The Dink Network

Blood Scorpions

August 6th, 2009
v1.00
Score : 9.5 exceptional
death.gif
This is a very well-rounded, well-implemented DMOD. The story happens in the middle of the desert, in the Town of the Ancients. Dink is a new recruit, and must pass through the training in order to become a Servant of the Ancients. However, it is not very long before Dink realizes that something is amiss, and sure enough, after he finishes his training, the town gets overrun by scorpions, and Dink must save the day. It is a moderate-length quest, completeable in a couple of hours.

The Good:

At all stages, it is clear what needs to be done, but Dink must find out how to get there himself. The sign of a well-paced story.

The implementation is also smooth; no glaring bugs or niggling problems aside from the rare sprite depth issue. The scenery is outstanding; very atmospheric and well-placed decoration. The use of burnable cacti replacing burnable trees is a nice touch.

The monster difficulty as you progress through the game is also well-designed; it never feels too easy, and never feels impossibly hard.

Overall, the game has the shine of a solid, detailed implementation that speaks of high quality.

The Bad:

The story left a few things hanging at the end. How the orbs protected the city is never explained, and the whole blood-spawning-scorpions thing is never fully explained. The motivation behind the theft of the orbs isn't too well developed, aside from the usual evil maniac wanting to take over the world bent.

More scenery objects could be implemented; it is jarring to have, for example, a table with a skull on it that elicits a response when Dink tries to interact with it, yet have him say "I'm bored" when he examines some other furniture that the author just placed there for looks. This is just a nitpick, of course; the amount of scenery objects that *are* implemented already far exceeds most DMODs.

The final boss could've been made a bit tougher. Or perhaps have a unique kind of attack: poison spit, say. This would've made the endgame more interesting. As it stands, the final boss is defeated after the same amount of work as a previous miniboss; one would've expected a tougher fight, even if only by a bit. Also, the Scorpion castle seems kinda small... a gradual progression through tougher scorpions before reaching the final boss would've been a nice touch. Speaking of which... a castle seems a bit out-of-place for scorpions to nest in. What about scorpion caves instead? That would've added more to the atmosphere. Or perhaps a sand hill scorpion nest.

The final cutscene seems a bit too ... skippy. Is there really a need to show Dink walking through so many screens? After the first two, we get the idea that he's taking a long walk to the final destination. Good enough. We can just go straight to the ending.

Having said all that, though, this is still an excellent DMOD, and definitely stands a shoulder above the vast majority of DMODs. It's almost a pity that it was over so quickly! Many of the bad points are really quite minor in comparison with the flaws in other DMODs. I think it deserves a 9.5.
June 30th, 2006
v1.00
Score : 9.5 exceptional
knightg.gif
cypry
Peasant He/Him Romania
Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice. 
The "Blood scorpions" by Simeon is a very good quest, but not an outstanding one(compared to "Cloud Castle 2" or "Initiation"). Still, it worths playing.

Story: 9.0
The game starts suddenly with Dink wanting to become a Servant of the Ancients. For this, he must pass some tests. Meanwile, he finds out about the three orbs that protected the town, and that they dissapeard. Right after completing the last test, the scorpions attack the town, so he must leave and find the orbs.

Gameplay: 9.9
Usually, when I play a DMOD, the beginig monsters are a bit strong for me, but after I played I while, get some potions, level-up several times, the gameplay becomes too easy. Well, this one is really, really balanced. Maybe a bit hard, especially if you're a beginer dinker, but still balanced. A good advice would be to focus on the defence when you level-up.

Map&Graphics: 10.0++
If there were possible to give a 20.0 for this, I'd give it. It looks absolutely great. Every screen is well-decorated. Not too many sprites, not to little, just enough for a great visual effect. The desert graphics are outstanding.

Scripts: 9.9
Simeon knows how to use DinkC, and he proved it in this DMOD. There are many cutscenes with Dink walking around several screens and some well-done puzzle. I didn't find any bugs.

Music: 9.5
Good music, most times fits the situations.

Style: 9.0
If you love scorpions, you're in the right place. There are so many of them... They're usually weak but fast. Did I mentioned there are so many? Even the end boss is just a scorpion(a bit stronger, still). It should at least throw some fireballs or something. The dialogs are well done and they're quite explicit.

