Reviews - ARVNRanger

For such a well-known mod, I expected a much better experience. The only fair way for me to review this mod is to break everything down by topic.

Weapons: 1/10.
EoD only adds a few new weapons, including the “SLR”, really the L1A1, an L1A1 sniper that never existed, and a few weapons like the Remington 870 shotgun and Nambu pistol. All are poorly modeled and look like something out of a cartoon. Worse, some of the existing weapon models from BfV have been replaced with cartoonish models as well, like the M16 and CAR-15, and most weapons have near-perfect accuracy and almost no recoil. The sound choice is horrific also. Very, very poorly done.

Factions: 1/10.
Much like the Bf1942 version of EoD, this version’s representation of the South Vietnamese (ARVN) is so minimal that, as much as I hate to use this word, it feels racist. BfV-EoD adds twenty-eight new maps, and the ARVN is only featured on five of them. EoD also adds the Australian faction, which mostly re-uses the American character sounds, apart from a few wound/death screams, one of which sounds more like a squeal than a scream. The developer seems to think that Vietnam was the US’s war and the South Vietnamese just dropped in occasionally. Never mind the fact that the ARVN suffered four-five times as many casualties as the US, to say nothing of how many troops they actually had involved. The fact that this mod is advertised as a “tribute” to “all” the soldiers who fought in Vietnam is nothing short of laughable.

Vehicles: 3/10.
This is the first place where the mod starts to get it right. It does add a few decent vehicles, and even nice remodels of the existing T-54 and BTR-60. But a lot of the other remodels and new vehicles don’t look nearly as good as the original. The developer also apparently missed the fact that the Soviet BMP-1 and the American M60 Patton were NEVER used in Vietnam. Much like the weapons, the sound effects are awful; most notably, a BROKEN version of the base game’s M60 sound effect is used as the standard sound effect for most American vehicle-mounted MGs. Helicopter rockets have been switched from having decent visual effects (in the base game) to effects that don’t look anywhere close to right. EoD adds a few good vehicles, but like other aspects of the mod, misses the target far more often than hits it.

Maps: 2/10.
There are a few decent maps in EoD, but a lot of them are pretty bad. Some have almost no way at all to cause ticket bleed, meaning they go on too long and completely overstay their welcome. On the flipside, some others are far, far too easy, and have really poor bot performance. There are some decent ones, but overall, the same thing applies as does to vehicles: EoD misses the target far more often than hits it.

Bots: 1/10.
Apart from giving the bots the ability to use knives and handguns, plus a few other minor improvements, EoD’s bots are actually WORSE than the base game. They’re stupid, love to get stuck on objects, are awful pilots, and generally ineffective as a fighting force. Not only is their performance poor in general, on some maps it’s so awful they aren’t even worth playing against. I played the map “Saigon Jungle” once, with these results:
US Kills: 8 (7 of which were mine.)
NVA Kills: 4
US Deaths: 39 (1 bot was killed by a teammate, and 34 other bots killed themselves. I don’t know how.)
NV Deaths: 31 (23 bots killed themselves.)
US Flag Captures: 5 (4 Neutral+NVA Base, ALL of which were mine.)
NVA Flag Captures: NONE. NONE.

Historical Accuracy: 1/10.
Normally I wouldn’t rate a mod on this, because most don’t try to be historically accurate, but EoD claims to be based on real history. But from the vehicles that never saw service in Vietnam, to vehicles that are used throughout EoD but only saw minor use or didn’t enter the war until the later years, maps that barely recreate the battles they’re based on, and the complete under-representation of the South Vietnamese, EoD gets a flat 1/10 for historical accuracy.

