In case you have any problems with this giveaway, please post details in this thread. Someone will try to get back to you and hopefully solve any problems you may be having with the game.
Installation
Sawoid was created by Stars Ashes, the developer who also created two other familiar breakouts called Egyptoid and Egyptoid 2, as well as a shooter called Incinerate. All have been given away previously and are now available for free via Gametop, as is today’s game. :). Sawoid was previously given away last summer on July 4th where it received a positive 47% out of 213 votes with 35 comments which you can read via the following link:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/sawoid/#comments
You will need to click on the view all comments link to see all the comments. Don’t let the low number of positives put you off this game. It’s actually a well-made breakout with decent graphics, released about 2 years ago. The download size is 14.3Mb very slightly smaller than the previous time it was given away. The game unpacks to a dual setup and activation module and a read me file. There is no activation code required as it is automatically activated via the dual activation/setup module. When installed the game expands to 25.2Mb. The default installation path is:
C:\games\Sawoid
There is no shortcut installed nor a start menu shortcut. If you're not sure how to create the latter, there's a short tutorial available in the game discussion forums. You'll find it easily as it's in the stickies on the front page of the gaming forum.
The game works on Win XP Pro 32 bit, win Vista Home Premium 64 bit and Home Basic 32 bit and Win 7 Pro and Ultimate 64 bit. (These are just the iterations that I personally have, the game should work on all iterations)
Introduction:
You volunteered to be assigned to the VIOLATOR ship. Your objective is to conduct a raid into enemy territory and destroy the troop supplies. For this particular long-term mission away from the supply ship, the scientists have developed Sawoid, a totally new type of armament not requiring resupplying! Nothing can stand the wrecking Sawoid; however, there is one shortcoming, Sawoid is hard to control!
Good luck, private!
reference accessed http://starsashes.com/sawoid.html 1st July 2010
The Game:
There’s not a lot you can say about a breakout/arkanoid that most community members won’t already know, so I’ll try and keep this short. I’ll describe the features I found in Sawoid before writing a brief conclusion to the game.
The most striking difference between sawoid and most other breakouts is that sawoid doesn’t have a ball; instead it has circular saws. You get three lives to start with, but can easily build these up to several lives as there are a generous number of bonus lives available. Otherwise it’s a typical 3D breakout with average looking graphics. The game has 20 bonuses that include ball and bat changers, additional lives, bombs, a magnet, armour, different types of cannon and four different types of sawoids as well as a few other bonuses.
You can change the games resolution if needed to one of several choices via the options menu. There’s also the usual sound and music sliders, a windowed toggle and the ability to turn on improved lighting. I’ve posted a couple of screenshots to illustrate the difference between the advanced lighting and no lighting.
When you complete a level the level scrolls onto the next level as though you are in a ship. There are three difficulty settings. On medium I found the sawoid was a little too slow for me unless I picked up the speed up bonus a couple of times. You’ll find gun emplacements, and moving ships that fire back at you. When you start a level your ship has 100% armour. If you get hit by the pulse cannons or missiles you’ll lose 5% of your armour by each hit. They fire dual cannons so this can result in a 10% loss depending where you are in relation to the incoming shots; however, there are armour bonuses that are quite common, though most armour bonuses give only 1% armour back.
Thankfully there are three or four different sizes of armour bonus available. There is a damage indicator to the bottom right of the playing area. Some of the gun emplacements and ships are protected from damage when hit from the front. To destroy these you need to use your guns or hit them from behind.
You don’t get unlimited ammo with the guns and lasers, so you need to use these sensibly. I counted about 30 shots, which is ample to do a significant amount of damage to the level in terms of destruction.
When you are left with only a few bricks they are automatically destroyed by powerful lasers. All bonuses apart from new lives are lost when you move on to a new level, though any damage to your ships armour is automatically repaired.
No Lighting
With Lighting
Comparison between no lighting and advanced lighting:
Images:
You can see lots of images of Sawoid as a slideshow HERE
Conclusion:
I found the default speed of the sawoid too slow, and therefore too easy to win; (though I have played a lot of breakouts regularly for years so could be considered an expert) However you can pick up speed ups which when set can increase the sawoid speed to a more challenging level. However if you are a novice to this genre of games I’m sure the speed of the sawoid is fine. :) I’m a little biased over this issue because arkanoids/breakouts are one of my favourite arcade genres.
Another problem for me was the bat. It was mounted on two arms that took it a significant way into the level (see image above). You can see from this that it protrudes about an eighth of the total depth of the playing arena. I rarely lose balls (or in this case saws) when playing breakouts but lost a significant number in this game despite me finding it easy. This occurred more often when the saws came at you in an acute angle as it was hard to judge where the saw was in relation to the bat. I would suggest the developer adds the ability to choose different sizes of bat at the beginning of the game to counter this problem or change the bat style altogether.
Compared to the 200 plus arkanoids/breakouts that I’ve owned over the many years that the first breakout was created by Taito Corps I’d give this one a 7 out of 10 for decent game play and graphics. It’s not the best, but is playable and better than most free breakouts that are available.
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Similar Games available for free
You'll find loads of Arkanoid/breakouts via the following links:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2607#post-17584
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/4534#post-48404
http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/fbreakout.html (169 games)
You can also download today’s game every day for free http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/sawoid/, though you will get your browser opening every time you shut the game down. Thankfully this is one of the games they have had for quite some time so there’s no tool bar or home page tick boxes to bother with.
