[MP] Carver For Hire (Notna/RithRake24)

[RithRake24]

Spoiler

10 hours ago, Jimmy_Leppard said:

I had trouble getting the Vago guy to stop the van. In the end, I somehow managed to push him to the side of the road and he got stuck between the fence and a tree, so that's when i made my move.

Haha, if you had followed the Vago dude all the way through his route, he would actually lead you into an ambush with more Vago dudes shooting at you from behind cars.

 

10 hours ago, Jimmy_Leppard said:

Ice/Dolla feud reminded me of the real life smaller scale feud between Pac and Biggie. And before you know it, I got the Pac reference I was hoping for.

Really glad you liked the reference! I listen to quite a bit of hiphop myself.

 

10 hours ago, Jimmy_Leppard said:

Question is, will Dazz be alright?

Entirely up to Notna at this point, that's how this missionpack works  

 

I'm incredibly grateful for your review and I'm sure Notna feels the same way. Glad you enjoyed playing the missionpack and hope you'll like what's coming!

 

Spoiler

Oh and by the way, about my 'track record', my missionpack Old Friends Die Hard has a full season released. I'd be over the moon if you'd play it and provide your thoughts . You did play the first three missions from it.

 

[AnDReJ98]

Alright, I have played all eight missions that have been released so far. I was excited when I saw that it's a collaboration and I immediately thought that your styles would fit (which i find similar in a lot of aspects). Knowing both of you, and having played your individual projects in the past, I could assume what it would be. Notna talked on the forums how he would like to see a gang themed mp or something, so I figured this may be a gang themed mp, which it is. It's nice to get back to the classic, since gang MPs are not that often made compared to how much overused they were just few years ago. I was excited to see what you have in pocket for us.

 

I immediately fell in love with dialogues and presentation. Something that experienced and/or 'mature' designers always pull off is in most cases dialogue and presentation. I enjoy reading dialogues and other stuff that actually has sense and is understandable. To do this, you need more than just a good English knowledge, kudos for that. The gangsta slang and choice of words used in this mp is phenomenal and makes you wonder whether you are watching a movie or playing a dyom mp. The character development is also good, even though only 8 missions were released so far, I could already connect with some characters and their personality. Yea, I find protagonist a bit cliche tho (maybe I have seen such personality in many MPs?) because of his 'cold dead' money orientated personality, but I'm aware he has more to it and it will probably be shown later in the story. Now, the story, this is where the things get moody. Even though it's obvious what this MP is all about, gangsta stuff, gangsta dialogues, inspiration from games and movies (even some cool references to the same), but the base plot is still unknown and it's path is yet to be discovered. Meaning, a single mission can change it's course of direction and make some things clear, because as of now, this is going nowhere. No story progression whatsoever, only a mp with bunch of filler missions that have no real elements to the story. Reminds me of my old generic storylines where I would just put some random missions all around with few missions actually explaining the story. The only stuff that is happening right now is introducing new characters and killing some npcs (grove boys mostly). There's no set path for the story and even though eight missions with no story flow is 'okay', in the same time it may be too much. The plot definitely needs to be prioritised as soon as possible and some kind of a script must exist that will show in which direction this will go because rolling with what you have will not work forever IMO and will eventually get boring. Throwing around random stuff is okay, but it will lose it's purpose if it keeps going this way for too long.

 

Now, missions.. They feel like total fillers and most of them are just random events happening. Nothing specific yet, which started to bother me a bit. Missions are not repetitive/monotonous, but while being varied, they are not THAT interesting either. Most of them feel bland since they lack details and overall dedication. I liked the mission where you have to chase a guy on the bike, also when you have to get back the van from a Vagos member and some others, but even though the variety is alright, the context of the missions is not. Besides feeling like a short side GTA styled missions, there are no additional details to back it up, such as objects, more cars/actors, pickups or even additional events (since there is no story progression whatsoever, this could work too). I'm not sure, but I don't think I have spotted a single object (apart from maybe two or three missions), and for a MP such as this one, it's really needed to boost up the missing elements. I must mention that missions are short too and have some basic.. well not really mistakes but rather amateurish stuff such as placing a big red marker as indicator to get in the car. It hurts my eyes to see it especially since both of you are not newcomers. Make it smaller and/or invisible at least.. since you don't plan to use objective car with it's arrow which could have been used in most of cases here (except when there is a need to hide the car later). Also, protagonist holding his Tec-9 in cutscene made me laugh, especially how he waves with his hands thus holding it all along while talking lol. You could have spawned the weapon after cutscene at least, but alright, these things that I mentioned are mostly cosmetics.. which doesn't mean that you should consider it unimportant either. However, I liked the choice of animations and usage of barber shop interior (as Jimmy mentioned) was fresh. I don't recall anyone using it in a while. I dislike the color choice when it comes to vehicles. Some of them looked really unnatural.

