Reviews - The Curse of Blackwater

So I liked this game. During protagonist cannot fight with monsters (what I don't like) it gives atmosphere of insecurity like in Penumbra and Amnesia. We should search doors' keys, solve quests.

The game has little story. Story isn't originality. 'Cause game isn't intrresting.

Monsters are scary and look like dead space's enemies.

Unity Engine looks like... I can't explained how it looks like.

There's a certain level of disappointment when you see a indie game that has very little story, and straight up rips elements from other more popular games. Unfortunately, The Curse of Blackwater is this kind of game. The entire design is stock, only using a couple of jumpscares, and one patrolling monster AI that looks exactly like a necromorph monster from Deadspace.

There's a classic saying, that when a game doesn't pull you in with either its story or originality, the game stops being a game and becomes labor instead. However, I wouldn't judge a game this harshly if it wasn't for the fact that this is a product you have to pay ten dollars for, while there are free games and even Amnesia custom stories on the internet that are way better designed than this game.

I can only hope that the creators are learning from their mistakes, and take on the advice and tips from the indie community.

The Curse of Blackwater is the type of horror game that is original and unoriginal at the same time. The whole portal device that brought the monsters is cool however they're copied from other horror games like Fear or Dead Space, especially the Research Labs necromorph. Atmosphere is spot-on in this game. Some jumpscares are good, some are bad but who cares, it's just a little game. Worth playing.

Positives:

- Scary, at least at first

Negatives:

- Severe bug
- Storyline is very underdeveloped
- Very repetitive puzzles

Level design: 4/10

I know the game is a few years old, but even by 2013 standards, the maps are so basic and so small. Textures are often low-res even on ultra settings. At least the maps have fog and particle effects in them and the layout is simple and easy to navigate in.

Story: 3/10

Minimal effort to the story. I found like 2 notes mentioning some kind of portal. That's it. That's basically the plot. I guess it's less cliché than your typical zombie outbreak plot, but it's very underdeveloped.

Puzzles: 4/10

Some variations from time to time, but you will be searching for keys a lot. I would often find keys for a door that's right next to the key, and in that room is another key to a cabinet and in the cabinet is yet another key. Where is the creativity?

Music and atmosphere: 5/10

Scary in the first half of the game. Then it turned to a mix of scary and silly (check the bugs & flaws section further down).

Creativity: 2/10

Maps are very basic, has a cliché ghost girl enemie, the other enemies are basically rip-offs and 90% of the quests are "look for the keys".

Bugs & Flaws: 3/10

The AI is really bad in this game. The second monster is so big that it often glitches through walls and ceilings. I was standing on the second floor and could see its claws going through the floor.

Several instances of me trying to pick up items, but not being able to. Or I was able to, but only at the "correct" angle.

Sometimes, notes could be read several times, sometimes I could only read a note once and then the interaction key for the note didin't work.

Doors close unrealistically fast. I actually "jumped" of fear because of these damn doors more than the actual scares. Sometimes doors would open and close again for some reason, even though I only clicked once. Maybe the doors close if something is in the way, I have no idea.

In the last level, the monster showed up once. After that, it walked straight to a corner and got stuck there. I never encountered it after that introduction.

Conclusion:

I saw a review on the game's store page saying "This is scarier than Amnesia". That is the biggest ******** lie I have ever heard. I understand subjective opinions, but the reviewer did not write "I think" or "For me, this was scarier than amnesia", he/she flat out said "This is scarier than Amnesia". No, it's not. Not by a long shot.

It was scary the first two maps, but bugs, rip-off monsters and lame jumpscares quickly destroyed the atmosphere. I don't understand why most people can't make a horror game with a good story, puzzles and atmosphere. It is possible, there are games like that out there.

The score is barely a 4. The score I got when calculating everything was 3.5. I got this for free thanks to a friend of mine and I thank him for that. I would not want to spend even 5 bucks on a game that I completed in 1.5 hour, and doesn't have much creativity to show.

4/10 - Okay

The game was too short, almost as short as The Arrival. Contained little effort, even for an indie game. Even the main menu uses Unity default buttons. All the monsters except for the little girl look stolen, and the little girl didn't have any animations at all, what's up with that? Tons of errors with textures, like the backs of doors being reversed with the front of the door's textures. Wacky controls. Pausing continued the music, so I couldn't pause if I needed to for any reason. I didn't pay the ten dollars, and i'm glad. If I were Marc, i'd open source the project and let someone with desire to fix it.

This is a very good indie game! There are so many indie games that try to go for horror but just fall flat on their *****. This game did good for the teams 2nd game! Good job DP! Unfortunately, this game has very little story, not many good scares, and the monster AI I don't even want to get into. The gameplay was mainly ripped from other games as in "You need a number of this to continue", "You need a key for that door", and so forth. Gameplay was exactly what I would expect from a typical Slender styled indie game: Flashlight, forever sprint, well, you get what I mean. But I am glad these guys are really trying to make something we can all enjoy, but for 10 bucks, this wasn't all too worth it. It was indeed a good game nonetheless, and I would recommend it to any fan of horror games!

The gameplay is fluent for the most part, the research lab levels are the most enjoyable parts of the game. However, the end stage monster's agro is too high. I get Marc wants the final boss to be hard and likes challenging his players (i.e. Slender Carnival) but since it's hard to detect the monster, it will never stop chasing you, and often times the chase music will play after the chase is over, the Sewer level is too hard for the game. This is a big improvement on using the Unity engine after the recent Slenderman's Shadow release. So, the hospital part is the scariest, the research labs are challenging but very enjoyable, and while the last level is flawed it is still okay.

Extremely atmospheric and well executed. As a first title and two man collaboration, it is very impressive and extremely fun to play. If you haven't, go Greenlight these guys on steam so they can hopefully find some additional success and move on to even better titles.

I might be over-critical about this review. Keep in mind this is my opinion.

First, this game have a creepy atmosphere. The game starts to decline when reach the research labs, because of the story clearly explaining on what is going on or why you are here. The only monster i was crept out by was the little girl but the second monster i swear look like a necromorph from dead space. The mechanics are kind of weird. You cannot crouch, and your "lantern" is a flashlight in a cloak because the beam of light and the batteries in the game. After a while the game gets repetitive with the collection mechanic. Overall, I moderately enjoyed this game and got me a few times with the jumpscares and such but I feel it was not worth the $10.

A very scary game that as previously said, is way scarier than Amnesia. In the first level of the hospital that little girl creepy up on is terrifying and trying to dodge the monster from that level on is heart-in-your-mouth stuff. A really good game that really must not be played before bed time!