Overall: 1.5/10.
Final conclusion: As a modder myself, who has put almost eleven years into Operation Remembrance as of this review's date, I would be ashamed to release this mod in its current state. And yes, I KNOW that it only made it to V0.20 before being abandoned, but that’s no excuse. For everything EoD added, something else was taken away. It slid backwards for every step forward it took from the base game. I spent nine years getting Operation Remembrance ready for release, because I wanted to put out something that was actually good. The developer for EoD made a half-hearted attempt and then abandoned it to go back to developing the Bf1942 version, and also making a Bf2 version to try to stay relevant. I’m shocked and confused as to why this mod is as highly rated as it is, and while it does have a few elements in it that I’ve borrowed for Operation Remembrance, other than that, I won’t be putting any more time into it.

I played this mod a long time ago but didn't have a ModDB account until afterwards so I never wrote a review for it.
This is without any doubt at all one of the best custom stories I've ever played, and by "one of the best" I mean in my top three, and while I might not necessarily say it's THE best, it's the only one of the hundred+ Amnesia custom stories that I kept on my computer to replay after the first playthrough.
I can see in the comments that some people have complained about the lack of keys. Please. This was so much better than that. I loved the concept of having to find tapes and particularly the mechanic that allows you to look all throughout the entire house without finding a single tape except for the right one.
One person in the comments said they'd love to have this house in real life, and I absolutely agree. If I somehow ever become really rich, I am definitely getting this house built for me. I loved the amount of detail. One thing I would like to point out is that for me, there's a missing cabinet model just down the hall from the bathroom door on the first floor and also on the second floor in the locked room you have to jump onto the ledges on the balcony to get to. I know it's missing because the doors are visible and things inside and on top of it are visible, but the cabinet itself isn't there. Fortunately it doesn't effect the gameplay so it's mildy amusing more than anything else. My only real complaint is that the level design in the house itself is so good that I think there isn't enough of it. I wish there had been more levels in a similar setting to the rest of the house, although I can understand why the story prevented that.
I liked the way you can fall and get knocked unconscious and then wake up and at night, but I think it happens too easily. The first time I played the game I went out on the balcony at the front of the house and fell off without even moving. I thought it was a scripted moment where I got pushed off deliberately (as if there was a person behind me who pushed me). And I had hardly made any progress at all, so I had to do the last 80% of the house-centered part of the story in the dark, which was mildly annoying.
The music was good overall and I liked the use of some of Jessica Curry's work, espcially "Always", the menu theme. However, the music in the house during both the day and night levels was much too repetitive and got annoying after a while. For the two times I replayed the story, I actually replaced the music files with the theme for the second (library) trial from the custom story "The Subconscious Trials" and that was much more enjoyable. Still, high marks for the soundtrack.
I really can't complain about the general awkwardness of the dog enemies because most of that's not the developer's fault, but I do think there are some things that COULD have been done better. I would have liked it if the screeching sound plays when a dog is chasing you, because otherwise it's often impossible to know when one's after you until it actually bites you. I know that might be more realistic, but in this case I just found it to be annoying, especially when I was trying to get into one of the locked bedrooms on the first floor. There was a doog there that kept patrolling right in front of the door, and without the screech sound and with very few audio cues from the dog itself (growling and such) it was hard to tell when it was actually chasing me so it was very difficult to lure him away from the door and then not lead him right back to it. I think with some editing to make them behave more like the TDD Grunt and Brute stock enemies that they could have been much better. For my replays I actually turned them all into hallucinations so they disappeared when they got close, since I didn't want to risk causing a fatal error by actually removing them from the code because it got confusing in some places. Still, I'm not going to complain too much about the dogs.
Overall, this story does have some downsides. But in the end, it was so good that I'm not going to take any points off at all and it still earns itself a solid 10 out of 10.

I'm sorry to say I have just about nothing good to say about this custom story. I didn't even finish it because it was so bad.

