Yours is a long lived people, set upon a small piece of land in a seemingly endless ocean. Your lot has always been hard, but with the help of the gods, you have survived. They take with one hand as easily as they give with the other; many are called to their side each turn of the moon.
Now they ask for even more. The Elders have summoned you and two others: Edmund and Anna, to be sent to the Isle, a trial undertaken by each generation.
"Three go forth, two return." And none can say what becomes of those who do not come back.
Posted by wms at 2006-03-30 23:20:06 Voted 8.00 on 03/30/06
I agree with Criispin's comments
Posted by rjfnccii at 2006-03-30 19:14:26 Voted 7.75 on 03/30/06
I agree with the_krit. While the writing was good, I just didn't have fun with it.
Posted by emperorzog at 2006-03-30 18:21:07 Voted 7.75 on 03/30/06
Who knew that I would agree with Lance on anything? We almost always disagree on modules, but in this case I actually agree with him. Solid effort though.
Posted by alklau at 2006-03-19 18:03:25 Voted 9.00 on 03/19/06
I thought this was quite engaging. The NPC interactions, especially with each other, was executed well.
Posted by Bobbsy at 2006-03-14 16:55:07 Voted 6.25 on 03/14/06
My first couple of tries at this took me to the ending far too quickly. Nice, well defined characters but somehow the plotline just didn't grab me. I didn't get any feeling of excitement or emotion.
Can you resumit your PSA? It seems I did not recieve one for your module. Thanks. _________________________ Link
Posted by Aelin at 2006-03-02 05:17:08 Voted 9.75 on 03/02/06
Truly one of my favorites.
At the first moment I thought you used too many "continue" in dialogs options but after I realized that was the unique way to allow Anna and Edmund to argue and discuss in a realistic way.
Posted by Arik at 2006-02-27 07:07:05 Voted 9.00 on 02/27/06
In terms of emotional resonance, there are two main ideals for module makers to aim for - making the player laugh, and making the player cry. Obviously I'm far too much of an emotionally repressed manly man to cry over a 15 minute game module, but the writing here is nonetheless powerfully affecting.
The characters are interesting and quickly defined, the majority of the plot consists of action and there are enough player responses and plot outcomes to make the player really feel in control. Really nice work.
Posted by Kirian at 2006-02-25 15:47:36 Voted 9.50 on 02/25/06
A very intruiging module. The opening line was the best I have seen in the whole contest: shocked me right into the story! The writing is excellent: atmospheric, elegant and precise. And the variation in endings is astounding! I strongly urge anyone playing this mod replaying it at least once with different choices. The first ending I played was hearbreakingly sad (awesome that a mod this size can accomplish that!); the second was more hopeful.
Conclusion: I am impressed! (My second best score sofar.)
Posted by MikeLM9215 at 2006-02-24 18:49:50 Voted 7.00 on 02/24/06
Most of the story takes place during some cool cut-scenes. Very little goes on between cut-scenes. Good dialog on what does. No discussion various solutions. Just knowledge of the past and two choices of sacrifice. No choice to leave someone on the island alive. You are forced to pick. Ending same unless you pick yourself as far as dialog from ferryman. Is it all a boondoggle? Visuals best part. Visuals don't count.
_________________________ The road to Ravenloft is paved with good intentions.
Posted by nereng at 2006-02-23 07:14:19 Voted 9.25 on 02/23/06
An intriguing module, where you get to ponder some fundamental moral/religious questions. The writing is excellent, with very good characters, and there are good role-playing options.
A couple of technical pointers: there could well have been an autosave right when you teleport to the decision-stones (in a short mod like this it takes a fraction of a second), so that players could more easily go back and test the various options. And I think it would have been a good idea to play the End Movie a dozen or so seconds after the fade-to-black. (Not subtracting any points for such technicalities.)
Not sure how well the module fits into the "side-quest" category, but this was an enjoyable module.
Posted by The_Krit at 2006-02-21 18:00:02 Voted 7.00 on 02/21/06
There was a good deal of work put into this, and the dialog changing based upon how the NPC's felt about the PC was nice, but I ended up feeling a bit shortchanged. Instead of the changing dialog, I would prefer to have longer conversations.
For many of the paths through this module, the ending comes too quickly. For the longer paths, there tends to be conversations that exclude the PC. This module has many good points, but I just didn't have enough fun playing it.
Posted by herrjeff at 2006-02-15 10:19:31 Voted 7.50 on 02/15/06
A detailed Journal entry was helpful to remind me the background of this mod, because the dialogs with Anna and Edmund seemed too limited to help the PC in taking a crucial decision. Anna's motives might need further development in this regard.
