Reviews - TheUnbeholden

Game Review on Feb 28th, 2013

If adventure games died, then this is really not helping things.. it reminds me why. The puzzles are unintuitive and only have 1 solution (of which are abstract naturally) so you spend a long time in one room trying to figure what order to ******** you have to do.
The game offers I think 2 hints throughout, but what it needs is better puzzles and more solutions (sensible ones).
Controls are ***, I would so love to swap the mouse buttons around and fix the damn super mouse sensitivity. The storyline is about as involving as staring at one room can give. You have some weird hallucinations and ghostly visions but seriously, to get to the good stuff you have to wade through the gameplay. Not worth it. And yes there are some nice visuals in the beginning but that doesn't last.

Mod Review on Feb 26th, 2013

No review provided

Mod Review on Feb 26th, 2013

It was a pretty creepy and well designed, although there was a overload of doors and not enough connection between them. A well designed area is one that make sense in the way it was built, this has little. The scares are good and theres not to many. The scares are good and well paced out. I also like having to find something else for a change then just keys, so it delivers for that. Theres some good new music to.
It relies mostly on this and being a decent length.

Mod Review on Feb 24th, 2013

I have to admit, the mod is one of the best I've seen. There is a lot of detail to level design & theres more sciency kind of puzzles which are good for the most part but some are way to obtuse as to what you need to do (its very meticulously as to what order you can do it).
Although its got some really annoying parts, like when the game takes away your lantern oil... and doesn't give it back. Unrealistic & punishes you for exploring and finding oil which is already rare.
The mod has issues with being very pendantic about how to solve the puzzles but it fixed these issues through patches.

The mod does great things like readables, storyline, new monsters and some good music. Its very long and provides a tense atmosphere with well placed enemies, it doesn't use jump scares probably because the mod is so well designed it would seem out of place. Its no surprise it drawns on real historical figures and the like.

Mod Review on Feb 23rd, 2013

Words cannot describe, play it yourself!

Game Review on Feb 22nd, 2013

The series feels like its going downhill, while the characters seem stronger than before (with decent dialogue and good facial animations), the story feels move contrived then ever. In the last game I was willing to let it slide that the colony was able to recreate a alien marker (sophisticated alien technology of which has a genetic/artificial construct with a alien intelligence?), Clarke's role is shoe horned in and feels like its just squeezing the last drops of toothpaste.
Storyline goes into comical routes that I won't spoil here. It like previous games mostly relies on mystery to make the story interesting but when the reveals come they are forgettable.
The aliens no longer try to scare you, before it was repetitive scare after scare but here they never jump up while "appearing" to be dead, now they just run at you as soon as you enter the room.
The enemies themselves aren't as scary, theres a greater variety here and the uniqueness of their design has been stretched thin. Theres no hallucinations or subtle use of sounds, Issac seems pretty cool and calm the few times crazy stuff goes down.
Visceral games seem to have given up on horror.
While weapon customization a big plus (engineering skills put to the test) but its universal ammo system pretty much makes running out of ammo a impossibility thus weakening a big aspect of survival part of the horror.

There are co-op only levels which really boils me, why this tailoring to the casual gaming crowd?
The cover based shooting that lasts about 30 minutes or so about an hour into the game is a very small part of the game but feels tact on and out of place (and a very short sequence near the end).
Its not a natural extension of the combat which was all about being tackled by aliens, curbstomping, meleeing and cutting off limbs. Having no place to hide, here you have convenient walls to duck behind behind. Lame attempt to attract a broader crowd.

Mod Review on Feb 21st, 2013

It seems to have some really predictable ghost scares it borrows from the movies of grudge and the like. Its environment feels new but then gets old fast, its also implausible scenario, if your player feels in danger he would have left the house already. You can clearly walk right of the side door of the house with nothing but the veranda baluster in the way... because the new monster has no animations its in its character default position so you never see it move. Instead you fight the same brute and waterguardian as before. Its storyline doesn't offer much with a kind of ridiculous ending... but has a moderate length and new music.

Mod Review on Feb 21st, 2013

The pacing is wonderful I think it manages to make the scares (when the come) that much more suspensful especially with the new monsters and unique looking environments, excellent length, and even the puzzles felt more natural. Although I did backtrack a bit around the middle part. I ended up liking ever bit of though regardless. The voice acting from our protagonist was pretty good. There was even corpses of humans in gas masks, and 3 monsters that are oddly familiar (very ingenious use of those models by the way! the animations where impressive).
The story was interesting and kept me engaged. Although I felt that one of the new monsters was a bit to slow moving, though it does make sense in its case. The monster encounters where for the most part, excellent.
The wife's voice acting was a bit painful to listen to.
The ending was a bit of a let down (pretty much the word predictable).
I'll be awaiting new things from these guys!

Mod Review on Feb 18th, 2013

No review provided

Mod Review on Feb 17th, 2013

This uses the stereotpypical jump scares although it brings a bit more to the table than average custom story. The level design feels more fresh, not to mention it has KindomHearts music so its got style.
It's not nearly as refined as Tenebris Lake but its got this kind of out place" shop system, where you find thalers and then buy out of 4 items. It doesn't seem like theres any logically reason as to why a shop is there or why the shop keeper is a monster with a russian ushanka, I guess its more a cheesy joke, its similar to the reference to Boris that we see in Tenebris Lake. Actually the out of place models is the same for the "guy" you find that explains to what is happening (hes obviously the naked man model). Its the kind of custom story that could have used more custom content if anyone had managed to make clothing wearing models.
Theres also an issue where you use the crate right nearby to the gate thats malfunctioning to block it, which causes it to become impossible to pass. You actually have to use a pipe further way to block the gate. A few people will end up having to reload a much older save.
There are unique parts like the jumping puzzle, maze but then theres the rod puzzle which was a bit to obtuse (as to where to put them, not obvious, I swear I even tried putting a rod one once and it didn't work :/).