COMMUNITY RESPONSE

Let me start of by saying while I don't think Luc's conduct in the comments of the Eternity's Child review was acceptable, I was very disappointed by the way the D-toid members acted in response. Let us all remember this was a very low budget, indie developed game, selling at a very small price point. There was no need to treat Luc the way he was treated. He disagreed with the reviewers and was very emotional when he did so, all of you would too if it was your baby.

While there is plenty of flaming and fanboy warring on D-toid, there are very few personal attacks, and that is why I love this place. I'm tired of the childishness that constantly fills other gaming site's comments (lookin at you Kotaku). What I saw in the comments was almost on the level of most of the Xbox Live crowd. The "Fuck Off Luc's" that spewed out made me feel ashamed to be a active member of this site. Luc never cursed or disrespected the reviews, he just didn't agree with them. Plenty of our members have called D-toid reviewers unprofessional (and worse) over reviews scores, and didn't design the game, they just played it.

You would think some members had placed large bets against EC or co-authored the reviews the way they reacted in the comments. It's one thing to be proud of yourself for "calling" a crappy game, it another thing entirely to use the comments section or blogs to launch personal attacks on the developer because you feel entitled. I'm wondering if anyone commenting on Luc's reaction has ever developed anything with a small team and had it ripped to shreds in a review? Doubt it.

Luc released a game that he spent a large amount of time on that had a major flaw, within a day of release the flaw was patched and now fully fixed. How many multi-million dollar games have been released with big game breaking flaws? Plenty, lets give Luc a break.

I bought EC tonight after seeing it was patched already on Steam. The jumping flaw is fully fixed, and in three levels so far I have never missed a jump due to the key not responding.


REVIEWERS

First of all, this game looks and moves much better than any run of the mill flash game, and I felt that was an underhanded comment when one of the best things about the game is the artwork and backgrounds. Lets also not forget that there is some beautiful flash animation out there, lol.

Second, after mainly naming the broken controls as the flaw that ruined the game for both reviewers multiple times...

"Let's talk about how the jump button only responds to your input about a third of the time, leading you to fall to your doom for no good reason. "

"Additionally, the jump button only works a third of the time."

"Roughly 66% of the times you hit the jump button, your character won't do anything."

"The problem is that it's difficult for the wrong reasons, most directly in terms of control."

Anthony and Conrad only put one reference to the patch, put it under a section about the game crashing, and then said it MAY fix the problems. Did Anthony or Conrad even try the patched game? Is it just better for laughs to not put somewhere on the review that the major flaw in the game has been fixed? The patch was released the same day as the review was posted...

Luc took his time and energy to get involved in our community, and I think the D-toid staff could at least return that time and energy to review the game with fixed controls, or at least add some insight into how much the patch fixes. The game I bought today doesn't deserve a 1 by any means, nor does it deserve the abuse that our community is heaping on it.


THE GAME

It's nothing special, but it's a decent side scroller that goes back to the roots and has some challenge to it. If you move while shooting and use the charge shot, you can clear though enemies quickly without shooting all their shots. The controls are working fine now, and it's easy to tell it was meant for mouse/keyboard and Wiimote. For the music and artwork alone, I think it's worth the price. If nothing else, it'll burn a few hours of your time.

You could spend $4.99 in a lot worse ways then supporting a developer who's just getting started...