VaguelyCreepy's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lack of Direction]

Currently existing in a similar state of indecision and uncertainty, I can relate to the general idea, but I think I'm starting to figure a few things out. First, even our elders still have no idea what they're doing. Answers aren't something that come easily, nor are they something that ever stops coming. You can plan all you want, but everyone is, on the most basic level, dealing with life on a day-to-day basis. Even in our basic routines, there are variances that have to be dealt with specifically and uniquely - things you can't plan for. The answers that come are really just "directions," in the end. A general vicinity you feel your life should be aiming for, and you readjust your course in that vague orientation. As you journey, you change, and as you change, so does your direction. There's no "Eureka!" moment that sets everything in black and white. The actual mistake may be believing there is an ultimate goal or purpose for our lives. An "it's the journey, not the destination," sort of thing, if you will. Secondly, time spent waiting and thinking may be more of a requirement than we realize. We feel old because this is the furthest point in our lives, but only so far. Assuming we're smart enough and fortunate enough to continue surviving, we're only going to get older, and though that sounds kind of depressing, it also means we'll have had more time to live and see what works for us and what doesn't. Being fresh out of our teens and with both feet firmly in "adulthood," we may think we're ready to tackle life head-on after the restrictions of youth, but we're actually still young and learning.

The final piece may be to simply not over think everything so much and go with the flow. To put it in the context of this comic, it's all well and good to figure your life out if you can, but if you starve to death because you didn't take a break to go eat, you'll never make it to the future you were thinking about.

Just my take on the whole thing, anyway. Ask me again in a month, and I might give you a whole different answer. So, just take it for whatever it's worth to you.

[Players 1 & 2: Love Crime]

Sometimes, the challenge of a game is its own reward. These two have an interesting dynamic. I hope to see more of them.

[Arbinel last page]

So *this* is what happens when you tell a continuous story. I like it. I like it a *lot*. A macabre yet touching tale of a mother's love for, or perhaps crazed devotion to, her children, all in your haunting style that conveys so much depth with only flat shapes. As expected, hearing the tale behind one idea leaves so many more questions to ask. I look forward to seeing if and how you address them.

[Tricky Hands In The Cage]

Pffft. XD I love it when dangerous things are mitigated by their own stupidity. It's interesting to see you tell a more direct story in your description instead of your normal poetry (not that your poetry is bad, by any means). I also enjoy how the girl is a spunky splash of color in the grey prison area. It really conveys her being a visitor, just passing through with her guide. Interesting use of perspective, too. I can't quite tell for sure, but am I right in thinking it's slightly off from "true" perspective?

[Shuh]

As usual, your art is incredible. Have you ever given thought to some sort of compendium of the lore behind it all? I've seen recurring characters and themes in your pieces. It'd be amazing to get some kind of story or encyclopedia or something about all of it - everything seems so interesting, and makes me want to learn more about it.

Shane-Frost responds:

Thank you most kindly. There is a general connection and story with the characters. Elsewhere there have been short works written of the worlds containing them. In general I tend to disband any true narrative due to most lacking curiosity. Aka the " Too Long Did Not Read " syndrome. No picture is made without purpose however, I would state that much.

[suits]

First Rule of guys in suits:

Do NOT mess with guys in suits.

You do a good job of monsters and spooks, but even for you, this guy looks particularly sinister, and I love it. The colors, pose, and forms all say "I can't wait to see you die." I love all of your stuff, and this is no exception.

[Heartslime]

Sweet but deadly - my kind of monster.The coloring and lighting are both good, and you do a good job of keeping pixelated lines nice and smooth-looking. Also, the little heart floating inside her reminds me of Sluggy the Unshaven from Yoshi's Island, so you get bonus points for that.

[Spike Spiegel // Realism]

The intense (and I mean INTENSE - this looks like it was based off a real person) realism of the face has a strange contrast with the completely flat hair that actually creates a really pleasing contrast. They wouldn't go wrong to use this picture as a reference for finding an actor for him in a live-action movie. Great job all around.

[Anti Alias Worship]

I say go for it! I always thought your pixel art would make great video game images. You really know how to make every pixel count, as this one demonstrates. If you got really creative, I'd bet you could even incorporate the effect into gameplay somehow.

[Bioshock Finite]

Prepare for a wall of text and possible spelling errors.

Also, SPOILERS. Like this comic already wasn't.

