Alchemist

A Game Review

Game Review

Description:

Lights out! No, it's not bedtime...it's the end of the world for this village where light is a food source! Can you bring a glimmer of hope to this ill-luminated land?

You are the village alchemist on a quest to gather ingredients to make a Potion of Light in this single-player Flash game fantasy platformer. This potion can restore light to the land and feed the hungry population. You must navigate the town by jumping across ledges and over hungry creatures that want a bite out of you. Help local villagers by performing tasks for them and acquiring ingredients as rewards. Obtain other ingredients by solving puzzles related to gaining access to otherwise unreachable areas. Mix all the ingredients together in your home cauldron to restore the light!

Features:

  • Keyboard-controlled. Only the arrows keys are used to control the alchemist. Left and right arrow keys move your character left and right, respectively. The up arrow key makes the alchemist jump. The down arrow key is used to pick up items or use an item on an object. Note that you must still use your mouse to interact with the menu and toggle options.
  • Save points. Use lamp posts to save your current position by passing by them. If your character dies, you will respawn at the last lamp post you activated with no loss of items. (It should be noted that this is not a 'save game' feature. If you clear your cookies, your game will be lost. However, this game can easily be completed in one session.)
  • Casual play. This is a short and simple game that has an end point and does not require hours or multiple sessions to complete.

Considerations:

Pros

  • This game has both sound and music toggles. This means that you do not have to turn both off if you only want to mute one.
  • Pause button. You do not have to get somewhere safe if you need to go away from the game momentarily. You can simply pause it.
  • Help system. There is a Help button that will open a map marking your character's current position and position of all the ingredients that are still uncollected. Also, moving your character over the cauldron will display the recipe list and distinguish between collected and uncollected ingredients. Lastly, moving over an object that can be interacted with will display the item needed to operate it.
  • Unlimited lives. Your game will not end if your character dies multiple times. You will only lose your map position as the character will respawn at the last activated lamp post or the alchemist's home if no activated lamp post. You will also not lose items/ingredients gathered.

Cons

  • No volume control. You can only turn sounds and music on or off. You cannot reduce or increase their level.
  • Pressing the down arrow key when carrying multiple ingredients and standing at the cauldron does not deposit them all simultaneously into the pot. You must press the down arrow key for each individual ingredient you are carrying.

Tips:

  • The alchemist doesn't have a health bar, so that means any monster contact is immediate character death. Don't make reckless jumps. Sometimes it is worth watching for a few moments to be sure that a monster not currently visible isn't pacing back and forth along a ledge.
  • If there is a stationary monster and a patrolling monster in the same vicinity, try to time your jump just after the stationary monster has 'chomped' the air and the patrolling monster is walking away.