Legend of the Duck
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- Author(s): Chris McNeely, Ted Shutes
- Categories: D-Mod, Romp
- Downloads: 120
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Storyline: The aunt of Dink, Maria, has remarried and every year Dink visits them to tell a story to his cousins. This year it is about the legend of the duck. The cousins imagine Dink to be the hero of the story he tells.
Map and graphics: The map is quite large, but decorated nicely. Some graphics are adjusted, such as pillbugs in different colours, and the stairs have a different colour, other graphics are new, such as the pearl. Those look nice. The tinker is done nicely too.
Music: Suits the situations.
Good: You start with no weapons at all, not even the fist, but then you come across a well of wishes and guess what Dink wishes? Nicely done.
Before you can finish the main quest you have to solve many subquests, and while doing this, you forget almost about the main quest, since you are so absorbed by the subquests. The game does not depend too much on fighting, but has a nice balance between interaction and fighting. There are no screenlocks used when fighting enemies, but you can choose if you want to use a screenlock by pressing L. A walkthru.txt is enclosed: something I have not seen with any other D-mod.
Normally, the human sprites in a D-mod do not have any names, or just a first name. But in this D-mod almost everyone has not only a first name but also a family name. That adds a very nice touch.
Not so good: You have to walk endlessly back and forth to solve subquests. At times it is not clear at all what to do, and since the map is so large you just keep walking, trying to find the next thing to do - that is really annoying. Some more hints would have been helpful.
Overall: A very nice D-mod.
Fit for: If you like a good adventure, but do not mind walking a lot.
Map and graphics: The map is quite large, but decorated nicely. Some graphics are adjusted, such as pillbugs in different colours, and the stairs have a different colour, other graphics are new, such as the pearl. Those look nice. The tinker is done nicely too.
Music: Suits the situations.
Good: You start with no weapons at all, not even the fist, but then you come across a well of wishes and guess what Dink wishes? Nicely done.
Before you can finish the main quest you have to solve many subquests, and while doing this, you forget almost about the main quest, since you are so absorbed by the subquests. The game does not depend too much on fighting, but has a nice balance between interaction and fighting. There are no screenlocks used when fighting enemies, but you can choose if you want to use a screenlock by pressing L. A walkthru.txt is enclosed: something I have not seen with any other D-mod.
Normally, the human sprites in a D-mod do not have any names, or just a first name. But in this D-mod almost everyone has not only a first name but also a family name. That adds a very nice touch.
Not so good: You have to walk endlessly back and forth to solve subquests. At times it is not clear at all what to do, and since the map is so large you just keep walking, trying to find the next thing to do - that is really annoying. Some more hints would have been helpful.
Overall: A very nice D-mod.
Fit for: If you like a good adventure, but do not mind walking a lot.
Remember as you read this that it's the author's very FIRST d-mod/programming attempt.
When you start Legend of the Duck you are presented with a sober, but clean menu which offers the usual functions, nothing new here.
Click the start button and you'll be served with a short but original intro. You learn that the Legend of the Duck is actually a story Dink is going to tell to his cousins.
So, no Dink in the story you think? Wrong. The author came up with a smart move : the children imagine Dink as the hero of the story and so you CAN play as Dink.
After talking to a duck the goal of the d-mod already becomes clear. Though not very original, it didn't bother me throughout the game.
After exploring some time it becomes clear that the author put a lot of effort in the decoration of the area, which is quite comfortable to play in.
The overall difficulty of the game is soon set : easy. However, the boss battles do require some attack-retreat skills. You can of course always use your magic to attack it from a distance, a strategy I decided to use.
Though there aren't many new graphics, the ones that are present such as coloured pillbugs and a self-drawn pearl are of a decent quality. Don't expect any SoB graphics though.
The music consists of only 12 midis, some from the original Dink though. Luckily the music doesn't become boring after a while.
The same can not be said about the sound effects unfortunately. There isn't a single new .wav file present and there are some events in the game that would do better with a sound effect attached, but that's a detail.
The quests Dink has to undertake are not very farfetched, but the side story is well developed. It's a pity that most of the quests are from the sort : I need this-get it there-bring it back or use it here.
