Mr. Bean on 29/5/2008 at 18:55
Can you believe this - It's become a little easier for me to sit at my desk and study, after seeing all those souls hard working, with books in front of them. What an effect you've achieved, Mr. DrK! Congratulations!
BrokenArts on 29/5/2008 at 19:15
You've got to be kidding! LOL. :cheeky: The effect this is having on people, from scaring them shitless to making them study. Will wonders never cease?
klatremus on 29/5/2008 at 21:28
Thank you DrK !!
Just finished with full loot, secrets, order paintings and pickpockets. Thanks to Aspirin's list for the help with 3 secrets and a couple of hard loot items.
(
http://home.online.no/~ajnilsen/hn/hn.htm) FULL LOOT, EQUIPMENT & SECRET LIST HERE!! (FMs)
Review
Pros:
- Atmosphere. This is something that seems to be a given with DrK's missions. He has an ability to suck you into gameplay from the first step. Even though this is a differently styled mission (and kudos to DrK for daring to make that leap) I still felt the same sense of suspense and excitement running through the hallways.
- Attention to detail. This is also a given, and almost expected, from DrK's work. For me this is perhaps the most important part of any good mission. Details make the mission more believable and the world more real. Ink & Dust delivers immensely!
- Objectives. The story was driven by the objectives this time, not so much by pure exploration; as would be expected from an indoor environment. This was a change that added nice diversity to the campaign. The first two missions were very similar in style, and it looks like the fourth will take us back to the city, but here we get something different.
Cons:
- Mission style. I almost feel bad saying this is a con, cause it shouldn't be, but the keeper style mission isn't my favorite. I'd like for every misson to have some form of outdoor area; it adds to the realism I think. The halls of the order got kinda monotonous in the end, although there was a nice variety in the
elemental rooms. Also the fact that you had to
pick up 16 objects to create all the keys was a little overwhelming.
- Boring first half. Running around the south star picking up loot got a little lengthy to me. The area where
AIs didnt alert should have been smaller I think. The beautiful architecture and details go a long way, but you kinda get jaded after a while.
My score: 8.5/10
I almost feel bad giving it such a "low" score, because it fits perfectly in with the story and the campaign. However, in itself, the mission wasn't as fun as the first two. I would still play this mission over a mediocre city mission ANY day of the week!
Keep up the good work DrK! :thumb:
denizen23 on 29/5/2008 at 22:06
Hmmm... I wouldn't call the first half boring, and I didn't find the 16 object thingie overwhelming.
BrokenArts on 29/5/2008 at 23:18
I think that is mainly personal preference, to not like a keeper mission, I wouldn't call that a flaw against a mission. How can it be a flaw? Its not, its personal preference. Thats your choice, which is fine.
I didn't find the South star boring either, if you trying to pick pocket and already alerted AI, you're busted. The tension was already there, and continued to be there as you made your way throughout the area, wondering if you were going to get busted and someone heard you KO an AI. Which happened to me on a few occasions.
This mission you have to savor, pick it apart, explore, I had no problem finding the items. Just be glad the objectives are what they are. You don't have to make every single key, it wasn't always like that, till it was suggested to make that an optional objective.
It adds more to the FM, make what keys you want, and go from there. Less is more, more is Less. :p
fett on 30/5/2008 at 00:43
I've not successfully finished Rocksburg 1, but everybody seems to love these, and I'd really like to play them. That said, I've already invested about 6+ hours in Rockburg 1 without getting anywhere, despite reading every single post in the thread dedicated to that FM (Yah, I'm that stoopid). I hate the 'key hunt' aspects of the FM, though everything else sucks me in. Is there a walkthrough somewhere for the 1st one, so I can just get on with it and enjoy the other 2?
bobber on 30/5/2008 at 00:52
Question: I have completed this marvelous mission on hard having successfully created the two necessary keys to meet the required objectives. Am I to understand that I can now go back and create the other keys mentioned in the book? Will these keys allow me access to other areas?
