Diamond Dan

Developer: Grendel Games
Steam Release: Oct 2010
Hours Played: 2.3
Similar To: Freedom Fall / Vertical Drop Heroes
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips



GAMEPLAY
Diamond Dan is a suitable platform puzzler to fire up when after a quick fix of puzzling fun. Gameplay is straightforward and there is no inventory or levelling up involved. On entering the four-sided temple you begin somewhere near the top. It is made up of cubes that jut out forming platforms which you walk along. As you go around a corner the temple revolves accordingly. Walking into a gap causes you to fall downwards which is usually a good thing as the object of the game is to get your arse to the very bottom and then grab the treasure before exiting. The cubes come in different flavours; most are normal and just stand there doing nothing but some give a little wobble to signal that they are about to move. If they crush you, you have to start all over again – unless, that is, you have found a golden key and entered a door to save your game.


BALANCE & PACE
As the difficulty of the temple goes up, so does the fiendish nature of some of the cubes. Some have a trap door that suddenly opens up to drown you, some thrust out deadly spikes, some house griffons or gargoyles that grab or eat you, some fire deadly daggers and some just crumble and fall on you. Consequently, getting to the bottom is no walk in the park; you always have to be on your guard and are often forced to keep moving. Some less hostile cubes spew out various treasures which you can also collect if you're into getting a good score. You may play as Dan or Ann. Personally I prefer Ann as she has the capability of smashing through cubes which is both easier and better than just pushing them.



PRESENTATION & DESIGN
The marketing men boast that the game has high production values but it's hardly cutting edge. It is quite dark and some animations are a bit lame. Your character also moves in slightly jerky movements and too quickly. The soundtrack, while in the menus, has a fast rolling beat that suitably conveys the feeling of being in jungles and temples and in the game the music has the right bounce and gives that sense of urgency. The full menu is in the form of the interior of an explorer's tent. You view this screen as if looking through the fixed lens of a camera. An outline of the items in the room become highlighted when you hover over them and leads to the menu's pathways. For example, hovering over the radio allows you to adjust the sound; the lamp allows you to tweak graphics and the relic lets you change the difficulty settings etc. 


PROGRESS SYSTEM
A lot of your time will be spent looking at the journal which tracks your progress and stores information such as medals acquired but also the map which takes you to whichever temple you want to tackle next. The blackboard in the main menu shows how many of the 21 temples you have completed along with how many of the four medals you have been awarded. The medal awarded corresponds with what difficulty setting (easy, medium, hard, extreme) you selected before entering the temple. Temples have their own standard level of difficulty (1-5) regardless. The journal in the main menu can be clicked on to peruse other stats like which medal has been awarded for each individual temple as well as best score for each. Finally, the map gets temples added to it as you progress and serves as the level-select screen.


CONCLUSION
Although predating similar 2D titles like Freedom Fall and Vertical Drop Heroes, to the first-timer, Diamond Dan seems complicated. The controls can take a while to get used to and the journal and map together can all seem a bit confusing making the process of getting into the game a bit daunting. However, once you realise that it's just about getting to the bottom of temples of varying sizes then the experience becomes clearer and more purposeful. Choosing the character of Ann, who has the ability to smash a cube with one click also makes the job even easier in my opinion.