-First off, the English was so bad that it completely ruined the story. I don't understand how some people say the story was so amazing, when there wasn't much story at all, and what story was to be found was entirely ruined by the awful grammar.
-Voice acting. Normally I would give a plus to a story for at least having it, but in this story, the only word I have to describe it is "horrific". The audio quality was bad, to the point where even when I was "talking" to an NPC, and not just listening to one of the various recordings, I felt like I was communicating with a pathetic excuse for a robot. Not to mention that the voice actors all spoke in just about a perfect monotone, and couldn't even pronounce basic English. (Seriously, "treatment" pronounced as "tret-ment"?). I don't know who that female voice actor is who did the voice for Elizabeth, but I've heard her work in other custom stories, and this was just as bad, and left me cringing every time I heard her voice. Overall the voice acting did nothing but jar me from the story and remind me at every moment that I was very definitely playing a game. The only voice actor who did a good job was the person who voiced Alma. Her delivery of her lines was excellent, with proper emotional expression, and the audio quality of her sound files was excellent.
-As I said, I didn't even finish the story, but the lack of monsters was a major problem for me. I didn't encounter a single one in the portion of the story that I did play, and I'm not going to count that dog in the tunnels, because it made a five second appearance and was absolutely no threat to me, and there was no reason to go anywhere near it.
-Most of the unique aspects of this game, like money, side quests, and the day-night cycle, were pointless. It seemed like the developer came up with great ideas and then put virtually no effort into actually making a good game with them. I found virtually no money despite a meticulous examination of every map. There were minimal sidequests, all of which proved to be overly complicated (I spent half an hour looking for the flower for Alma in the shop and didn't find it), and even misleading (trying to free Michael-the game said use a heavy tool to destroy the padlock, but there was no hammer or crowbar anywhere in the map that I had seen, so I spent several minutes dragging the big mallet across THE ENTIRE MAP from the torture room just to find out that it was the wrong tool and didn't do anything.) The day-night cycle was also poorly done, as there was very little to do in each cycle after the first two. After that, it was literally "grab an item, go to sleep to change to day, open a door, get a key, go to sleep to change to night, get an item, "But-oh-no we-can't-get-access-to-that-place-at-night" so it was back to bed to change to day, get into the new area, get an item, find out I couldn't access the new area that the item would open up during the day, so it was back to bed to change to night. And then after that, there was pretty much nothing to do with the day-night cycle.

Overall, I felt like this story was a waste of my time, and I really don't understand what compelled other people to give it such a high rating. If you want a good custom story that has good length, go play something like "The Great Work", "Lost the Lights", or even "The Things in the Night".

I have to say I was less than impressed with this custom story. The storyline was boring, to the point where I almost gave up about halfway through. The overall storyline and the heavy use of elements from "A Machine for Pigs" made it seem like the developer was trying to create a remake of sorts of AMFP, and trying to compensate for that game's linear play style by making this mod as "open-world" as possible... but it was overdone. There was TOO much to explore. Hub maps led into other hub maps, there was an excessive number of huge maps with lots of different ways to go, and I found myself frustrated because I could never be completely certain I had checked everything.
Overall, this mod left me bored, frustrated, and generally disappointed. Compared to some of the truly great stories out there like "The Great Work" or "The Things in the Night" and even some of the shorter, lesser known stories like "Dark Seclusion", this story was simply not worth the time I spent playing it.

Edit-It's been several months now since I played this story, and I've had some time to think it over. Like I said, it does seem to be an attempted remake of "A Machine For Pigs", and even though I didn't like the mod, it's really only fair to give credit to the developer for at least trying. It was a good attempt, at least. When I compare AMFP to The Dark Descent, I say "Better story, worse gameplay". The same thing holds true for this mod, only the reason why I think the gameplay is worse is exactly the opposite as applies to AMFP: AMFP's gameplay was subpar compared to TDD because it was too linear. This story was subpar compared to TDD because it was too open.
Still as I've said, I have to give the developer credit for trying. I'm raising my rating from a 6 to an 8.

