without Slipping, they created Synaesthete, a 2008 IGF-finalist (won the “Best Student Game), music-driven, action fighter that has many elements close to Guitar Hero.

Style: Music-driven action game.

Gameplay (4.5/5): Despite the fact that it seems unoriginal, it is very unique and fun.  Control the Zaikman (yes, named after Zach) using WASD to walk around the rooms, avoiding monsters, and JKL to match the falling red, green, and blue bars that follow the music to shoot out flashes of light towards the monsters, eventually killing them all: (Note: This game is not graphic at all, with no blood, or even realistic deaths).  Every successful hit will raise your Genuis, which will then increase your damage output, and similarly, hitting a note at the wrong time will decrease your Genuis.  Use ‘I’ to use a special power that you choose at the beginning of the level.

Graphics/Music (5/5): The graphics got this game an IGF “Best Graphics” Nomination, and they are done very well done.  The entire world has a strong psychedelic feeling, and when playing, it will beat to the music, only adding to the effect.  The world is done with bright colors against black, but it is still easy to understand what is going on.  There are phrases that will appear throughout the game such as “Transform your language through a synergy”, “History is ending”, and “If this is a dream….then I never want to wake up”.

Re-playability/Length (3/5): There are multiple speeds that you can play each of the songs at, and 10 levels to beat, the gameplay keeps me coming back, despite the fact that there is no more awards I can get.

Stability/Controls (5/5): Very easy controls, have never had the game crash, I can easily pause the game by either minimizing it (it is defaulted as full screen, but you can use the Windows button), or by pressing the pause button.

Arbitrary (5/5): Doesn’t represent anything, but represents my overall verdict of the game, considering everything.

Total: 22.5/25 or 90%

Images:

Download game here.

Read another review here.

Note: Every game I reveiw has been totally malware free, and includes no adware, or any gimmicks of any kind, unless otherwise mentioned (optional homepage hijack, toolbar install).  Send me a game that you would like reviewed at theemailipicked[at]hotmail.com.  I use a laptop with 32-bit Windows 7 Professional, 2 Gigs of Ram, 798 MB Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family graphics card, and 100 Gigs of Hard Disk.

Further Note: You can find out more about Synaesthesia here.  Rolling without Slipping is also making another game for the X-Box called Transcend.