You wake up in a strange cell, what is going on here? There will be about 3 part of this custom story, stay tuned for part 2 and part 3. This custom story was made by me and Mouse.
Positives:
- Huge improvment in level design (from your first mod)
- Some creativity here and there
- Custom soundtrack
- Better grammar in the notes
Negatives:
- Non-existent story
- Super short
- Lack of details and work with the lightning
- A few texture glitches and static box with a moveable box under it (so it was floating in the air when I moved the dynamic box)
Conclusion:
You improved the level design a lot compared to your old story and you added some more creative ideas, removed lame jumpscares and added a soundtrack, a custom one to.
However, instead of making a cliché storyline, you decided to not make a story at all. The mod is also very empty. One single monster encounter, very few quests and very few areas to explore, probably because of how short it is. I completed this mod in around 5 minutes, even though I was stuck at one point.
Author(s) improved a lot, but took a step back with the story-line and lenght of the mod.
3/10 - Bad, but better than your first mod. Don't give up! Keep learning and the rating will go up even more next time.
Wayyyyy too short to recommend but your mapping skills show promise, this would do for 1 map, not an entire custom story though.
OLD REVIEW:
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Okay.. one of these "You wake up in strange place without knowing anything"
style story. No really much waiting about this, but I got surprised how good this was. Awesome mapping, and very creepy atmosphere. (also some really good jumpscare). Only downside was probably lack of story and that it was so short, but really liked it!! 7/10 for you.
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I decided to give it another go.
Positives:
-Mapping was semi-good
-Incredibly scary. Well made jumpscares, and really surprising monster encounter
Negatives:
-A little bit short
-Poor and cliché storyline
✕ ⁓✔
Story: ✕
The ultimate cliché ^^. Wake up from somewhere and get out. Some notes were used however. 4/10
Puzzles: ⁓
Decent, I'd say. Crowbar puzzle, lockpicks and keys. Original, but you did not overuse them. 6/10
Scare factor: ✔
I can honestly say, that this has to be one of the creepiest and scariest amnesia experiences I've ever had. Ambience in the background was so, so tense.
Clever usage of jumpscares, not too much and not that expected. That suitor
encounter made me quit the game. Awesome work. 10/10
Mapping: ✔
Decent, normal mapping. Not that special, but basicially made maps. 7/10
Atmosphere: ✔
On point. Well done. 9/10
Bugs I found:
-After dying, the music stops and won't replay
In short:
Short, but scary as hell
Score: 7,2 = 7/10 - Good
Just a tip, if you are separating sections of the story in parts, make them long at least!
Pros:
Custom Music
Custom Models
Inresting Map Design
Cons:
The cliché "You woke in an unknown place" story which is overused
Almost no story at all
Extremely Short
Mapping flaws
90% Key Puzzles
Try to come up with something different ok? Almost 80% of the Amnesia TDD mods use the same cliché story base "You woke in an unknown place". The map design was interesting but i saw some flaws. There was only some notes with pointless things written on them, only one monster encounter that offered no challenge at all, try to scatter more Pathnodes next time, i could easily go to another room and the monster wouldn't even move from its spawn room. I could easily do the same things that you did on this mod in less than 2 hours. Try expending more time on details, some area of the map were very empty, the same goes to the mapping flaws, try expending more time testing them before concluding that it is finished.
5/10 - Playable
So I finished playing the custom story and I am still shaking from that scare with the suitor coming out of the prison cell. Here is my basic review.
Level Design:
The level design was not all that great. I'm not trying to be insulting, but there were some areas where you could see clipping textures and some walls were not properly placed with the edges of them visible (some of the corner sections, you could see the end of the walls sticking out another wall). I also saw numerous occasions on which you would stretch or compress certain textures making them look weird. At the top of the spiral staircase, the floor and the ceiling looked like a 2-D plane. My advice for that is to move one down and one up, and then place a welder in between them. Now in some areas, such as that area with the green fog on the ground, the level design played a key role in building tension. That place provided an element of uncertainty as to what was behind the pillars, and a little bit of claustrophobia. You definitely played on this uncertainty when that suitor came out from the prison cell. My suggestion to you is to watch for any level design errors and correct them.
Lighting:
The lighting was good. It isn't the best I've seen, but it contributed to the ambiance of the overall game.
Ambiance:
The ambient noise in the background definitely was the most critical contributing factor to the ambiance. There were even some parts in that ambient noise that made me jump, good job.
Scares: This category I will divide as there were only three scares.
1st Scare: The first scare was when the hallway to the left collapsed. The loud sound effect made me yell a bit. The only problem with it was that the particle systems you spawned after the collapse occurred remained present. In real life, the dust would settle after a short while, but that can be debated.
2nd Scare: A vase exploding might startle some people, but it is a relatively cheap scare unless used in the right conditions. The term "right conditions" is also relative, to me it means that the tension is built up so high that even a pin drop will scare the player.
3rd Scare: Holy s***! Really excellent job on this one. Most people don't expect an enemy to spawn in the room you unlock. Like I said above, you used the pillar in the middle of the room to conceal the spawning of the monster, making it realistic and unexpected. It had me screaming and running left, right, and center. Really good work, but don't overuse it.
Length:
One .map file won't cut it, you should probably make it longer.
Story:
You wake up in a cell and then what? Now don't misconstrue me, stories can be slow to obtain, but the notes that you leave behind should say a bit more than "I can't take it anymore, I have to get out of here."
Overall: Overall, 4/10. This would be either a good demo or first time custom story, but it really isn't a great custom story. I can understand that you and your friend worked hard on this, but my advice would be to build, code, test, repeat. Watch out for texture errors, an avoid excessive stretching. I'm Matthew Studios, and that is my review.