The opportunity to review my decision later on was welcomed, as well as the broader scope of options offered to deal with the situation.
As a sidenote, it is a bit frustrating to end the mod with a black screen, if you want to replay the module differently.
Posted by Lance Botelle at 2006-02-10 14:21:46 Voted 7.50 on 02/10/06
7.5 THE ISLE: (94TH TESTED MODULE)
My intention is to give feedback on both the writing (competition) and design (not necessarily competition) for every module I have the chance to play. NB: Judging any material is always subject to personal taste. I have tried hard to be as objective as possible and apologise if I have appeared harsh in any of my scores. Also remember this is only my opinion; Bioware�s is the one that counts!
WRITING: This score may appear strange, as this module had many of the aspects I was looking for bar one: good pacing. In this case, I felt the lack of pace let the story down considerably. It was a good idea; the characters were quite well defined, but the execution was bland � even if there was emotion. The different endings were well done.
DESIGN: An island serving as a place of sacrifice, with good use of �placeables�.
FINAL: This module was definitely above average, but in the way a continental film producer might sell us one of their �classics�, if you see what I mean. It�s probably an acquired taste, which, in my opinion, is not best suited to this style of game.
MY SCORE SYSTEM (IMHO):
< 5 Not up with the competition.
5 - 6 Average.
7 - 8 Above average.
> 8 An exceptional piece
SCORING FACTORS (IN ORDER OF MY PRIORITIES):
GRAB FACTOR: How quickly am I involved in the action? Do I have direction?
PLOT: Is the story engaging? Is subject interesting? Varied conversation choices?
CHARACTERS: Are they easily identifiable? Are they rounded/memorable?
SPELLING & GRAMMAR: Is the text easy to read? Are there quite a few errors?
OTHER FACTORS (MINOR INFLUENCE): Design for atmosphere & scenery, including sounds & props. Quality of module stability; does it break easily? _________________________ World of Althéa Blog: Link
Posted by thegeorge at 2006-02-09 13:08:36 Voted 9.25 on 02/09/06
Thumbs up, although I can't help thinking the language is sort of beyond the typical sidequest stuff.
Posted by Aelin at 2006-02-07 11:25:03 Voted 9.75 on 03/02/06
I dont know if is possible change a vote after have gived it, but you made sure a great job: this is the mod I played the most and every time with pleasure. Within "The Key" is in absolute my favourite.
Posted by jcprice at 2006-02-06 17:29:50 Voted 9.00 on 02/06/06
Interesting character drama. I can almost see it as a plot for an Indie film.
One nitpick - the module hangs on a black screen at the end.
Posted by teabiscuit at 2006-02-06 11:42:32 Voted 9.50 on 02/06/06
This is my favorite so far out of all the contest modules. As a previous commenter mentioned, it has a "fable-like atmosphere" that works quite well, and a simple yet interesting story. I did actually play it several times, and was pleasantly surprised to find ways of changing the ending that I hadn't noticed before. The player doesn't have as much control over where the conversations go as seems to be usual in NWN modules, but this isn't necessarily bad; I felt like the other characters were acting more like real participants in the conversation rather than just responding to the PC. One confusing thing, though, is the blank screen at the end -- I thought my game had crashed for a second there!
Posted by Criispin at 2006-02-04 11:17:38 Voted 8.00 on 02/04/06
Your writing was decent, but I felt that there were too few actual choices made by the player until the end. A larger selection of dialogue choices would have raised the score a bit. Anna's character lacked depth. Some more humanity from her would have been nice.
Posted by EleiMiShill at 2006-02-03 09:43:40 Voted 8.75 on 02/03/06
Some deja-vu but I must say it is an interesting story and dialogues. Moreover, not concerning the vote, I disliked the black ending screen.
Posted by Sovereign at 2006-02-01 16:16:28 Voted 9.50 on 02/01/06
A very strong module on many key points. The story kept a fable-like atmosphere throughout, which I appreciated. As well, attaching consequence to player responses and ensuring that skill use materially altered the course of the plot was also well-done and appreciated. The only constructive criticisms or negatives I would cite are: (1) the conversations at the mid-point were somewhat sparse and flat- flat in terms of the potential dialogue tree. (2) The particular ending I received the first time around excluded the player character from a (comparatively) long dialogue, which moved the player from participant to spectator at a crucial moment. Still, overall, the criticisms are few and the positives many - very well done!
If anything of this review is unclear, please feel free to contact me at the Bioware boards, account there of the same name.
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