by Oldmariner Supreme League of Patriots This game was released in episodic chapters earlier this year. They have been referred to as Chapters and sometimes Issues. However, you choose to identify them, there are three in total and all are available on GOG, Steam and Phoenix, the publisher’s outlet. There may be other sources as well. The game is complete with all chapters available for download at time of purchase. It is your traditional point and click style Adventure Game and available for several computer systems. For this review, my version was acquired DRM free at GOG.
Nuts and Bolts The first question is does it work? I’m happy to report, I found no bugs, glitches or problems with running the game. I’ll qualify this by saying the claim is made from my experience running Windows 7. I can’t speak to other versions of Windows. We start with the interface by looking at where things are and how they work. Your inventory is managed from two locations. A cursor sweep on the top right of the screen reveals, from left to right three icons: Inventory, Tasks and Map, which you select for traveling to other locations. Shadow blade 1.1.1. Play as a ninja in your iPhone with Shadow Blade. Shadow Blade is a paid game for the iPhone which is an action platforming game that features a ninja who will perfrom lots of missions. To complete your missions, you must navigate the levels filled with traps and enemies along the way. Overcome these challenges and triumph over them. Regarding your inventory, it is housed in two places. The top inventory box reveals items that you can mix and match to create something usable. However, to use said item you must sweep the bottom of the screen to what the game calls The Utility Belt. Your inventory appears here as well. To “Take” or “Examine” an item you must click on the arrows shown on the screen to move the object into the center circle. From there, you drag it to where you want to use it. If you can use the item, it will show in your cursor, but not until you click on the targeted object. At that point, it will show in the center of the circle. Click in the center to use the inventory item. The opening screen offers five choices: New Game, Load Game, Tutorial, Settings and Quit. Because of the departure from the norm, it is strongly recommended you view the tutorial to see how inventory items are manipulated. A sweep of the upper left of the screen finds a button that once clicked contains five options: Resume, Load, Save, Settings and Quit. For the purposes of customer service, I’ll acknowledge that nothing drives me crazier than spending hours searching for where they hid the bleeping saves. To help avoid readers that frustration, you can find saves stored on Windows 7 in this location: C: /Users/ User name/ App Data/ Local Low/ No Bull Intentions/ League of Patriots Saves are in three folders sorted by chapters. I hope this bit of information is useful. A final note on how things work. You can access any of the three chapters without playing through the prior one. Navigation is purely point and click and you are directing one character in third person view. I did not discover any method where you can force the characters to run. Kyle or his alter ego, the Purple Patriot, will take his time moving across the screen. Kyle’s partner Mel will interact, at Kyle’s request. You do not have the option of playing more than one character. As Kyle, you click on Mel and ask for his help. Mel frequently offers smart remarks without prompting. The backgrounds are cartoon drawn, as are the characters. At times, movement is blocky but it is not anything beyond the norm for this type of game. Thankfully, voice acting is fairly good and I found no grating voices. Background music is passable but it seems to be constant and does get tiresome. The graphics are quite good and most items are easy to see. I found none of the pixel hunting required in darkly lit games. For the most part this is brightly lit and easy to navigate. A final note on graphics, the Settings icon found on the load up screen and Options during game play allows you to choose from 15 different settings between, 800x600 to 1920x1080. You can shutoff captions which are on by default and you can play the game windowed mode if you like.
