Reviews - CustomStoryGatherers

Well made CS with a souls like twist. The environments and ambiance really feel like you are in dark souls. Several interesting and unique features like bonfires and souls like teleportation. Also a GUN, do I need to say more? Not as scary due to having a weapon but its quite challenging nonetheless. The models are pretty.

Platforming and some bugs are present, which can be annoying sometimes. Some got resolved but this is a work in progress, so I know they will be addressed or improved.

its amazing what someone can achiece in 24 hours

I did several scans with my paid antivirus + a full system scan after executing the executable and its clean.

This is a small point and click horror game based upon the HPL engine. It takes some assets from frictional games yet it still feels like its it own game.

What I liked:
- The atmosphere
- The ambiance/sounds used
- the look of the game (black and white goes well with it)
- the simplicity and several edings. Puzzles arent so hard, you just have to interact with everything will find it out.

What I liked to see improved/more
- The length, its really small and yes I understand that its made within a time frame, however it is still promising but the short length makes it difficult to fully immerge into it. I will certainly play it again if stuff is added.
- scares, although I appreciate most wasnt in your face scary. Again due to the length, there are just only a few thing to unsettle the player. if it were longer, the dev definitely could expand upon scares (e.g. entities appearing in rooms when you light it up and disappear)
- The interface, I had several times that I had to cut my video as the esc key just closed the window. Also in the beginning the return key which you think is return actually brings you back to the main menu. This is why many games have an "are you sure?" pop up.
- although not gamebreaking, i had some errors popping up once a while, but clicking ok several times made it go away and the game was still playable.

overall neat and small experience if you are an atmosphere/ambiance kind of gamer

Sabatu has become one of the best modders in the amnesia community. And once more he has proven that he can make the best mods with this full conversion.

Like before, his mapping is amazing. He knows how to make environments and make them alive, with stunning beauty and details.

Then he makes the atmosphere perfectly. Perfectly placed PS systems, the lighting is perfect and sets the mood very well. Nothing in the environment feels static, almost like real life.

The ambiance is always THICC as well. Sabatu likes to use his own sounds and music and knows what to choose, to make it tense and interesting.

Sabatu also knows how to make scary and interesting scripts and events. Something that surprises me and scares me often.

Now to the gameplay stuff, firstly, the puzzles. It seems that Sabatu has ditched his signature puzzles, but replaced it with original challenges. Like the area where you have to stay in the light. In interesting challenge but not so challenging. It would have been better if you couldnt use the lantern there and you had to use tinderboxes and candles, but then if you would try to find the next candle, you can go through darkness but if you stay in it too long, you die.

The story itself is ok, it firstly has some BS references and then goes into its own lore, taken from another video game. Its your standard, "villain tries to open up a portal to another dimension" kinda story, which has been used a lot in custom stories.

The enemies themselves were placed well. Albeit not so scary. The first encounter with the ghul felt really similar to one of the less tenseful ghul encounters in Rebirth. You are in this maze and he is as well. Once you arrive, you hear and see him in the distance and since its a maze, all tension is lost as you know that he will be blocked by the maze. Another enemy is the wraith, which is also from Rebirth. I am sorry Sabatu, but the enemies of Rebirth are not scary. I do think the first wraith encounter was nicely placed, i just dont think its a threatening enemy at all. The last enemy used is taken from another custom story (which name i always forget), which was a bit of a surprise. However as LivayQ also mentioned, there was no real chase sounds and in the end. The section with this enemy became more like an obstacle course than scary.

So all in all,

Positives:
- Mapping
- Environment
- Ambiance
- Scripting/events
- Puzzles/obstacles

Neutral:
- Story
- Enemies/scare factor

9/10

I give this a 9 as if I would compare this to M3, i think M3 is still the better CS.

These kind of mods are not serious, but definitely a lot of fun if you want a survival kind of mod. The monsters can still sneak up to you and give some scares. Its also challenging and I love the aspect of it that stuff is random. Items spawn in random (or x amount of set places throughout the map). you gain money the longer you survive which you can use in a shop. There are different monsters with different abilities, even abilities that I have not seen before. The jokes are funny and the atmosphere is hilarious.

The only things that keep it from being a 10 is that it does crash from time to time. Although this is mainly HPL2 being special and not really the dev's fault. Also it can be a bit hard to survive for long.

1/10 for putting it in the mods section, this is supposed to be on the addon section

1/10 no gameplay, everything is in russian so i dont understand anything. At least translate it.

10/10 for the giga chad Windows XP

total 3.3 -> round it to 3

What I enjoyed about this custom story the most was the original things the developer did, e.g. the opening scene, custom monsters and more smaller things like scare and insanity event.

The ambiance was really good and spooky at times and fitted the maps and atmosphere.

The mapping was really beautiful as well, nicely detailed.

This custom story has plenty of scary moments although not many actual encounters that are threatening.

The story is also good and the puzzles are ok.

There are boss battles in this custom story and they are kinda fun to do.

All in all, a really solid experience and the best points of this custom story are its original scares.