Overall: 9.5
As I sad before, quite good but not outstanding.
August 1st, 2004
v1.00
Score : 7.7 good
goblinm.gif
When I first played this game, I didn't like it much. Playing it through again, though, it seems okay, if a bit too scripted.

Style: 8
The music sucked: nothing short of annoying except for the area around the Scorpion Palace and the final sequence. Although many objects are scripted, the people were kinda lame. The guy in the museum amused me, but the others just acted boring and repeated themselves/each other. Over and over. The map, although well decorated, looked a little ugly in places, I guess because of the weird road tiles. I think that the only graphic I hadn't seen before was Dink weilding a spiked club, which looked quite good. Overall, the game had a... patronizing style. If ever you forgot something about the extremely simple plot, it would be repeated over and over, and, just in case, there was a library, for the extremely senile. Everything was carefully scripted, so that you knew exactly what to do, except at one or two points where your choices were limited anyway since you could never go back to old areas. If "mood is an author's attitude towards his subjects", Simeon thinks that Dink is a moron.

Gameplay: 9
No where near as bad as I had remembered. The fighting was a little repetitive, but it didn't really have the time to get boring. The final sequence was a whole lotta fun. The puzzles and such were somewhat lame... nowhere near being on the level of Once in a Lifetime or World of DinkC, but never actually bad.

Story: 6
The story was quite simple. You train to be a "guardian of the ancients"-- i.e., a guy who guards town of the ancients, and just when you complete your training, the town gets overrun by scorpions. So then they boot you out of town and tell you to go kill some scorpions. You wander about until you reach another town where you have to kill some scorpions, and then you go to the Scorpion Temple where you kill some scorpions to recover some orbs to protect the town. I didn't always like the plots to WoDC or OiaL, but at least they were amusing and creative. The story here is at least a tad lame.

Overall: 7.7
Maybe worth downloading, but no where near as creative as Simeon's other work. It has some of the same humor though.
March 5th, 2004
v1.00
Score : 9.5 exceptional
fish.gif
Binirit
Peasant She/Her
 
Storyline: The Town of the Ancients, a town in the middle of the desert, has been protected by three orbs for a very long time. But the orbs are stolen and scorpions are threatening the town, so Dink decides to become a Servant so he can defend the town. But the scorpions attack the town anyway and then Dink decides to find the stolen orbs in order to save the town.

Map and graphics: Mapping is done excellent and painstakingly and the result is stunningly beautiful. The scenery never gets boring and there are neither too many nor too few details. Also the rooms or parts of the outdoors that are not needed for the game, are decorated beautifully. You can see immediately that a lot of time was put into mapping. There are some new graphics; some are modified old ones, others are from other D-mods or from graphic packs, but, although they come from various sources, they all blend together very well in the lovely scenery.

Music: Excellent choice of music to fit the different kind of situations.

Good: The D-mod gives you that old adventurers feeling, but with a better view, since the map is excellent. It never gets too boring, you never have to walk endless distances, you never are lost as to what to do next; all in all: gameplay is excellent! It is also a very nice thing that the map is there to serve the game, not the other way around. All that is needed is on the map and there are no extra mazes or things like that just to annoy the player. The training is fun, especially the running part! The books you can read in the library are just a small part of the game, but a lot of time and effort has been put into making those books, which all look excellent. These are a good example of the accuracy which with the author has made this D-mod. There are no bugs and no hardness errors; everything is just right and it works the way it should work.

Not so good: I missed a proper introduction. Why is Dink in the Town of the Ancients and why does he want to become a Servant? I also did not like the fact that Dink did not warn the people in the bar when he ran from the scorpions. A simple ´Scorpions are coming!´ would have been sufficient. That they were to be killed after all could not be blamed on him if he warned them. Now he looked like a coward.

Overall: An excellent D-mod that is made with accuracy.

