Review(s)

[Dead-eye]

OK so I beat the game last night. I thought I and everyone else should voice the constructive criticism here to help OTP in the future. Keep in mind that because it is a mod there are probably going to be more negative points then positive points due to the fact that we can't review every aspect of the game because that would be reviewing aspects of Deus Ex and not TNM. However TNM get all the bonuses of being a Deus ex mod.

I will try to keep this simple and well layed out so that I don't bore you guys with a long pointless review. So I'll just go ahead and list the points.

Negative Points:

*Way To hard: This is a problem that I started to noticed on the Shadow Code map where in some situations it was imposable to complete aspects of the game without taking damage. The new enemy class on that map (The flying robot thing) was also another way to hard enemy class that got way too many spawns then it should have. I soon found myself cheating through parts of the game because the difficulty was to hard on normal and I was getting vary tired of trying something only to die over and over and over again. Mix that in with bugs and the game becomes a nightmare. In the future OTP should decrease the difficulty so that at lest above average players can beat the game and not just !337 haxk0rs.

*Bugs: This is not so much a problem with TNM and more a problem with Deus Ex. After you die if you try and reload a game before the game loads the menu screen it will work but the second time you do that the game will always crash. Mix that in with random freezing and the game was too buggy to keep me entertained. My guess is that the bugs have something to do with assignment of memory issues.

*The entity's lake of screen time: The idea to introduce an aspect that barks the 4th wall is cool however this aspect of the game got too little screen time. If you play the game and kill S.B. King you will meet the entity for the first time in a fun sort of game over. However considering this is optional you only meet the entity once and that is far too little to be fun for me.

*Killing the goat leader: This was more a player error I think but it was still a problem I encountered. I killed Athena but was unable to confirm her as the leader of the goats. This meant that the mission was unfulfilled and I was unable to complete it. At the end of the game she somehow survived. This might be a bug but I felt that because I was unable to confirm the identity of the goat leader, until after the credits, that is what lead to the error. I think in the future it should be vary easy to confirm the identity of someone you killed after you kill them in situation where you are ordered to kill them.

*Edit: Jonas was right. This is not a fair negative point.

Positive Points:

*The entity: I was not surprised to find the 4th wall braking aspect but I still liked it. Especially after killing King.

*Game Spy is the enemy: Wait your telling me that something I hate in real life is the enemy in the game? I think this is the first game to do something like this and might I say right on!

*Setting: Vary cool setting and vary original in a vary unique kind of way. Really I think finding a original setting in this day in age should give you some super points.

Natural Points:

*Voice Acting: This is sadly something I can't put in the positive aspect. Although the voice acting is vary good, maybe even better then Deus Ex, it was again something completely overshadowed by the poor old engine that constantly reminded me how old it was. Also because this is sort of this mods signature move it's already been advertised as a key selling point. So to sum this comment up "It was hyped and I can't put hyped things in the positive section" although it was still vary good.

*Characters: I don't know about this aspect the characters where OK better then any character in DX:IW yet there still seemed to be some aspects missing. I didn't really fall in love with Trestkon maybe because his whole past thing or the resign he left FourmCity in the first place was never brought to the light. I did find it funny that Jonas portrayed himself as a smart ass. It's always good when the writers can make fun of themselves. Still this aspect should have a little more depth but all around it was OK.

*Graphics/Game Engine: This is again not the fault of TNM but more a fault with the game industry in general. The games graphics are of course identical to Deus Ex. This is sad only because the unreal engine is still a engine that limits the creative talents of the people who use it. As I was playing the game everything that was cool about the game was overshadowed by the old clunky engine's feel. I mean it's a mod so you can't ask the team to make there own render engine but it's sad that I could not enjoy the game to it's fullest because of this factor. If only unreal didn't cost half a million or there was an actual good alternative.


Summery:

To sum everything up I would say that this gets a %96 for a mod and for a game this gets a %80 rating from me. Edit: All in all there is vary little wrong with this game compared to commercial products. I would vary much like to see a sequel maybe one set in a new engine based of a forum closer to home with a larger role for the entity. (I.E. OTP City?)

[chris the cynic]

Your spelling is ... unique.

The entity can have more screentime. If only you poke the game in the right places. Get poking.

[Jonas]

I didn't want to comment much on this as commenting on a review of your own project is sort of bad form, but I'd like to point a few things out:

Keep in mind that because it is a mod there are probably going to be more negative points then positive points due to the fact that we can't review every aspect of the game because that would be reviewing aspects of Deus Ex and not TNM. However TNM get all the bonuses of being a Deus ex mod.

