Re: [MOD] LABYRINTH OF LIES - v3.6 Release
Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:54 pm
Hey Akroma,
Took me a bit to get around to giving this mod a dedicated review. It really deserves it so here it is.
First off I think this is a definite masterpiece. It shines and it is clear it took a great deal of time to fully flesh it out and refine it.
The crafting system to my knowledge is the only one I have experienced that had so many elaborate recipes. Transmutation/Necrochemy/Reforge all were an amazing addition and added a new dimension to the game and a use for many items that I would otherwise simply discard. I actually spent a great deal of time transmuting and such before I found the philosopher's stone. And that stone was just an added awesome bonus to the system since I could simply pick up items to see whether they could be crafted into something new. And the other thing was that these spells/skills were actual useful. I did in fact craft and then use what I crafted as I played through the Labyrinth. So the craft system really shined.
Bone ritual systems. Another really innovative system which I found to be actually useful at times. It was not as useful as crafting and could have used more recipes as well as perhaps an increase in rarity for the components. As I had so many bones at the end I had to transmute them to 0 weight teeth because I figured I would find super awesome end game recipes. I did not experiment so much with them so I am not sure if there were secret ones I missed. However the ability to combine new items in containers was a really cool innovation and I liked it for the most part. I feel it just needed more refinement and perhaps increased rarity and greater boons from it.
The alternate Dimensions...
So amazing. When I first found Yggdrasil I cheered. I have always liked games that add other dimensions and the ability to shift back and forth. And to find a multiple of alternate dimensions was a surprise and exciting. In this Labyrinth I truly felt like I was in another world not just a Dungeon. The criticism I will make is that in some dimensions namely Shadowlight it became very unclear as to what to do. I was not sure if I needed to extinguish flames or open gates in a certain order to find secrets or some other mechanic. There were too many options given the way you expanded the mechanics at times to make sense of it. Great hints and clarity on how to find secrets and what mechanics were in use here would have helped a lot. Aetherlands however was awesome. I admit I was extraordinarily annoyed at first because I thought really I am going to have to pop back and forth in these totally short windows. However once I found the artifacts which were not only useful in combat scenarios but boosted my time in Aetherlands I was ok with it. In fact the time length is so long with all artifacts I had to go away from my computer to force it to pop me out where I wanted it to. That was really fun and unique to uncover those artifacts. The cube was a bit painful and time consuming. Although it was fun and different than all the rest. I am more of a precision player and running from cubes was not fun but the different areas I unlocked were cool enough.
Size of the Labyrinth. This thing is gigantic and at times I did wonder if it would end. But then again I actually liked the size and the fact that every time I thought it would end some new element was added. I like to find secrets however and at a certain point I began to lose track of which areas I had been in and uncovered. This was absolutely obvious in the pit maze. I think there were secrets in there I had no idea I had opened nor do I know how I opened them. And others I could not figure out how to until I read about them. It got seriously convoluted in its scope and size there with no clear directions. It is after all a maze but some more elements that gave cues to uncovering the secrets. Most of the other floors were ok as I was able to mostly retain them enough to know where I had uncovered secrets and where I had not. Still it would be helpful and I know this is a big task to create a list of secrets by level for those of who want to get 100%. The size was definitely not a problem but for some it may have been. It could have easily been created in chapters or sequels or prequels whatever.
The new specialty weapons. These were great. I intentionally for the first time created a front line mage for the idea I would have use of a multitude of staff defense weaponry. I would of however liked to see more staff defense items in a similar progression to other weaponry. Unarmed was ok and assassination shined. I played on hard and without my assassin it would have been extraordinarily difficult to overcome certain areas if I could not have insta killed them or had such low delay weapons that I could stun lock them with just my rogue. The problem of course is that assassinate weaponry do not count as a dagger and thus will not assassinate or use special attacks. That serpent dagger was amazing but often times with so much immunity and the fact it did not proc special attacks was not incredibly useful. Some more refinement and some added earlier weapons would have been great. I know it would be hard to designate a weapon that reads assassinate a dagger but maybe something could be done. Also the immunity at times became quite rough. Some of the best weapons were doing 0 damage to enemies because they had the added element and were not reading any physical damage I guess? Never the less the added scope of the base mechanics by adding these new weapons had me not only seriously thinking about the party i created but also creating a very unique party. In fact I could not get all things to be of use with a single party as I had to sacrifice certain magick schools to do staff and spell craft early on and if I wanted to utilize the ranger gear I was limited on what spells I could have. Which makes it have re-playability of course. However because of the size I will take a bit before I return to it with a new party and play it again.
