My two cents review of a cool mod I just played

http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther
Winner of 2010 Best Upcoming Mod

Screenshots:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther/i ... 8#imagebox
http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther/i ... 6#imagebox
http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther/i ... 5#imagebox

A very interesting mod, but a game? No, I would not say it's a game. Horror? Not Horror either. But it is very interesting. It tells the tale of people living on a small island, particularly the suicide of one. You walk through the entire game on a linear pathway, but that's okay, because it's an interactive narrative. It has a major inconvenience though; it forced you to install Desura, a Chinese Xfire clone,(DRM+social gaming client). Definitely a right direction in terms of games with minimal gameplay without being shovelware garbage like Uncharted Trilogy. It's not very long either. It's much more like an Edgar Allen Poe short story. It took me thirty to fourty minutes to play.

Gameplay - N/A
This game is not gameplay driven

Visuals - 7/10
This game has a beautiful item design, subliminal text and symbols, but it's confined to SDK 2006. Maybe if it were based off of Crysis, the visuals would be a 10.

Sound - 10/10
One of the best soundtracks for a mod I've ever heard. Amazing piano score. The game does a good job creeping you out too, cutting the sound, making strange grumbling noises, and of course the voice acting.

Horror Aspect - 6/10
Other critics say the horror aspect of this game is like totally off da hook or something. I say that it's just macabre, or light horror. Not necessarily full-on creepy, sort of like Poe.

Other noticeable variables
You have to install Desura, I still can't get over this bull♥♥♥♥
When you complete the game, it goes to black, but never really ends
Incomplete, the devs are working on it

Overall Score - 8/10
A pretty great mod, but don't expect a rooty pooty point and shooty zombie game

What is this doing here?

Did you want to show us the mod? Or your review?
Because honestly, your review is very shallow and doesn't really divulge your exact thoughts on the mod and its content.
Sure, you have a nice little review system, but it doesnt really make up for the fact that the review is just helplessly lying around here.

Oh well, might try this out, you say its good? You enjoyed it as far as I can tell.

mod 10/10
review 3/10

Did you know the devs are making a commercial game out of it?

It's a lazy summary(two cents), not a fullon review.
Amazing mod.

First of all, you have no ♥♥♥♥ idea what you're talking about. And then there's the part where you say:

Because everybody can develop a game based on the crysis engine..... especially since it's completly free.....

It's not like indie developers can ask for money right. It's not like it's a major mod with tons of people willing to donate and endorse. And you realize what opinions are. Opinions can't be wrong. I'm entitled to saying that the game has amazing design, but would be better for a different engine. You're probably that one guy who hates the idea of a Space Station 13 remake not made in BYOND. To wrap up, opinions, donations, endorsements, Capitalist victory.
Now taste my cheeki breeki victory dance.

Port everything to a completely different engine they don't have any experience with what so ever?
Why not you ask?

They have plans to remake it anyways. Why not choose Cryengine?

Spoken like a true non-programmer

I'm just going to let you know that this would be by far more difficult than you believe it is

What part of "completely different engine they don't have any experience with what so ever" is it that you don't understand?

Opinions can in fact be wrong, depending on how you phrase your thought. You cannot simply ridicule a subject and state: "It's my opinion, and since opinions can't be right or wrong, you can't refute me." For example, you give your opinion that a certain lauded piece of music simply sucks. It can die in a pit for all you care. Here, you would be wrong; you could say that you don't LIKE it, but to say that it's BAD would most likely be your misjudgment.



Also, ad hominem. Avoid doing that - you're attacking the person, not his argument.

So I guess "you have no ♥♥♥♥ idea what you're talking about" isn't ad homenim. All me.

The Crysis Engine part was just a hypothetical. Did I say that I was going to force them into it? Did I say that if they don't use Cryengine they might as well put on a dunce hat and try AS2? And oh my god, programmers have to do PROGRAMMING WORK instead of recycling another version on the same exact engine. God forbid.

Admittedly, his comment was offensive; however, two wrongs don't make a right. Replying to a rude comment in kind displays a lack of maturity.

No, you did not say that you were "going to force them into it," but you did suggest that they adopt the CryEngine. You make a point that because this mod does not have the graphical capabilities of the CryEngine, its graphics are mediocre/inferior, hence the "7/10" rating.

I don't know much about programming myself, but adopting an entirely new engine, which the developers are probably completely unfamiliar with, is a daunting and inconvenient task. There's more work involved then simply transplanting material from their previous engine and stitching it onto a new one.

I guess I was just a little riled up. My bad.
I'm a little jaded when it comes to SDK 2006 and HL:S mods since so many are out.
And I don't rate like most critics, I try to bring back the whole n/10 rating actually meaning something idea.
Like 1-2 being bad, 3 being not memorable, 4-5 being ok, 6-7 being great, and so on.
I guess the rating system is a little bastardized so it can be taken the wrong way. I really love the visuals.

This post is not in any way meant to be offensive.

But if your 6/7 is great, then what is an 8/9 or the rather extreme 10?
Which makes me unsure if the 10 for the audio was fully deserved.

Take this into account in reviews, if you say one thing is great and give it a average rating, then really high ratings will not be believed if not backed up properly.


Back to me being offensive in my previous post, might have been, however I was not attacking you personally, I was telling you(in a rather rude way) that what you were saying is harder than you think. Thus the part about not knowing what you were talking about.

Also, there is nothing wrong with desura, it's a platform developed for indie devs and modders.