Post by Decoy Elite on Feb 15, 2011 3:12:58 GMT -5
So for this special webcomic review I'll be reviewing two webcomics, one that I despise and one that I love. We'll be starting with the one I hate first.
Order of the Stick.www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0775.html
Art: OoTS's entire gimmick is that all the characters are stick figures. You can guess what this means for the art quality. Yeah, OoTS definitely loses points right out of the gate for looking like crap. I understand it's a gimmick, but it's a horrible gimmick and no matter how often the comic lampshades it the characters still look like they were drawn by a freakin' 3 year old. But hey, I've always said that bad art doesn't get in the way of good characters so there's that.
Characters: Except all the characters are either idiotic clich és or unlikeable jerks, sometimes both. Seriously, I hate the cast of this comic. Maybe it's just me but the overused character traits and awful overly long dialog is just a pain to read. It seems like a bad version of 8-Bit Theater with the characters being mostly over the top, but unlike 8-Bit Theater OoTS doesn't really go too crazy(and thus is less funny for it) and the characters don't bounce off each other at all. Also, like 8-Bit Theater there's lots of talking, but unlike it's superior counterpart OoTS makes the mistake of not peppering the dialog with lots of small jokes.
Plot: The plot to OoTS is the standard fantasy type plot taken strait from any game ever. It's nothing new and it's not played up for laughs so there's really nothing to comment on.
Overall OoTS is not the worst webcomic ever, but it is still crap in my opinion. It's a Dungeons and Dragons parody though, so it could be that i'm just not really getting all the "in" jokes so if you're a D and D fan and you can stand looking at stick figures then you might want to check it out.
Now onto a review where I try to not be an insane fanboy for a few minutes.
Homestuckwww.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6
Art: Art wise Homestuck is a big upgrade from Problem Sleuth, now featuring full color even when the characters are in their "basic" state. It's still pretty stylized, but the main cast is noticeably more human looking. Homestuck's most noticeable art feature is it's shifting art style. Most of the time the characters are drawn in a basic style, allowing for quick updates and such. It's not bad to look at, but it's not really the most actiony looking art. So as the comic progresses the art tends to shift at times mostly changing with the tone of any given moment. It can be simplistic and fun looking during the more adventure type bits or dark and stylized during dramatic moments. The shifting style is actually a very good idea given that it really gets a reader used to seeing different styles during the comic, so when the author enlists the help of other artist for the bombastic video moments, the different styles mesh better than they would if the comic had one big consistent style.
Characters: Homestuck starts out with a relatively small cast that grows quite a bit as the comic goes, so there's a lot of versatility in the cast. Some characters are fun and likable, some are honestly horribly unlikable, and some seem to be just pure joke characters. Really, there's a character for everyone and there's not much to complain about, except for the fact that some characters do get ignored development wise while others that are not very likable(one character in particular comes to mind) are developed quite a bit more. It's important to note that the characters actually "talk" in Homestuck unlike the silent protagonists from Problem Sleuth. They talk via chat logs, so understanding the characters requires reading a lot of text. Overall I'd say it's well worth it, but if you're the sort that dislikes large amounts of text, this may be a big blaring issue that could honestly ruin the comic.
Plot: The plot to Homestuck is an ever expanding mass that I can't even begin to explain without spoiling the whole thing. It's an interesting story to say the least and is one of the few plots I've seen the balances comedy and drama rather well.
Homestuck is a very good comic, but it definitely has it's issues that could be real breakers for possible readers. There's a large amount of text even without the character conversations, and while it is peppered with lots of humor it's still a lot of reading. The first act is big on this, and some latter acts really go crazy with this at times. The comedy, when present is mostly the silly fun kind of comedy and thus really doesn't click with everyone. All I can really say recommendation wise is that if you can get through the first act of Homestuck, then you should be able to enjoy the comic.
Oh and both these comics have huge achieves, so yeah, there's that for both of them.
Order of the Stick.www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0775.html
Art: OoTS's entire gimmick is that all the characters are stick figures. You can guess what this means for the art quality. Yeah, OoTS definitely loses points right out of the gate for looking like crap. I understand it's a gimmick, but it's a horrible gimmick and no matter how often the comic lampshades it the characters still look like they were drawn by a freakin' 3 year old. But hey, I've always said that bad art doesn't get in the way of good characters so there's that.
Characters: Except all the characters are either idiotic clich és or unlikeable jerks, sometimes both. Seriously, I hate the cast of this comic. Maybe it's just me but the overused character traits and awful overly long dialog is just a pain to read. It seems like a bad version of 8-Bit Theater with the characters being mostly over the top, but unlike 8-Bit Theater OoTS doesn't really go too crazy(and thus is less funny for it) and the characters don't bounce off each other at all. Also, like 8-Bit Theater there's lots of talking, but unlike it's superior counterpart OoTS makes the mistake of not peppering the dialog with lots of small jokes.
Plot: The plot to OoTS is the standard fantasy type plot taken strait from any game ever. It's nothing new and it's not played up for laughs so there's really nothing to comment on.
Overall OoTS is not the worst webcomic ever, but it is still crap in my opinion. It's a Dungeons and Dragons parody though, so it could be that i'm just not really getting all the "in" jokes so if you're a D and D fan and you can stand looking at stick figures then you might want to check it out.
Now onto a review where I try to not be an insane fanboy for a few minutes.
Homestuckwww.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6
Art: Art wise Homestuck is a big upgrade from Problem Sleuth, now featuring full color even when the characters are in their "basic" state. It's still pretty stylized, but the main cast is noticeably more human looking. Homestuck's most noticeable art feature is it's shifting art style. Most of the time the characters are drawn in a basic style, allowing for quick updates and such. It's not bad to look at, but it's not really the most actiony looking art. So as the comic progresses the art tends to shift at times mostly changing with the tone of any given moment. It can be simplistic and fun looking during the more adventure type bits or dark and stylized during dramatic moments. The shifting style is actually a very good idea given that it really gets a reader used to seeing different styles during the comic, so when the author enlists the help of other artist for the bombastic video moments, the different styles mesh better than they would if the comic had one big consistent style.
Characters: Homestuck starts out with a relatively small cast that grows quite a bit as the comic goes, so there's a lot of versatility in the cast. Some characters are fun and likable, some are honestly horribly unlikable, and some seem to be just pure joke characters. Really, there's a character for everyone and there's not much to complain about, except for the fact that some characters do get ignored development wise while others that are not very likable(one character in particular comes to mind) are developed quite a bit more. It's important to note that the characters actually "talk" in Homestuck unlike the silent protagonists from Problem Sleuth. They talk via chat logs, so understanding the characters requires reading a lot of text. Overall I'd say it's well worth it, but if you're the sort that dislikes large amounts of text, this may be a big blaring issue that could honestly ruin the comic.
Plot: The plot to Homestuck is an ever expanding mass that I can't even begin to explain without spoiling the whole thing. It's an interesting story to say the least and is one of the few plots I've seen the balances comedy and drama rather well.
Homestuck is a very good comic, but it definitely has it's issues that could be real breakers for possible readers. There's a large amount of text even without the character conversations, and while it is peppered with lots of humor it's still a lot of reading. The first act is big on this, and some latter acts really go crazy with this at times. The comedy, when present is mostly the silly fun kind of comedy and thus really doesn't click with everyone. All I can really say recommendation wise is that if you can get through the first act of Homestuck, then you should be able to enjoy the comic.
Oh and both these comics have huge achieves, so yeah, there's that for both of them.
