ZED ZED, I'm glad you're not dead!!!
It's been a few months since the last game and I'm happy to see you've made another good one. I was literally thinking about you randomly yesterday and when I checked my email it notified me that you posted a new game. Coincidence or fate Zed? Regardless, this new game definitely made my heart race once more and I'm happy to share my thoughts and ideas again in a large essay format of Captain Warrington's Play Maze.
So in this story of unfortunate workers trying to get by, we have a mother bat woman, Betty-Anne, and her son Albert. After they finished eating at the Warrington fast food chain (Basically MCDonalds) Betty-Anne leaves to use the restroom as her son Albert is drawn in my a mysterious presence, which asks him to go into the play maze. Obviously it's the pirate statue and like most kids in horror genres, they foolishly get pulled into a strange world of sorts. Our protagonists involve employee Ashley, and her manager Penny. Btw love the designs as usual, but I like Ashley the most. I've GYATT to hand it to you man, you make them so thicc and fine it's giving me brain rot, but the good kind. Ashley is a more tough-minded woman who is like our common day to day fastfood workers, and Penny is a kind hearted manager just like most managers in the real world, because they have to act nicely I guess. Apparently Penny notices the door with the "No Entry" sign is open and they basically go "Ahhh shit, here we go again" and go in to retrieve Albert.
The gameplay is rather simple. You have "12 minutes", EMPHASIS ON MINUTES" to go through each level of the maze, all while solving simple problems to pass through each obstacle. This goes from placing down a correct shape, answering a math problem, and rearranging numbers in order. Also dead ends are placed which can psyche out the player You get to choose between Ashley or Penny to go into the maze. Ashley moves a lot faster and apparently she doesn't get penalized from getting answers wrong on obstacles. As for Penny, she's the manager, which I found funny, but she also see arrows that lead towards the right way when between 2 paths. In regards to her being the manager, I think the phone you use gives you hints as what to do when faced with an obstacle
- Zed, I tested to see what penalties there were for getting answers wrong as Penny, but I didn't see any. I don't know what I was supposed to see, but I tried like 5 times on multiple obstacles and nothing really happened besides a sound effect which told me I'm wrong. Perhaps I didn't notice it but please tell me.
- Something to also note is that the timer is not 12 minutes, but rather a quarter that time (3 minutes), at least from what I timed it to be. Cause every minute lasts 15 seconds.
The game makes who light on your toes and making sure you don't waste a single moment of your time, especially if you're Penny. I tried both characters, and I definitely think Penny is a harder character to use, mainly for her slow speed. For Ashley, dead ends aren't that bad because they're not long. You can take a few steps into one you'll know immediately it's a dead end. With Ashley I had like 3 or 4 minutes to spare on the room 6, but I had 10-20 seconds for Penny. It's definitely harder than most of your games here for sure
I love the way the game is designed in terms of how it feels like it doesn't cut or load into the next room. It's one big winding pathway and it makes me wonder how you made it. Did you make a random generator that leads towards the exact same location, or did you really make one huge map, because I feel like endless mode would be a nightmare for you if it was like that.
- Also I forgot to mention there's an endless mode, which I can apparently access before even starting the game. Endless mode is as it states, although I never really went deeper past room 11. I'm not sure if I can lose, but I still appreciate the fact that you even added an endless mode anyways. It's usually a harder difficulty that's added, but yeah, it's something new and I like that you made it anyway.
The fact you never put music into your games, it's what makes your games scary in the first place. Anything with sound effects just has been scared and when there's no other noise than that, it makes for a terrifying experience. I had wondered if something was going to chase me in the maze, but sadly nothing. Although, the idea of it did get to my head. Also with how small your field of view is in the game, anything that's just standing in front of me just got me, especially the Captain. Dumb looking Cpt, Jack Sparrow looking ass, got I hate how just walking within a few feet of him just spooked me. Also thanks a lot for the jumpscare at room 0, I actually screamed a bit from that cause you never really pull those in your games. Overall, the horror factor is good as usual from you.
Now onto lore. So apparently the Warrington Company was going bankrupt, bad sales, unethical, etc like any big company, so they decided to create a mascot to help with that. The pirate mascot was decided and they made statues out of BONE and ASH paint, along with a GRETEL WOOD base, and somehow it gave it the ability to bend space and time, and even mind control people, which lead the Warrington company to flourish. Of course with unethical use of powerful beings, the statues would lure people into going into the maze and doing something to them in a supply closet, which we don't know what, but it's always gonna be bad. A whistle blower helped provide info on the matter to other fast food chains of the place, but now they remain laying low and hope to shed light on the situation to the public someday. Ashley or Penny are able to save Albert and they treat it as if it was another day. Sadly Ashley wonders if they can stop the pirate from taking more people in worries of messing up, but Penny says that it's pretty much their duty. I wish the best for them and everyone in your games too.
I have a few questions regarding the lore of your games.
1. Do all your games take place within the same town/state/area, because they all feel connected with recurring characters?
2. Gretel Wood sounds important somehow. Was there anything like that mentioned in your other games? if not, will it be? I don't know, maybe it's nothing at all.
3. I know all your games aren't really lore heavy, but do you have any plans to make a more lore oriented game/story? The people of this town suffer from mysterious forces just by living a minimum wage job and corporations that do shady stuff. Will we eventually get a closer look into these corporations at all?
Anyways, you made another banger of a game Zed. Part of me feels silly for making long essay reviews of your game, but I've been doing it with each one so far and it's pretty fun to do. I hope that maybe I can also make long for review videos of other games if I had time, but I'm glad I'm doing something for your games a least. Hope you're doing well Zed, I'll see you in the next game
From,
That one guy who makes long essays for your games lmao