New mechanics. Wisp shift was the first mechanic I saw that really blew me away as being put into grimrock. Of course I had already went down a line for specialization at that point so I missed out on it early on but the dagger and later on with the dagger and eventually the spell it worked out. It would of been nice to have more daggers early on to not miss the secrets that are there. Since going back to them at a later stage the items are of little use. Pit trap room especially the larger one above the pit maze in theory was great. I think however pit traps should always be used sparingly because of lag and timing they are not precise. Those traps move so fast i fell so many times in the larger room and that room had a number of secrets to be found as well. A little over the top frustrating there. Also that early area where you place things on pressure plates and open doors and then open other doors and finally weave yourself to the center an unleash those spore throwers was a little confusing.
The new spells. There were a huge amount of spells added. And they actually were useful and the fact that they had overlapping and upgraded effects was awesome. I wish I knew about ice and the healing and how it refilled food earlier because I was starving a lot until I think level 9. As I said I loved those crafting spells but the new damage ones were great as well. I admit to using them to burn up enemies through walls and grates before they could touch me. I used extinguish a lot as well as a mechanic and a tactical advantage. Plenty others I used as well. Of course due to the vastness of the spell system it did become laborious to remember them all. I would have liked to see more of the overlapping and upgrade with perhaps less spells. Again this is just refinement.
Story and Lore. This was sparse but then again it was greater because of the size of the Labyrinth than many mods. The banter was cool and so was the item descriptions. I would have loved to see more about the dimensions and how they react with the actual plane and more details like this fleshed out.
Music. As an audiophile I love when modders add new music. For the most part the music was great but there were parts although nostalgic that were grating on the nerves. I think that was in Shadowlight and Aetherlands.
All in all I really dug your mod and thank you for the extensive time you put into creating it. Mostly all the things that I would see tweaked all relate to more refinement and testing. The overall design and layout was well thought out and worked very well.
There is probably other things to say and maybe I will edit this over time but this is the gist of what I wanted to share.
thanks again.
Took me a bit to get around to giving this mod a dedicated review. It really deserves it so here it is.
First off I think this is a definite masterpiece. It shines and it is clear it took a great deal of time to fully flesh it out and refine it.
The crafting system to my knowledge is the only one I have experienced that had so many elaborate recipes. Transmutation/Necrochemy/Reforge all were an amazing addition and added a new dimension to the game and a use for many items that I would otherwise simply discard. I actually spent a great deal of time transmuting and such before I found the philosopher's stone. And that stone was just an added awesome bonus to the system since I could simply pick up items to see whether they could be crafted into something new. And the other thing was that these spells/skills were actual useful. I did in fact craft and then use what I crafted as I played through the Labyrinth. So the craft system really shined.
Bone ritual systems. Another really innovative system which I found to be actually useful at times. It was not as useful as crafting and could have used more recipes as well as perhaps an increase in rarity for the components. As I had so many bones at the end I had to transmute them to 0 weight teeth because I figured I would find super awesome end game recipes. I did not experiment so much with them so I am not sure if there were secret ones I missed. However the ability to combine new items in containers was a really cool innovation and I liked it for the most part. I feel it just needed more refinement and perhaps increased rarity and greater boons from it.
The alternate Dimensions...
So amazing. When I first found Yggdrasil I cheered. I have always liked games that add other dimensions and the ability to shift back and forth. And to find a multiple of alternate dimensions was a surprise and exciting. In this Labyrinth I truly felt like I was in another world not just a Dungeon. The criticism I will make is that in some dimensions namely Shadowlight it became very unclear as to what to do. I was not sure if I needed to extinguish flames or open gates in a certain order to find secrets or some other mechanic. There were too many options given the way you expanded the mechanics at times to make sense of it. Great hints and clarity on how to find secrets and what mechanics were in use here would have helped a lot. Aetherlands however was awesome. I admit I was extraordinarily annoyed at first because I thought really I am going to have to pop back and forth in these totally short windows. However once I found the artifacts which were not only useful in combat scenarios but boosted my time in Aetherlands I was ok with it. In fact the time length is so long with all artifacts I had to go away from my computer to force it to pop me out where I wanted it to. That was really fun and unique to uncover those artifacts. The cube was a bit painful and time consuming. Although it was fun and different than all the rest. I am more of a precision player and running from cubes was not fun but the different areas I unlocked were cool enough.
