good fun game. Crazy storyline though...

Hmm,. a Flashback clone that is quite easier and straightforward for me to play than Flashback. There are few small annoying things in the controls but doesn't spoil the fun much. It's the start of an terrifying story and what kept me playing it was to move on with the plot and see what's going on here. I preety much liked the crane riddle, logical and neither too hard or easy. The story goes even more interesting in the next two episodes though.

It's a nice start of a great adventure though it took me some time to find out of how and where to use the homemade bomb.

A good game, if you're looking for some time to kill. Don't get me wrong, the story is good although a little unoriginal, but you've managed to set it apart from other games of that "kind". This isn't you're best game as I would much rather play the Chzo Mythos then this. Still, it is enjoyable and very playable. I really like the way you've utilized AGS with this one.

many people are not open to new ideas, hence the bad reviews, but truth be told this is amazing, i love Flashback, so this game was great fun

How interesting ! A Flashback-like made with AGS... and well done ! Congratulations ! I have not finished it yet but this game prooves that we can make many things with AGS, not only adventure games ! :)

I really like this game, good job! - the graphics are cool - I didn't think that such an intense atmosphere could be made up from so few tones and with so few pixels - guess I forgot the awesome games like Persian Gulf Inferno, Prince of Persia, Flashback and Another World, but this game has it all - even a very well-paced tutorial at the beginning, which many AGS games lack. I have no problem whatsoever with the showers being used as powerups, and I think the animation is surprisingly smooth and 'realistic'. About the gameplay as such, it is standard of the genre, and think it works well with both action and puzzles, although a few new unique details or features would have made it even better. Definately an achievement to have implemented something like this in AGS. Way to go!

Oh... "showers". Sorry, that totally makes sense now... how taking a shower (as opposed to a leaky pipe bath) would completely heal you of bullet wounds. :) Genius!

This game was awesome, the best shooter i've ever played. Oh, and Jack Dark, it isn't "leaky pipes" it is the showers. The showers where people clean. Not leaky pipes.

Ben... some games to (re)play before posting episode 2 (for game theory refreshment in this genre) Flashback, Another World, Blackthorne, Bermuda Syndrome, OnEscape ( http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=5263 ), Moon Crystal...

I downloaded the game as it was made by the guy who's made so many good games in the past.

But I have to say this, I'm disappointed. When I download a medium-length Adventure game I want ADVENTURE. Not a bend... jump...shoot-till-your-fingers ache (or your keyboard gets spoilt) kind of game.

The storyline is very interesting and Dean-Koontzish, but I DON'T want a third-person-shooter disguised in a good story.

Mr Crowshaw I just loved the Rob blanc games, 5 days a stranger captured my heart. 7 days a skeptic too was interesting as it had elements of its prequel (but was spoilt a bit for me due to the action scenes.)

But, your "Galaxy of..." and 1213 sort of kill the fun of "adventure roleplaying" completely. I sadly delete this game but hopefully await another Rob Blanc or Odysess Kent from you.

Please change its category from "Medium Length Games" to "Non-Adventure Games"

Really enjoyed this game and looking forward to the second part.

PS The whole "constant never stopping heartbeat sound" got to be almost as annoying as the music. Why not have the heart start beating quickly, only when the player is actually very close to death? Instead of -constantly- pounding in your ears, no matter your physical condition. Oh, Manhunt did it like that too... forgot.

Well had a run through...

Yes this is Flashback derivative, mixed in with the classic "prisoner escapes with absence of memory" story. It's like Flashback and Another World, and maybe a little Manhunt all mixed together.

Plays responsively, considering it's an AGS title using a system meant for adventure games. Yahtzee seems all for finding new and weird ways to bend an engine to do stuff it wasn't really meant to do (maybe you should have a look at GameMaker sometime for action games Mr. Croshaw). As such, there are a few things about the game that suffer due to being made with an engine that wasn't designed for this sort of game.

