A bit of history

Dungeon Cleaners, 2008

I got the Russian version of this game, Dungeon Cleaners, back in 2008, and I kinda liked it. I didn't khow a word of Russian, mind you. I Google translated a bunch of texts in the game manual, and have a basic understanding of the game. Then I installed the game, played it for a few minutes then... gave up. I realized I'm no longer at the age when I could just enjoy the gameplay without caring about the story, and figured out all the controls and stats and stuff written in a foreign language.

When I was younger, I played the Japanese Version of Resident Evil: Nemesis and nearly beat it, I also played some Japanese turn-based strategy mech game (I can't remember the name, it's a SNES game or GBA or something, the basic gameplay is similar to Super Robot War, but the art is not chibi, and battle phase is seen from first-person perspective) and beat it. But in 2008, I couldn't muster the strength to overcome the language barrier anymore. I shelved the game and forget it for a while.

Planet Alcatraz, 2010

One or two years later, I read about a game called Planet Alcatraz, and recognized the Russian game I played a while back. I downloaded and played it, reached the point where I got the second party member, then... gave up again. This time, it's partly due to the crappy translation and voice over, but the main reason is that I didn't understand how the game work, how the stats and skill works together with the weapons. The game simply got too difficult for me, so I gave up again.

Planet Alcatraz, 2014

I re-installed the game again on July 2014, resolved to beat it. This time, I read the manual carefully (for some reason, it has much less information than the Russian manual, so I tracked down the Russian manual and Google-translated it again). I also tried and find as much info and tips as possible on the game forums (gamefaqs, 1c, etc). I don't have much time to experiment and restart, so I researched beforehand about the teammates I was about to recruit, what kind of stats and skills they had, etc, so I know exactly what I want to put points into.

First Attempt

(Yep, I screwed up again) In my first play, I followed the tip "stealing as much as you can" and oh boy did I do a lot of stealing. I nearly pickpocketed the whole Industrial Area, and did almost all the side quests. Aaand ... I steal from most of the citizens in Junk Yard and did all the sidequest there, before deciding that it's time to move on.

As a result, when I find Sullen, I was at level 23 and he was at level 22. On impulse, I checked his stats and compared to what I see on bhlaab's Let's Play, where Sullen's at level 19 when recruited.

Level 19

Level 22

And I go "Whaa....?". His HP and perk points are ok, but the skill levels are exactly the same! I don't know why the devs couldn't give him unallocated skill points like they do with perk points; instead his skill levels are fixed! Convinced that I just wasted a whole bunch of Sullen's skill points (and Kruger and Demon will also be over leveled and underpowered when I get them) I decided to start over...

Table of Content

Backstory

Let's play

Next part: Welcome to Sailor's Silence

You're playing what now?

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Planet Alcatraz - Part 1: Introduction