Fit for: Anyone who wants to have some adventure and fun.
March 2nd, 2004
v1.00
Score : 9.1 exceptional
sob_scorpb.gif
raptor
Peasant He/Him
 
Yet another peice of fine work by Simeon. I myself would classify it as a romp though, but in no way does that take away from how good it was. This D-mod is defenetly worth playing,

~storyline~ Dink is in a town and he wants to become a servant of the ancients. To do this he must go through three training courses. One: he must run through a obstical course/maze before the timer runs out. I get frustrated with almost all games that to this because I seem to get stuck, but on this it was perfect, not too hard and not too easy. I really enjoyed it. Two: after you aquire your weapon (which I really liked) you go through a fighting test. You basically go through about three screens, on two there are brown pillbugs. On the other there are a few boncas. And three: after you get your magic you have to search through a few screens of desert and cactus for a chest with gold inside. After Dink becomes a full fledged servant of the ancients, scorpions start to attack the town and slaughter the people. The reason for this is because there are three orbs used to protect the town...someone has stolen them and Dink must return them before it's too late.

~music~ The music fit the desert theme of this D-mod. In fact, it fit so well that honestly sometimes I delayed going to the next screen because of how good the music and scenery blended together.

~bugs~ There werent any major bugs that I could find. Just an occasional one like hardness error on the lining of some of the doors. Nothing serious enough to take away from it's score.

~overall~ This was a very good D-mod and I enjoyed playing it all the way through. I never got bored with it. DOWNLOAD this D-mod if youve got an hour or two to spare!
August 30th, 2003
v1.00
Score : 9.2 exceptional
maiden.gif
I thoroughly enjoyed this game. Dink must protect a town from scorpions created by the blood of their victims, and discover why the scorpions are appearing in the first place, while also trying to locate three orbs that protect the town.

Strengths: I always knew what I had to do and there was no aimless wandering, although one puzzle in particular confused me for a bit. The training was a wonderful addition to the game; you actually had to work to become part of the people trying to protect the town rather than just being admitted in. There were several small sub-quests you had to do to obtain certain items, and these were fun and challenging to solve. The potions that were available were easily found, and helped you level up.

Graphics: The scenery in this game was absolutely stunning, almost magical to me. I could have sat and stared at each screen in the game without even playing and been perfectly happy. The colours of the trees were diverse and gorgeous, and blended beautifully with the colour of the desert. I loved the addition of the sunflowers with the trees, as well as the rock formations that were reminiscent of Stonehenge. Overall, the scenery was exquisite and I was quite blown away by it.

Map: The map was decorated very nicely. There was something in every screen, whether it was trees, cacti, fences or a combination of everything. The ability to interact with unique objects in version 1.00 is a great addition.

Music: Very nice music with good selections for each scenario in the game.

Weaknesses: While I liked the fact that attention was obviously paid to the game, such as having a basement for each room, I often entered such rooms thinking there was something important I had to find, and, when I didn't find anything, I assumed that I was missing something important to the game. Everything else I had a problem with was addressed in version 1.00. However, the addition of the interaction with objects added some minor grammar and spelling errors.

Overall: A very enjoyable D-Mod with truly exceptional scenery. The ease of play was just right for me, and I would definitely recommend playing this game.
August 16th, 2003
v1.00
Score : 9.4 exceptional
goblinm.gif
trav666
Peasant He/Him
 
This Dmod was fantastic, it really was.

It's basically about 3 orbs that have been stolen by an unknown person, and the town will be brutally slaughtered by the blood scorpions if Dink cannot get them back.

Strengths: I loved the idea that the blood scorpions are actually created from the blood of their victims. The training was pretty creative to, it was great how it wasn't just given to you, you had to do something very difficult to get to the next session. The puzzles were just right to, they never really got to hard unless you don't know how a lot of things work.

Music: This new music great, it fits prefectly and I was bobbing my head to it.

Graphics: I loved the wide variety of non-original graphics, I would have downloaded this dmod alone just to see the wonderful scenery. The cactus, the scorpions, the tiles, and the scenery fit so well in the desert I felt like i wasnt playing the ordinary dmod.

Map: The map was very original. Towns in caves? Cool! I never got lost in the windy desert because it all led to something new and exciting.

