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FM: Rake Off (19 06 2011)


Jesps

  

52 members have voted

  1. 1. Seasonal Theme

    • No Season
    • Barely Defined
      0
    • Season is Clear
    • Season is Captured Well
    • Near Perfect
  2. 2. Gameplay: Enjoyment. Fun duration. Smooth flow, ect. Versus Bugs. Frustration, Boredom, framelag?

  3. 3. Aesthetics: Visual pleasure, lighting, visual style. Audio, use mood. Storytelling and consistency?

    • One Star
      0
    • Two Stars
      0
    • Three Stars
    • Four Stars
    • Five Stars


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not the snow on the bed

 

 

the ice on the lever, can be melted

 

 

Thanks ! Trust me to be on the wrong track.

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Lovely missions Jesps! Really enjoyed this. The layout of the castle was done well. It was big enough but I never felt lost. Love the area with the bridge. Glad there were no guards there. it was nice to just stand there for a few minutes and take the scenery in. I liked finding snow falling in through various parts of the castle. It emphasised the castles decay due to lack of finance. Some nice readables too. The cannibals diary was very disturbing.

 

I didn't like the jigsaw puzzle at the end. I ended up just dragging the pieces over the board until they clicked in to place which provided no challenge at all. I didn't like the easter eggs either. I don't mind searcing for things like in Sothas Mandrodsola but I found the easter eggs emersion breaking. I personally thought it would have made more sense to hunt for the various parts of the jigsaw instead of the eggs.

 

On the whole it was 2 hours well spent. I still have 2 out of 10 easter eggs to find and I haven't got that lever to work in the bedroom. So I might fire this mission up again later. Thank you very much Jesps!

"I believe that what doesn't kill you simply makes you... stranger"

 

The Joker

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Glad you liked it, sir.

 

The puzzle is simply the best I could do with the abilities at hand :laugh: The initial idea was to have something where you would flip a switch and the door would open if the pieces were placed correctly.

 

And the eggs were added during the Easter holiday. It seemed like a good idea at the moment.

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Just played this tonight:

 

 

1. Season was done quite well, I thought. Liked little touches like the icicles in the drainpipes and the snow coming into the mansion was great. Voted 4.

 

2. The gameplay was WAAAY too easy, IMO (playing on medium). Lights were few and far between, and even when there were bright-looking lights, you could still be almost invisible if you crouched and crept past in the corners. Even the places that looked like they were going to be tough turned out to be fairly simple. The only time I was ever even almost caught was by the torch guy outside on my way out, and that was because I was being sloppy by that point.

 

The only place I felt I had to be careful was in the main hall, but even then the ladder and ceiling beams seemed to be placed perfectly to allow me to get up to the front in darkness. I suppose it would have been harder to steal the loot from the table if I were ghosting it but I just leaned around and knocked him out. Even with the candle still lit the other AI couldn't see anything.

 

The puzzle at the end was a cool idea, but a bit tedious after a while, as others have said. I never did get the lever problem...I just assumed it was broken. That was clever, but some kind of clue to let the player know that it was possible would have helped me.

 

Voted 3.

 

3. Aesthetics/story.

 

There were some amusing bits, like the cook, and the noble's diary added a nice bit of pathos, but most of the time I kind of forgot why I was there. For most of the mission, actually, I thought I was in a ruin that had been taken over by squatters...I assumed the actual castle was on the OTHER side of the bridge. Then I kept expecting to find zombies, because of that sound. Kept me on my toes though.

 

The map itself was absolutely beautiful. I loved the castle interior. I never found myself getting lost or frustrated. The snow was beautiful too. What the heck was that in the gorge, though? It reminded me of something from HL1...I expected a giant tentacle to come reaching out.

 

I'm definitely in the "no easter eggs" camp...I'm against anything that reminds me I'm playing a game, and they might as well have been spinning gold dollar signs. :P

 

Oh, and I never read anything about cannibals....

 

I would have gone 4 or higher for the visuals, but the story pulled me back to 3.

 

Btw, the torch-carriers seemed to have the torch in their arm rather than their hand?

 

 

Overall, I did really enjoy the mission...I would have liked it to be more challenging, but it was beautiful to look at and it was still satisfying to complete. Thanks! :)

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  • 1 month later...