Size of the Labyrinth. This thing is gigantic and at times I did wonder if it would end. But then again I actually liked the size and the fact that every time I thought it would end some new element was added. I like to find secrets however and at a certain point I began to lose track of which areas I had been in and uncovered. This was absolutely obvious in the pit maze. I think there were secrets in there I had no idea I had opened nor do I know how I opened them. And others I could not figure out how to until I read about them. It got seriously convoluted in its scope and size there with no clear directions. It is after all a maze but some more elements that gave cues to uncovering the secrets. Most of the other floors were ok as I was able to mostly retain them enough to know where I had uncovered secrets and where I had not. Still it would be helpful and I know this is a big task to create a list of secrets by level for those of who want to get 100%. The size was definitely not a problem but for some it may have been. It could have easily been created in chapters or sequels or prequels whatever.
The new specialty weapons. These were great. I intentionally for the first time created a front line mage for the idea I would have use of a multitude of staff defense weaponry. I would of however liked to see more staff defense items in a similar progression to other weaponry. Unarmed was ok and assassination shined. I played on hard and without my assassin it would have been extraordinarily difficult to overcome certain areas if I could not have insta killed them or had such low delay weapons that I could stun lock them with just my rogue. The problem of course is that assassinate weaponry do not count as a dagger and thus will not assassinate or use special attacks. That serpent dagger was amazing but often times with so much immunity and the fact it did not proc special attacks was not incredibly useful. Some more refinement and some added earlier weapons would have been great. I know it would be hard to designate a weapon that reads assassinate a dagger but maybe something could be done. Also the immunity at times became quite rough. Some of the best weapons were doing 0 damage to enemies because they had the added element and were not reading any physical damage I guess? Never the less the added scope of the base mechanics by adding these new weapons had me not only seriously thinking about the party i created but also creating a very unique party. In fact I could not get all things to be of use with a single party as I had to sacrifice certain magick schools to do staff and spell craft early on and if I wanted to utilize the ranger gear I was limited on what spells I could have. Which makes it have re-playability of course. However because of the size I will take a bit before I return to it with a new party and play it again.
New mechanics. Wisp shift was the first mechanic I saw that really blew me away as being put into grimrock. Of course I had already went down a line for specialization at that point so I missed out on it early on but the dagger and later on with the dagger and eventually the spell it worked out. It would of been nice to have more daggers early on to not miss the secrets that are there. Since going back to them at a later stage the items are of little use. Pit trap room especially the larger one above the pit maze in theory was great. I think however pit traps should always be used sparingly because of lag and timing they are not precise. Those traps move so fast i fell so many times in the larger room and that room had a number of secrets to be found as well. A little over the top frustrating there. Also that early area where you place things on pressure plates and open doors and then open other doors and finally weave yourself to the center an unleash those spore throwers was a little confusing.
The new spells. There were a huge amount of spells added. And they actually were useful and the fact that they had overlapping and upgraded effects was awesome. I wish I knew about ice and the healing and how it refilled food earlier because I was starving a lot until I think level 9. As I said I loved those crafting spells but the new damage ones were great as well. I admit to using them to burn up enemies through walls and grates before they could touch me. I used extinguish a lot as well as a mechanic and a tactical advantage. Plenty others I used as well. Of course due to the vastness of the spell system it did become laborious to remember them all. I would have liked to see more of the overlapping and upgrade with perhaps less spells. Again this is just refinement.
Story and Lore. This was sparse but then again it was greater because of the size of the Labyrinth than many mods. The banter was cool and so was the item descriptions. I would have loved to see more about the dimensions and how they react with the actual plane and more details like this fleshed out.
Music. As an audiophile I love when modders add new music. For the most part the music was great but there were parts although nostalgic that were grating on the nerves. I think that was in Shadowlight and Aetherlands.
All in all I really dug your mod and thank you for the extensive time you put into creating it. Mostly all the things that I would see tweaked all relate to more refinement and testing. The overall design and layout was well thought out and worked very well.
There is probably other things to say and maybe I will edit this over time but this is the gist of what I wanted to share.
thanks again.
