Project Spark Reviews

  • Skycaptin5Skycaptin51,072,934
    13 Oct 2014 26 Oct 2014
    18 6 5
    Campaign
    Often the most neglected game that honestly provides one of the great areas to showcase some next generation technology is Project Spark. Bringing together a number of seriously simplistic tools you're able to create almost any sort of game you desire or can think up. To dig deeper on this I have played almost everything from Pinball to Minecraft and Tetris within Spark. How people even come up with these things or are able to recreate them within the game is nothing sort of magic. Of course I've dabbled into the whole designing area in order to properly review this game and with my background programming knowledge this game is pretty impressive. Taking concepts of giving items commands and options to then simply let them hop in to see how it works. Running off of what was originally Kudo engine (old indie game) you can see that they took it to impressive heights. Creation is practically instant and the start guide goes almost too in-depth when teaching you. Now while these tools are awesome, it's not something me and many other are going to use. It just isn't, in my mind the best use of this is allowing the PC players which the game is indeed cross-platform and have them build the games for the Xbox players. Not to say you can't create amazing creations just on console, I can see people having an easier time creating things on a platform traditionally used for it. Now a thought you may have if you don't want to create games is why would I play this? It's very simple in that you can play anything anyone else creates which are once again amazing and build from them. Using the simple remix tools you can go off on your own to quick change things or even just play what worlds they have created. You can spend hours playing these community games from a Legend of Zelda game that has some serious playtime to it or more simple ones like a Mario game.

    Aside from that there's also an episodic story area and the crossroads. I'll go over the story first which has the developers bringing in a story type element into the mix showing off what you can basically do in the game. You'll select a champion and level them up throughout the game, which does tie into all the other modes as well. This area was neat and provided extended play for you if the community games aren't the thing you want to do at that moment. My favorite mode was the crossroads section which is a build as play scenario. Select variations in the world from hills to water, time of day and other smaller aspects to sculpt the world. From there you actually play it out and choose just what's going on from enemies to the buildings in town and your end bosses. You can even adventure out a bit to really extend the story and I enjoyed this many times over. It may seem repetitive for some after a while, but it's just interesting having a pick your own adventure story built in there. If you love what you've done with it, you're also able to share that story with others.

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    Starter Pack
    If you didn't already know before all of this is that Project Spark is also a free to play offering available both on Xbox and Windows PC. I've been able to review the retail starter pack which comes with additional content to get people started. It does pack in a bunch of extra content that does extend the experience much more. Even without you can still play it all fine, you just need to spend in-game earned coins in order to gain additional pieces of crafting items. This can also be down with premium currency so that's where there's some pay gate. I honestly thought the free to play model was done well in this not affecting what you can do and just extends the building pieces at your disposal.

    Multiplayer/Gameplay
    I'll start off with saying that the user interface menu areas are fairly dreadful to navigate. It could've been done much better in getting people to areas more efficiently though it does work fine. There was also some frame drops at certain hectic building areas though it was very minor moments where this happened and greatly improved over the beta version that I played in for awhile. Remixing and building are awesome, simple tools so I don't need to add much more to that note. If you want to change something on anything and give it a new variable you're easily able to do that without issue. There are also tutorials to assist if further help is wanted on that. The characters given are also each unique and had their own abilities to level as you play and create. Will also quickly mention that almost everything supports the addition of another controller into the action so you can have a local friend hop in if you so desire to yet again create and play together.

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    The Conclusion
    With Project Spark at your disposal any individual can simply and quickly create their own game. It's a great tool that can be used to inspire younger people to learn basic game design or even have older people get into it as well. The things I have seen people create already since beta and the release is just astounding. I put good faith forward that this will be supported and expanded on into the far future with tons of content. The starter pack is the perfect launch point for people to get into the action with tons of additional content. I'd like the menus to be more organized and less confusing to navigate though they get the job done. Graphically it looks good and the world you experience in this is your own. Try out Project Spark for free and grab the starter pack or the additional content if you want to support this amazing game into the future.