A really cute mission which allows to relax after Flakebridge's Monastery. A bit too easy maybe (I would have hidden a puzzle tile ;) for example). The puzzles and readables were very funny. Were the switches with a litle shiny dot on top suppose to do something ?

 

Anyway I played every 2011 Contest FMs, except "Fiasco" and it's clearly the best use of season. I should have reinstalled TDM and voted earlier ;)

Thanks Jesps!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 6 months later...
  • 8 months later...

Another all round fun fest. Its a fairly large mansion and in my favourite climate, in a secluded location. The enemy patrols had made me more aware of what I was doing and had me tactically KO'ing some of the them while an arrow to the back of the head of others. The item hunt in particular was alot of fun, fidcal should take notes. Its fun when its not mandatory :D

I also like that a mini puzzle had me use fire for once.

Problem is

 

 

the main puzzle in this one was the easiest I've ever done, I'm surprised the guy hasn't been robbed of the treasure before I show up. Come on now what imagination did it take to make that, its something a 10 year old would think of

 

I have to admit I took pleasure in killing most of the people in this one and even putting one onto a fire, I could smell the roasting flesh throughout the mission! Smelled alot like boar meat. ;)

 

Missed 3 easter eggs, wonder where they could be.

 

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  • 8 months later...

A very enjoyable mission. I liked that you took advantage of the object manipulation stuff with the puzzle, i hoped more map maker would do so. This is the first mission where i was able to get all the loot, and i even got

the 10 9 easter eggs. ;) Almost missed the one on the last pole of the stair rail

Oh, and i like that you don't force the player to ghost on expert difficulty. Nothing worse than not being able to play as you like. :unsure:

post-3375-0-20060500-1378673407_thumb.jpg

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  • 3 months later...

Just finished this on Expert, getting all the loot and all the easter eggs.

 

+Good and adequate following from Flakebridge Monastery.

+Quantity of readables: good.

+Quality of readables: reasonable.

+Adequate amount of loot necessary to complete Expert objective.

+Main puzzle to get the treasure is unusual.

+To find the easter eggs is an interesting objective, though for me only one was hard to find.

 

+The secret room puzzle in Rake's bedroom is clever and satisfying to complete, and I appreciate the hint in the readable.

 

 

*Main puzzle is so ridiculously easy to solve, that doesn't make any sense nobody in that castle, especially Rake III, wasn't able to solve it.

 

*Some readables are just...too weird or unfit. And it looks like you have a thing for cannibalism, considering that this is not the first FM you mention it.

 

 

Bug report:

-Typo in the introduction: http://imageshack.us...3/4033/5i1k.jpg

-Entering in the boat in the very beginning makes my characther get stuck. (http://imageshack.us...6/1823/1wky.jpg)

-The easter egg objective is pretty bugged. When I got 6, the objective completed. (http://imageshack.us...9/1188/pgd2.jpg) So I reloaded. Then I knocked down a guard, pressed the Frob key in him, and the objective completed!

-Standing on fire doesn't hurt my game persona. Now, I don't know if this is TDM related or FM related.

 

Conclusion:

Despite these problems, I did had fun playing this map.

My main complaint though is that is generally too easy.

Edited by Jon Irenicus
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  • 1 year later...

Played this the previous Saturday and it was a very enjoyable mission. The winter feel was certainly there and I found some of the ideas used in the castle to be fun and amusing. Since I prefer non-supernatural missions, I liked this one even better than Flakebridge Monastery, as intriguing as that earlier mission was.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 9 months later...

I really enjoyed this mission. I dare say it felt a little bit linear, but that did not make it less enjoyable.

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  • 5 years later...

I think I enjoyed this mission even more than the first Selis Woderose map, though that's probably just my own preference for smaller missions rather than enormous sprawlers.

Lord Rake's castle was definitely a highlight. You really captured the feeling of a decaying castle well.

Cool puzzle at the end.

Spoiler

* I couldn't get the ice blocking the lever to melt no matter how much I waved my candle at it, so that hidden room was the only loot I missed.

* I don't know if I found all 10 easter eggs. The objective was ticked off but there were only 9 eggs in my inventory, and I didn't think to count them as I was playing.

 

My missions:           Stand-alone                                                      Duncan Lynch series                              

                                      Down and Out on Newford Road              the Factory Heist

                                                                                                  A House Call

                                                                                                  The House of deLisle                                                                                                  

                              

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