Blending together the free movement of a 2.5D side-scrolling RPG with the action of a beat ‘em up is definitely an ambitious idea that has been a needed genre mix. This is the genre mix that O.T.K Games has put together with Detained: Too Good for School and publisher Thermite Games has been pushing with their successful Kickstarter. As part of this push, they put up a free demo on Steam so funders and interested players can give it a shot. This is definitely a great way to bring attention to your game, but there is definitely room to grow.
Gameplay
They give a good introduction to the game as you start off with basic movement controls before the story quickly puts you in a fight predicament where you can either choose to play the tutorial fight or not. This tutorial build-up is pretty clever since it pulls you into the cutscene that takes you through the reason that you end up fighting through the game. However, the tutorial doesn’t go over item use, interacting with the shops, or any sort of menu items. Good thing they are pretty self-explanatory, but they should still have you go through a sample of these aspects so you are familiar with how to get to them and properly interact with them.
Given the 2.5D aspect, the brawling feels like the classic beat ‘em up games many of us used to play. You can hit more than one person at a time, put together a combo to take out multiple enemies at once, and use a variation of these moves. This includes the basic hits and power hits used by themselves or in a pattern to create a stronger punch. Jumping before striking also presents different attacks, so don’t be afraid to try out a few variations.
As you make progress through the game and win fights, you’ll earn experience that can be used to unlock more stuff for your character. This is again not gone over in a tutorial, but when you pull it up in the menu you will find that you can unlock more combo attacks, increase different aspects of your character, and more. The options list is actually quite large and diverse, so make sure to take your time and look through it so you know what kind of growth you want to set out for as you progress.
As you are in school, they implemented this into the game as well. When you are presented with the chance to go to a classroom, you are given the chance to earn points for your character. Each class is supposed to provide a different type of stat growth. When you do these classroom segments, you will have to answer a certain amount of questions in a limited amount of time and the better you do the more points you earn.
Traveling through the world is pretty free to roam through. It seems that you will need to learn the map fairly well in order to know where to go because they don’t offer any type of guidance when you are tasked with meeting someone somewhere. At best, you can use the bus stop system (aka fast travel) to get to the right zone, but as far as what section of that area you need to be in isn’t told to you. This is understandable for the big fight areas, like the raid that at the end of the demo, but doesn’t make too much sense when it comes to quest lines in the main map.
Expectations
I hope to see them add a guidance system. This was my biggest issue with the game and it was a bit offputting to just be expected to know where to go. As I mentioned before, it makes sense not to have them during high-stakes areas with heavy combat to fight through, but not so much for just general game progression.
When it comes to the raid areas and other big fight sequences, they should really add health items that can be found. I broke plenty of barrels and boxes but never found any health items to help me get through the raid. It was a pretty tough fight to get through there and I am grateful that my general progress was saved with doors being open that I got through previously, even though the enemies respawned, but having to rely on what I purchased at the shop was a little too much. I’ve never played a beat ‘em up where there weren’t random health items to be found, even if only low-tier boosts.
Definitely need to work on the overall tutorial as well. I did think it was very clever how the fighting tutorial was presented, but other than fighting, I felt pretty lost in the game. Leaving players out to dry when it comes to the minor details that pull your game together isn’t a good way to go about letting players have the freedom to learn. It leaves room for key aspects of the game to be missed; aspects that could make one player love the game when they find themselves disliking the game without knowing about it.
Conclusion
Detained: Too Good for School is an awesome concept and is sure to be worth every dollar they earned in the Kickstarter! However, there is some work that needs to be done to make it a more solid title for a wider range of players. As a big fan of beat ‘em up titles since I was a child, I have to say that it simply needs more to it. More guidance and more player-focused aid to be specific. The demo was pretty entertaining though, so I look forward to what the finished product will present.
