Collection of reviews from DuckingH prior to 09-07-23

[DuckingHeights]

If you're viewing my reviews with being overwhelmed on how much is said with all the reviews combined, let alone 1 single review, feel free to use this index to indicate the timeline of these reviews, when they were made, and which contest I made these reviews in. Use Ctrl + F (cmd + F on mac) to search for a specific MOTW review or a specific review of one's mission e.g 'MOTW 221 review' or 'Ballad of Cal'.

WIP thread

Review #1 MOTW 212, 29-06-22:
Source: 
Index:
KadiR - Gun Sales
SuperBad FT - Arms Shootout


Review #2 MOTW 221, 20-05-23:
Source: 
Index:


Review #3 MOTW 222, 29-05-23:
Source: 
Index:

• S

Review #4 MOTW 223, 12-06-23:
Source: 
Index:


Review #5 MOTW 224, 22-06-23: 
Source: 
Index:


Review #1 MOTW 212, 29-06-22:

My reviews of each of the submissions for this MOTW:

• KadiR - Gun Sales:
 

Spoiler

Pros: (None)

 

Cons:

Unimpressed on how you start the mission off reminding the player that this a MOTW contest and that you tell us to vote for it if we liked it. The title of the mission and it’s description on the DYOM site already saids that, why repeat those things in-game? 

Dialogue was poorly made, you don’t describe to us what the protagonist is doing in brackets you show to us by using a combination of more dialogue than you used for that bit of dialogue and using that animation of Adrien pulling out his wallet earlier. 

Mission was too easy with the enemies having really poor accuracy; I could just stay crouched and easily pick off their heads one by one.

Didn’t even that move that much in the area I was in either.

Use different terminology for eliminating the enemies, using the word “kill” to describe having to the neutralise the enemies makes the objective text very uninteresting and strip it from nearly all emotion.

PS, you didn’t turn off the wanted level.

 

Conclusion:
Wouldn’t recommend it, the cons of this mission speaks for itself.

• SuperBad FT - Arms Shootout:
 

Spoiler

Pros:
Variety in locations, you’re first outdoors traversing through a decent large space to eliminate the mobsters, and then you’re navigating through the corridors and picking them off in there. Decent amount of variety in general, the start and end of the missions are driving sections while the middle parts are the shooting gallery sections.

Did appreciate having to defeat a boss in order to get the briefcase.

Cons:
The enemies prior to the boss was too easy, so much so that I could just run up close to each of the enemies that were facing me, and wouldn’t take that much damage at all (though, this is with picking up all the health and armour pickups included in the parts of this mission). Like with KadiR’s mission, they have poor accuracy except here they’re a bit harder.

The boss part of the mission was a bit a chore to complete as he was just a bullet sponge to take out.

Conclusion:
It’s, an alright mission, and for that I recommend it. Decent amount of variety, but however suffers from enemies with low accuracy. 
 

PS, spaghetti balls.

• Mr M - Stained and Subversive:
 

Spoiler

Pros:
Opening cutscene was excellent. It was packed with people driving forklifts, a crane dropping an object in the truck, people talking people standing around and people helping with something. Just generally there was a lot of things happening in the background yet it didn’t take your attention from the main characters speaking it only served to greatly enhance and add more variety in the cutscene. 

Camerawork was quite varied, you got your static cameras of course but then you got your 3rd person cameras, and your lock-on cameras. Not only that, but I liked that the camera while facing the building panned towards Daniel, successfully creating suspense and showing what the plan of action was.

Different change of pace with having the player follow the truck to the deal, and by different I mean it’s unique, and I dig it. Also, I really appreciated that you had a choice on which truck to follow, with both trucks taking different routes.

The difficulty pacing was paced quite well, while the first shooting section was too easy for my taste the 2nd was hard enough to incentivise myself to take cover and take out the enemies. 

To spice things up, and like I mentioned before following the truck, later on you’re chasing a vehicle to it’s location.


Cons: (None)

 

Nitpicks:  
Unless it was an object and actor limit, you could of blocked off any possible way outs and have the player be forced to jump the ramp to get out of the area where the deal happened. 

Instead of saying that there is a sound nearby by using “sound” after describing what the sound is, use terminology to describe the distance of a sound being described i.e “(DISTANT GUNSHOT)”.

Conclusion:
Fantastic mission, I absolutely recommend it. It’s got variety, it’s got great camerawork, and surprisingly it’s got a decently paced difficulty curve that greatly matches the setup, tension and climax of the story. 

• Martin_Strada - No Promises:
 

Spoiler

Pros: 
Opening shot was excellent, featuring a beautiful yellow sky then panning to reveal the location while also detailing the specifics of the location and the time. After that you, you got some great panning shots of the characters and the locations and for creating suspense man, just exceptional camerawork all around.