WARNING-THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

I absolutely loved this story for so many reasons. The atmosphere was great, I loved the "other world" portions of the map (especially the city). Its emulation of H.P. Lovecraft's style was done so well that I noticed it well before it was officially confirmed. My only major complaint was that it was much too short for its quality. Personally, I think Lovecraft himself would have been proud of this story.
Another small complaint I have is that the map portion shown in the screenshot titled "R'lyeh" only made a very brief appearence-it's a beautiful scene.
Some other reviewers have complained about the ease of the quests and the lack of the need to hunt for supplies. I enjoyed both of these features, because I was able to focus on taking in the environment and the story. SPOILER---I also really liked the fact that the main character doesn't have a cheap death at the end, but survives and learns a valuable lesson.
Overall, this has undoubtedly been my favorite "short" CS as far as storyline and environment are concerned. In a way, I wish I could forget all about it just so I could play through it again like it was the first time.

This started out as a great mod. I loved the story, the voice acting was good, and the first two trial worlds were very relaxing, even after the introduction of the grunt in the second world. But after that... First of all, the fourth trial with the machine room and the adjustable water levels was ridiculous because the notes seemed to imply that the only way to win was to somehow drain out ALL the water to kill the fungus... not that you have to raise the water as high as possible and use floating boxes to jump across. I spent half an hour on that part before looking up a walkthrough. The trial in the forest with the Brute was fun (I did like the new monster sounds), but the trial with the ghost that randomly moves you around as you search for tinderboxes was L.I.T.E.R.A.L.L.Y. T.H.E. M.O.S.T. A.N.N.O.Y.I.N.G. T.H.I.N.G. I. H.A.V.E. E.V.E.R. E.X.P.E.R.I.E.N.C.E.D... That alone made me decide I would never play the story again, or at least that I would only play part of it. And then towards the end, the idea of the machine that changed gravity was an amazing idea but with awful implementation. I have a very good computer, and almost nothing makes it lag, but whenever the anti-gravity machine was on, it lagged so badly I could barely play. And then I got to the part where you have to throw the pipe up to the higher ledge while the machine is active. I got it after several tries, but the second the machine shut down, the pipe glitched and got launched somewhere for no reason. I couldn't find it after several minutes of looking and I was already so frustrated I just quit. I'm very disappointed with the end of my experience with this mod, and I have no intention of trying to finish it.

Edit:

Okay, it's been several months and despite my previous frustration with this story, it had a pull and appeal to it that drew me back to try it again. This time I made it through the first several trials easily. I had some trouble with the fifth trial where the brute smashes down the door to get the knife, but used the kindly provided walkthrough to get past that. The maze puzzle was somehow much easier this time and I had just enough trouble to become frustrated, but not furiously raging like before. I also didn't have nearly as much lag on the anti-gravity puzzle part for some reason and so I was able to finish it without much trouble. For anyone who hasn't played this part yet, I highly recommend saving your game when you get to the part where you have to throw the pipe up to the higher level (by which I mean save BEFORE you try throwing it up-if you do it wrong, it could fall down all the way to the bottom and then it's almost impossible to get back up. I learned that from experience.)
After I beat the anti-gravity puzzle, the rest of the game almost completely redeemed itself despite my previous frustrations. I loved the wild, random level design, and although the candle puzzle was very confusing at first, I figured it out and had no trouble redoing it in one attempt after a glitch caused me to lose some of my progress and have to pass that challenge again. My one complaint is that the parkour levels were overused. The first few were good and I loved the disappearing barrels, simply because I can understand how difficult it must have been to code that, but there were simply too many levels, and I think the last two should have just been left out.
I also think the story ended too quickly, and there should have been SOMETHING more. I would have given this story a 9 overall, but that and my frustration over the excessive parkour lead me to detract another point for an 8. Still an overall good story and I'm glad I gave it another try.

One thing I forgot to say in my first review because I was so angry at the time is that while some areas of this story might be lacking, I absolutely LOVE the soundtrack. If I understand correctly, it was all custom composed by Logan Felber, and I think he also composed the soundtrack for another Amnesia CS, although I don't have the slightest idea which one. Either way, this mod's soundtrack is without a doubt the best I've ever heard in any of the dozens of Amnesia mods I've played.

