Acidopolis

Title: Acidopolis

Author: AKNeutron (AKware)

Year: 2011 (?)

Engine: AGI

Description: "The game follows Brack Malaleuca, an employee at Hammond Motors in the city of Valac, as he discovers an alien ship and ultimately must save the world."

URL: http://sciprogramming.com/fangames.php?action=review&id=36

Thoughts:

Acidopolis also has a solid hook, following in the formula of "XYZ must ABC ... and then, ultimately, save the universe from destruction." This sort of thing never fails to get the blood pumping. Also, its title screen is truly awesome.

Pressing enter causes acid to bleed from the letters, which is rad.

Brack is some kind of scientist who works with some kind of gravity propulsion device. However, he apparently spent 5 years in community college for this job, so I guess physicists and engineers are low-tier in the future. This future sounds great. Or maybe community college is high-tier! You know, a lot of these games are set in or talk about college...

Brack's first quest in his mission to save the universe is to take out the garbage. Here the game really flexes its dripping green slime/acid muscles again.

Acidopolis has a strong Space Quest vibe, and it sometimes seems to be bending over backwards to outsnark itself.

The text parser default messages are fun.

Even more Space Questy is the core premise. You're a nobody, a goober, a loser. You're a low-level garbage disposer who's suddenly wrapped up with aliums.

Shown: Alium ship (1)

Aliens show up when you're taking out the trash. You can go investigate (which kills you if you linger), but you're supposed to retrace your steps, go back upstairs, and talk to your boss so she'll lend you her camera. Then you'll have solid proof of aliens and get rich (or so Brack schemes).

The art in this game is really quite cool. Maybe I just enjoy futuristic stuff, but everything is very appealing in a distinctive AGI way. It also pulls an incredible King's Quest 6 for its death sequences:

Upon death, the player's space coffin goes inside this weird highway tunnel to the underworld.

Unfortunately, by the time you get your boss, armed with camera, to come see the spaceship with you, it's gone.

She tells you you're off your rocker and sends you home.

And then... it's over.

Just like that: another great fangame that never amounted to more than a 10-minute demo.

But a fun one nonetheless!

Review: 2/2 Dripping Acid Slimes.

Recommended? It's a great little time-waster that only lasts about 10 minutes. Great aesthetic and snark. I don't even think it has puzzles, per se, but the only review of the game on the AGI/SCI fangame hub was some guy complaining about not knowing how to get started, so maybe it's more opaque than I realized. TIP: Talk to the woman in the room. Enjoy saving the universe! Or at least the first 10 minutes along the way.