Reviews - The Shadow of the Ramlord mod for Amnesia: The Dark Descent

A game that doesn't deserve to be on the Amnesia engine.

It was too short, it was lacking a lot of horror and it was boring.

Good voice acting and story telling, looked very professional and stuff.

Got my hopes up because of the amount of story telling.

When I thought I finally got past the intro, the end credits started rolling.

Too short in my opinion.

Something very different from traditional Amnesia; something that was unique, fresh, and still was able to make me jump. Well done!

TOO MUCH dialogue. I liked the setting and the voice acting but It was SO BORING to listen to them talking, like for ages. Also I was expecting at least ONE monster appearance skipping the first one from the ritual that didn't last too long

I expected more from this CS. I don't know how in the actual **** this crap got the MOD OF THE YEAR 2019.

I think it was an overall okay custom story. I finished it in one sitting and I wasn't too impressed with the gameplay.
One major nuisance was that the running speed was set to a lower speed over the duration of the entire game, okay makes sense, because Johan is a bit on the older side, but for me it was annoying.
Also, far too often, some event happened and you either couldn't move or you were slowed to a crawl.

The good:
The story was quite interesting, the lore and the storytelling were overall great, tremendous job.
I loved the usage of old, unusual words in the English language, the story was built quite well and the voice acting was top-notch.
I also was impressed with the level of detail put into the maps, they looked beautiful and believable.
Supposedly, the castle front was Thief- inspired, probably by Angelwatch from Life of the Party, I can see it obviously, it was a bit too small, but probably the most impressive part of the Custom story for me (in terms of level design).
I also liked the sound and music design, they added to the immersion quite well. The overall theme usually interests me, and an aspect I really found quite nice was that you could pick up various occult tomes and that you could meditate infront of altars and gravestones.

The bad:
As mentioned, your running speed is too slow for my liking.
The gameplay wasnt that good, there was nothing to be afraid of, no monster, although clues were given, could've been expanded upon in my opinion.
The story was sometimes a bit hard to follow, many lenghty notes, the loading screens were over too quickly for me to comprehend the messages on them.
I think some of the visual effects weren't that necessary and the last part of the custom story was too dark, because you lost your lantern at one point.
The worst part for me was the ending dialogue with the crushed baron under the rocks, it went on for like 10 minutes and you couldn't move allthewhile, it was infuriating for me, because when I finished reading the subtitles, the narrator wasn't even halfway through.

All in all, nice custom story, but lacking in the gameplay part, it also wasn't that special in my eyes, nothing I will remember sharply looking back at it.
Other than that, it almost had no flaws. 7/10

Absolutely brilliant. Amazing voice acting, level design, atmosphere and attention to detail. The world feels entirely real and lived in, and it pays homage to Amnesia and even SOMA in some very primal ways. There are a few things I didn't like in this story but the pros completely outweigh the cons. This is a must-play for anyone wanting a slow-burning psychological horror experience. It was phenominal in that regard. PLEASE don't read further below if you haven't played this mod yet. Go experience it, then come back and see if you agree with me.

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That "chase sequence" really threw me out of the immersion once I realised I wasn't in any actual danger. Yes it took me by surprised, but it wore off almost instantly because I saw no reason to rush, no reason to high tail my *** out of there to place the tomes. Some sort of dark mist or entity forming past the doorframe would have been brilliant and would have given me more of a sense of urgency. However you already knew there isn't any threat there, which is why you placed the trigger behind the bookshelves, to usher those that are wise enough to not look back out of the area. It was smart putting the trigger there and also putting it after the door immediately behind the player. The monster sound effects in the area also helped to contribute to the uncertainty of the player's safety.

Johan's volume is very quiet in the majority of the areas it's heard. I had a hard time understanding what he was saying, especially in the latter part of the story, so I'm very glad I had subtitles on. I understand the delivery of the majority of his lines needs to be hushed, intriguing and mysterious, but increasing the volume of said lines would have benefitted in my eyes (and ears).

Lastly, the confrontation between the Baron and Johan was a little disappointing to me. Throughout the whole custom story, we saw a brilliant use of using the environment and imagery as well as the writing to culminate a brilliant image and tone for the implications of the story. But only the writing is present in that final encounter. The voice acting is great, yes, but after seeing the potential you built up from the rest of the encounters, it feels like a lost opportunity of worldbuilding and more like an exposition dump.

Other than that, fantastic story. The issues I discussed might only be mine alone, maybe others didn't notice it. But for me personally it was something I noticed. Again the negatives are subjective and are far outweighed by the positives. I just wanted to voice my negatives in more detail to help you understand how it affected the experience I had. I can't praise the atmosphere and the writing with enough words, it's so brilliant, but I tried to be thorough with my criticisms so you know what to be wary of in future.

