An enjoyable tribute to classic tabletop role playing, VotE brings some very familiar races and rules to the T-Engine 4. Within this loving recreation and homage, players will find skills, spells, equipment, combat and monsters that closely match the source material. Everyone loves an old-school dungeon crawl with a half-orc Barbarian, especially in a dungeon that can be punishingly difficult at times. The highly random level generation has little pity for weak young adventurers.

Unfortunately, this module is plagued with glitches. Players will face a constant wave of foes in the form of lockups and auto bug report forms. It is often difficult to access menus, many times requiring a program restart. More than one of the characters tested were permanently blocked out of their inventory screens, with no readily apparent trigger for the bug. Another minor frustration is found in the permanence of level up selections; a single click on a skill or feat, and there is no going back.

These issues will hopefully be addressed in a future version. A nostalgic, extended trip into the Underdark would be most welcome.

This one still needs plenty of work.

Conceptually, Startide is fairly solid. The background information for the campaign is interesting, and the option to play as a chimp is amusing. However, there are a massive number of glitches to overcome. Players of the current version can expect frequent errors and lockups.

The simple skill progression is nice, but inventory and equipment management is mostly guesswork and leaves a lot to be desired.

Startide seems to have strong potential. I look forward to a more stable version in the future.

A clever and unexpected use of the T-Engine 4, Mosaic has a lot going for it. This exploration of pastel tile flipping is uncomplicated but provides a quickly escalating challenge level.

The master stroke here is the procedural music. Notes will frequently pulse across the playing field, creating a melody that becomes richer and more complex with every new tile that has been touched. This has no effect on game play, but it is far more delightful than simple repetitive background music. The first levels are worth spending extra time on just to explore the way the notes develop before enemies begin to interrupt.

The biggest improvement needed in the current version is an upgrade to the enemy graphics. The basic capital letter mobs look somewhat out of place within the musical whimsy of the overall design. Another potential improvement might be the addition of a score. Currently, progress is tracked solely through the number of levels completed. This has a certain appeal, but a running score based on enemies eliminated or combination moves performed may add to the interest level.

Overall, an interesting change of pace within its category. Those who enjoy pure puzzle gaming should be pleased.

A simple module that is tremendous fun, but the whole time I found myself asking... when will I start fighting the aliens??

The skills and equipment are as simple as they come, but manage to be quite charming and effective. The only thing desperately needed here is more plot.

Why the heck are there uniformed crew members still working on a ship that is being salvaged? Is the player character actually an alien invader who is 'salvaging' an active human ship? This could be revealed as a surprise twist! Was the ship destroyed by cosmic weirdness? Is there a sinister motive to the hulk's existence? Is the 'salvage' material being recovered actually part of a nanobot invasion plot? What is the status?? At very least, Hulk: ORE's unexplained mysteries certainly evoke some imaginative thinking.

The core recipe for an intriguing sci-fi RPG experience is there. However, this one needs surprises, hints, crumpled notes, blood smears, malfunctioning robots, alien shenanigans... generally more spice.