Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Dark Matters Redux for Sega Dreamcast & Hucast Review

Greetings Readers, Reader, Random person who found this blog by doing a Google search for something else but this was the link that appeared first.

It has been awhile, but that is pretty typical for me. As I have mentioned before I like to take breaks from collecting from time to time, but especially around the holidays. This year I took an extended break, but now I am back and ready to get back int he swing of things. So lets begin with a review of Dark Matters REDUX, and the company that makes it HuCast.  To start I offer a picture. If a picture is worth a thousand words, well then this picture is worth one thousand and nine words and none of them are positive.


Regret does sum it up. Before I go too far let tell you what Terrible Title Dark Matters Redux is. This is a new game made for an old system, (the Dreamcast) that was crowd sourced on Kickstarter. The game is a SHMUP (Shoot'em Up) set in space much like R-Type, Gradius, and the like. The Campaign started in  May 2012, and the delivery was set to be in December 2012. I thought that the delivery date was ambitious, and it was. The game arrived in February 2014. That is quite a piece further down the road then Dec 2012, but things happen. It seems that video games are always delayed, so I wasn't surprised or upset by this delay as I was pretty much expecting it.

As this a collecting based review I won't say much about the game play. It's a SHMUP, if you like them, you probably like this. I found some enjoyment in it.

REVIEW:


The Shipping: Holy Mother of Cats, wtf? The worst shipping I have ever seen. Seriously Hucat, what is wrong with you? This game was shipped in a yellow mailer, a YELLOW FRICKEN MAILER!!! The choice of shipping packing material is mind bogglingly stupid, made worse by the fact I bought the Collectors Edition Steelbook.Within the yellow, non-padded mailer was no bubble wrap or foam, or paper or anything. Yup just a steel book flopping around in some sad, limp, yellow envelope. Needless to say mine has a few large dents. Also, the discs all came loose and were semi scratched. The 4 disc soundtrack that came with it also had all of it's CD's come loose. Serious Fail.

The Case:  So when they added the Steel Book Collectors edition to the Kickstarter it wasn't pictured and it cost $100. I upgraded figuring it would be pretty sweet given how good the Kickstarter campaign and initial art looked. I was wrong, so very very wrong. Please review the picture above. You might notice that the super awesome collectors edition steelbook turned out to be just a plain steelbook with a shitty sticker affixed to it (the back has no art either). If the sticker didn't tell me this edition was special I surely wouldn't have guessed.

The Art: What art? Please read the bit about the sticker again.

The Extra's: A sticker and the soundtrack. The sticker is a sticker, I am not a 6 year-old girl with a sticker album so I couldn't really give two F%^Ks about a sticker. The soundtrack is scratched so yeah.

The Cost: For $100 this should have been better. If you want to subtract $10 for shipping, well even at $90 it should have been better. Hucast really cut some corners and after several good experiences on Kickstarter I didn't expect my first bad one to come from a company that does this for a living.

The Final Verdict: This was a waste of money, Hucast did a terrible job on delivering this product. This is a niche product in a collectors market. Hucast clearly didn't understand who their target market was when they decided to make a special edition. If I was Hucast I would be embarassed  of the way things played out at the end. Please pass on any Hucast goods, I cannot in good faith recommend them.

A rebuke to anyone asking about "The Game". I am a collector first, gamer second. I bought a product that was geared for collectors, if I just wanted to play I could have paid $10 for a digital copy.

Thank you for reading,
~Johnny~

I have a Facebook Humor Page: Why Is Everybody So Bad At Everything? If you like the little jokes I put in the links, this is of the same ilk.

8 comments:

  1. Hello Johnny.
    First of all, I'm a reader, and I also love your blog. I don't mind if you post only one text a year, I'll read it regardless. :)

    I agree 100% with everything you said. Like you, I also ordered the steelcase edition with the 4-CD OST, and received them in the same shitty envelope. DUX and all its variations have become a joke, and REDUX isn't even the last one of them....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Edward, Thanks for reading and sorry you had the same experience as me. I know a few other who also share our woes. Hucast is the worst, and I won't make the mistake of ordering from them again. I can promise at least two posts a year, and maybe three but the 3rd will probably be off topic. I actually have one I started writing last night so hopefully it will be up by next week.

      Delete
  2. Hey, what am I..., chopped liver?
    Lol.
    No, I do read all of your (not enough) posts. Please keep writing them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I kid, I kid. The readers I have are great and patient. Thank goodness they are patient. Hey did you notice two posts in under 10 days? At this rate I might average one a month.

      Delete
  3. And yes, you do play as the bad guys in this game as your job is to conquer Earth (particularly North America as the game is centered in the United States). Bola Online

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  4. Obviously there are more titles I haven't mentioned (such as Overlord, Bully, etc) but, you are welcome to add to this list if you want to and feel free to comment on this article as you are free to agree or disagree with me. Adu Q

    ReplyDelete
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