Speaking of the future, PLEASE make more things. This was a wonderful demonstration of your immense potential, and I'm so ****** thrilled to see what else you can create. Props to everyone that worked on this amazing custom story. Thank you for putting your time and energy into this, all of you. This is a testament to the power of the Amnesia community and I'm blown away by how there are developers still pushing out amazing custom stories almost nine years after Amnesia's release. ******* brilliant, hats off to everyone who put their time into this story.

I usually don't review mods, but this time I feel like I have to say something.

From the very beginning, I was amazed by the professionality this mod shows. I would go as far as to say half of the indie games have worse branding than this mod, and anyone who says branding and marketing does not matter doesn't understand the world. The Amnesia's modDB page looks fan-made when put next to this. (Giant PLUS from me, unique and innovative)

Reading the description and the (very well done) User Manual (which I would love to see for other mods) I understood this wasn't designed to be a typical Amnesia custom story. To me, it is more of an interactive story, and I'm reviewing it as such.

Because I think reviewing it as something it is not is a ridiculous notion.

I downloaded the Windows Installed version and my god! The installer was so nice!!! I've never seen it used in any other custom story. It wasn't able to find my Steam copy, because I have it on a different drive, but I was able to select it easily and it even saved me from accidentally installing it into the wrong folder. (Giant PLUS from me, innovation) And the fact you are sharing the code for that installer is just... wow.. I love you guys. I'll have my own installer!!

Just by the language itself, I can tell a lot of effort went into research of the authenticity of the dialogues. Not to mention the incredible voice acting work. I loved every second of the voice acting and there was plenty to enjoy. (Giant PLUS from me)

The story itself escaped me a tiny bit after my playthrough. I had a vague idea of what was going on, but it didn't quite click at first. However, after reading the summary part of the User Guide, it just clicked. That moment was very chilling. When I understood what was actually going on. It is safe to say the story is intentionally complex but when understood, it's a very strong and chilling tale. (Giant PLUS from me)

I have also never seen anything like the script system you guys use. I have a lot to learn from this project and it's nice and easy to go through on that GitHub page you have. The best resource for scripting I've seen. (Giant PLUS from me, as a learning modder)

On my journey, I did encounter a few scenes that might have been handled better, a few places where the game could have led me a little more.

Everything negative that I found was absolutely overweighed by the never seen before positives. I feel like you've brought an incredible resource into the community and nobody here has mentioned it, yet.

Thank you very much! I'm now thinking of taking this a bit more seriously. Wow...

I'm giving you guys 9/10 if only for the stuff you've brought to the table. It's a unique product that goes against the typical Amnesia formula and I appreciate it.

Going into this knowing it was story first, I loved it. People that are looking for simple fright and scares won't get what they expect, but they will instead get a truly amazing atmospheric custom story.

I've been looking forward to this, and i'm glad it finally arrived, although not exactly as i was hoping it'd be.

The quality of the mod is very high, it's unquestionable. You managed to deliver atmospheric and highly detailed (just like Lovecraft's writing) areas, a decent story, with sometimes even remarkable dialogues, but in only slightly enjoyable manner.

I walked around every room, enjoying the quality voice acting accompanied by the nice personal narrative, yet i often felt like something was missing. In the background i sometimes heard nothing else, just faint effects of fire, or wind, nothing to make me think about what might be lurking around. I wanted to mention the music being well.. as it is, but i've read the article and things became clear about that part, there's no one to blame.

The "true" horrors beneath the estate never unveiled themselves. In all honesty i don't remember feeling uneasy or tense for a second. Save for some somewhat loud jumpscares just nothing happened! Of course i did not expect to take up arms and fight monsters in an action RPG-like manner. Yet, there is a difference between a story-driven experience and having barely anything to do (or at least, fear) in an hour of playtime..

I would have at least expected some kind of choice or different events, but there was none, and the last level felt like listening to a podcast of all the things that were left over from the story, while they could have been told in a more interactive way or scattered around the structure of the levels in the form of multiple flashbacks, letters or anything.

I wouldn't have even written these down if the mod wasn't delectable, i did mention them exactly because i felt this was great, quality work, performed with forgettable gameplay. In the Lovecraft books there is a lot of detail in the description, yet we cannot forget about that ominous fear of the unknown, and all the creatures and misfortunes that come from there, they're just as important. And it's harder to be afraid when you can't even move at full speed most of the time, it can be felt nothing is coming for you, even if the level setting would allow it.

At any rate, i thank you for this journey and the hard work you put into the writing, narrative and atmosphere, if the review felt like a complaint, i apologize, it's not. The influence was clear, you nailed that pretty well. If something would ever come from this team, despite the announcement that this may be a final mod, i'd be sure to play it!

8/10
+ Story, narrative
+ Voice acting
+ Level design
+ Atmosphere
- Lack of gameplay events and threats