I can’t blame you for using Payday 2 OST I mean, it’s got the soundtrack that would perfectly fit for a DYOM mission and the opening easily and exceptionally creates suspense. But anyways, great source of music you chose for this mission it really heightens the action of the mission.

Excellent set piece you’ve created during the shooting at the ship, especially with the explosive barrels and the amount of destructible vehicles available at your disposal to use against the Yakuza and the mobsters. 

Difficulty of the mission is paced well much like MassM’s mission, starts off easy just getting on the ship but then gets somewhat challenging when fighting the enemies inside, which is always a welcome thing in a single mission.

Did appreciate the inclusion of various strategies you could use prior to boarding the ship, like how you either shoot the barrels while on the hill for no risk of getting shot, or shoot them while on the boat with the added risk of taking damage.

Very nice you have a decent amount of variety of enemies, while they wield different weapons theres also the SWAT member whom consistently aren’t headshottable, so you have to aim for their body to take them out instead.

I do like how your friend inside the cargo ship can be quite helpful for dealing with the police, makes you feel like you’re not doing all the work with taking them out.

Was taken by surprise and impressed on how you killed off one of crew members you played as later in the story, and was astonished by this inclusion as it gave more reason to the player to be more invested in the story and the characters.

The boat part of the mission was quite fleshed out, didn’t expect to see an enemy with a heat seeking missile to be next to the route we’re going through and I enjoyed the inclusion of it as it kept the player vigilant for any enemies up ahead.

Cons: (None)


Notes: 
For some reason theres a chance the helicopter that flys in pops in already smoking and then a few seconds later explodes.
People who average around at least 17-22 fps, the helicopter part is bugged in that additional enemies spawned way off in the distance. The pilot flying the helicopter did fly to the cargo ship just fine though. 
 

Conclusion:
Overall, exceptional mission. It’s got variety, slightly less than MassM’s mission but still the gameplay elements here are quite fleshed out. Camerawork is top notch, surprisingly it’s got reason to be attached to the characters, and theres actual incentive to use your crew members to take out the enemies inside. Would recommend this mission all the way.

• Claudiu F - The Little Birde:
 

Spoiler

Pros: 
I enjoyed the comedic writing with the characters, the jokes made me smirk a few times like with Andrew always flirting with Luisa and Luisa and Santiago discussing about having a child, and especially the ending.
Appreciated that you were in the car having control of the camera while sitting back reading what Andrew and Luisa are saying, made the conversation more interesting and the cutscenes more varied.
The Rimmer’s chasing you was nice, added more variety to the mission albeit with one flaw.
I liked the inclusion of the skin, and dayum man Luisa sure is into some kinky sh*t.
Did appreciate the use of cars instead objects for cover, it did incentivise the player to move away from the cover briefly whenever the car is about to explode.

 

Cons:  
Bit too much health and armour pickups to be honest, only had to use a armour pickup and took cover behind the cars. Though this is with me using an AK from a dead enemy rather than a shotgun you supplied the player with.
The chase sequence was over too quickly, I did it enjoy it’s inclusion however it was only brief and even when the Rimmer’s caught up to me, they weren’t that much of a threat.

Conclusion:
It’s got some nice comedic writing, uses a custom skin and got a bit variety in the cutscenes, however is held up by not that much good in the gameplay department. Still, if you play this mission for the writing, I recommend it otherwise not really.

• Deal from Way Back - Tay K:
 

Spoiler

Pros: 
Unique that you used DYOM members as the characters for this mission. The characters featured in this mission are accurate to what they would say on discord, with an exception.
Enjoyed the brief parkour section, helped changed the pace with reaching someone.

 

Cons:  
Chasing Zeko felt more like tailing him than chasing him, and theres no challenge to following him at all. 
Zeko barely got any dialogue, not even dialogue at the end. Robert barely got any dialogue and whatever dialogue was written from him completely contradicts on what he actually say on discord.

 

Conclusion:
Average. I would recommend playing the mission as a DYOM discord regular, otherwise not really. 

• Stardust101 - The Exchange:
 

Spoiler

Pros: 
The change of focus of characters when they’re speaking was nice, certainly keen on having the camera shift to Julia and then back on the ground.

Unique story concept, instead you engaging with a third party on a arms deal you bust the deal as government agents instead.

Cons:  

Too short.

The shooting part was too easy.

 

Conclusion:
Average mission, has a unique story and has unique perspective changes but other than that theres nothing to entice the player to play it. Wouldn’t recommend the mission in my opinion.

• M316 - Ballad of Cal:
 

Spoiler

Pros: 

Opening cutscene was the sh*t. Got a banger metal song in the background, packed with camera shots showing progress where Cal is going and things that are happening in the background, and quite the varied selection of camera angles used here. Went for a while too and let the player enjoy and take in the music and the cutscene in general.