Having completed the mission I can now go back and look around some more.
pavlovscat on 30/5/2008 at 01:12
@fett
Check out (
http://home.online.no/~ajnilsen/hn/hn.htm) Klatremus' site under FMs. He has loot/equipment/secret lists for all 3 Rockbourgs which will give you the locations of all the keys.
BrokenArts on 30/5/2008 at 01:21
Quote Posted by bobber
Question: I have completed this marvelous mission on hard having successfully created the two necessary keys to meet the required objectives. Am I to understand that I can now go back and create the other keys mentioned in the book? Will these keys allow me access to other areas?
Having completed the mission I can now go back and look around some more.
Yes, you can go back again, and make ALL the keys for the rooms. Its just an optional objective, but, its more to do! More fun. :)
kamyk on 30/5/2008 at 03:37
Finished a day or so ago, and actually had to take a breather. All I can say is my god! DrK. Have you toured hell or something?
Within the first minute of playing I was going "Oh shit! Oh shit!". Lol, of course then immediately afterward I was going "Oh wow!". You created a masterpiece with that compound.
I did not at all mind wandering around the South Star, it was something of a tension reliever to be around all those --- things--- without having to hide or run like hell. And it gave me a chance to sightsee your amazing work. Of course then being told that the ways in between, or whatever they are called (the places with the foggy doors), had become dangerous, threw me right back into a state of tension.
Then I got to the North Star. Brrr. That was one creepy place. I actually ended up resorting to exploring a little, rounding a corner, finding a shadowy spot to hide in, saving, and taking a break from playing, then going back, exploring a little more, rounding another corner, finding another shadow to hide in, saving, taking a break, etc, etc, etc.
The atmosphere was so tense, I actually got a tension headache, lol. Not that it stopped me from playing.
Those Guardians scare the hell out of me. Especially the really decayed ones. I did have a tension reliever with one of them though. At the part where you have to sneak by one at the top of a long flight of stairs, to get into Superior soul Dumah's room, I had backstabbed it, and when it got back up it ended up on the railing there. I saved, then tried to sneak by it. It saw me, and fell off the railing all the way to the bottom, but it ran right back up those stairs like a marathon runner. Damn those things are fast! Needless to say, it killed me, but when I reloaded my save it fell off again, and since it hadn't seen me, it wasn't alerted, so it didn't do anything about it. Just stood at the bottom, doing it's patrol facings.
Then after a while I got to the Dark zone. My reaction to that one jump on the catwalks was "Aggggh! Holy, Jesus F*&%ing Christ!". I don't have that kind of reaction to a video game often.
The best tension reliever for me was right afterwards. I had saved my dark grenade until then, and when I went into that first alcove and saw the Guardian thingy running laps around that area there, I used my dark grenade. The Haunt it summoned, started chasing the after the Guardian, and they both did laps for a while, until the Haunt caught up and knocked the Guardian on it's ass. It was hilarious. Goooood Haunt.
It was a good thing too, because the rest of the Dark zone was very tense. I pretty much almost crawled through it. At least until the last part, when I ran like hell. Only thing that would have made that part better/worse imho is if you had the Guardian from the beginning of the mission right behind you, chasing you through the end of the dark zone, and those freaky shaking zombies behind the barred off sections. That would have given me nightmares. :ebil:
BTW, I had no issue at all with putting the book down. I just set it on the table right by Interpretor Thale, if that helps anyone stuck with that bit.
I have to tell you. I am a huge horror fan. I have played just about every horror game ever made. My favorite type of movie is horror movies. I read horror stories before bed. My horror pedigree would make this already long post significantly longer. Almost nothing scares me.
Your FMs scare me. Enough that I may never play part 3 again. You are an absolute master. :thumb: You should be doing this for a living. I'm going to go play something tame and soothing now, like Fatal Frame or Silent Hill.