It took me 2,45 hours to complete this rather small d-mod, although I believe it can be done much faster.
So what to conclude? The Legend of the Duck is a good d-mod, suited best for playing in between bigger d-mods or if you are in the mood for something not too complicated but amusing none the less.
Score :
Story : 8/10
Sound : 7.5/10
New stuff : 6/10
Size : 7/10
Fun Factor : 8,5/10
Difficulty : Easy-Medium
Overall (not necessarily an average) : 8/10
When you start Legend of the Duck you are presented with a sober, but clean menu which offers the usual functions, nothing new here.
Click the start button and you'll be served with a short but original intro. You learn that the Legend of the Duck is actually a story Dink is going to tell to his cousins.
So, no Dink in the story you think? Wrong. The author came up with a smart move : the children imagine Dink as the hero of the story and so you CAN play as Dink.
After talking to a duck the goal of the d-mod already becomes clear. Though not very original, it didn't bother me throughout the game.
After exploring some time it becomes clear that the author put a lot of effort in the decoration of the area, which is quite comfortable to play in.
The overall difficulty of the game is soon set : easy. However, the boss battles do require some attack-retreat skills. You can of course always use your magic to attack it from a distance, a strategy I decided to use.
Though there aren't many new graphics, the ones that are present such as coloured pillbugs and a self-drawn pearl are of a decent quality. Don't expect any SoB graphics though.
The music consists of only 12 midis, some from the original Dink though. Luckily the music doesn't become boring after a while.
The same can not be said about the sound effects unfortunately. There isn't a single new .wav file present and there are some events in the game that would do better with a sound effect attached, but that's a detail.
The quests Dink has to undertake are not very farfetched, but the side story is well developed. It's a pity that most of the quests are from the sort : I need this-get it there-bring it back or use it here.
It took me 2,45 hours to complete this rather small d-mod, although I believe it can be done much faster.
So what to conclude? The Legend of the Duck is a good d-mod, suited best for playing in between bigger d-mods or if you are in the mood for something not too complicated but amusing none the less.
Score :
Story : 8/10
Sound : 7.5/10
New stuff : 6/10
Size : 7/10
Fun Factor : 8,5/10
Difficulty : Easy-Medium
Overall (not necessarily an average) : 8/10
I like the idea of this dmod being a story Dink tells to his cousins. Unfortunately, that's about it. Legend of the Duck isn't a bad dmod at all, but it's boring at times and there's nothing special in it.
Not a bad effort, I suppose. But some bugs which were annoying, and too large a map.
Graphics: Some modified new ones, like 2-3 new types of pillbugs, not bad, just add a colour change. Some new stuff like a cart (has that dreaded white rim of light coloured pixels around it), a key in bits, and a pearl thing. This I guess the most point awarding area.
Map: Too large with not enough detail or things to do. You get bored walking around. In fact I got so bored I couldn't be bothered finishing the DMOD. Snow to green land didn't work for me.
Not starting out with the fist was a new idea (well first time I'd encountered it).
Overall 5.5 out of 10 (the boredom factor got to me and brought the score down...)
Graphics: Some modified new ones, like 2-3 new types of pillbugs, not bad, just add a colour change. Some new stuff like a cart (has that dreaded white rim of light coloured pixels around it), a key in bits, and a pearl thing. This I guess the most point awarding area.
Map: Too large with not enough detail or things to do. You get bored walking around. In fact I got so bored I couldn't be bothered finishing the DMOD. Snow to green land didn't work for me.
Not starting out with the fist was a new idea (well first time I'd encountered it).
Overall 5.5 out of 10 (the boredom factor got to me and brought the score down...)
Simon K.'s review is just about right, although he is way too generous with the points. Most objects aren't scripted and 95 % of the screens contain nothing. There are no secrets, no hard fights, and nothing new (except for the frame tale concept, which is sort of nice). I stopped trying to explore when I realized that there wasn;t anything to find. The "plot" consisted of walking around looking for random objects because people said so. Most of the "humor" consists of characters commenting on how stupid the DMOD is. I didn't even crack a smile once while playing this game. I got sick of this DMOD and quit after about 30 minutes; the score reflects my bitterness that it wasted this much of my life.
