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Fan Mission: Volta and the Stone by Kingsal (05/26/2016) V1.3


kingsal

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Wow, this is indeed a pleasant reminiscence. Many thanks to those who worked on this.

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"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

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I had monitor problems last night but I'll try to get this into the mission downloader tonight if Biker or someone else from the team doesn't get to it before me.

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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Wow, so many amazing FMs in the last weeks.

 

 

Not too many things need to be said - outstanding mission. Many little details on top of the great visuals and atmosphere, many different paths the player can take, some really surprising moments (moving light in the tower, maid entering the bathroom, engineer doing the water temple move and checking the switch :D). I could mention even more things I really liked in this mission, but you better spend your time playing than reading about it.

PS: There was only one bug I experienced - on top of the tower, after opening the gate to reach the fire arrows, my character could not use any type of weapon anymore and I had to reload an older safegame - no idea how I managed to do that, though. I also wasn´t able to recreate this scenario. Maybe I was jumping around too much...

 

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This is really a great mission! Very beautiful and detailed. Only one point (although it might be an error only I experienced): In the bath there was a hole in one wall. Looked like a brush that was not drawn completely to the balkony. Anyway, it was really fun to play this mission!

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Finished yesterday, but I want to replay.

 

Your mission it's simply awesome and has an *insane* quality, a real masterpiece, IMHO.

 

I don't know how you did it (more, if this is your first mission), but the graphics, every texture that you placed, are simply artistic, with some sense of beauty that normally I don't feel in other missions.

 

And I like a lot the puzzles, the architecture, how you placed guards, very realistic, incredible gameplay.

 

My congratulation, this is my favourite mission fo the year, you made my day! :-)

 

Veramente BRAVO complimenti!!!

Edited by Ladro
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This is utterly jaw-dropping. I heartily agree with the folks at Darkfate who think that Kingsal might be a professional game developer

working under an alias. I wont shout too much about this theory as I don't want Kingsal to get in trouble with his\her company... ;)

 

Bravo!I

I agree!

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TAQUITO'S REVIEW: VOLTA AND THE STONE!

 

 

ARCHITECTURE: 10/10
The balconies, the Halls, The Streets with the canals, The atrium, the library. This is perfection! Loved the scale of the buildings which were big enough yet never felt gargantuan or exaggeratedly gigantic. Excellent scale! Oh the geometry of the map with the angular hallways, a delight! There are so many things to discover, so many places to climb, so many routes and paths to take and nothing felt out of place, everything perfectly balanced between the big and small spaces. The whole map had a sense of reality in scale. One great detail to mention is the whole map had areas which perfectly highlighted the Tower which was pretty much the center of attention in the layout of the map.


ART DIRECTION & MUSIC: 10/10
From the very beginning of the mission, you feel like you're about to experience something special. The intro video artistically design with a specific palette of colors, the reverse twisted music which surprisingly feels quite fitting to the aesthetic of TDM. The little plaques describing each room was a really nice touch. The fog effects were nicely placed giving great atmosphere in certain areas. The music is also perfectly presented adding to the feeling of tension in the right areas. The object placement was great as well with rooms perfectly decorated with the right amounts of objects.

GAMEPLAY & STORY: 10/10
Another perfect ten here. The AI was perfectly placed, with great pace. There were instances where I had to stop and think my approach. The Mission is filled with so many great little details like the auto save, the interactive cues by the player's character. The textual cues in the center of the screen during certain events which I think could be a great addition when objectives are completed. The challenges were perfectly balanced and the story was interesting, engaging and fitted quite well with the setting. I personally liked the cruelty presented in some texts and how well it set the whole feel of the story. The game play elements were well executed with nice challenges that never felt out of place. All in all a well balanced game play.


LIGHTING: 10/10
Another perfect score in the lighting department. ALTHOUGH, I think the beta version of this mission the one with the entire concept by Kingsal was slightly superior to the one now. I felt the lighting was dumbed down for no particular reason and it lost a bit of atmosphere here and there. I still don't get why people want dark areas to be visible in the game, this is the DARK Mod. For the Grace of God there is a brightness option in the menu! Is way easier to brighten the map with the menu option than trying to get the game to look naturally dark. The beta version felt pretty much like playing a T2 Mission with better graphics. I do think the original textures also had to do with this. Either way the lighting still great with good balance between darkness and light and Oh, the highlighting was amazing!


FINAL THOUGHTS:
All in all a Great Mission that could be considered The best so far. I had so many feels with this one, from feeling nostalgic with T2 memories, to feeling Paranoid hearing things and getting scared in the dark isolated rooms when I cleared most of the map from the AI. If there's a Mission that should be packaged with the new version of Dark Mod I think this would be a great candidate and I wholeheartedly recommend this mission to everyone. Excellence across the board! Hope to see much more from Kingsal. You are a great addition to the line up of already great Creators here. Congrats!

 

Edited by Taquito
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how do i use spoiler tags?

 

[spoiler ] Ronald mcdonald IS the hamburgler

 

 

Just remove the space at the end of the start of the first spoiler bracket and you have

a successful spoiler

 

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