Jennifer by Masterderico

[Jake RockStone]

Review Key (Courtesy of Damon Caskey):

5 - Beyond superb, a new standard has literally been set.
4 - Excellent, certainly the best among any offerings so far.
3 - Of average quality, not bad, but could be better.
2 - Poorly executed, and defiantly needs work.
1 - Shows almost no effort and is a perfect example of what not to do.

Creativity: New ideas, or the 15’th remake of the same game? Are features being used in a new way, or is it the same old punch, punch, grab N’ throw?
Execution: Offsets, collision detection, animation and editing.
Presentation: Cut scenes, graphic and sound quality.
Game play: In game mechanics, character moves, enemy stylistics, control.
Overall: The total package, NOT an average.

While we've seen other gory modules before (Nightslashers X by BonusJZ being a fine example), I have to say that I don't think I've ever played a more disturbing mod - or even many mainstream games - than Jennifer. I'm a fan of Horror: Books, movies, games - I lap it up and consider myself pretty hardened, but the fact that I had nightmares, honest to goodness NIGHTMARES after my first evening playing this mod is probably the greatest compliment I can give it.

This mod is all about aptmosphere. The scene is set immediately as you - The Jennifer of the title - rise from your own grave and crawl, Ringu-style, through a graveyard filled with the rotten corpses of your peers. As you progress, psychic flashes of disturbing imagery hit the screen, a trope used throughout the mod to unsettle you. (One stage has you simply walking through a corridor with nasty images playing and the words "Its all your fault" smeared in blood against the walls. Sound cheesy? - try playing it first).

As you progress, Jennifer is cleverly evolved (And occasionly devolved) into different character models, each with a larger array of attacks. There's a triumphant scene after beating the first boss where Jennifer gains her full moveset, death metal music starts playing and suddenly you're flying around the screen, smashing zombies to bits with some incredible specials and Super Combos. As movesets go, Jennifer has a doozy: QCF and Dragon Punch specials on three seperate buttons, three Super moves, the ability to combo normal attacks into specials and various fatalities, including some triggered by Jennifer's inherint knife attack. There are also clever ways to beat some of the bosses. I spent half an hour running away from the Golem on the second stage before realising how to outwit him and knocking that seemingly-unbeatable marionette into the spiked wall further on in the game was a satisfying way to win. This creativity extends to many of the scenes themselves: A big kudos must go to the Splatterhouse tribute scene, where you smash enemies to a pulp against the rear wall with a spiked bat.

While some of the drone enemies are, on - rare - occasion, a little poorly presented (the Venom-from-MVC-without-a-head is an example), for the most part, you spend the game thinking 'Holy God, what the hell was that thing?'. If you've ever played any of the earlier games in the Silent Hill series, you'll experience a similar sense of primal fear at the weirdly familiar and yet utterly alien things that make up most of the boss battles. Seriously, what was that twin meat on a giant chain thing at the end of the first level? Or the crazy brain creature that doctor was operating on? Anyone?

If I do have a complaint, it's that some of the enemies are a touch cheap. while it's disturbing enough to beat up a little sack-child who cries like a baby every time you hit them, it's no fun to have them take a quarter of your life bar whenever they hit you, especially since they're so small they can only be hit with certain attacks. I try not to spam moves when playing beat-em-up games, but I did have to resort to using the lovingly styled acid-vomit special to keep those infantile psycopaths at bay and since they have so much life, you spend ages doing this, hurting the pace. Also, at times, the graphics (especially for things like the spikes) are a little cheap-looking. Given the high quality of the rest of the mod, this does stand out a little bit.

Creativity: [5/5]  Well we've never seen this before. While the usual advanced techniques you may be used to, like Specials and supers abound, the way they're executed is new enough to carry the whole thing off with aplomb.

Execution: [3.5/5] The collsion detection is good, enemies are, for the most part, interesting, and the occasional graphical cheapness lets it down a little. I would say to all modders that QCF, QCF, button is a pain to use for a Super Attack in Open BOR, because the input moves you off the Z axis of the enemy you're actually trying to hit. Not a major knock on this mod because it's not the only guilty party.

Presentation: [5/5]: The strongest point of the module by far. A huge amount of work has obviously gone into making this mod feel different from the standard beat-em-up. Great use of filtering, music and timing make this a unique experience. The addition of some sexually explicit material, not included for titilation, only increases the horrific aptmosphere.

Gameplay: [4/5] as with the Silent Hill games I mentioned above, gameplay is somewhat secondary. The author seems to have created this mod as an experience, rather than a quick button-bashing arcade fix. I would cite this as a prime example of how the OpenBOR engine can be used to create something different than what it was intended for.

Overall: [4.5/5] While a few graphical niggles and gameplay issues might stick you from time to time. The whole package is a fantastic effort that you should be downloading right now, if you haven't already. The most disturbing and the best narrative-based mod I've personally seen. Get it. I understand that Masterderico is working on Jennifer 2 as we speak, so I look forward to that!

[maxman]

I made a review of that before. But somehow, my review was deleted.

[Kawaki]

I think it's the third level I can't get passed. I don't know what to do I get to the end but the pictures just keep flashing forever and nothing happens. I move around but no one comes out so I just quit.

[maxman]

You should press D, F + J (jump) or F, D, F + J

[Feanor]

I think it's the third level I can't get passed. I don't know what to do I get to the end but the pictures just keep flashing forever and nothing happens. I move around but no one comes out so I just quit.

I had the same problem, maybe it's because of the version of OpenBOR. I watched a video on youtube and the level should end when you see the last word.

[masterderico]

play with the OB version included on rar...