I liked the atmosphere of this tiny mod. Although the restrictions were quite harsh, it managed to draw me in. Good job. Bakiakineo
Posted by chris_dr at on03/12/06
Interesting situation, believable characters within the boundaries of the rules. Not flawless, but nothing is flawless.
Posted by chris_dr at 2006-03-1207:56:21
Interesting situation, believable characters within the boundaries of the rules. Not flawless, but nothing is flawless.
Posted by Arik at on03/07/06
I made a huge number of assumptions when writing my review SubBassman - any clarification of your intentions when writing the module would be great, and I'd be happy to amend accordingly. If you've updated your module since I downloaded it, again, please mention it.
Posted by Arik at on03/07/06
I strongly suspect that this module was the victim of a last minute design change. On the one hand, it appears that at some point the module had been designed to allow a measure of nonlinearity, allowing the player to use the crystal to cast the spell before the old man appears - the "good end" conversation seems to have different brances for whether or not the old man is there. This would explain why the module allows you to try and cast a spell at any point of the plot, assuming you look at the spellbook twice. On the other hand, what I assume was the final design of the module is a much more linear affair - the crystal cannot be broken until the PC has had his or her proper conversation with it and the old man appears. This fits overall with the style of the module, which generally allows the PC to do anything that comes up in his or her mental prompting. What I think is causing so much confusion to so many players is that the obsolete design was not completely eradicated. It is quite possible to try and cast the spell before you do anything else in the plot, well before the old man suggests it as a possibility. I am almost entirely certain that this was not intended by the author, as this branch of the book's conversation tree refers to the dog as Getaway, a name that is only given to the dog part way through the plot. I believe that the author intended this conversation branch to only appear once the player had talked to the old man, but as it is it can be accessed simply by using the book twice. So the spellbook becomes a massive red herring for the vast majority of the plot - it suggests that the player needs a piece of crystal, but the player can't actually take the crystal until later on. Leaving the only valid option to be the old tome route, which prematurely ends the plot with a bad ending. No wonder players are confused! So I assume this is a bug. I don't think it makes the game particularly difficult to complete, as if you're more interested in the door than the book at the beginning then it's easy to figure out what to do, and I'm pretty sure that anyone who can't complete it can't be trying all that hard. But given that the legitimate route through the plot is also accessed by looking at an object twice (the door) I can completely see where all the confusion is coming from. As the rules allow modules to be updated for bugfixes, and I believe the above problems to be bugs, I will take none of the above into account in my score. I hope the author is able to clarify what, if anything, his original intentions were. The rest of this review will be written based on the assumption that the final version of the module was intended to be fully linear. This is probably my favourite module concept in the whole contest. For many players, ascribing a personality to the main character is a capital sin. Not for me. The psychological depiction of slow and increasingly desperate fear of death was absolutely superb. The PC is by far and away the best character. Which is a bit of a problem, in a way, because it shows the other characters up a bit. The guard is fairly well written, but the old man is just confusing. His presence is never explained, any crime he might have committed is overlooked, and why is he being locked up in the PC's room anyway? I can understand why the PC would be trapped in there, but not why the room suddenly becomes the local jail cell. I'd take him for a guardian angel if the guard didn't recognise him at the end. He just seems like a piece of deus ex machina too far - his role in the story could easily have been given to a better character. The "idea" to bash the crystal doesn't quite work either - even if the player doesn't choose the dialogue option to smack the crystal, the idea comes across to the player anyway and the crystal is still described as having a broken shard. And if the PC has already broken a shard from it why can't he/she just pick it up in conversation? All those niggles aside, there's no way anyone should overlook this module, and it's a shame that people are struggling with it because it's undeniably good. Oh, and extra kudos for the title, by the way. ;)
Posted by SubBassman at 2006-03-0515:27:54
Mostly the contestants have problems with solving the game (which is simpler than tying your shoes) How very strange.
Posted by SubBassman at 2006-03-0515:16:24
It's a real experience to get voted down by a couple of nice contestants.
Posted by Lance at on03/05/06
Hi SubBassman, Someone sent me a zipped copy of your module and I have now played it. Unfortunately, I have no idea what you have done with this module as I could not find a way out of the situation - and I tried twice! ;) Maybe its one of those mods that if you get it (and do everything right), then it might be better than my experiences. I did read some of the other comments after I posted (in case it was just me), but I see I was not alone, which, I have to admit, does make me slightly more comfortable about the vote. All the best. Lance. P.S. After reading some of teh other comments, it looks like there may be another way through the module. I may come back to this one later and give it another go (following the cheat) if I get the time. :) _________________________ World of Althéa Blog: Link
Posted by Lance at on03/05/06
4.75 A HUNDRED MINUTES OF LONELINESS (178TH TESTED MODULE) This is my updated scoring system structured around the format provided by Bioware. The final score is still consistent with my old system, but I hope to give clearer feedback within the new guidelines. NB: Judging any material is always subject to personal taste. I have tried hard to be as objective as possible. Remember, this is only my opinion; Bioware?s is the one that counts! If you believe I have scored your module unfairly, or I have missed something of importance, please email me at ?email_althea@blueyonder.co.uk? and I will consider any comments made. All nine Bioware points can score a maximum of 1 point each, leaving 1 point for my personal interest/like of the module. Text of Module: (1.25 out of 3) The Writing: (I do not scan the writing looking for errors, but if I notice something while reading it, I will note it here.) I noticed a misspelling (inprint > imprint) and poor sentence structure: ?This is a mirror that they forgot in the room by chance.? This makes little sense. (0.5) Characterization: I only spoke to a dog and someone behind a door. (0.25) Dialog Flow: It took me a while to realise Getaway was the dog?s name. The perspective felt awkward at times. (0.5) Concept Execution: (3.25 out of 6) Originality/Creativity: We were accused of a crime ? I could not do anything! (0.5) Logical Flow: I played the game twice to see if I could do anything other than the spell that gets me killed. Try as I might, I could not get a shard even though I tried with both the mirror and the orb! (0.25) Drama: Being able to read the grimoire was a nice touch. What was with the dog demon at the end? (0.5) Pacing: There was urgency from the point of view I was going to be executed. (1.0) Character Development: The dog changed ? but why? (0.25) Multiple Paths: I am guessing there are other ways, but I could not see them and there were no clues on how to find them. I will assume multiple paths. (0.75) Conclusion: Technically, this module scored below average in the writing in my opinion. (1.25/3). The story scored average in my opinion. (3.25/6). My personal score is 0.25 out of 1.0 because the arrangement felt quite interesting, but it fell totally flat. MY SCORE SYSTEM (IMHO): 5 Not up with the competition. 5 - 6 Average. 7 - 8 Above average. > 8 An exceptional piece PERSONAL 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 kok_warlock at on03/01/06
This mod is good, but a little flawed in some of it's aspects, the fact that you have to speak/click with each one a couple times when there is nothing else to do, the fact you have to break something you couldn't break at the begginning(story-wise) and it's a little boring. Nevertheless, this one deserves to be among the bests in this contest, because this is a good module, but also because most of the other mods in this contest are pure garbage.
Site