Weaknesses: The last puzzle was a bit to easy, it was well scripted, but just too easy. I can also say that being locked in a certain part of the map got a bit annoying because sometimes I knew that I had missed something and I wanted to go back but I couldn't find a way. When I got locked in the last part of the dmod I couldn't get any farther without the skill potions I had missed earlier. Also, I was low on health near the end with no know to get it back to full, so the boss had play time with me every time, because of that, I had to cheat my through the boss. The boss(I should say bossS) was nearly impossible for me since "they" practically took up the entire screen and I couldn't move or stand still without being stabbed in the face!

It may look this Dmod is entirely weaknesses, but the strengths overthrow the weaknesses by far since this game just never gets boring.

Download this Dmod if you like to see cool graphics, you like awesome music, or you want to have a good time. As a matter of fact... just download it, you won't be disappointed =D.
August 16th, 2003
v1.00
Score : 8.5 good
custom_simon.gif
SimonK
Peasant He/Him Australia
 
This is a good DMOD, even though it is a bit easy, and slightly repetative.

The best thing about it is the map design. There is great use of graphics from other dmods (some of them mine (scorpions[yellow, brown, red], cactii, crystals, red walls and church, glowing orbs, stonehenge blocks, mounds of skulls), some from others (modified desert tiles, necklaces, orbs, sunflowers, redink's new trees), or graphic packs (dink's club - this I didn't like as it didn't look like Dink actually held the club, although the club's movement was good)).

The desert is great, as it is a mixture of dry wasteland and these bountiful trees, all due to the magic of the place.

The biggest let down with the map is I didn't think there was enough interaction with some of the more colourful objects. As Redink pointed out not all things need scripts attached, but I would've put something on the graves (inscriptions) on the big war machines, some of the potion shelves and bookcases. And when was the library meant to be open? Maybe I should've checked more often, but I got tired of hearing the same response. If I get the same response more than 3 times I usually give up at the 5th or 6th time.

The gameplay is pretty well rock solid, but gets somewhat repetative. Even I get tired of just killing scorpions over and over again.

I didn't find any secrets as such.

You can't buy more weapons or health elixirs which I didn't like.

The only magic I got was fireball (maybe there was something in a secret that I didn't find, but no-one spoke of it, or dropped a clue about it which is always nice if there was such an area).

No bugs as such, although at one point Dink stopped obeying my key commands and kept trying to push the stonehenge blocks for about a minute - then he came good again.

Music - most of it annoyed me. I hate music that is just comprised of bad pop songs, if there was other music than this it got lost in the "gloria" and other crap I had to put up with.

Overall puzzle - a bit too easy, even with no clue about it as such at the puzzle itself (or even a command saying "Use the glowing orbs to enter the Scorpion Palace" - this little missing detail annoyed me) but if you explore a little bit you find all you need.

Overall 8.5 out of 10. Give it a go - if for the beautiful map work if for nothing else. It's great to walk around a new world that is well created.
November 8th, 2007
v1.00
Score : 7.2 good
dragon.gif
dinkomancer
Peasant He/Him Singapore
Man, I love Necrodragons.... 
I finally realised why they call it the "Blood" scorpions, at first I thought the scorpions were coloured in blood! But after playing the dmod, I realised why the name was given! A blood pool to spawn the scorpion was cool and the killed scorpion remains were, well bloody!
May 5th, 2006
v1.00
Score : 8.9 good
custom_marpro.png
Marpro
Peasant He/Him bloop
 
This was the first D-Mod I played after the main game.
And I enjoyed it very much!

Good: It was the first time I saw SCORPIONS and CLUB weapons
I liked the mini-games and the puzzles.

Not so good: I didn't like the music so much, and it wasn't so much exploring in this D-Mod, because the story just told you were to go.

Score: I'll give it a 8.9 and I recommend it to all who seek a funny and not to big D-Mod to play
June 14th, 2005
v1.00
Score : 8.7 good
dragon.gif
this D-mod is really nice, i love the club as a weapon!

