Alright, Kmilley, I've finished playing your map, and well... I'll not beat around the bush. Here's the critique.
My very first impression of the map the moment I loaded it up was this sentence: "That's it?" Everything was barren save for a small house and the black spots everywhere. I really wasn't that impressed. Still, I decided to give your map the full playthrough that I promised... and I really wish I had saved myself the trouble.
Firstly, let's talk about your story. The backstory is very short and sweet, but also INCREDIBLY cliche'd. If I had a nickel for everytime "you wake up not remembering anything or knowing where you are," I would be spending my time in the Caribbean instead of writing Minecraft map critiques.
The notes system is incredibly annoying. I don't know who thought it was a good idea, but notes ruin adventure maps because they completely draw the player out of the game to load up and read the note. The notes also made your map feel more like an interactive story than an adventure map, but I'll go into more detail about that later.
Let me give you a couple positives before I really start critiquing: most of the buildings on your map are nice and varied (on the outside) and the gold ingots are a nice touch as an attempt to make the story more interesting... though it doesn't really work.
The entire time I was playing this map, I was thinking to myself: "When does the action start?" Seriously, there was zero action in this map aside from nightly mobs that took little effort to dispatch. It got to a point where these mobs became so trivial that I just played during the daytime and skipped night entirely. Travelling between locations was incredibly boring, though the maps were a nice touch. I think the only place I legitimately enjoyed this map was when I had to search for a way to open the sheriff jail door... which was simply a slightly-disguised lever.
There were a few spelling mistakes in your notes, but those weren't very big deals to me. The thing that I hated about all your notes is that ALL OF YOUR CHARACTERS WERE EXACTLY THE SAME. Honestly, I couldn't tell who's journal I was reading unless it either said so in the note or on the building in which the note was found. Your characters had no diversity; the mayor had the same writing skills as the farmer, and none of the characters had personalities behind their words. For example, your farmer's notes should've been written in accent or had choice words misspelled to reflect his profession, and you should've had all of your characters provide more emotional attatchment to the events then periods at the ends of every sentence. Apart from these, there were continuity issues; why does Mary only think her husband's disappearence is strange after waiting a month when one can easily travel between the two towns in one day?
The only thing I semi-liked about this map was the decoration. The black spots were everywhere no matter where I looked, so I was at least sort-of immersed in the story the whole time. The exteriors of all of the buildings looked pretty nice, although the interiors of most of the buildings left much to be desired.
As far as content goes, the coolest part was probably the death labs with the animal test chambers. The only problem is that you have to survive all the boring stuff before you even get to the death labs. Being able to see all the failed portals was nice as well, but the "math jokes" and such as the "double you" completely ruined the feel and made me facepalm very hard.
The ending of the story was ironic, but not worth reading through the 19 other notes. (Which people can skip anyways...)
Fun: 2/10 (endless walking and hunting for signs with some mobs, nothing excited me until the death labs) Decoration: 5/10 (black spot continuity and exterior design was nice, interior of the buildings wasn't) Gameplay: 2/10 (all you do is look for signs and collect gold ingots...) Story: 4/10 (good spelling and grammar, but lack of character development and diversity as well as a cliche'd situation make for a boring story)
Overall: 3.25/10
It's just not very good. Althought if you made this an "interactive book" instead of a "Minecraft adventure," it would probably be decently popular... maybe...
You must've been angry or sad about something when you played this..
this looks epic in the scary realm i mean it is in a scary inviroment with diasease yet you can have the great time playing the map yet taking a scream every time you go round a corner and stuff apearears out of nowhere and thats my coment from just wacthing the trailer ....
..... ok ill download the map instead of comenting about the map :biggrin.gif: :smile.gif: then wacth most of it blow up and burn cause it might make me angry or just for fun Hahahahaha
Sounds good! Let me know what you think when you have finished!!
New update! The texture pack is now 100% compatible with 1.8.1. Thanks for your patience! When 1.9 comes around, I can assure you the texture pack will be updated a lot faster. Also, thanks to DerpitytheHerpity for helping me update.
Thanks everyone, and remember to keep leaving feedback, I love to hear it!!
Alright, Kmilley, I've finished playing your map, and well... I'll not beat around the bush. Here's the critique.
My very first impression of the map the moment I loaded it up was this sentence: "That's it?" Everything was barren save for a small house and the black spots everywhere. I really wasn't that impressed. Still, I decided to give your map the full playthrough that I promised... and I really wish I had saved myself the trouble.
Firstly, let's talk about your story. The backstory is very short and sweet, but also INCREDIBLY cliche'd. If I had a nickel for everytime "you wake up not remembering anything or knowing where you are," I would be spending my time in the Caribbean instead of writing Minecraft map critiques.
The notes system is incredibly annoying. I don't know who thought it was a good idea, but notes ruin adventure maps because they completely draw the player out of the game to load up and read the note. The notes also made your map feel more like an interactive story than an adventure map, but I'll go into more detail about that later.
Let me give you a couple positives before I really start critiquing: most of the buildings on your map are nice and varied (on the outside) and the gold ingots are a nice touch as an attempt to make the story more interesting... though it doesn't really work.
The entire time I was playing this map, I was thinking to myself: "When does the action start?" Seriously, there was zero action in this map aside from nightly mobs that took little effort to dispatch. It got to a point where these mobs became so trivial that I just played during the daytime and skipped night entirely. Travelling between locations was incredibly boring, though the maps were a nice touch. I think the only place I legitimately enjoyed this map was when I had to search for a way to open the sheriff jail door... which was simply a slightly-disguised lever.
