The Dink Network

Red Jacket Murders

From the COTPATD project.
Description
Dink Smallwood is sent to a remote village to discover who is murdering people wearing red jackets.

*Best download of october 2005*
Released:March 22nd, 2006
File Size:886.76 KB
Downloads:438
Release Notes:v1.5
Play:Play this D-Mod right now in your web browser! (More Info)
 
September 3rd, 2009
v1.5
Score : 8.5 good
death.gif
Dink is rudely awakened by Martridge and sent on a quest to solve a series of murders of people who wear red jackets. Along the way, Dink meets several characters modelled after people here on the Dink Network, with some humorous interactions. This is a short, fun romp, which perhaps takes about a half hour (or less) to complete.

The Good:

The opening cutscene is funny.

Tiles from the Badlands are cleverly reused here to give an overall dark atmosphere. The map layout is efficient; there is just enough space that you don't feel confined, but not too much wasted space that you're just wandering around empty screens. The pumpkin graphics were quite well-done.

There's a cleverly implemented transformation to/from a ghost form, and the scripting is carefully done so that interactions in the two forms don't overlap.

There is a little levelling up to do, which is just right for the dmod's length, not too short as to be trivial, nor too long as to be tiresome given the short length of the story.

The Bad:

There's a scripting error which makes the map useless (unless you edit the .c file by hand and fix the error). Not that it's worth much, since the map is really quite small. There's also a bug in the script for redink1, which sometimes makes him non-responsive, making the game unwinnable (I didn't look closely to see what exactly was causing it).

The NPC conversation is a bit shallow, as though it was written in a hurry.

The bats look rather stiff, like a ball with two wooden wedges for wings. The color tone of the various pasted portraits of the NPCs could use some tweaking so that it blends in with the Dink graphics better; it seems a bit too out-of-place otherwise. (But then again, Seth in the original game didn't really blend in all that well either.)

The dmod feels a bit too short once you've finished it. Given the storyline, one would expect more meat to the plot, a few more mysteries to solve, and some intrigue to uncover. But sadly, there's only the obligatory talk-to-every-suspect-to-get-clues puzzle, and once you solve it, 90% of the game is pretty much done.

Still, it's not bad given its small scope. Entertaining enough to deserve a play, but not substantial enough to warrant a replay.
TopicPostsPosterLast Post
stuck for rope4dinkfan2June 23rd 2009, 05:51 AM
Fountain Bug?9LunacreJanuary 16th 2006, 09:07 PM