Graphics/Game Engine: This is again not the fault of TNM but more a fault with the game industry in general. The games graphics are of course identical to Deus Ex.

So... you won't point out all the positive points about TNM that we automatically inherit from Deus Ex, but you're happy to point out a negative point about TNM that we inherited from Deus Ex, even though we actually improved as much upon it as we could reasonably be expected to do without having access to the game's source code?

Doesn't strike me as entirely fair to be honest.

Way To hard: This problem that I started to noticed on the Shadow Code map where in some situations it was imposable to do complete aspects of the game without taking damage. The new enemy class on that map (The flying robot thing) was also another way to hard enemy class that got way more attention then is should have.

Fair criticism, but in case you haven't been following the forums, I'll just say we've promised we'll fix as many of the glaring problems with the OSC as we can for the first patch, including making the hoverbots a lot easier to kill. Also, what difficulty setting have you been playing on? The Nameless Mod has been balanced for Deus Ex veterans who generally tend to know the tricks of how to fool the AI, but maybe playing on the Easy setting will suit you better? There's no shame in that, I play most games on Easy myself because I have too little patience and also I suck at games in general.

*The entity's lake of screen time: The idea to introduce an aspect that barks the 4th wall is cool however this aspect of the game got too little screen time.

As Chris says, you'll want to explore more and try different options throughout the game to unlock more Narcissus screen time. It's possible to get quite a lot of Narcissus if you make the right choices and trigger the right events.

Killing the goat leader: This was more a player error I think but it was still a problem I encountered.

No actually that was a bug, and we're looking into fixing it for version 1.0.1: Athena's death is meant to update your goal.

Game Spy is the enemy: wait your telling me that something I hate in real life is the enemy in the game? I think this is the first game to do something like this. And might I say right on!

Well it's nice that you liked it but I will say we don't have that much against GameSpy in real life, even though they have made some poor choices in the past. Using them as the main enemy was meant as a friendly jab. It's been brought to my attention that many of the references to GameSpy towards the end of the game come across as very bitter and even with some ad hominem attacks, and I'm actually sad to hear that, because I certainly never wanted to use The Nameless Mod to attack anybody - it's all meant in good fun, and the fact that my own character is such a tremendously self-obsessed, arrogant bastard was meant to underline that.

Thanks for your feedback. 80% compared to commercial game projects, I can certainly live with that score, even if your review seems to lean a bit to the negative side

[Dead-eye]

Your spelling is ... unique.

Yes it is!

That reminds me of one more thing. That would be of course you...chris the cynic. I felt that this aspect of the game was cool, maybe a bit to fanboy, still cool however the opinions of chris the cynic seemed like they where not general opinions shared by the team rather they where singular opinions that where only upheld by chris the cynic.

This introduces an interesting aspect. When a player meats a character in the game like chris the cynic, someone who seems all knowing and such, they usually take it as facts and opinions of the whole team rather then the opinions of one person. Although this may make the game more real if the opinions of one person are upheld by one person it still means that the player might not realize this and think the the whole team upholds these opinions. Something to be aware of at any rate.

[Dead-eye]

Keep in mind that because it is a mod there are probably going to be more negative points then positive points due to the fact that we can't review every aspect of the game because that would be reviewing aspects of Deus Ex and not TNM. However TNM get all the bonuses of being a Deus ex mod.

Graphics/Game Engine: This is again not the fault of TNM but more a fault with the game industry in general. The games graphics are of course identical to Deus Ex.

So... you won't point out all the positive points about TNM that we automatically inherit from Deus Ex, but you're happy to point out a negative point about TNM that we inherited from Deus Ex, even though we actually improved as much upon it as we could reasonably be expected to do without having access to the game's source code?

Doesn't strike me as entirely fair to be honest.

Yeah it's not fair. This comment is not so much a fair compliant more like a feeling that bugs me. It's totally not your guys is fault but as I was playing the game I continuously herd myself saying "Oh man that could have been so much better if only..." and " These guys are talented there better then this..." so that should be considered more of a feeling then a well structured comment.

[Jonas]

It's totally not your guys is fault but as I was playing the game I continuously herd myself saying "Oh man that could have been so much better if only..."

...it weren't a Deus Ex mod?

Yeah that's... not very helpful.

[Dead-eye]

^^
ROFL!

Edit: OK Jonas you win I'll edit it so that negative comment becomes a neutral comment. Will that make you happy?

BTW: To tell the truth there is vary little wrong with this game if you take into consideration that most of the flats are all bugs. It's a lot like Vampire: Bloodlines a vary good game that is also vary buggy.