This was a very good custom story, primarily because of the lack of spawn sound and "hunt" music when the monsters were around. It made the mansion level so much more unnerving because I was literally NEVER certain whether there was or wasn't a monster around unless he was close. In fact, I actually ran right into the back of one that had been so far out of sight and hearing range for so long that I thought for sure he was gone... but he wasn't! And the mannequin-turning-into-skeleton jumpscare got me so badly my heart genuinely hurt for about five minutes afterward, and I nearly had to take a break to calm down again.
My only complaint was the bad grammar, but that's a problem in so many custom stories I've gotten used to it, and considering how great the story was otherwise, I really don't have the heart to take any points off for that. The story was a bit hard to follow but good overall, and I liked the multiple endings.
Overall a great custom story and I would highly recommend playing it.

This was a great custom story until I found a major glitch. When I unlocked the storage room to get the spare cogwheel, the Grunt ragdoll inside the closet jumpscare glitched very badly. The model/geometry was stretched out (Hard to describe, watch Part 1 of Markiplier's "Lost The Lights" playthrough; the same glitch happens to a dead body jumpscare that is launched out of a closet.)
When this happened, my game virtually froze for about a minute and then crashed. When I restarted it, the save file put me back in the Mansion Quarters map before I had even got the key for the wine cellar. When I went to get it back, the door for the top floor where the key is was locked again... and the hidden books to unlock it no longer worked. I could pull them out and push them in, but they didn't start the timer or have any effect. I left the level with some of the books in the pulled/out position, and when I came back, they hadn't reset. I tried editing the map file to remove the door completely, but I couldn't find the entry in the file, so I was unable to progress in the game.
I'm very disappointed, and despite that, I'm going to give it a nice "7" review based on what I had seen so far, and what I thought would have happened. Up until the glitch I was absolutely in love with this custom story. It was certainly very atmospheric, and kept me apprehensive from the moment I entered the castle to the game-ending glitch. I can see that other people didn't have this problem, so it's not a total disaster; you should be able to play through it to the end unless you get unlucky like me.

Edit-I decided to give this story another try. This time the ragdoll didn't glitch out, although I unintentionally caused another glitch through my own stupidity (running away from a scripted monster encounter without realizing that's what I was NOT supposed to do) that prevented me from running, and so I had to restart the game AGAIN. Can't complain about that, though, because it was my fault. My third playthrough went much more smoothly without any problems.
Overall I can say I liked this CS. The storyline was a bit hard to follow at times and I think it ended too quickly, but it was still good. The voice acting was excellent, which in my experience is very rare in Amnesia custom stories. Good use of music and atmosphere, and I liked the unique puzzles.
With my new successful playthrough of this story, I'm raising my rating from a 7 to an 8. It would be a 9, but I think it was too short for its quality. Still really good!

This is one of the best custom stories I have played. The atmosphere was very well set up, especially the use of the sound of footsteps moving through the castle. There were a few jumpscares, but the were by no means cheap or poorly done; in fact, the slamming door scare in the Upper Bedroom startled me so badly I had to pause the game to recover. Overall, even when I wasn't outright scared, the atmosphere left me completely unnerved.
Excellent use of monsters as well. In most custom stories when I'm confronted with a monster, I have enough time to calmly walk over to a corner, stare at the wall, and wait confidently even if the monster is searching the room behind me... Not in this story. The monster spawns were so nearby and unexpected that I found myself running terrified for cover with no confidence of being safely hidden, and almost shaking as I waited for the monster to leave the room. I liked the way monsters are used in this story as a tool to destroy barricaded doors, but I think that mechanic was maybe used one time too many.
I also really appreciated the apparent connection to the original Dark Descent story, as revealed in the note titled "An Urgent Letter".
Overall I vote this story as a 9 of 10, despite the abrupt, apparently unfinished ending.

Inability to run or even walk at a decent speed in certain areas made the beginning of this story THE most agonizing I have ever played and completely destroyed the mood. And the cellar map lagged so badly that I lost my patience completely and quit.