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101: Back from the Grave (Demo) Authors: Stephen "Sphinx" Morton, Striker Release Date: May 28, 2001
REPUTATION NOTE: This DMOD is one of the select group with a score of 9.0 or better (9.1) on The Dink Network.
For the first time, for a reason other than player error, Dink DIES. Oh well; at a hundred DMODs, he had a good run.
And that's the case for the Dink in this DMOD, too. We've dealt with a lot of different Dink continuities, but the intro to this one implies that Dink has done almost all the stuff I've gone over here so far. He laments to his pig, Oinker (So close to Oinky! Did you guys do this on purpose? Probably not.) that he feels like he's done it all already. I can see where he's coming from; I feel the same way at times when playing DMODs. On the strength of its kickass premise and witty, observant dialogue, however, this DMOD never had me feeling that way.
Back from the Grave was made by Sphinx and Striker. According to the readme, Sphinx is responsible for the concept and some graphics, and Striker did nearly everything else.
I loved this DMOD. The writing is just the best I've seen. I laughed more times than I'd care to count. The gameplay and sense of humor both reminded me of adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island, and I was going to say that even before I saw a reference to that in the game. Yes, the focus here is strongly on puzzles, and for the most part, this worked rather well. The puzzles actually make you think and are amusingly odd. There was just one puzzle that was too obscure for me, and I had to find the answer on the forum. It involved a fireplace.
Where Dink's standard action RPG gameplay was relevant, though, it tended to be really hard and unforgiving. You will jealously guard your life points in this mod, and it's easy to lose quite a bit of progress if you're not careful (for one thing, as the Help text in the escape menu that nobody reads will tell you, don't hit the savebots - you can kill them).
It wasn't the gameplay that was really special, though, it was the writing and the presentation. There are boatloads of text here, and I assure you it's worth reading it all, whatever warnings the game itself might give you. I was impressed by a solid sense that a story was being told at all times.
As for presentation, this game just does cool things with the graphics, both new and old. The inventory screen is the coolest I've ever seen. Dink's magical zombie body cracks me up. A combination of new and old graphics are used to create really fresh effects throughout the DMOD that made me stop for a moment and admire them, like the lighthouse, the waterfall, the bridge, and the sky. Even something as simple as this set of stairs made from the shelf sprite really made me take notice. I thought I'd seen it all at this point, but here's a good example of how you can really push the envelope and create new and interesting views that help make your world a memorable one (this, of course, is the sort of thing I'm utterly rotten at).
Walking through the plot seems like the wrong approach when talking about this DMOD. If you're curious, Dink returns to what remains of Mystery Island, where he's killed. He's brought back to life (sort of) and has to quash a nasty goblin rebellion. There, you're caught up. To me, this was more about the many great moments that made things so enjoyable. Like how you could try to walk the wrong way over and over early on, and keep getting new responses. Or the cool factor of having a Mystery Island type robot walk around and fight with you. Honestly, so many of the screenshots I took just seem to stand well on their own. Even out of context, I can't get enough of this. Or this, or this, or this. The courtroom scene and its aftermath. The in-jokes. It just felt so perfect to me.
It's too bad, then, that I didn't manage to win without cheating. I know, I know, I'm getting absolutely awful about this, but screw you, the boss is TOO dang HARD. You have to fight three waves of goblins (a certain character is supposed to help you, but their attacks don't actually work) and then a boss goblin that throws clubs at you with no healing and no ranged attack of your own. After my first abject failure, I went back and found a couple of powerups I'd missed, and I even went through the agonizing process of grinding to level 5 on the wimpy experience given out in this demo, and it didn't help. Four long, legitimate attempts later, I rendered my verdict. Too hard.
But it doesn't really matter. It's not about the ending (which tells us, with refreshing honesty, that this is unlikely to ever be finished). This was a blast, and if you haven't played it yet, you should go do so. Oh, and Striker, you should finish it. Seriously.
REPUTATION NOTE: This DMOD is one of the select group with a score of 9.0 or better (9.1) on The Dink Network.
For the first time, for a reason other than player error, Dink DIES. Oh well; at a hundred DMODs, he had a good run.
And that's the case for the Dink in this DMOD, too. We've dealt with a lot of different Dink continuities, but the intro to this one implies that Dink has done almost all the stuff I've gone over here so far. He laments to his pig, Oinker (So close to Oinky! Did you guys do this on purpose? Probably not.) that he feels like he's done it all already. I can see where he's coming from; I feel the same way at times when playing DMODs. On the strength of its kickass premise and witty, observant dialogue, however, this DMOD never had me feeling that way.
Back from the Grave was made by Sphinx and Striker. According to the readme, Sphinx is responsible for the concept and some graphics, and Striker did nearly everything else.
I loved this DMOD. The writing is just the best I've seen. I laughed more times than I'd care to count. The gameplay and sense of humor both reminded me of adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island, and I was going to say that even before I saw a reference to that in the game. Yes, the focus here is strongly on puzzles, and for the most part, this worked rather well. The puzzles actually make you think and are amusingly odd. There was just one puzzle that was too obscure for me, and I had to find the answer on the forum. It involved a fireplace.
Where Dink's standard action RPG gameplay was relevant, though, it tended to be really hard and unforgiving. You will jealously guard your life points in this mod, and it's easy to lose quite a bit of progress if you're not careful (for one thing, as the Help text in the escape menu that nobody reads will tell you, don't hit the savebots - you can kill them).
It wasn't the gameplay that was really special, though, it was the writing and the presentation. There are boatloads of text here, and I assure you it's worth reading it all, whatever warnings the game itself might give you. I was impressed by a solid sense that a story was being told at all times.
As for presentation, this game just does cool things with the graphics, both new and old. The inventory screen is the coolest I've ever seen. Dink's magical zombie body cracks me up. A combination of new and old graphics are used to create really fresh effects throughout the DMOD that made me stop for a moment and admire them, like the lighthouse, the waterfall, the bridge, and the sky. Even something as simple as this set of stairs made from the shelf sprite really made me take notice. I thought I'd seen it all at this point, but here's a good example of how you can really push the envelope and create new and interesting views that help make your world a memorable one (this, of course, is the sort of thing I'm utterly rotten at).
Walking through the plot seems like the wrong approach when talking about this DMOD. If you're curious, Dink returns to what remains of Mystery Island, where he's killed. He's brought back to life (sort of) and has to quash a nasty goblin rebellion. There, you're caught up. To me, this was more about the many great moments that made things so enjoyable. Like how you could try to walk the wrong way over and over early on, and keep getting new responses. Or the cool factor of having a Mystery Island type robot walk around and fight with you. Honestly, so many of the screenshots I took just seem to stand well on their own. Even out of context, I can't get enough of this. Or this, or this, or this. The courtroom scene and its aftermath. The in-jokes. It just felt so perfect to me.
It's too bad, then, that I didn't manage to win without cheating. I know, I know, I'm getting absolutely awful about this, but screw you, the boss is TOO dang HARD. You have to fight three waves of goblins (a certain character is supposed to help you, but their attacks don't actually work) and then a boss goblin that throws clubs at you with no healing and no ranged attack of your own. After my first abject failure, I went back and found a couple of powerups I'd missed, and I even went through the agonizing process of grinding to level 5 on the wimpy experience given out in this demo, and it didn't help. Four long, legitimate attempts later, I rendered my verdict. Too hard.
But it doesn't really matter. It's not about the ending (which tells us, with refreshing honesty, that this is unlikely to ever be finished). This was a blast, and if you haven't played it yet, you should go do so. Oh, and Striker, you should finish it. Seriously.
