Reviews - RamenLlama

Something this community needs to understand is that just because something was in development for a long time doesn't automatically mean it is good. Helena is a flawed but genuine custom story that I did quite enjoy, all things considered.

Environments, atmosphere, detailing, lighting, use of assets and general level design are pretty rock solid. I liked a lot of the areas. Audio design and music was also very good.

Voice acting is also for the most part very high quality. Sometimes the script itself and performances sound like you've tuned in to an amateur pantomime (especially the opening sequence) but the crew did a good job at bringing their characters to life.

The characters however present the biggest problem for me with Helena - its story is incredibly hard to follow. There are so many people and story threads to keep track of, and there's very little characterisation and supporting context to distinguish between them. Often times I was trying to piece the story together but as it mentions themes of resurrection, reincarnation and bodysnatching, I had absolutely no idea who was who and what anybody's motives were.

Enemy encounters were also a bit of an issue. Every single enemy's pathfinding bugged out, and they constantly got stuck in obstacles and in the way of progress, which was very annoying. Also in a later level, enemies spawn at random, and I had multiple instances where they spawned directly on top of me and almost killed me.

I do like however how enemies roam levels seemingly randomly. There's quite a lot of backtracking needed for following up on lots of threads and little details, which became frustrating trying to remember where everything is, but having enemies patrol out of nowhere does bring some spice into retreading ground, as it makes them feel like they're actively looking for you as opposed to spawning in, walking for 20 seconds then despawning.

There's a lot of imagination in Helena, with a clear amount of effort put in to make something unique. The poetic writing and gothic themes are pulled off quite well, as is typical for AGP's style of flowery prose and romantic delivery. It's a very creative custom story that deserves to be played if you enjoy the slow-burn ones. Helena feels like a huge step in the right direction, especially as something that is largely a first project in many ways.

Fantastic atmosphere, environment, lighting, puzzle design, music choice and length! Story lost me a little bit and there might be a few too many encounters imo, but other than that this was great! The first episodes still hold up well and the last episode had some of the most tense gameplay I can recall from a custom story.

Damn good fun. Didn't want to put it down! There's some really interesting environments and level design. Lots of monsters and some silly 2012-Amnesia jumpscares. This mod is super underrated for what it is, and I'm surprised it didn't gain as much attention as other mods have done.

Monke Island is the perfect embodiment of everything wrong with the modding community. It exists not only to mock the underwhelming and poorly made custom content that's been siphoned out over the last decade, but to also shame a company that indulged in the same problems and half-baked promises of the content it strived so hard to deviate from.

10/10 best nut in MONTHS

Play it.
Trust me.

art

******* epic!!! B)

hot

Everything you want in a remaster - clearly a lot of passion and effort was involved here and it shows. Really enjoyed my time with this mod.