Lunar Descent is an action-adventure game, set on the Xterrier Lunar Colony. It mixes brutal combat, exploration and resource scavenging. To stay alive, players must be careful when dealing with enemies and ever mindful of their limited supplies.
DEFUSE THE BOMB REDMOND
I thoroughly enjoyed the environment and the maps. They were quite well-made and kept a common theme and aesthetic throughout. The story is...well, much more told rather than shown. It's implied to be on a much grander scale than it actually is. This is probably to mask the fact that you only really have one enemy type in the entire mod. The voice acting was unexpectedly good. Level design was usually okay, with some areas looking a bit samey and only once or twice being confusing where to go. The real thing that drags this mod down is the amount of damage you take. I don't know what it is with mods these days that think the challenge in a game is to make you die in two hits. I played this mod on Normal and needed numerous restarts on two sections of the game, which I'll go into later. The mod description makes it seem like the only thing difficult is resource distribution; I didn't find that to be the case at all. In fact, there are actually plenty of first aid kits, weapons, and healing items around, and I actually never ran out of ammo. The problem is the enemies deal too much damage; in groups of one or two they're fine, but in the later part of the mod, they appear in groups of five to ten.
I guess I'm going to go into spoilers now regarding the tasks that required the restarts. There is a part where you have to defuse three bombs, which are guarded by more than ten guards each. The issue is that each bomb is on a time limit and you have to kill every guard or else you'll absolutely die. It was ridiculously hard to survive long enough to find the first bomb, let alone kill everyone guarding the second bomb. And keep in mind this is on *Normal* difficulty, and I think I have an advantage given I play a lot of shooters. The second huge problem with this mod is the "boss-fight" (?) I guess you could call it. At the end of the game, you have to survive against a woman named Evelyn who has a lot more health than everyone else and fires a shotgun at you. Thing is, she doesn't get stunned when you shoot her and even if you do manage to deplete her health, she comes back in about ten seconds anyway. Not only does she chase you around the map while you're looking for two hidden switches, but she also sometimes glitches the shotgun where she fires two shots simultaneously, which will kill you instantly from full health (not even giving you a chance to heal). I had to kill her three times during the time it took me to find the bloody switches, and that was absolutely absurd. Otherwise, the only other problem I had was that the maps feel incredibly barren at the start, since there are no NPC's and you're just walking around this empty ghost town.
I'm not sure who this mod is really made for. It's got good atmosphere, a short and bare-bones story that serves to get the plot moving, a nice consistent theme/tone, and bug-free maps. The combat is by far the most off-putting part to the game. The damage they deal, the lack of variety of enemies, the timed bomb segments, and the part with the shotgun-spamming invincible bitch were over the top. It's a polished, well-made mod for what it is but it falls short due to basic gameplay problems, lack of showing and not telling, and some other awkward things such as lack of NPCs and knowing the role of the protagonist before starting the game. 6/10
Great mod, loved all the custom textures and models!
I am not a real fan of story driven games, mods etc so there were quit a few parts, specially in the beginning that felt a bit dull to me. But that is just my personal opinion. Also was it sometimes hard to follow the full story completely because i couldn't hear it all to well. But that was not a real problem to me. That said, there were a few issues with it that i would like to mention. Again, most are probably my personal opinions;
-outdoor, fog looks a bit odd because there is no fog in skybox. would take fog out all together because the maps are not that big that it is needed out of renedering issues as far as i can see.
-at some places a large metal gate is blocking the way (road), but at some points you could walk past these gates, there is enough room there. Still, a inviseble brush blocks the way. Would be better to add something there so it also look as if you can;t get past the gates.`
-map c8 lunar square, the parts were the boms explode when your not in time disabling them are not really fair. Specially the part were you need to disable the bomb in the church building is not fair. Because you have to kill about 10 enemies that run out of the church in just 20 secs or so and disable the bomb. I tried at least 9 times and then i used god mode to get to the bomb in time.
