Frictional Games Forum

I really, really enjoyed it. :) The feeling I felt, looking down that ending hallway and seeing that silhouette... Man. However, I do have a couple critiques.
1) I know it's not the ENDING ending, it's a "to be continued", but the ending of a game needs some kind of build up, some kind of climax to the action. For most games, it's a boss battle, for an adventure game, it can be an extremely dangerous situation or moment, or difficult and hugely elaborate puzzle. Here, we have pressing a button, collecting a key, and prying open a door. The last puzzle of the game, building the chemical bomb to get through the cave-in, wasn't much for a finale. It doesn't really detract from the ending, but it's hardly memorable or lasting. For a series, you really want the finale to blow the player out of his seat, make him salivate for the sequel. See the ending scene from HL2: Episode 1 for a great example of how to truly STUN an audience. The aformentioned silhouette has a great effect, but you need to do it with gameplay and plot/story/atmosphere, not just one or the other. ;)
2) Some kind of on-screen recognition from Philip when the flashlight breaks would be nice. >_>; I thought the game was fading out for the credits and I just stood there in the dark for over a minute, then thought the game crashed and started trying to move. :( My first instinct when it got dark was to turn on the flashlight, of course, and I got a flashlight noise but no flashlight beam I assumed it was a fade-out and I was no longer playing.

Hmm... You didnt think of trying to turn on flares or glowstick? Last one did work after the flashlight broke.

I misunderstood the ending so badly. I though that the figure would come walking towards me and beat the crap out of me, so I just stood there the first time, but then I just ran. I long so much to the new episode. I think this is the only time I really look forward to an expansion!

/Breaker

Demens Wrote:Hmm... You didnt think of trying to turn on flares or glowstick? Last one did work after the flashlight broke.

I did- after I started pressing the movement buttons at random when I thought the game had crashed and found I was still playing. I got out the glowstick after that.
As an aside, does that thing ever run out? Is there any weaknesses to it? It's in every way better than a flare, except a flare can be thrown (Took me a while to figure out how to at first, though). It's much, much brighter and it's light reaches farther.

Play with gamma set at 3.0 and you won't need to use either the flashlight or the glowstick 8).

/Breaker

or just turn shaders to very low, looks much better than gamma 3.0 ;)

But then what's the point of the game if you can see everything?!

Anyhow, I was pretty freaked by Red screaming in that incinerator! And when I saw that black silhouette, I started walking towards it slowly. Then the door slammed behind me and I turned around only to see nothing. My flashlight died and when I turned around again the man was gone and it got pitch black. I brought out the glowstick and started walking... Only to get ambushed from behind the locked door!

Freaky indeed! )

The point of making you see everything is that you have so much more control. And if I'd play on the darkest I'd probably die of a heart attack. Especially when the first grey worm attacked through the door.

/Breaker

It totally spoils the atmosphere. Gamma 1.1 seems best for me.

I thought the ending was good. It's simple yet very good. simple meaning, not so dramatic and overkilled with, um, drama, lol. It's like the rest of the game. If you suddenly had to kill some big demon or that figure you saw, it would kill the game.
Call of Duty ring a bell? Imagine bosses in Call of Duty. Fighting a tank with loads of shields calling the German fighters to kill you. One BIG German or one strong one in armor throwing grenades at you, etc.
It'd be stupid! I know, it's based on WWII, and that'd be stupid to have bosses in the game when it's based on real life that didn't have bosses, but still, it would just look wrong.
I hope there aren't any bosses in any of the episodes. It needs to remain simple, again, simple in terms of not being so overly dramatic.