The Dink Network

Moorack and the Pillbugs

Unusual inside view. From the COTPATD project.
October 8th, 2023
v1.2
Score : 3.2 tolerable
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RangerLord
Peasant He/Him Hungary bloop
The nation above all 
Well, since there's a review contest now, I decided to finish reviewing this D-Mod before I replay the one that'll be my actual entry.

Story:
An evil wizard decided to turn people into pillbugs, and Dink has to stop him. That's pretty much it.

I know story may be not the most important thing when people think about Dink, but I'm of the opinion that even such a simple concept could've had potential. Like, the people are turned into pillbugs. Can they be turned back? Is it ethical to hurt them if they were once humans? If they can be turned back, wouldn't that mean you just murdered people? If we don't even know they could be, what would be the best solution? Try to kill the wizard so he can't turn more people into pillbugs, try to negotiate with him, or try to get an answer from him by torture? Is it justified to kill or torture him just because he did such an immoral thing? Is killing the pillbugs the best response even if they could be morphed back because otherwise they'd just kill more people then you'd gain by turning them back? What are the wizard's reasons for doing what he does? Is he just a sociopathic sadist? Insane? Is it a way to create a new race that is strong enough to be used to take over the world? Are his reasons more sympathetic? Like, is he experimenting on people to find a way to cure his son's terminal illness? Maybe he accidentally turned his beloved mentor into an animal and he experiments on people to find a way to turn them back? What are the people's reaction to their friends or family members turning into bugs? This last one is actually explored in an NPC dialouge, but even this could have been explored deeper. But can you imagine if someone's wife turned into a pillbug, and her husband had to kill her in self-defense? But wait, it turns out people can be cured from the transformation! Can you imagine the reaction and emotion after the man discovers this?

Yes, I know this is turning into an essay about writing rather then a review, but I wasn't sure where to write this. I just wanted to prove, even a simple idea could be explored deeply.

Mapping:
Mixed. There are a good amount of screens that look okay, but others look jarringly unpolished. There are also a lot of hardness errors.

Graphics, Sound:
There aren't any new graphics. The music is okay, but nothing notable, and despite the larger number of screens there's not much variety.

Gameplay:
I think Tim Maurer summed up the experience well in his COTPAD project. In short: it's grindy and kind of boring. Also, there isn't even a proper ending.

Humor:
Okay, if I can say something positive about this D-Mod is that there are a copule NPC dialouges that I found pretty funny. It still doesn't entirely make up for the boring gameplay.

Conclusion:
This is obviously one of a person's first attemps to make a D-Mod. I have to say, I'we seen worse. However, I still find this to be mediocre at best. Unlike some other D-Mods, I think this one might be worth to check out if you can the story and just talk to the NPCs and try hitting them. You might just get a few laughs. Otherwise, I don't think there's any other aspect to make it worth playing.
January 12th, 2003
v1.2
Score : 4.7 tolerable
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Binirit
Peasant She/Her
 
Storyline: Rather straightforward. You have to kill the evil priest Moorack who turned everybody into pillbugs.

Map and graphics: The map is rather small and fairly done. There are no new graphics.

Music: Suits the situations.

Good: There are some secrets in this D-mod which is rather nice, since it is a small D-mod.

Not so good: You have to visit the healing place first, otherwise you can not go to any other screen – as the author stated in the readme.txt. There is no end to this D-mod. After you have defeated the end boss, you expect either that that is the end, or that the pillbugs turn into humans again or something. But you can walk out of the cave, and none of the conversations have changed.

Overall: A small adventure.

Fit for: If you want to play an easy to finish D-mod.
October 15th, 2002
v1.2
Score : 5.0 fair
duckdie.gif
Lap
Peasant They/Them
 
First off let me tell you, I made thid DMOD although I am not really biased. I know this dmod was bad. Anyways, this mod actually came out about two months or so BEFORE Revenge of the Cast when Dink was relatively new and there were about 3 DMODs out. The purpose was mainly to help myself with the functionality of DMOD creation but I also wanted it to be there for other people to look at since I thought the Milli Vanilli one wasn't so good.

I do not suggest anyone to download this unless you are learning to DMOD or are trying to play every last DMOD ever created. You will not find much in story, or even gameplay for that matter. The music is the only redemption of this DMOD.

5.0-Tolerable at best. Meant as a learning tool (the files are not compiled so that you may copy/get ideas).