[REL] The Attic: Chapter 3

[triadtimes]

I feel I need to do an actual review of this custom story to both a) keep this thread slightly on-topic and b) explain why some people are disappointed. So here it goes (in no particular order and with no regards for spoilers)...

Mapping - The mapping, to be quite honest, wasn't terrible. Not saying it was anything awesome and new, but it wasn't terrible. There were a few clipping issues that were quite annoying. There were large rooms sparsely filled with entities. But, overall, not the worst I've ever seen. I will commend you on the outdoor section (mapping-wise) it was cool.

Lighting - This is where it begins to go downhill. Through the story I was given ten or so tinderboxes (to be honest, I don't care to recall) but I never needed to use them, and, if I did decide to use one to light up a room I wouldn't get any satisfaction from it as there appeared to be no point lights connected to the lamp entities; I would light a candlestick and I would get very, very little illumination. As far as the lantern goes, it NEEDED to be used at all times, or else, I would be able to see nothing, luckily I found the "secret room" (I'll discuss that later) and obtained quite a bit of oil.

Ambiance/Atmosphere - Nothing. I never once felt terrified or afraid, lonely or depressed, happy or sad, nothing. My main pet peeve was there was no ambiance (as far as music goes). There were some sound effects, good, and there was the part with the piano, nicely done (aside from that nice emotional buildup being broken in two by a shitty jumpscare which was predictable a mile away), aside from that, nothing too spectacular if anything at all.

Story - Well, it's there. The Attic DOES have a story, not the best, to be honest, but a story nonetheless. Play The Attic for yourself, maybe you'll like the story more than I did, but, it made no sense. Father creates "Laudanum" as a cure-all, it's not, instead it turns people into monsters. Mother makes "Sanity Potion" as a cure for Father's "Laudanum". Father kills Mother because, fuck you. Protagonist now seeks to kill Father because Father killed Mother. My main gripe with this is "Laudanum" and "Sanity Potion" the two things used all game; if you wanted to do something cool, new, or awesome with this story why not make it so taking Laudanum is harmful, or at least have the player comment on it. Seriously, Father's cure-all monster potion is the thing that heals my wounds? Why am I not in a coma? Fuck you dad.


Overall - Not terrible. Not great. It had decent mapping. The lighting was not fine. There was no atmosphere. It had A story. 4/10


Final Comments - Go play The Attic for yourself, this is only a review by some nobody on a forum. If you dig an okay story with crappy jumpscares, no ambiance, and obvious errors, go wild. If you don't go play something else. In the end I think something that would up this piece's playability is to have someone test it, someone you KNOW will be a good tester, because, as for some of these errors, they are very obvious and you should feel ashamed for letting them get in your final product.



Oh, and Jet, Seth, meet me at camera three...
In regards to secrets: http://www.twitch.tv/redhack2/b/329609289
In regards to ambiance: http://www.twitch.tv/redhack2/b/329609575