Strengths:
well, i like the desert graphics, and the club, it's fun with all the types of scorpions that exist. many new graphics and midis, it nice with all secrets and puzzles.

weaknesses:
well, you can't buy much and story is like... eh... strange, because you mostly walk around in the desert and kill for information, no real subquests or anything, the end boss is just a scorpion as everything else, but for a while, woman...

well, a good D-mod, but not as good as "bane of the magi"
October 1st, 2004
v1.00
Score : 7.0 good
pq_water.gif
flood
Peasant He/Him New Zealand
 
This DMOD was ok it had a good storyline and great gameplay although the music didn't fit the game at all.
I realy liked the blood pools that created the scorpians and the savebots were in places where you could remember where they were.
Also it was good having the club as a weapon.
I would've marked this game higher if the music did fit.
June 22nd, 2004
v1.00
Score : 9.8 exceptional
spike.gif
AeSwE
Peasant He/Him
 
First of all, this is an awesome dmod

Story-
Basically you've come to "The Town Of The Anciens" to help out, because 3 magical orbs have been stolen which were used to protect the town
and they fear they will be attacked soon..

Strengths-
Awesome story, wonderful puzzles, except the last one which is very easy... not to many but plenty of hearts, but there not just lain out... you have to look, and use ur head to find them. i didnt find any bugs, no hardness errors, and it never froze on me once. the last fight was a little tuff, but very doable.(and I liked the training which was fun )

Weakness's-
the last puzzle which is way to easy.... kind of short, i dont know how long quest are supposed to take but this only took me 1 and 1/2 hours =[

~in short, awesome dmod i highly recommend it~
March 13th, 2004
v1.00
Score : 9.5 exceptional
wizard.gif
Very well designed graphics, easy to follow, could not find any bugs. I was disappointed on the limited access to certain areas that contained usefull items. Also the final boss was really hard, after 5 tries I had to install ultimate cheat to refill my life. Overall a great little DMOD.
February 23rd, 2004
v1.00
Score : 9.0 exceptional
milder.gif
Strengths:
-Good Scenery, creative use of torches for a puzzle, and I liked the cacti burning!
-Good Graphics, I liked the scorpions.
-Excellent end boss, never suspected a woman!
-Enjoyed the music, especially tracks "2" and "9".

Weaknesses/Spots to improve upon:
-Not to be a hypocrite, but the scenery wasn't "whole" enough, it didn't cover enough of the map, but good overall.
-Was a bit too short, was over too soon and suddenly.
-Couldn't buy from weapons shop.

Overall: Good, with only a few weak spots.

December 6th, 2003
v1.00
Score : 8.5 good
custom_king.png
redink1
King He/Him United States bloop
A mother ducking wizard 
After being pretty impressed with Once in a Lifetime and World of DinkC, I was looking forward to Blood Scorpions. For me, it ended up being a good quest.

Some sections of my review will contain spoilers, which are marked so you can easily skip by those sections if you desire.

Strengths:

The Look: As usual for a D-Mod by Simeon, the scenery is detailed quite well, and the overall look is just mesmerizing.

Gameplay: Overall, varied and good. You don't do the same thing over and over and over.

Sounds: Even though the Midi didn't play during the first town for quite a long stretch (which is inexplicable, and seems to be a bug with the Dink engine and not Simeon's fault), the Midi that did work fit the D-Mod pretty good.

Weaknesses: Quite a few things just didn't jive with me. Maybe its because I'm working on my own D-Mod quest at the moment, and I'm hypersensitive to elements I perceive as crucial to a D-Mod or something, I dunno. Most of these things are my own nitpicks, and probably don't affect anyone else.

Plot (SPOILER): It seems like Blood Scorpions is the middle act of a three act movie. Dink just suddenly appears in the Town of the Ancients, and decides to protect it? How did he get there? Why does he want to protect it? If he does it because he is noble, why does he then turn into a complete coward once the scorpions invade?

Overall: Blood Scorpions is a good quest, and you should download it and play it and have fun.
August 23rd, 2003
v1.00
Score : 8.9 good
old.gif
Kat
Peasant She/Her Canada
We can out-drink most Americans! 
Blood Scorpions v1.00 by Simeon

Pro's: A Good Dmod, with lot's of graphics and easy level ups. Some rather pointless small stories but no bugs that I could find, and lots of scorpions to kill.

Con's: What is with the lack of Red Hearts? The few I found were not needed at the moment, but when I went into a locked screen...no Red Hearts...also only one potion to help...accckkk.

Overall: Download it, and have fun playing it.