SewerJacks 7DRL

Author	Coremn
Language	C++
Platform	Win
Status	7DRL
Website	http://members.dodo.com.au/~savre/DemiseRL/sewerjacks.htm

“I have not completed my quest…
…besides, it smells awful down there.”
MiceBoy, evil sewerjack

This game is all about a drastic cut-off on the imperial budget for city mantainance. Instead of droping expensive poison canister-bombs inside the city sewers to anihilate evil scum lying down there, they have decided to send out retired football players into the mossy pits. Armed with nothing, (Really, nothing) you are thrown down a manhole without return. A green place with a clear river flows nearby, still you can see some rats (hungry, mutant, pink rats) drawing near. Full of determination you charge against them! squashing them against whatever lies in your path. Away from the stadium crowd, the time for the Ultimate match has come. Welcome to the Sewer Jam!

And it is a very fun cleaning chore, after understanding the rules, which are not really that complicated, SewerJack puts you into a game full of action, non-traditional RL action mind you. Forget the search for equipment, the quest for the lowest DV and highest attack. That is gone and instead replaced with a rich set of passive actions, none of which requires special equipment.

The game system, which relies on combat assist given by your team of fellow sewerJackers, is very enjoyable. Orders are pretty simple by now, but the feel of having 2 Ogres watching your back is just too much for a lonely dungeon-hacker to handle; it is hard however to assemble a team, as witnessing the death of your allies and having an empty team is a common sight, it is also common to find them heavily wounded.

There are still things I don’t completely understand; for example, the hit points system is weird… squishing a troll with 1 Hit against a wall didn’t kill him; also I couldn’t completely understand kicking and how different it is from attacking (seems the enemy can’t counter or isn’t thrown back?)

The aesthetics are just cool, Corremn’s Demise engine uses an emulated, non standard size console, which is rendered using an anti- aliased font which looks simply great, this allows cool things like the rivers, which are beautiful (perhaps too beatiful for a sewer… changing tones to browns would look more in-place IMO)

Generated sewers are clean and look nice, very building-like. However each 3 levels I saw a repeating level? Also, adding water channels instead of organic rivers. I need more brown filthy water!

Blitzing ability is an interesting gameplay twist; I used it a lot to escape goblin groups and to charge into evil bombardeers (which by the way, are a real nuisance, in the good sense of the word)

A nice additional touch is the adition of special players with special abilities (mice boy with prehensite tail for the win!)

The game is really challenging, I played Filth I to Filth XV, and the furtherst I could get was level 4. Turning off regeneration was a wise choice for it makes the game much more interesting.

1 hit point left, former friend dwarf runner dead to a goblin pack, tired and looking for the exit (which represents probably a midtime rest, relaxation massages, I don’t know, but health comes back)… Then I found the exit! but oh, there is a rat walking around there, ready to be dispatched by my darts; then, from the dark shadows, the pogoer, the fanatic, the goblin, all of them emerge to catch me.. the panic! ran away with tears in my eyes, leaving the sewers flood in darkness, and almost ready to die.

Then filled myself of courage, and blitzed away from my mortal enemies by a small open space then left! in the last split second, with the away team running back to me, I dodge two rats and jump into the goal line, I surely understand your shout. Eat my dust goblin!

Then, the hero died to a Runtime Error… disasters happen! 😀

In the mortem, a small surprise candy at the end. The miceboy game was pretty fun as well, and the only way I could get to the bottom of the sewers (I guess) I had so many followers that I had to kill one via darts in order to escape a small hole I had gotten into. Poor fanboy

Corremn’s participation for this year’s 7DRL Challenge was like a hidden surprise, it really went over my expectancies! Don’t let the fact that the game is built over a football RPG system deceive you, this game is worth a try. It is a bit hard to get into first, but once you understand the system you will enjoy the small number of commands needed for the big fun and challenge!