Creeper World

Creeper World
Developer(s)	Knuckle Cracker
Platform(s)	Mac OS X, Windows
Release date(s)	July 27, 2009
Genre(s)	Tower defense, Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single-player
System requirements Adobe Flash Player

Creeper World is a flash game with both real-time strategy and tower defense elements. Players must survive the onslaught of the titular blue mass which rises up the playing field and attempts to destroy their base of operations, Odin City. This is achieved by gathering energy and using it to power weapons which stave off the Creeper long enough for the player to link Odin City with each level's energy totems in order to escape to the next level.

Reviewers stated that the game has simplistic graphics, but praised The Creeper's gameplay. A sequel, Creeper World 2: Redemption was released May 16, 2011.^[1] It features new weapons, and a different angle of view, drastically changing the gameplay.^[2]

Gameplay

Creeper World is a real-time strategy and tower defense game, unlike most games of this type there is only one enemy and it can only be repelled, not destroyed. The player must hold back a blue mass called the "Creeper", which has already destroyed most of humanity and is now attacking Odin City, humanity's last bastion.^[3] This is done by placing towers onto the battlefield which shoot at the Creeper. The main goal of the game is to connect the player's base to energy totems through the use of energy collectors and relays, doing so opens a jump gate which allows Odin City to teleport to a new planet and attempt to escape the Creeper again.^[4]

Units to attack the Creeper are created in Odin City. In order to power their weapons, energy must be gathered by Collectors, which are placed by the player. These Collectors require space in order to harvest energy, and must be connected to the city's network, should a Collector become isolated by the Creeper it becomes inactive and must be freed in order to continue providing energy.^[5] The game's landscapes have different elevations, the Creeper can quickly spread across low-lying areas but must gather before rising to higher ground. Here the player can create choke-points to try and prevent the spread.^[3] Units can attack the Creeper if they have line-of-sight contact, some units can also throw bombs into denser aspects of it in order to slow its spread.^[5]

Plot

The game begins just after most of humanity has been wiped out, in a mobile city known as Odin City that was designed by an enigmatic person known as the Old Man. The city is controlled by the Commander, with his advisor OPS. The city moves through the galaxy, planet by planet, guided by a series of cryptic messages by the Old Man, also known as Platius, who is revealed to have saved the Commander's life at birth. At the end of its journey, Odin City arrives on a planet controlled by the Creeper Nexus, a massive being that controls all the other Creeper. It is revealed that the Creeper were once a civilization that was nearly wiped out, leaving behind just a few Nexus alive. As they battle, Platius appears and gives Odin City a massive superweapon known as 'Thor', which the Commander uses to hold the Creeper off long enough to activate the totems. The totems create a teleportation field to the black hole at the center of the galaxy, sucking in the Creeper Nexus. The Commander flies Thor into the teleporter to close it and save Odin City. The game ends with Platius speaking to the Commander, telling him that the human race will once again prosper now that the Creeper have been defeated.

Reception

IGN's editor named it their Indie Pick of the Week, stating "Creeper World may not be much to look at, but it's got it where it counts in the gameplay department."^[4] Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Kieron Gillen stated that "Creeper World is the most apocalyptic game I've played in ages".^[6] Game developer Greg Costikyan stated that despite no element of the game being original "..they are combined in a novel fashion that makes the game worth checking out."^[3] Big Download's reviewer called Creeper World's graphics "ridiculously simple" but added "..that works in its favor -- their iconic nature makes for immediate identification..", allowing the player to see the whole battlefield as though it was a diagram.^[5]

References

1. ^ "Gamasutra - Press Releases - Creeper World 2: Redemption released". Gamasutra. May 17, 2011. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/72328/Creeper_World_2_Redemption_released.php. Retrieved 2011-07-14. 
2. ^ "Creeper World 2: Redemption - PC - IGN". IGN. http://pc.ign.com/objects/108/108843.html. Retrieved 2011-07-14. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Greg Costikyan (September 9, 2009). "Creeper World - Tower Defending Against the Ooze". Play This Thing!. http://playthisthing.com/creeper-world. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Daemon Hatfield (August 13, 2009). "Indie Pick of the Week: Creeper World". IGN. http://pc.ign.com/articles/101/1013785p1.html. Retrieved 2010-12-24. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} Akela Talamasca (September 28, 2009). "Mac Monday: Zuma's Revenge!/Creeper World, part 2". Big Download (AOL). http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/09/28/mac-monday-zumas-revenge-creeper-world-part-2/. Retrieved 2011-02-25. 
6. ^ Kieron Gillen (August 6, 2009). "You’re So ("Very"- Ed) Special: Creeper World". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/08/06/youre-so-very-ed-special-creeper-world/. Retrieved 2010-12-24. 

External links

• Official Website