I disagree, actually. I liked these changes. Now, that's not to say I didn't like how the original Bioshocks played, but these changes made Infinite stand out from its predecessors in what I felt were good ways. First, it's true the Possession vigor may not have been as useful when it came to automated enemies, but the Possession Aid that made your human enemies kill themselves once it wore off was extremely useful. Not only did it provide a temporary ally, but it also provided at least one guaranteed kill, and if you had the smarts to use it on an enemy with a rocket launcher or a flak cannon (aka the volley gun), it could make certain battles much easier - not only could those foes hit you very hard, they also took a lot of damage - unless, of course, you made them off themselves. Additionally, possessing any enemy provided another target for the rest of your foes to focus on, which would take some of the pressure off you. As for the hacking minigames, I've heard some people say that they were unnecessary or intrusive, and I can understand that, having had plenty of experience magically floating in the air as I hacked security cameras mid-jump. The hacking minigame in 2 was less disruptive, but I feel it still had that same effect. Of course, there are also the ally machines you can have Elizabeth bring through tears. Their advantage over hacking? They could be brought back. Baddies shot down your Mosquito? Have Elizabeth open another tear, and - ta-da! - the Mosquito is ready to be summoned once more! Lost that one too? Do it over again, as many times as you like! Nothing else around to summon? Doesn't matter! The Mosquito will be ready for resummoning in less than a minute anyway! In Bioshock 1 and 2, when your turrets got blown the eff up, they were just gone.

As for the health kits, I kind of preferred the strategic challenge provided by limited health recovery options. Let's face it, in Bioshock 1 and 2, you were goddamn immortal, and there wasn't a thing any of your foes could do to truly stop you. I think it's easy enough to see how some people might feel that a deep and terrifying atmosphere is somewhat mitigated by the knowledge you could easliy wrench to death everything that looked at you funny without any consequences that lasted longer than the time it took you to walk from the nearest Vita-Chamber back to where the action was. Now, I know that in Infinite you would also be brought back as many times as was necessary (unless, of course, you were playing 1999 mode), but unlike in 1 and 2, there were actual consequences for death: your ammo is decreased somewhat, you lose precious money needed for powerups, and your enemies recover health. This meant you had to think to beat your enemies. You had to be that clever guy who could win any fight not because he had an unfair advantage (and yes, 9 health kits to your enemies' 0 is an unfair advantage) but because he could outsmart them and turn any situation to his favor. To put the Batman/Superman spin on it - it's much more badass to face down an uzi when you know one bullet is enough to end you than it is to face down an uzi when you have bulletproof skin. And really, if being Superman is what you want, you could have just played on Easy mode. AND, to add another point onto an ovelry extensive (and not even CLOSE to complete discussion), there was Elizabeth, who would sometimes find health kits for you out of nowhere. So okay, maybe you can't carry 9 of them, but it's one that you don't even have to bother looking for. AND (sorry, both to you and my former English teachers - you're not supposed to start a sentence with the word "and" - won't stop me from doing it, though!) there were certain pieces of equipment that could give Booker invulnerability impressive enough to make even Jack think twice about messing with him. The two most prominent examples would be Winter Shield (temporary invulnerability granted after jumping on or off a skyline or skyhook - did you happen to notice they have those in EVERY Handyman fight?) and Sheltered Life (temporary invulnerability granted any time you recover health, and, if I recall correctly, even if you smoke cigarettes, which actually *lowers* your health - if you so much as munch down an orange with this thing equipped, every enemy near you had better start praying. FEAR THE POWER OF CITRUS!) If you play Bioshock Infinite smart, you don't NEED 9 health kits.

Now, the Quick Saving and Loading. I believe you may have already known this, but I'll put it in just in case: you COULD Load from previous save points. Yes, admittedly, you had to do it from the main menu, not the pause menu, and yes, you could only load from the checkpoints, but going back and doing things differently WAS an option. Now, if your gripe is, as I suspect, the lack of an ability to save at any time in case you mess things up, well then it goes back to that challenge thing I was talking about. I LIKED the challenge of knowing I couldn't just call "Do-over!" any time I screwed up. Not only did it mean I had to live with my mistakes, but it also made it that much sweeter when I overcame them anyway. It made me feel cool because it was saying "yeah, okay, I'm not perfect, but that doesn't mean I can't still kick your ass!" If I had to reload everytime I did something slightly wrong, then to me it's more like saying "I'm awesome, but only as long as everything goes perfectly." Furthermore, I found that, even in 1999 Mode, there were generally enough checkpoints so that I could restart if I wanted to without having to slog through a whole bunch of other stuff I'd already done. AND, might I add, the opportunities to revisit the areas before the battles I got beaten in allowed me to search them more thoroughly, thus better preparing me for my subsequent attempts and helping make sure I found all the story items and powerups. I won't lie, there were some places where there was a bit too much to go through over again before getting back to the action for my taste - prior to the first battle with the Siren comes to mind, although that wasn't so much because there was a lot to go through between the checkpoint and the battle as it was that I had to go through it so many times. Seriously, I don't know how many times she stomped me into paste before I figured out the secret to beating down her semi-corporeal ass. (Hint: she can't ressurect a body if the body is destroyed.) However, in general, I stand by my previous statements about the absence of Quick Saving and Loading - don't need 'em, just as fun without 'em.

