CorwinB

PDAMill (the masterminds behind Snails) have released a beta version of their incredibly good-looking space-shooter, Anthelion.

Do yourself a favor, and download the beta now :)

http://www.pdamill.com/

Edit : I just wanted to post the link, but now I've had some more time with the Beta. And folks, we have top-grade material here...

1) Graphics :

The graphics are awesome, very colorful and nicely done. The design of the various ships is quite good (although not yet at Wing Commander r X-Wing levels), and the backgrounds and special effects are cool-looking.

2) Sound

Sound gets the job done. :)

3) Controls

Controls are quite good, although at some times you need both hands on the PDA (for joypad + buttons), and you are asked to tap the screen for an hyperjump

4) Gameplay

Quite satisfying... It's a bit early to tell with a single playable mission in the beta, but there's no reason why the gameplay wouldn't be good.

5) Conclusion

I love space sims... And it looks like Anthelion will allow me to get a quick fix on the road.

Cheryl

Cool! Been waiting for this one :)

cherdman

I know I'll get flamed for this one, but Anthelion BETA is not as good as I hoped for. A host of problems make this one a no show in my book and on PocketMatrix, Peter mentions that it will retail for $19.99. Boo...So much for PDAMill keeping it under $15...

Anyways,
- The music is good quality but seems a bit cheesy and doesn't seem to fit the game.

- The sounds are not that great.

- The lasers are colored funny and don't look too like lasers.

- Missles that you fire continue on forever but continue showing up on your radar (making it harder to track enemies)

- The mission objective screen is annoying as heck (you'll see why).

- The controls are tricky at first but seem to work well.

- The graphics are good but not much more than Darxide EMP (Which isn't a bad thing, just not a graphics evolution.)

- The map is confusing because it is transparent causing stars to look like enemies.

Now granted this is a BETA version, so one should expect much more out of the final product. However, since the planned release date for 1.0 is due out in like 10 days, I can't say that much will change from now to then. Perhaps it will, perhaps this beta doesn't really reflect the final product, I don't know. I was just a bit disappointed at the end of the day when I fired it up. Phew...

Oblox

All i can say is WOW this is brilliant, it runs smoothly the controls are great and the graphics are damn good for a PDA.

even at $20 this will be worth it considering the effort they seem to have put in.

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goro

Quote:

Originally posted by cherdman I know I'll get flamed for this one, but Anthelion ...

Thanks for your comments.

This is a beta software, and we released it as a brand new game as no one has created even a similar one for PPC before.

We have received a lot of feedbacks and we had a very little "things to improve" like feedbacks, but we take them very seriously.
(thank for your too, it was very valuable! )

That is the beta good for. So there WILL be a new beta released before the final version of it, please try out that.

About its $20 price, consider the investment (modelling+gfx+coding+music+test) difference between a high quality checker game and a 3d space sim.
At least 1:10- 1:15

Cheers,
G.

cherdman

Touche goro. Perhaps I was a bit too harsh in my judgements. The more I play with the beta the less critical I am becoming (plus, can I really judge on a one mission beta?) Anthelion really is stellar and I think I will gobble up the full version.

Walt Weaver

I bought Snails two days ago and downloaded Anthelion just for grins. Both have great graphics and appear to be fun to play.

I have to say APPEAR because I'm an old fart who hasn't played cmputer games in about a decade and haven't the foggiest idea yet how to play these things. And, I haven't had time yet to figure it out.

But, I DID try one mission in Anthelion and got my ass kicked, but the graphics were great. So, I got my ass kicked in a very pretty way.

Looks like it's worth $20 to me.

--Walt Weaver
Bozeman, Montana

Nausicaa

Well, I only got to play for about 10 minutes, but I really like what I see. Not only am I pleased that this game runs VERY well, but the gamplay is fun and the presentation is very professional. I love the ship designs. Up till now, my favorite space sim has been Leo's Space Combat Simulator, but this could easily de-throne it. I look forward to playing some more tonight.

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