Reviews - The_Furfather

Overall enjoyable. Some of the level design was pretty lackluster/linear, but certainly not the worst I've seen. Some areas were neat, mind you.

The story is okay, but the voice acting could really use some work.

As for the notes, I'd recommend getting someone to peer review the dialogue, as there are countless typos and grammar issues. Maybe work on the delivery of certain clues.

There were several bugs I've experienced over the course of the story that could be addressed:

- Lantern no longer working in certain areas
- Incomplete substance(lead) was somehow left in inventory during creation of vaccine
- Certain locations breaking on load. (One instance was loading the mines area, grabbing the hammer, and attempting to use it on the boards - Couldn't break the boards as intended)
- Managed to run both fail/success scripts when configuring the 4 slides (Got the fail message and the blue highlight)
- Leftover mementos left unhandled

*Please include a walkthrough in the files. Not everyone will use it, but it's a courtesy that is greatly appreciated.

Pros:

- Huge custom story
- Interesting-looking areas

Cons:

- Somewhat obscure locations for key items without notification
- Repetitive/reused puzzles
- Cheap jumpscares
- Abrupt ending (you'll have to wait for the next bit)

Looking forward to seeing the next one. Hopefully parts of this review will reflect some changes in the next CS.

Upon loading saves (my own/CS autosaves), events weren't activating and key items weren't allowed to be used as intended.

In order to finish this custom story (which I finally did), I had to beat it from start to finish without stopping. If I was stuck in geometry/other hiccups in the Amnesia engine, I had to start over to avoid this.

The update seemed to simplify things (mostly removing keys and encounters), and the majority of the puzzles weren't all that impressive. Level design was alright, ranging from decent to above average. In future, I would avoid forcing players to advance (I'm referring to the personal chambers), as it takes away from the feeling of having choice. It'd be better to rely on mementos if you feel that hints are necessary in order to progress, if that's the issue.

As for the voice acting:
- Terrible audio quality -> Invest in a better mic

- I understand that it is not on a professional level. Therefore, by attempting to add voice acting without the ability to do it well drags down the overall quality of the story, making it difficult for the player to feel immersed/drawn into your CS.

Honestly, it'd be better to completely remove it and leave it as text, avoiding extra details involving emotion(screaming, crying, etc.) in the subtitles. Under this circumstance, the player, if they care about the plot of the CS, should be able to form their own emotions by following the plot, reading every note to piece it together, if need be.

The horrifying experience: I didn't feel like I was in any immediate danger, and there weren't really many events that built suspense/really pinned me into quick-thinking situations.

I have played quite a few custom stories. This is also the first custom story I've ever given a 10 on. Bravo!

My playthrough, should anyone be interested: Twitch.tv

In my honest opinion, this is simply amazing. The level design, the suspense building, some of the puzzles - everything was very well done. Especially the voice acting. Usually, that is the one aspect that reduces the score I assign. So, I was really impressed by this.

It is highly recommended that anyone who hasn't played this custom story to go and do so. I sincerely hope to see more of your/your group's efforts, whether it be in Amnesia: The Dark Descent or Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

Very nice work!

Really well done, overall. The only real thing that stood out is that the voice acting still needs improvement, save for one of the voices which was very believable.

Slightly linear in certain areas, and it does seem to lead you around by the nose on occasion. I would try to avoid this.

The other aspects of evaluation, especially level design were phenomenal. Brilliant. I look forward to any other custom stories you/your group produce. Keep it up!

Excellent work. There's a lot more detail I could go into, but I'll keep this one short. I was pleased, and I look forward to any other custom story you release.

Very nicely done. Didn't have many issues on my first playthrough. I did enjoy some of the puzzles, though I do encourage implementing puzzles that weren't in vanilla Amnesia. Some did exist in this CS, but I look forward to more creative puzzles, ones that require a deeper amount of thought. The atmosphere and level of encounters (choice locations for encounters or lack thereof)did keep me on my toes.

The only thing I would suggest avoiding is using maps from other exiting CS's, as those who have played the other CS's will be familiar with those areas. It's content people have already seen, and we look forward to seeing things we haven't, especially when a great amount of detail is thrown into it!

Overall, I would most certainly look forward to another CS from you. I'll be sure to go through the other possible endings when I have the chance.

Excellent work on this one. Running through the different environments was a new experience. Though, I would like to address a couple of small issues, as well as a tip to those who may have been stuck during the 'large' world.

First off, bumping into invisible walls during the snow area was a bit frustrating, so I would recommend beefing it up with more foliage, etc. to make it a bit more obvious that I can't progress in a certain direction.

Secondly, cleaning up the mementos as they are fulfilled would be a nice feature.

Third, autosaving during regular intervals

Lastly (this may concern others in regards to making it through the large world), some objects that float in the water of the big world - you cannot land on. The reason I had been stuck: Once I fell through a particular object, I labelled any similar objects as invisible. This, however, was not the case. Trial and error will prove that. The big world was cool, but it's hard to tell where to go, sometimes. You have to feel around for climb events.

Pretty decent custom story.

A few things you may want to look out for:

- paintings in kitchen are either floating/ embedded in wall

- storage enemies could be 'zoned' (I could leave the area immediately upon encounters, thus removing them upon exit - perhaps look into locking the player in storage and throw another key into the workroom to leave? You might have to make the entire area bigger, so the enemies could still leave/ player could navigate around patrols)

- workroom jump-scare sound was really lame

- warehouse key? Did I miss extra content where that key was supposed to be used?

Other than that, level design was okay, spelling/grammar on notes was decent and readable overall. Keep up the good work. I look forward to more stories from you.

Level design was very lackluster. Rooms were bare, there was somehow lighting in hallways with no windows, water was somehow contained in one area when the floor was the same level as the rest of this 'house'(should have had a step downward or something to make it believable). I could see underneath the layer of water.

Perhaps I didn't play through it all, as I couldn't figure out where to progress after the first encounter at the top of the stairs. There were no doors left from what I could tell, other than the room on the left. I had been backtracking for at least 10 minutes with a key I had already used that was still in my inventory. Hey, if that was intentional and the key has multiple uses, congrats, as that has never been done in any of the custom stories I've played. If not, shame on you.

Anyways, I wasn't really impressed with the first one, or this one. I hope to see a vast improvement in the level design in future releases.

It needs a lot of work, as there seem to be many bugs, such as dresser drawers through walls, programmed events not executing correctly, wall and floor anomalies, etc. The autosaving is a bonus, though. Necessary, I might add. The voice acting is...Terrible. Well, the male voice actor, anyway. The female actor was livable.

The biggest problem I had was the plot. It makes it seem like you're trying to avoid death, or consequently, you ACTUALLY die... However, there were two instances where you are forced to die in order to progress. :\

I would highly recommend throwing a 'bad end' upon death, if feasible, and taking out the forced deaths, if the plot is sticking with the whole 'you die, you DIE' motif. Additionally, you may want to 'clean' your map of bugs, etc. Should this happen, I could probably grit my teeth at the voiced dialogue in the next chapter and play it, if it is released.

I look forward to the improvements, should they happen.