Now, I'll admit that I too was pretty ticked at first when I picked up a shotgun and suddenly realized I was no longer carrying my machine gun. However, I quickly got used to it, and I found it to be quite fun. Again, I'm not saying I have anything against the "Carry enough firearms to technically count as a mobile weapons platform" game design. Bioshock 1 and 2 did it, and I loved them. Half Life 1 and 2 (and Half Life: Opposing Force, Half Life: Blue Shift, Half Life 2 episode 1, and Half Life 2 episode 2) did it, and I loved them, although you'll remember that the Half Life series also doesn't let you carry health. I'm just saying, Bioshock Infinite's two weapon rule wasn't bad either. You always had the option to pick up different weapons (assuming you weren't such a lousy shot that you couldn't kill at least one enemy with the two guns you had on you) and you picked up ammunition for weapons whether or not you were currently carrying them (with the exception of the crank gun), so switching on the fly didn't leave you high and dry with only whatever Columbia-Police-Officer-Number-742 happened to have left in his gun when you had your pet crows peck out his eyes and internal organs of varying importance (that's not a dig at the enemy types, by the way. I'm just saying, there were a LOT of those guys. I say "I'm just saying" a lot, don't I?) Plus there is, again, Elizabeth. As I already admitted, she's not totally consistent in providing the support you might want, but she's helped me far more than she's hurt me. In fact, I don't think she's ever actually hurt me. Been less helpful than I may have liked at the time, but never hindered me.

Now, the big one: the one ending. Short version? Depressing as hell, but I still liked it.

Of course, rather than discuss the ending itself, I'll be talking about your specific beef: the lack of multiple endings. There are a lot of things to say about this, so I'll try to keep it cut down to the important stuff. I'm also running out of characters. For one thing, don't you think the whole "good ending/bad ending" thing is a wee bit predictable at this point? Be nice to everyone and the ending is peace and happiness and holding hands forever after. Well, maybe not so much in Bioshock 2. But the same general idea is there. Mental hand-holding. Mind-melded-hand-holding. Something. Furthermore, if you think about it, the theme of the entire game is not just "choices," but "what is the *nature* of choice?" Which of our choices matter? Which don't? What can we truly choose? I mean, you'd expect your choices to affect the outcome of the game, right? So, when they don't you have to think about it. Why didn't they affect the outcome? Why should they? It's not simply telling you something, it's asking you to think and come up with your own answer. Additionally, and especially in 1999 Mode, it's not your story choices that have the most influence on your game, but your gameplay choices. What you choose to upgrade, how you choose to fight, whether you choose to power through no matter how many times you fail or keep retrying until you get it just perfect (which, despite what I said earlier, I actually recommend for this mode - it can be BRUTAL if you're underprepared). Instead of your choices influencing the outcome of the story, it's more like your choices influence your ability to progress through the story. Another possible explanation is that it could be aruged that the nature of the story only *allowed* for one ending. Elizabeth explained that Comstock existed in countless other dimensions, screwing over countless other people, and she explained there was only one way to stop him. What choice was left? Were they supposed to offer the option to just say "no" at the end of it all instead *of* ending it all? That would fly in the face of the rest of the game up until that point. That wouldn't be a choice - it would just be bad storytelling.

As for the last panel, well, I am familiar with that one kind of "Stop Having Fun Guy" (gotta love xkcd), and as you may have guessed from the nightmare of a dissertation above, I disagree with the comparison. Of course, I also realize it was supposed to be a joke, so yeah - it was actually kind of funny. Nice little play on words there.

Of course, this IS the Art Portal, and I would be VERY remiss (not to mention obnoxious) if I put you through all of that without commenting on your actual art, so here we go. It's well-drawn enough, but I'm sorry to say I find it to be an attempt at a very stereotypical anime style that's a little lacking in polish. For lack of a better way to put it, it doesn't feel like anime/manga, and it doesn't feel like mimcry of anime/manga. It just feels like an *attempt* to mimic anime/manga, and frankly generic anime/manga at that. It's not just the design, it's the poses and expressions too. I honestly don't think I have *ever* seen that "crossed hands X" gesture outside of an anime. Now I don't know if that was your goal, but that's the impression that I get. You did a good job on coloring the figures, but your backgrounds are are just... sparse. Your clouds could use a bit of work, but then again, clouds are a bitch to draw. You pay good attention to technical detail - the guns and especially the turret are impressive, although I think your color may be off on the heater and the crank gun. I'm also pretty sure that the turret is more silvery.

If you MUST have a TL;DR (lazybones!) then it's this:

Decent comic, decent art, I disagree.