There were a few spelling mistakes in your notes, but those weren't very big deals to me. The thing that I hated about all your notes is that ALL OF YOUR CHARACTERS WERE EXACTLY THE SAME. Honestly, I couldn't tell who's journal I was reading unless it either said so in the note or on the building in which the note was found. Your characters had no diversity; the mayor had the same writing skills as the farmer, and none of the characters had personalities behind their words. For example, your farmer's notes should've been written in accent or had choice words misspelled to reflect his profession, and you should've had all of your characters provide more emotional attatchment to the events then periods at the ends of every sentence. Apart from these, there were continuity issues; why does Mary only think her husband's disappearence is strange after waiting a month when one can easily travel between the two towns in one day?
The only thing I semi-liked about this map was the decoration. The black spots were everywhere no matter where I looked, so I was at least sort-of immersed in the story the whole time. The exteriors of all of the buildings looked pretty nice, although the interiors of most of the buildings left much to be desired.
As far as content goes, the coolest part was probably the death labs with the animal test chambers. The only problem is that you have to survive all the boring stuff before you even get to the death labs. Being able to see all the failed portals was nice as well, but the "math jokes" and such as the "double you" completely ruined the feel and made me facepalm very hard.
The ending of the story was ironic, but not worth reading through the 19 other notes. (Which people can skip anyways...)
Fun: 2/10 (endless walking and hunting for signs with some mobs, nothing excited me until the death labs) Decoration: 5/10 (black spot continuity and exterior design was nice, interior of the buildings wasn't) Gameplay: 2/10 (all you do is look for signs and collect gold ingots...) Story: 4/10 (good spelling and grammar, but lack of character development and diversity as well as a cliche'd situation make for a boring story)
Overall: 3.25/10
It's just not very good. Althought if you made this an "interactive book" instead of a "Minecraft adventure," it would probably be decently popular... maybe...
One negative response out of 2500+ downloads, I'd say those are pretty good statistics :biggrin.gif:
One negative response out of 2500+ downloads, I'd say those are pretty good statistics :biggrin.gif:
There is bound to be someone who really dislikes the map for whatever reason. I am just happy about all the extremely positive responses. That is why it didn't bother me much. :smile.gif:
Hey Kmilley me and some others from a group called ExpertGamerDotCom are recording a group playthrough of your map :smile.gif: So that will be fun :biggrin.gif:
Posting here when done :biggrin.gif:
Footaged isn't getting posted as the server kept crashing although from what we played it was very fun and interesting :smile.gif:
That's too bad... Oh well, I am glad you had fun!!
Hey Kmilley me and some others from a group called ExpertGamerDotCom are recording a group playthrough of your map :smile.gif: So that will be fun :biggrin.gif:
Posting here when done :biggrin.gif:
Footaged isn't getting posted as the server kept crashing although from what we played it was very fun and interesting :smile.gif:
I played it, after seeing a ton of reviews for it I figured I should finally give it a shot.
Anyway, very good story, you did a great job on it. not entirely sure what the disease had to do with the end though, aalthough I think I put some things together. And I'm pretty sure I missed a few crucial notes, since I cut a corner in getting out of the safe house thing, I couldnt find an exit:P but yeah, good story and great writing, but there wasnt much in terms of gameplay itself, just moving and surviving the hordes of zombies. it's pure adventure and story, which I'm sure many people like so I won't criticize too much. I only got 20 ingots:P
I played it, after seeing a ton of reviews for it I figured I should finally give it a shot.
Anyway, very good story, you did a great job on it. not entirely sure what the disease had to do with the end though, aalthough I think I put some things together. And I'm pretty sure I missed a few crucial notes, since I cut a corner in getting out of the safe house thing, I couldnt find an exit:P but yeah, good story and great writing, but there wasnt much in terms of gameplay itself, just moving and surviving the hordes of zombies. it's pure adventure and story, which I'm sure many people like so I won't criticize too much. I only got 20 ingots:P
Thank you!! I appreciate the review, and from a fellow map maker :smile.gif: I will be reviewing your map sooner or later.
Haha I hope you like it!
You must've been angry or sad about something when you played this..
Still the best map I've ever played
PhantomsCore. You manage to continue being one of the most active and awesome people to ever post on this thread. I can't thank you enough. <3
Sounds good! Let me know what you think when you have finished!!
Thanks everyone, and remember to keep leaving feedback, I love to hear it!!
Thought I would give you a bump :smile.gif:
One negative response out of 2500+ downloads, I'd say those are pretty good statistics :biggrin.gif:
There is bound to be someone who really dislikes the map for whatever reason. I am just happy about all the extremely positive responses. That is why it didn't bother me much. :smile.gif:
Thanks, I appreciate it!
That's too bad... Oh well, I am glad you had fun!!
Wait, so will there be any videos?
Great! Let me know what you think when you have finished. :smile.gif:
Anyway, very good story, you did a great job on it. not entirely sure what the disease had to do with the end though, aalthough I think I put some things together. And I'm pretty sure I missed a few crucial notes, since I cut a corner in getting out of the safe house thing, I couldnt find an exit:P but yeah, good story and great writing, but there wasnt much in terms of gameplay itself, just moving and surviving the hordes of zombies. it's pure adventure and story, which I'm sure many people like so I won't criticize too much. I only got 20 ingots:P
Thank you!! I appreciate the review, and from a fellow map maker :smile.gif: I will be reviewing your map sooner or later.
Thanks for the feedback!!!
I loved it soo much :happy.gif:
Haha that's good! I'm glad it worked out for you!! :smile.gif:
I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for the feedback!!!
22 ingots, and the custom texture pack really added to it. I loved the ending, especially with all the different shapes of the you-know-whats....
Great imagination, and architectual skills.
3 diamonds for yoouuuuuu!