-the bomb after the one in the church is even more unfair, it drove me really insane in a not good way. First i tried to find it about 10 times, i did hear it but could find it. Had to no clip to understand that it was not at the first floor on the left side in the first building but around 3 corners further down the street, were i had to kill i believe 3 groups of enemies. It took me about 15 times to succeed and i didn't use god mode simply because i wanted to see if it could be done. And, it can! But only when you run all the way and each shot kills a enemie, and you have to know EXACTLY were the bomb is. All in all i can only say that these parts are very unfair to the player and i am quit sure that most if not all players only experiece these parts as very unfair and very, very frustrating. As mapper myself i do understand why you made these parts as they are but as gamer i have to tell you that there simply no fun. Again, as mapper i do but as player i don't. Sorry.
After i wrote the part above i did read all the other comments here and it seems i am the only one who thinks this way so probably i am the only one who thinks so. Still, i am a very experienced player and love hard gameplay. Maybe it has to do with how i played the bomb parts. At first i did get killed a few times because the bombs went off. So then i started to run and shoot my way through them which was very hard and frustrating. Maybe you did place more then one triggers along the road which makes that you don't need to run but get a particular amount of time to kill each group of enemies. When i thought that the counter starts to count as soon as you have disabled the bomb before the one you start to do.
Liked the part in the final level with the woman although this was also very hard to complete and quit frustrating to me. But again, that is probably just personal. I love hard gameplay but hate enemies that you have to hit a not realistic amount of times to get rid of them. Again, it has probably all to do with personal taste. All in all it was a very enjoyeble experience and the overall mapping, modeling, texturing and animation was awesome.
Very well done!
All in all i give it a 8/10 because the art work is so very well done, as is the whole setup of the mod. I can't give it a 10 because of the enemie attacks not being very fair in my eyes as described above.
Leon
I'd give it 7, but bomb defusing happened.
Edit: ok, with patch it deserved a better rating.
The combat is as deadly as advertised, which is much appreciated. Just one warning: when there is talk of defusing bombs, do not stop until all bombs are dealt with. If you linger around too long, the next bomb timer will start no matter if you are close enough to get to the bomb in time. I would suggest giving the player a longer timer and simply starting it as soon as the player enters the level or immediately after the previous bomb is defused.
Jesus I tried really hard to like this mod but the gameplay is just atrocious. The enemies deal way too much damage, gunplay feels really off (the pistol has so much pullback it's almost impossible to aim properly and there no ironsights of any kind while the AK deals even less damage than the pistol for some reason and has too much spread) and progression is really unclear. The section with the bombs was where I decided to quit, it's just an absolute disaster and I can't believe the developer actually thought it was fun dealing with 30 + mercenaries on a timer with the total dreadful gunplay and the enemies pinpoint accuracy killing you almost instantly (the enemies AK's have way better accuracy than yours).
Can't say much about the story, it really didin't catch my attention and the lack of subtitles didin't make things easier when trying to comprehend what the characters were trying to say.
If there is one thing I can give kudos to this mod is the graphics. The scenarios look really pretty and detailed though the city itself is pretty devoid of life other than the dozens of mercenaries trying to kill you and that woman over the radio ordering you around and nagging for the most part.
In conclusion avoid this mod at all costs. The only thing im going to remember from this is the headache that bomb defusal sequence gave me.
I really enjoyed this mod. The voice acting was surprisingly decent, the gunplay (for the most part) felt satisfying, and the levels themselves looked very nice. I did also enjoy the story and was sad when it was left on a cliffhanger. My only complaints are that the bomb defusing section and the last shotgun lady encounter were very difficult for me to beat. Otherwise, I really like this mod and most of the things it achieves.
It's a good time killer, and I do like the System Shock aesthetic, but it feels too short, and we really don't get to see the horror of it. The atmosphere, while well designed and intuitive enough to guide the player, is empty. If there were civilians or even others you fight along with to attempt to suppress the rebellion, it'd feel a bit more believable. And Evelyn, something that's pretty cool in concept, is definitely underbaked. I wish it felt like you couldn't do much against her and you have to use other means to deter her from interacting with you. I hope in future works, including your newest mod to be release you start to explore this concept more.
Very nice unique experience, suprised how different this was compared to many other mods, wish it was longer!
I can't add anything that hasn't been said already.
I would give it a 7, but rather spare another point as a sort of "Good job" bonus