Korsakovia Released

[legionaire45]

Done by the same guy who did Dear Esther.

I was kind of disappointed with the execution. The story is interesting but there are so many technical flaws with this that it's difficult to want to continue. This crashed on me 4 times, mostly when quicksaving, so be warned.

Dear Esther's mapping wasn't the best, but it was wide open enough that you could still navigate around. I think Korsakovia's biggest flaw is the mapping. The maps are cramped but in the worst possible spots, if you move too fast the audio will overlap in places, the enemies are annoying and incredibly difficult to take out due to being such small and hard to see targets. The levels are repetitive in some spots (like, they literally copied and pasted the level and just changed a few things), there was quite a bit of ambiguity in where you have to go next in places, etc. There are a lot of small annoying things that add up and really hurt this mod. There have been worse mods, but this one could have been a lot better if the mapping had been better.

The voice acting was top notch for a mod, as was the rest of the audio. The story was genuinely creepy in spots and I think that adding more action to Dear Esther's formula is a really good idea. They just really botched the execution.

[LINK] (http://www.moddb.com/mods/korsakovia/news/korsakovia-released)

[ultama121]

I'm stuck. This convoluted level design is TERRIBLE.

[Botolf]

Alright, finished it. It's a mixed bag, with some good and some bad.

The enemies and environments were kind of a let-down, and at times would actively interfere with the interesting story going on. The environments were puzzling, because unlike in Dear Esther, (DE and Karsakovia spoilers to follow) where the environments were both physical and places in the mind of the narrator, Karsakovia's environment's felt like neither: too bizarre and too copy-pasted to feel like a real place, too mundane and not imaginative enough to feel like a place in the mind. In some cases, I would be attacked by the wind monsters while a monologue was playing, and that made it difficult to catch some story bits.

I liked the later chapters more than the previous ones, which suffered from some really monotonous level design. The building slowly unravelling into a cloud of debris as you progressed was kind of cool, but only really shines when you see it all exploded like that. In a way, the building is a metaphor for Christopher's mind, he deteriorates and slides further and further into his post-apocalyptic fantasy, dragging his fictionalized version of the doctor with him.

Smashing the TVs was an interesting mechanic, especially because it was mainly suggested to the player through the monologues. Christopher smashed his own personal TV, his hands wrapped in (copper?) wire, thus burning himself. IIRC, that was when the Karsakoff's Syndrome set in, and he forgot about his previous life.

Overall, I got way more out of Dear Esther. Still, Korsakovia has some neat moments, so if you've got time, give it a spin. If you've only time or interest to play one of this modmaker's works, play Dear Esther. Cannot recommend that one highly enough.

[rossmum]

Holy fucking shit, this is fucking creepy as hell. I love it.

e/ Yeah the execution wasn't great, but fuck that. The fact it's not another cookie-cutter mod and it doesn't include ": Source" in the title overrides them entirely in my book.

[Sel]

I'm stuck. This convoluted level design is TERRIBLE.

this

Where the fuck do I go after getting up the stairs.

[Botolf]

Once you get the crowbar, go back to that little side-room in the warehouse and smash the lock on the door.

[Sel]

Once you get the crowbar, go back to that little side-room in the warehouse and smash the lock on the door.

I was talking about the first level, now I'm there, and I'm in another warehouse, with no clue where to go!

[Sel]

I finished it, mostly by fucking no clipping everwhere past the second level.
Seriously, the voice acting was good, but half the time I couldn't tell what they were saying because of the superbly loud static.
Also having the screen flash white, on a "3d mario platformer gone wrong" is a terrible fucking idea.
This is garbage, and the ending was garbage, the gameplay was garbage.
The music was good though.
The level design makes up for anything good I have to say about this though.



That aside, I'd also like to point out that black particle enemies didn't even show up on the last level, so fuck.

It felt like they stopped trying after the second level, no portals, no nothing, I was getting about 10 fps where I should have been getting 300 :\

So yeah, don't play this unless you have a huge story fetish, and are willing to let some of the worst level design I've ever seen pass unnoticed.

[Botolf]

1. Did you climb the spiral of garbage? Smash the TVs?

3. Agreed
4. Dude didn't wake up :smith:

Those invisible monsters are intentional, they're actually reskinned manhacks or something, you have to listen for the sound and hope you hit them as they swoop toward you in the air.

But yea, there was a lot of work that needed to be done on this. Came outta the oven too quickly!