    Review of Mine from Gamerheadquarters.com
    Gave Project Spark a 8.2/10
    4.0
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    FullMoonBeaverI didn't enjoy this as much as I was hoping too. The area to build your worlds in was tiny in Beta. Has this been changed at all?
    Posted by FullMoonBeaver on 19 Nov 14 at 12:38
    Skycaptin5It feels larger in scale from what I've seen others build online. Though the crossroads area only feels a bit large if that's what you're referring to in reference to its beta size.
    Posted by Skycaptin5 on 19 Nov 14 at 17:52
    FullMoonBeaverI mean when you go into create mode. The area in which you have to build is very small. I caved in and downloaded it last night, and now its the full game, there is more to play with. Tried out some peoples worlds and there are some good builds. Gonna try and make something soon, although it may turn out crap lol.

    Good review, and a thumbs up.
    Posted by FullMoonBeaver on 12 Jan 15 at 06:53
  • Lil Miss CherryLil Miss Cherry1,017,562
    18 Mar 2015
    9 2 0
    *Originally posted at Pressa2join.com *

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    Will you play or create?

    Project Spark is a game that heavily focuses on choices and creativity. Its all about the player, or the Creator and allows you, if you have the know-how to create or re-create amazing games. It was released as a free to play game, but in order to access a lot of the features you have to pay.

    The game is split into two sections. Play and Create. Playing allows you to play thousands of community games and also the episodic adventure of the games Champions. Scarlett the Ranger, Karlsnor the Goblin, Avalon the Druid and Haakon the Knight with each champion having their own unique set of abilities.

    It follows the champions on a journey with their tiny but powerful friend Spark to help them access otherwise inaccessible areas by building and destroying things in the environment. Your quest starts in Verdia Village. The villagers are celebrating the Kodian festival and you are told not to cause any trouble. Trouble soon finds you though and the village is overrun with Corrupted Void Goblins who take the Runestone leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

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    Your mission is to retrieve the Runestone and stop the Void, a powerful force which threatens to take over the world, corrupting everything in its path. The first Quest takes the good part of an hour and is a good introduction to the champions and world of Project Spark.

    The other option for play, is to complete crossroads. Crossroads is a unique experience where you decide everything from the quests and the scenery in which you play in. You start by choosing your location, landscape and the time of day, then move on to where you start and what you have to protect.

    There are many side quests available to play, again all chosen by you. Most require additional content, some of which can be purchased by earning coins in game and unlocking select packs. You also choose which enemies and boss you fight later in the quest. On average exploring all this and completing everything available can take around twenty minutes, at that point you can leave and start all over again selecting different options and different champions to play with and level up.

    The quests can be quite humorous from exploring and luring squirrels/rabbits to a Critter Ranch or saving a Squirrel who has been kidnapped and taken up an Observatory for a ransom. The landscapes available range from the Arctic, Desert and an Alien Asteroid. You can also fight Bandits, Goblins and Zombies.

    Where this game really stands out though, is the player created content. It’s easy to find the best content via the search options. There are also featured games every day which let you experience the best of the best, the things that gamers have created are diverse and extremely fun. You may even see games you recognise with games like Five Nights at Freddys and Mario being recreated for your enjoyment, some done extremely well.

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    Gamers have also recreated familiar movie/TV characters and locations, there are also a lot of new content and games to play. Once you have played, you as the player get the opportunity to follow the creator if you loved their games and give the game a rating, either a thumb up or down, which shows on the games page in an overall rating system which allows you to see how the game was received by other players before you even press play.

    After you have had fun playing, you might want to get down to creating amazing content yourself.
    This is a lot harder than you may think. The game runs on a koding system. Everything has a brain and you have to input what you want objects to do. The game has a few beginner tutorials to get you started, but unless you really know this stuff well, creating things that actually work and have a purpose can be confusing to some.

    You can still create your world, from painting and sculpting the landscape, placing a multitude of props, characters and enemies very easily but if you want things to work well, learning how to create these brains is something you have to be willing to do.

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    The game helps a little, there are a number of saved Brains and assemblies for you to use, with creators making additional ones for you, which you can save and use in your world, the possibilities are quite literally endless for those with the ability to create. The world is quite literally your Oyster.

    Overall this game is very enjoyable. Playing through the games quests and Crossroads experience was fun but did get old quick. Creating was quite complicated but had a freedom not many games produce. Other players content is where the game really shines, allowing endless play and new updates and creations every day which is definitely worth trying out.

    *FOR ACHIEVEMENT HUNTERS* It should be known that this game in near impossible to complete, with achievements for getting 50,000 downloads of your created worlds which is no easy feat.

    7/10
    3.5
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