Game Play-Stories-Plot-Etc. Phoenix Online Studios provides this descriptor for Supreme League of Patriots. “Don your cape and mask and join the Supreme League of Patriots in this hilarious and irreverent superhero comedy adventure! Poking fun at pop culture, politics, reality TV and more, join Kyle Keever in his politically incorrect quest to win a spot on the newest hit reality TV show, America's Got Superpowers. But when a freak accident turns Kyle's alter-ego, the Purple Patriot, into his main ego and triggers real superpowers at the cost of his sanity, Kyle's got a new mission to become the hero New York deserves, and definitely not the one it wants. Navigating a twisted world of vigilantes and villains with his sarcastic sidekick Mel, Kyle's got a lot to learn about the world of superheroes!” Essentially the above is correct. We join this pair in the TV studio as Kyle is about to undergo a series of super hero tests. His sidekick, Mel is there to help him through the process. His goal is to become famous and secure an acting position. Then it all goes wrong. During your adventure a psychotic nurse is encountered. Her preferred treatment is euthanasia for all ailments. The publishers did warn you this is irreverent and a jab at political correctness. You will navigate conversations laced with sarcasm and oddball characters. What puzzles are encountered? You may be happy to discover, there are no scraps of paper to piece together. No mazes, sliders or complicated laser fields and there is no way you can get killed. The bonus is no quick reflex puzzles appear to challenge your slow mouse reactions. What do we have for puzzles if all the hard stuff is omitted? The challenge is conversation. What serves for puzzles becomes an endless asking of questions hoping someone will give you a hint. There are a few places where you must combine inventory items to make a new object. The air conditioner you eventually find somewhere can’t be turned on by repairing a fuse box or any other established mechanical puzzle. It is resolved through an endless series of conversations. You know how this works. Ask to speak with a character and the conversation tree appears offering a selection of questions. Sometimes, selecting a question twice produces additional information. Most often it does not. The selection remains on the tree just the same. This forces you to repeat a rehashing of speech you don’t want to suffer through. But you must ask it again just in case because you never know. At least you can click through it. You can’t afford to miss something because the only way you can move forward is through conversation. Many gamers do enjoy constant conversation as a game catalyst but many don’t, so be warned. The game ends with a mini cliff hanger setting up the possibility of a season two. Summary It should take about three hours per episode to navigate through this game. It is dependent upon how quickly you recognize when a character has given you the answer you need. The hints box is almost a requirement. As a player who enjoyed the original Longest Journey, and Culpa Innata, conversation and dialogue do not trouble me. But this one wore thin in a hurry. The game works well, presenting no glitches. Its graphics are fairly good; as is the voice acting. I’m sure many players will find this a competent game. I suspect many will be offended by it. This game is not for everyone; keep it away from your kids. The seemingly endless voicing of sexual innuendo and implied off color comments grows old well before the midpoint of this game.
Minimum and Recommended System Requirements The developer, Phoenix Online Studios, supplied basic data for several systems. Included here is the complete listing provided by the publisher. In that way, this review can inform readers no matter what OS they may be using. Minimum system requirements – Windows: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 Processor: 2 GHz (Single Core), Memory: 2 GB RAM, Graphics: Intel HD 5000 or better with 256MB VRAM, DirectX: Version 9.0c, Hard Drive: 4 GB available space, Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible,Mouse, Keyboard. Recommended system requirements Windows: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 Processor: 2 GHz (Dual Core), Memory: 4 GB RAM, Graphics: AMD or Nvidia with 512MB VRAM, DirectX: Version 9.0c, Hard Drive: 4 GB available space, Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible.
Recommended system requirements - Mac: Processor: Intel 2 GHz (Dual Core), Memory: 4 GB RAM, Graphics: AMD or Nvidia with 512MB VRAM, Hard Drive: 4 GB available space. No minimum provided for MAC. Minimum system requirements - Linux: Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17 Processor: 2 GHz (Dual Core) Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: Intel HD 5000 or better with 256MB VRAM Hard Drive: 4 GB available space, Mouse, Keyboard. Recommended system requirements - Linux: Processor: 2 GHz (Dual Core), Memory: 4 GB RAM, Graphics: AMD or Nvidia with 512MB VRAM, Hard Drive: 4 GB available space Grade: C Played on
Windows 7 Home, 64-bit Intel Core i3 - 2100 CPU @ 3.10 GHz 12 GB RAM Nvidia GeForce GT240 1.25 GB VRAM Sound Blaster Live, sound card September 2015 design copyright© 2015 GameBoomers Group
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