Worthy of my time
I hope you read and reply to this review. I'd very much like to say this is the best game I've ever played, but in reality it is far from it. I wont deny that with a pitch black room, volume maxed, the first 15 minutes of the game are creepy as hell, it was very well made. Anyone that says they weren't scared by it was obviously one or a combination of these things.
1) Did not have a pitch black environment, as sugested.
2) Did not have the vollume up, also as sugested.
3) Took a break in the middle, which relieved tension.
4) Used the walkthrough.
5) Does not have a good grip on reality and needs psychiatric help.
The sound was perfect, the environment you set was perfect, the story was perfect. With all these great things going for you, I found the game to be so good it was worthy of a 5. It was without a doubt the most inventive game I've seen on newgrounds.
Well now that I've said my point of view time for the criticism.
THERE IS SPOILERS AHEAD! VIEWERS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
This game lacks in many areas that made it dull and brought on a lack of interest that made me want to quit at some points. You set the tone very well, but you set things up and make people expect something that never happens. I mean, the two single most shocking things in the game was the guy in the hall that apeared for a second and when you find Gwen sitting there in her room. I have yet to complete the game, and I intend to, but I just had to write this review first, so if another shocking thing happens after those two, it's possible I haven't seen it yet. But back to the building up. You set the stage so that people are jumping at every corner expecting something to pop up. The one reason Gwen was shocking was because by the time you reach her you have come to expect being brought up only to be left hanging. You through doors and nothing seems to happen short of you being impressed with the horrific rooms you see. It's nice 'eye candy' but nothing more really. Also, it gets very frustrating at points, because you don't have a clue where to go or what to click on. The biggest example of which is the door to the cellar entrance. It's in the main hall on the side there, but at first you can't open it. However when you click it it doesn't say 'this door is locked, or wont open' it doesn't say anything. So naturally because of how dark it is, I assume it to be a cabinet instead of a door. Later on when you have to go in there I never thought to re-check the thing that once could not be clicked on. For all I knew it wasn't even a door. You don't put enough descriptive points into helping the player move forward. I mean, understandably these points shouldn't be right up for everyone to view, they should be secluded and hidden, but findable so that you may get a hint of where to go if you look. I hope you don't discard this review lightly because I very much liked this game and am only writing this review for your benefit. I usually don't write reviews unless I have something worth saying. This game was good for the first bit, but after that I just got so board with the same thing over and over.
Again I congradulate you on your excelent work. You do an amazing job at setting the tone, just try following up on it next time with more flavore.
P.S. On an other, unrelated note. You have extreme talent with drawing attention of the viewer and setting a tone that will stick, I like your style very much and would like to know if you are interested in ever doing a colaboration between you and I. I would enjoy mixing your talents with my talents to see what we come up with. Please get back to me on this. Naturally if you don't I'll assume you haven't gotten a chance to read this and try and contact you myself, but nevertheless it's probably better to see if you'll contact me first.
Anyway, sorry for the extremely long review. I hope you find it usefull. Thank you for your time and please reply. Contact me at: 'zinger2099@hotmail . com'