Thank you for the well-thought review! :-)
If you do not mind, I would like to clarify a few things.
I don't think there is any difference between the Windows and OS4 versions.
Yes, they are identical.
This leads to one of the few annoyances I have with BOH: the automap, which charts the level as you walk through, is far too small to be very useful. Perhaps it's just me, but I found I had to squint really hard to make out where I needed to go to find my way out of where I am.
It is true that sometimes the map requires some squinting, especially if one is not playing in full screen and/or with a good zoom level. That is because each pixel of the map represents a square of the actual playfield - in other words, the map scale is 1:16. Had it been 1:8 (or more), not only the rendering would have been more demanding for the CPU, but then the map would have covered too a big area of the screen, getting in the way of the player; more precisely, these are the width and height of the maps drawn by the automappers:
* small automapper: 1/4 of the screen
* big automapper: 1/3 of the screen
doubling those figures would not be recommendable.
This is quite annoying, especially seeing how I have on a couple of occasions "brushed past" one of these doors causing it to close before I have gone through, meaning that the level is impossible to complete.
The automatic-closing doors work this way:
* they are open by default;
* when you pass their threshold with more than half of your body, the closing mechanism activates (but nothing happens yet);
* as soon as you leave their area and no other enemy is in between, they close.
As you walk around, you will find crates littered around levels. Some of these contain a shield recharge, but you have to search for them. This basically involves walking in to the crate to "search" it. You keep walking until the search is complete, at which point you are either given a recharge, or told that there is nothing there. This creates some nice tense situations where you have to decide between staying still long enough to search for a shield, or getting out of there before some enemies arrive. This is especially fun when you have the sensor, as you can hear the enemies coming and have to decide when to do a runner!
Nice description
I would like to add that crates, barrels, etc. can be destroyed by shooting at them: their explosions hurt close enemies - and yourself, if you are too close -, so they can be used as weapons as well.
Ah, and also, the update will make recharges a bit more frequent ;-)
The sound effects are echoey, and the echo seems to change depending on the size of the room you are in.
Well spotted!
Indeed, the ambient sound volume depends on the size of the room the character is in. Moreover, the volume of any other sound effect depends on how far the source is from the character.
Also, the levels are listed in alphabetical order and labelled with a difficulty rating from "Very Easy" to "Very Hard". It would be nice if there was an option to sort by difficulty.
This was something I was already considering, indeed, and the fact you stressed it makes me think it was not a bad idea: here's one thing that will make it to the upcoming update ;-)
By the way, the levels can apparently be edited by creating or modifying text files. I have had a look at the mission files and can't work out how to do this,
Levels are encrypted because that's where records are stored.
but apparently a guide is going to be published at some point giving details.
If BOH generates enough interest - and it hasn't until now :-( - I plan to release the full developer's documentation that will illustrate how to create levels, themes and also additional translations ;-)
saimo
