The Dark Treasure: Credel Castle's Untold Story [FULL RELEASE]

[Kreekakon]

Ok sorry for the double-post, but I just upped, and finished this mod today, and here's my full review (I'll post an abridged version on MoDB):

The review will be SPOILER-FREE

Mapping/Setting:

I'll start off by saying I think you did a pretty decent job in this respect. It wasn't really anything awesome, or mind-blowing mind you, but I think you captured plenty of the settings quite nicely enough. I can see several places where you tried very hard to add variety to the maps, and I applaud you for that.

Also a lot of great standout moments in set pieces are really good!

However there seem to be some parts in which the fog seems to have a rather "sharp cut" which means the fog is something like a wall, and I can't see anything on the other side until I enter it after which I see perfectly. It's so blatantly serious that I think it just might have something to do with my Amnesia, so I'll let this one slide.

The level design however has a bit to be desired, and I'll note a bit of that below in gameplay.

Scares/Atmosphere:

This was for the most part done VERY well, both atmosphere, and actual scares. Custom sound helped a lot in this aspect. The atmosphere was in certain parts absolutely chilling with moderate use of jumpscares as well as subtle happenings in the background.

Storytelling:

Maybe I didn't find everything, but I personally found the story incredibly hard to follow. I really had not too much of an idea what has happening. I could kind of guess where the story had gone, but not enough clarification was given to make it satisfying alongside self-interpretation.

A general rule that I abide by: Keep the player in the dark just enough to make them want more, but let them know enough to not feel stupid.

The parts that i did get however, which were mostly in the front half of the mod I felt were delivered fairly well without too much glaring issues. For sake of a spoiler-free review I'll refrain from commenting on them for now.

Sound design as well as some pretty good voice-acting also helped quite a lot in this section.

Gameplay/Puzzles:

The puzzles I really enjoyed. They were mostly riddle-ly, and were easy enough for me to figure out by my own while still retaining satisfaction when I did.

The level I feel could get positively confusing at many times however. More than once I was completely disorientated from some hallways looking far too alike, and had to spend a good amount of time re-acquiring my bearings. It's not a huge issue though since it usually doesn't take incredibly long to do so.

Oil, and tinderbox placement was perfectly adequate I feel, and well balanced (If it was intentional that is)

Technical Issues: There is only one thing I think might be a bug I ran across. A bit spoiler related so I'll put it in the tags:

Spoiler below!

After you use the orb to absorb the door's energy you can pick it up again from the floor to end up with two orbs in your inventory.

Verdict: Decent mapping, and scares albeit with a confusing story that's hard to follow still make this a rather exceptional piece of work that everyone should give a shot with. 8/10


I'd like it if you could create a follow-up so we may get a more in-depth idea of what happened regardless if I had missed anything, or not