The story of a man trying to save those he love is a well told story. This is such a story. This is the story of Armaund Armoise, a french ambassador currently residing in western Prussia. There he lives with his wife, Odette, dealing with political affairs and practicing his spare time occupations, botany and alchemy. His life takes a drastic turn when his wife is struck with a deadly disease and M. Armoise is struggling, both in mind and body, to find a cure.
I have played this mod before, but other than this fact, I had no further recollection, so the rating is for this current experience only.
First, the atmosphere, the story presentation, despite the generally low scare factor proved more than satisfactory. This is an old mod after all, and it plays like one.
Design-wise it resembled the original game (sometimes a bit too much), also in its level of detail, so nice job on that. The overall level structure gave the impression of having a lot of secrets, where I actually found none, a bit disappointing. The voice acting to back-up the sometimes simplistic and random story was very fitting, and it actually made me listen to the diaries in their entirety.
Highlighting certain puzzle elements would have been unnecessary, should their event execution made more sense. Like I thought I got stuck trying to use the chipper on the padlock, turns out it was actually supposed to be used on the gate itself. Also I had to burn books, until I checked the code and turned up the gamma I had no idea. Small details, but it makes one give up too easily.
I really liked the orb collection on the other hand, the whole concept is very similar to one of my own mods, but this one is executed a bit better. Some puzzle elements were also done in a clever way, like the 4 levers, I really appreciated these moments. Moreover, the platforming and the whole brain world part was one of the few dungeonbase levels I actually found amazing. Congrats!
All in all, I'd say it's an 8.5/10, the ending was a bit sudden, but fitting. I'm really surprised how barely any walkthroughs exist of this mod, and that it's getting so little recognition, so I'm rounding it up a bit.
Thank you for coming back to it, and making this new version available to us!
Positives:
-Amazing level design (parts you made)
-Creativity
-Liked the different voice acting
-Interesting puzzles
Negatives:
-Pretty confusing at times
-Is everything alright?
-Some of the areas are literally copy pasted from original game and changed
slightly
-The ending was slightly confusing as well
Story: 7/10
Not the most original, but fine regardless. Easy to follow, nicely written and overall entertaining.
Level Design: 9/10
Without copying some of the areas obviously (Archives, Entrance Hall and Guest Room) I would have given the easiest 10/10 of all time. The maps were richly detailed with unique layouts, nice creative ideas scattered all around and overall good. Extra kudos from the last map, amazing work.
Puzzles: 8/10
Great, if not original. The last puzzle with the long note was extremely enjoyable, and overall I found myself liking the puzzles a lot. The only part I got confused though, I really did - after getting the chipper I was stuck a pretty long time. Still, pretty neat.
Scare Factor: N/A
This was not supposed to be a scary story (or so I assume), so I won't rate this section.
Overall: A nice, enjoyable custom story I can recommend for people.
Score: 8/10