Reviews - KiraImmortal

Releasing your first mod comes with the difficulty of entering the TDD scene at this stage.
What I've said in the earlier release still holds true:

You had quite a couple of things going for this from the technical perspective:

- Usage of custom assets and even a custom monster!
- Music and general ambience in the levels
- Puzzles besides key quests
- Narration, intro, some smaller cutscenes
- Possible ending choices

The new version still lacks a kind of favorable atmosphere often, levels are often extremely short with basic details, and the quality of most things like the voice acting stayed the same. I however highly appreciated the quality of life changes such as autosaves and such.

I wouldn't say Remastered fully lives up to the title, let's call it an enchanced version, but you truly put your heart into this and it deserves a 6.5/10 (rounded up) for all your efforts as a first timer.

I hope we can see something new from you in the future, as you proved to be able to stick to what you make, and I'd like to see how you handle better lit, more atmospheric environments next!

I replayed some custom levels of my own with this, there were only some minor visual issues I noticed but they could have come from the texture pack I was using alongside.

Very nice job, thank you for your work!

Enjoyable "little" first mod!

The design is nice overall, lighting and atmosphere could use a bit of work, but good looking all in all. I have seen creative usage of original assets in a lot of places, and nice merging of different assetbases occasionally. There are areas with tension, only held back by the one and only monster used constantly, so the player knows what to expect. Surprisingly expansive for a starter project too.

- Mentioned length though is a bit excessive for how much you encounter the same monster.
- Moreover, the mod lacks any cohesive player motive or direction, puzzles are mostly loose reiterations of the original game's as well.
- Story is also completely missing!
- Ending is a bit resource heavy, particles should be toned down or activated/destroyed via script (especially the rain that can only be seen outside).
-The thing I least liked are the overly highlighted puzzle items with white, I recommend using candle or natural light sources next time for such purposes!

In consideration to all of the above, this is a nice experience for the most part however. Kudos for the inclusion of hidden resources, only a tad too much tinderboxes in the levels. Definitely want to see where you go from here, will be on the lookout for future project announcements.

7/10, good job!

This was a decent start. Nice level design and atmosphere to befit such a melancholic story. However there are quite a few details that need to be pointed out that broke the immersion in what otherwise could have been a much better experience with a higher rating.

Pros (especially commendable for a first mod):
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+ Level Design
+ Atmosphere
+ Nice details in some places
+ Usage of custom assets
+ Fitting music

Cons (going into more detail for future improvements):
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- The player movement is majorly impeded, the intention must be to provide a slower, narrated experience, when in reality it feels like a forceful drag. Changing BOTH move and runspeed to 0.8/0.7 would perfectly do the trick for gameplay and would still keep an accurate feeling for the player character's state.
- No puzzles besides key quests, which is the number 1 first mod mistake. The description promised the player to find keepsakes, but other than notes and some paintings in the environment nothing interactive was provided.
- Barely any cutscenes or events, which would fit a short narrated story very well.
- Despite using some custom assets, many are packed alongside the mod that end up being unused, needlessly increasing the download size.
- The story itself could use a lot of refinement, and I'm opening a whole section for this.

Story problems / suggestions:
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- Even after the proofreading there are some grammar and sentence casting mistakes, and the text in poem-like notes is often truncated in a bad way.
- The voice acting doesn't feel immersive at all
- The emphasis about sadness is put on drinking and smoking a lot, and addressing the lost sister countless times in similar ways, instead of more thorough feelings a person experiences in such a situation. A few brief notes address self pity and loneliness in a makeshift way however.
- More background should have been provided about the characters' past so players can better relate or feel touched by their fate.
- Being russian yourself, more such environmental details and local folklore could be added to aid the story's depth.

Wish you the best of luck for future endeavours, or even any updates related to this one. Feel free to hit me up for more suggestions regarding such efforts! You definitely have potential, and tackling a story-focused experience for the first time is definitely a risky and difficult task!

A brief concept that piques some interest. It's of course very short and has only a few tasks to do before it ends, while showing decent design and detail in some areas, and average in the rest. Monster encounters were nothing much, but fit the area as it was. Ending was a bit abrupt and unrefined, yet things still came to a conclusion. I liked the readables on the other hand, nice micro lore that isn't hard to follow.

I'd really like to see what the author does with a more ambitious project of similar aesthetic. For something as small, this was worth trying out, and depicts a good road forward. 6/10, good luck on your plans for the future!

I remember rating this, but alas I was mistaken.

After extensively testing this in the past, now even on recent Steam version, and providing update ideas along the way, I can say this is a super useful source modification many projects could take advantage of.

Only downside being the missing support for FBX meaning the AMFP pigs/gent/maid etc. models, but it is not the author's wrongdoing, so a full score is deserved!

A colossal story that took me many years to realize I've never finished..

In today's standards especially, there are many things to be nitpicky about:
- The story has some shortcomings with its average english, not so innovative concept and several things being connected in a makeshift way.
- Many puzzles only involve unnecessarily hidden objects in plain sight, and vague clues, if any.
- Design, even to the creation's age's standards is average. There are some nice details here and there, weird innovations and some creative fantasy locations. But more often it's just monotonous, overly large and very mazelike structures.
- Mixed scary encounters, varying from very cheap jumpscares to environments with tension.
- Sound design also ranges from the actually unsettling to the cringy section.

Yet, undeniably, this has insane work input. It fits together well in general, and is definitely a good upgrade on the previous episodes. Probably not one of my favourite mods, yet it's definitely one of the more impressive ones.

If I would have only rated how engaging it felt like playing this in 2023 with so many more advanced mods around, this rating would have gone into the 7-8 territory. However I can tell how much of a passion project this was, and as a fellow modder how much time this must have taken to complete. I had a fun (and LONG) time overall, despite the issues. For these facts above, it deserves a 9/10.

The greatest hybrid of Crash Bandicoot and Amnesia to date. The true Dark Souls were the friends we made along the way.

Honestly, this was pretty great. From your modding portfolio so far, while there are more technically advanced episodes, this one has the best variety and monster encounters. Nice custom assets here and there too!

+ I remember this mod while still being on Amnesia, it has an oldschool TDD-Penumbra vibe on it for sure, and honestly for the better!

Puzzles weren't too complex but sometimes nicely diverted from the simple key/whatever quests. Difficulty was sorta easy sometimes, but I'd take this any day over your confusing / maze designs any day.

The platforming department again had some nice parts like the gravity section, the only one I disliked was the cave where raising the gamma was necessary because I fell to my death multiple times due to the fact you put down blockboxes to avoid shortcuts, and the limited visibility. Not cool, at least you should have given back the flashlight before this section :D

Really the only major lacking point here, is that the story wasn't much and it didn't develop at all, and some lacking details in specific areas. But considering this is probably one of your earlier creations, I truly recommend this and it deserves a solid 7.5/10.

If I were you, I'd collect these into a collection on Steam or even a collective page here, so you can put them in story / quality order, as it seems to me there are some connections between mods, but I'm really going at these at random at this point in time.

The monster in itself is worth a thumbs up already :D