It works half-decently, though, so on to other things...

The first thing that strikes me about this game is that the graphics are very very bland... uninspiring. Vapid. Sad really considering that Yahtzee has made good/great graphics in the past (7 Days A Skeptic anybody?). It seems with each new release his graphics get blander and blander... I understand this expedites the development process, but it also takes away from the enjoyment factor. I hope this trend in his work stops or we'll be playing a Yahtzee interactive fiction next. :P

Also, it feels like his games are becoming more and more boring... and I never thought I'd say that about a Yahtzee title. I ate 5 Days A Stranger Alive, and 7 Days A Skeptic I devoured, both class "A" freeware games. Even his older games before those were decent to good, all worth your time to explore.

But the game after the "class As", the Elite/Space Quest hybrid "Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment" bored me so much I quit after 30 minutes. I just could -not- get into it. You just don't make Privateer out of AGS... it doesn't lend itself to the genre in such a manner.

Anyway, back to 1213, I think I made it through about 20 minutes with this game until I was yawning to tears. For someone who seems to take great pleasure in pointing out all the things that are wrong in games in the columns he's written for "Adventure Gamer Underground" webzine, Ben sure can be a hypocrite.

Examples of bad game design in 1213:

You gain health back by taking showers from leaky pipes... what? Couldn't I just find a medpack on the wall? That's possible considering you've escaped into areas you're not usually meant to go... and guards would have emergency medkit stations, wouldn't they? No... let's use the "magic leaky pipe" because that not only makes sense(?) it also guarantees ubiquity.

Exremely annoying... when you drop from a ledge guards starting shooting you before you even touch the floor... by the time I drop from a ledge, turn around to face the guard, and fire... I've already taken 2-3 shots.

And then shooting... geez, how long do I have to hold down the TAB button and fire before I actually hit a guard? And why doesn't the distance have any relation to the chance of hitting a guard with a bullet?

Why can't I dodge bullets -somehow-... you can do this in a 2-D game of this design, have you never played Blackthorne, Ben?

WHY do the guards resurrect? Would it be soooo hard to give their existence a variable?! Another example of rushed development that only serves to make the game "less fun".

And the TEXT speed is horrible, I found myself constantly just "waiting and waiting and waiting" for the paragraphs of story to go away so I could just PLAY THE GAME. If you're going to drown us in paragraphs of "suspension of disbelief fodder", at -least- let the player control how quickly they chew it.

Last of all the music is completely uninspired, tepid, and annoyingly repetitious. I understand Ben's not a musician, but there -are- decent freeware MIDIs all over the net. Instead of using music that came from a fantasy role playing game creation kit, why not find some music that has a dark techno-electro edge to it? That would actually fit the atmosphere that 1213 goes for... not Final Fantasy dirges.

Look... there -might- be a good game 45 minutes into 1213. But when you spend the first 20 minutes being constantly -annoyed-, you, as a player, may find yourself like I did feeling completely unable to reach that juicy nugget in the center of a sour stale slimey mess.

Maybe I seem a little harsh saying all this, but Ben fancies himself somewhat of a "diety among men" in game design, hence his Adventure Gamer Underground articles and his oft-arrogant seeming website. In that regard, one would expect great things indeed from the man who brought us the Days series. Instead, it seems said man is content to be hypocritical and worst of all, lethargic. Ben is just -not- pushing himself, he has -talent- undeniably, but to waste it on half-baked ideas will not garner a good review from this gamer.

1213 is a great game, yahtzee has done a great job in making a non-adventure game that makes for a very enjoyable platformer.

Ok now I've finished the game :)
It was actually very good!
I can hardly wait for part 2!

Well, this is an interesting one, nice Flashback clone =)
I know the game would be too easy, but the respawning enemies are annoying, maybe if they spawned randomly from somewhere? (Like in 7 days a skeptic, the murderer guy)

Anyway, once again, interesting story =)