 

The missions are plain simple and I'm expecting a a major upgrade in at least one of the segments in the future... because i don't recommend to keep it this way. Having another chapter same like this one would be a huge disappointment. The same goes for the story, while it's presentation and character development are on top, it's still missing.. well, a story lol. Not a single important 'event' happened yet imo. Eight mission gave me a little hope, but wasn't enough to convince me. All in all, I like the idea and presentation of this mission pack. While it stands out in some aspects (compared to other mission packs), it's pretty basic and sometimes even amateurish in some other aspects (one of the things that I forgot to add is actors spawning right in front of you. Both of you have been here for long enough so this sin cannot be forgiven). With a determined path regarding the story, and a bit more exciting missions, this MP could improve by more than 70%, and I'm pretty sure that both of you can pull it out since it is indeed an interesting collaboration. Still, despite it's pros, some apparent flaws just cannot be put aside and that's why I put an accent to them in this feedback.

 

Also, I don't really include sound features in my so-called 'judgement', but I must say that a gang themed MP such as this one, which has top-quality dialogues, presentation and character development.. soundtrack is a MUST. It could boost player's experience and improve the overall MP atmosphere. In some missions, there are barely any actors and cars on the street.. sometimes nothing spawns at all in a certain periods (I guess it's due to DYOM since it sometimes turns 'no car/ped' feature on itself, probably due to limitations), and since most of missions have only few actors, cars and literally nothing else, it feels empty. A soundtrack could change the outcome. I recommend adding some good west coast masterpieces (GTA SA did it pretty good tbh) to this mp and other sound effects as well.

 

Overall, I feel like this MP doesn't represent what your collaboration could be in a fair way mostly due to the individual projects that you both probably have in focus (also real life) and that's why it doesn't seems like this MP is prioritised. Still, like I said, with a determined path regarding the story, and a bit more exciting missions, this MP could improve by more than 70%.. and if you were to add soundtrack to it.. BOOM, it would blast out. That's why I hope you take into account some of the stuff that I've mentioned since this MP has a huge potential and I'm looking forward to see what this collaboration will bring us next. Good luck.

 

 

[Juice the Joos]

Everyone already made their own posts about this and I'm kinda late, plus this is probably my first review, so bear with me.

 

The best part about this MP is definetely the setup: not much from the plot itself, because I feel that you're just going with the flow (which is beautiful in a collaboration!), but rather from the characters.

 

The characters definetely make this as of now. Carver's an interesting protagonist because of what he has got going for him, and I'm interested to see what choices he will have to make.

It's also refreshing to switch back and forth between the two scenarios: One with Dazz and one with Nat, though I wish I could've seen more from Nat.

 

The content of the missions themselves is fairly simple, but what it has going for it is consistency with the style that the base game offers with its missions.

Speaking about consistency with the base game: the dialogues are SO good. They almost feel like they were taken straight out of San Andreas' cutscenes.

 

If I were to judge Notna and RithTake individually, I'd say that Notna has better flow with the dialogues, they just tie themeselves better (in a more subtle way, they're still both really good), while RithTake takes a slightly more cinematic approach and has a more varied and interesting choices of objectives and scenarios.

 

TL;DP (Didn't Play?):

Characters are interesting, their dialogues are incredibly good, cutscenes are okay to good and gameplay itself is basic but in a good way.

Still, wish it were longer...which means you hooked me and that's good!

[Stardust101]

Carver For Hire is a great MP so far. It's nothing innovative and it's rather simple, but it's perfect for what it is.

 

It tells a simple story of a small-time criminal trying to make it big in the underworld. We've heard this story many times before in GTA history with small variations each time, for example:

 

- Claude is betrayed by his girlfriend. He works for several people until he becomes a force in Liberty City, leading him to get what he wants.

- Tommy is sent to Vice City to manage a drug deal that goes very wrong. He works for several people and buys businesses in the city, becoming a force in VC, leading him to get what he wants.

- CJ comes back to his hometown in order to help his former gang get back on its feet. He works for several people across 3 cities and becomes a force in the state, leading him to get what he wants.

 

With that being said, CFH does a pretty good job with it's plot. The dialogue is well written and interesting. I have no problem with the story.

 

Gameplay-wise it's also pretty simple. What I did like was the variety. In one mission you'll be killing a hip hop manager, and in the other you'll be entering a guard's house via stealth methods. Simple yet fun.

 

 

No matter how many innovative DYOM projects I play, it's the simple projects that I admire the most, because they show me that a simple project can be well made and fun, which is a nice lesson for Designers like me should take note.

 

Thanks for CFH, @Notna and @RithRake24!

 

 

[ZeroRaxo]

9 hours ago, Stardust101 said:

it's the simple projects that I admire the most

oh well time to make a simple mission 

[RithRake24]

@Stardust101 Thank you so much for your valuable feedback! I'm extremely glad to hear that you enjoyed it and I'm sure Notna would be too. I'll point him in the direction of your review.