Dialogue was humorous, certainly enjoyed Cal and Nattie bantering with each other.

Unique nationality with the main characters, I’m certainly keen with including British characters in a mission with the slangs and the way they pronounce things differently to Americans.

Has a custom made island and extension to the default map, being the main location where the mission is set. I’m amazed at how you managed to create such a well designed area only by using objects given DYOM’s limitations.

Very nice set piece and solution you made for blowing up the boats.

Uses custom weapons and modified weapon values, like the shotgun for an example being changed to a double barrelled shotgun capable of firing 2 shells per second. The custom skins are a welcome addition as well, they give the gangs and Cal more of unique design and really help the mission be more unique in it’s design.

Enjoyed having music being played during the 2 shootouts and as well, was pretty much in tone with Cal’s character and with the whole conflict as a whole and I respect it for those tracks being included in.

Much appreciated that you have different paths to take with tackling the enemies, and I respect that you reward the player for exploring the area by giving them a rifle and armour.

 

Cons:  (None)

 

Nitpicks: 

Reduce the amount of British slang you’re using, I mean it’s great you know the slang here but normal people don’t say different slang with each sentence. Also maybe reduce the amount of british pronounced words later during the mission, we already get that they’re of UK descent.

You can easily get cheap deaths by the shotgun dude located at the wrecked buildings. To add insult to injury if he shoots at the car you take cover at he ends moving it and your deagle will be out of range for you to be able to hit him with.

 

Notes:
Very little room for error, especially with blowing up the boats and taking out the Clovers, though this does come with the added benefit of immense satisfaction after beating those parts of the mission when previously struggling with it, much like completing a later scene in Stuntman would.

 

Conclusion:
Hard as balls mission. It is essential you play it tactically as rushing to kill the enemies will only serve to kill you instead. Though, if you do struggle with the mission but do figure out how to complete the mission, it’s very satisfying to complete and even satisfying grabbing a spawned pickup and health and armour. Apart from that, it’s got a great opening, humorous dialogue, non-american characters with the correct slang, and tons of custom stuff.

Would recommend only as a veteran player though, or as a casual player who is very persistent.

Review #2 MOTW 221, 20-05-23:

============================
MOTW 221 reviews DKH:
============================
• Silent Hill PT: (Game Bag)
==========================================

Spoiler

The good:
• Atmospheric and immersion has heck. It’s unsettling, the soundtrack compliments that feeling of anxiousness, and the immersion here is quite impressive. Also impressive how one area you can easily get yourself stuck in it to catch the unsuspecting player but if you’re cautious, you’ll take it one step at a time. 

The criticisms:
• A walking simulator. I appreciate that it’s immersive but there isn’t that much gameplay involved.
• Can easily walk into the interior world while in LS if you don’t walk carefully.
• Forced to listen to the whole radio conversation in order to progress through the door.
• You actually go outside through the entrance thats closest to M Dogg’s helipad, which wouldn’t be a big deal if you weren’t teleported to the entrance when you go to the objective.
• Not sure if it’s a bug on my end but where do you go after when you exit the building. (Gave up at this point due the snowball effect of encountering this issues)

Overall: I definitely recommend it for the atmosphere and immersion, but don’t go off the intended path otherwise you’ll see the glaring issues. Even then, if you replay it twice or maybe a third time, it just becomes tedious and boring having to wait for the radio to finish. 4/10.

===========================================
• And some ya lose (RedBaron):
===========================================
 

Spoiler

The good: 
• Atmospheric as all hell tracks, especially the Driv3r Arms Deal Part 1 OST (why did we both use the same ost lmao), the mineshaft track, the abandoned station track, and especially the nice at dawn track.
• Always appreciate macho minimalistic dialogue with the way the boss talks to the custom skin.
• Lovely custom skin for the protag, like the simple recolouring of the vest but also the nice moustache you gave him.
• Varied location design, and varied gameplay too.
• The well designed interiors and modified areas. While they are just the same interiors you find in SA they’ve been given some life into them and look aesthetically cool. The mineshaft especially works so well with the various wa
• Brilliant story, I definitely did enjoy the change up of the enemy skins when you progress into the next station.
• Charming dialogue.
• Pove the idea of saving up ammo not for hitting the boss but to use it on something more powerful to hit the boss.
• Got a nice difficulty curve, progressively gets harder and the boss was okay but I’ll get into it later.
• Having an enemy that can stunlock you.
• The 1st and 2nd parts are pretty good parts to speedrun through.
• The timer sound made things unsettling asf when I planted the bombs I like the tension you made with that.
• The added part with escaping the bomb is nice, though I have a criticism of it.
• Great ending very philosophical, seems like it just clicked with me with how I also love and enjoy philosophy, but also that ending track :kreygasm: I’m starting to think we have similar mindsets when it comes to the soundtrack department of things.

