Basement Crawl – Review
Bomberman used to be one of my game addictions as a kid. A very competitive game it was, trying to blow up other players with a well-placed bomb and working hard to reach the top of the leaderboards. The game was as fun as it was easy to catch up. It shouldn’t be too hard to make a decent Bomberman lookalike when you think about how pretty basic the mechanics were back in the day. Basement Crawl succeeds in proving that it can (be too hard, that is).
Story
You are a prisoner at your Grandma’s house. She’s a very creepy old lady who won’t let you go outside under any circumstances. Everybody outside is unfriendly and best avoided according to her. Your happiness lies in the basement filled with puppets that look like they’ll torture and kill you while asleep. Yes, Grandma, this definitely looks like paradise.
Other than the little intro clip, there’s nothing more to see concerning the story. There’s no campaign mode so basically, players know that the game takes place in a basement which would fit perfectly in a Saw movie and that’s about it.
Graphics
This aspect is rather personal. Some will like the horror/creepy/weird style of Basement Crawl while others will find it absolutely horrible. If you’d ask my opinion, I’d say the developers tried to do something new to the genre and that alone is worth applauding. However, even if you’re into the theme, some more variation in the environments and maps would have been welcome. Now it looks a bit bland sometimes and it’s often hard to see which character you’re controlling as the color palette is not very extensive.
Sound
The music is forgettable and you probably won’t hear it over the constant sound of exploding bombs everywhere. Talking about bombs, they do have a nice “bang” to them, especially the green ones (which are really powerful). The occasional scream and moan from players who find themselves in the blast radius are enjoyable enough to make you pursue more kills.
Gameplay
At this moment, there are only 2 modes available and they’re not very original: Death Match and Team Death Match. No further explanation is needed here so I’ll just skip to the next part.
Luckily, there’re a lot more maps playable compared to the amount of game modes. In total, you’ll have the option to choose between 3 settings: Restaurant Dungeon, Abandoned Circus and Forgotten Factory. Each setting has 4 different map layouts (a simple square, a cross-shaped stage,…).
A word of advice, you’d do well to take a good look at the loading screens where the controls are mapped out on a picture of a controller as there’s no tutorial whatsoever.
The leaderboards are… well, not very useful as at the moment of writing, only about 30 players are registered. Not a whole lot of competition it seems. Switching between modes and time settings only works if you first switch back and forth between your own stats and the general leaderboards. This is not a huge deal, but it just looks very sloppy.
Now for the actual game, shall we? Well, that is if you can find a game online! It’s very, very hard to find a game session to play in. The lists are so abandoned that it’s literally an online ghost town over there (must be one hell of a creepy basement, right?). For a game that has no story or campaign mode at all and which features only global and local multiplayer, this is a huge problem. Why would anyone buy a game that you cannot play due to the lack of player population or even the nonexistence of it? Not everyone has friends over 24/7 to play on the couch. It’s a shame really, as the game itself can be enjoyable to play.
Eventually I succeeded in joining a game session and to be honest, the actual game itself isn’t that bad at all as already mentioned above. Let me clarify this.
The first thing you’ll want to do is fiddle a bit with the controls to know which one does what exactly. Besides that, it’s also kind of odd that the game doesn’t explain whatsoever how the powerups system works so you’ll have to test it out yourself. Once you get the hang of it, the true nature of Basement Crawl introduces itself.
Before the match begins, players choose one of four puppets, each with their own eerie looks and abilities. Unfortunately, nowhere is mentioned what ability the character has exactly. You’ll have to guess their specific skill on the basis of a symbol (but what to make of a square or a circle?).
Like most Bomberman games, each player starts of in a corner of the map, weak and not able to do much damage with their basic bombs. The key to success lies in blowing up crates through which you’ll find powerups like more powerful bombs or an extra health bar and removing the crates will grant you more room to move around. It’s just a matter of time when players cross each other’s path and this is where the real fun begins. Chasing one another across the map and doing your very best to lure the opponents in a dead end or corner with no escape while placing a bomb in front of their noses really feels quite satisfactory.
A big letdown is the time provided for players to play a match. It’s often way too short and there is no option to put it out or even extend it. The developers might do good to implement custom games where the host can change the conditions on which a game is won and how much time there is. While they’re at it, it wouldn’t hurt to have a mode where players can take it up against bots.
Conclusion
This is a hard one. On the one hand, Basement Crawl is “crawling” with bugs and not well thought out choices. Why is there only multiplayer with no bots? Why is there no tutorial? On the other hand, if you can look further than those annoyances and you succeed in finding a match online (especially with friends) or you love playing games on the couch with other people, this game can surely entertain you for some time. Let us hope that soon some patches will fix a lot of problems and even provide some more content.
Basement Crawl - Review,
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