Huzzah
Well, I eventually beat is as the mutant class. Although, like many gladiator/arena type RPG games it got terribly unbalanced towards the end. For example, I filled out the biowave branch and got the final ability which instantly killed everyone in one hit, most of the time. That with my basically maxed out strength and willpower, plus ALL of the weapon, martial and weapon talents (even though I never even USED any weapons, just the shapeshifting bladewrists), along with the chameleony ability made me untouchable and extremely overpowered. Except for the few cases where the enemy used this thunderclap ability which permanently stunned me for the entire battle until they killed me if I didn't have enough willpower or something. Aside from that, the last 10 or so battles, including the final one, were won by spamming disintegration and sacrifice, which was sort of repetitive but nonetheless too effective.
Another thing was the gear. Without an obvious item level system, all of the gear throughout the game was basically identical, and I could have kept the same suit I had from almost right at the start, except I found more pretty things to wear. Except, oddly enough I never managed to see any gladiator wear pants, ever. Maybe the big APOKALYX was caused by all of the pants in the world being stolen by aliens, causing everyone to go mad. Oh well. The shop was also quite useless, as the gear was never better than the crap I'd looted of the noobs at the start. Plus, having to get new allies at the start of every battle got annoying after a while, which sort of worked because I didn't need them anymore due to my overpowering death rays.
Unbalancing and lack of pants aside, this game was rather nice for an arena gladiator RPG game. It felt quite polished, aside from the grammar errors and the like, and having a storyline and voices was a great change from the usual. I'd give this a 10/10 if it was less repetitive and more balanced, and has a wider variety of gear to buy and loot, rather than the few scraggly bits of stuff I got to choose from. The music was great, and I so far haven't felt the urge to press the mute button at any stage.
Although I can't help but compare this to Sonny, this was a well made, original game which managed to keep me entertained for a long period of time, with minimum raging at the screen and urge to throw my mouse at the wall. Even if the final stretch was a bit repetitive and I probably would have stopped playing aside from the incentive to finish it, it was a great game to play for three or four hours.
On a side note, the multiplayer version of this would need a rather large overhaul in the balancing department primarily, as I can imagine a lot of people using the uber death ray in the biowave mutant branch until the opponent instantly dies due to a lack of mega strength and willpower. You have to make the player not feel like they're stuck having to go with the one path or everyone else will be better than them.
Anyway, good job for making this game, it seems to have had a lot of effort and hard work go into it. Cheerio.