The nitpicks:
• While I respect the inclusion of the miami at day track, I feel their inclusion in the specific cutscenes doesn’t match the tension and the tone at the start. What I mean is, these tracks were composed for scenarios where you would drive to an objective at your own free will while just taking in the music and the journey over there, as well as it . I have no problem with these tracks just only a bit miffed on how they’re included here. Still though, wise tracks you included here nonetheless.
• Camera angles could of done with more variety with especially with the irish boss giving a breakdown on what the irish protagonist is doing.
• Infinite ammo 9mmm silenced pistol, I definitely appreciate the inclusion of the weapon but thats a bit too much ammo in terms of difficulty sake.
• The escaping from the sewer part with a sanchez isn’t really original, it’s just the 2nd last mission of Donald Love from LCS.

The criticisms:
• It’s a Ballad of Cal clone. While that isn’t bad necessarily after all the if it ain’t broke don’t fix it approach does work, it does lose your inventiveness characteristic to your mission and it makes less unique. Specifically, the metal track, features an irish gang and theres a main irish character, metal track at the end, and a mention of some object. I know I’m making you look bad but one good thing to take out of this is that this mission made you a slightly more charming person from my perspective and M3’s as well.
• The boss fight crate drop is purely on luck whether it lands on him, maybe reposition the trailer so that it’s facing towards the far end door?
• The boss fights in general are just weak, 1st boss fight like I said before and the 2nd one just gives you a cheap death if you’re not careful.
• Speaking of the boss fight I would of preferred if there was a pole or some visual indicator on where the trailer was going to land. Also, could of used an more breakable props for the breakable prop under the trailer, like e.g a small crate just for the sake of a good visual indicator.
• Some lines were out of place for the robot like “criminal” wouldn’t make much sense if it only said that several times, and that satan quote as well.
• The timer when exiting out of the sewer is way too short, and besides that it’s too easy to dodge the vagos.

The description of this in one sentence: Strong start, great story, poor 2nd half and tedious and frustrating bosses. 6.5 out of 10.

===========================================Manhunt the sex tapes: (not the actual name) (Keyes):
===========================================

Spoiler

The Good:
• Already off to a strong start especially the manhunt animations. They’re most likely imported from a available mod but damn, instant strong start as soon as I’m in DYOM.
• The AI voices are pretty natural sounding not gonna lie, it’s like a nice evolution of Detonario’s government conspiracy mission, like I do greatly respect and like Detonario’s AI voices and he damn did try his best to get the most natural sounding TTS voice (german tts ftw) but there are limitations. Here they are more natural sounding but theres still limitations which is fine good for a temporary measure (dnf 2001 vibes) or being on a budget. (not gonna lie I have nostalgia over Det’s mission dialogue and music wise than M3’s simply because it has a lot of charm despite the inferior music choices).
• The atmosphere and the soundtrack man, so good. You really feel a dark, gritty sense of urgency with the soundtrack at the start. Also fits right in with how on the edge you are with those cops armed with pistols and 
• The manhunt animations you used make this really unique, and the well made AI voices fit right in as well.
• Your unique style with the skin you’re using is really nice, it fits right in SA yet doesn’t feel out place.
• This homage to manhunt is really great, like I said the animations but also how guns here just like in manhunt easily kill you and encourage to stealth instead.
• Difficult but it isn’t unfair stuff (maybe a bit if you count the jank) and personally, I like hard and interesting missions (respect the ones the most that aren’t unfair in nature but rather have fair placement).
• Love the idea of collectibles being scattered around the map to reward the player for exploring. Even if the collectibles are useless at least it’s a bonus part of the mission.
• Like the subtle humour especially the “locked of course”, it really expresses how passionate you were with making this mission.
• Love the unique twist in the stealth gameplay with the idea of making too much sound next to your enemy and he’ll be alerted.
• That ending was f*cking sigma male as f*ck, mysterious but cool.

The nitpicks:

The criticisms:

• That ladder is very janky to get on top, like it slides you down you have to keep on jumping till you get on the top and then you can jump on the gate.

===========================================

Overall: Amazing for the atmosphere, a really well done homage to manhunt, hard but very satisfying to complete when you do finish it. 9/10.

===========================================
 

Overall, this entry is probably the best. You got Game Bag’s while bad at least it’s got really good atmosphere and immersive value in it. RedBaron’s, while a clone of Ballad of Cal and the gameplay kind of meh or bad at the 2nd half the story was pretty good and the soundtrack was pretty good too. Keyes atmosphere was stunning and the general homage to Manhunt is really good. And based off the people’s reception to my entry, in a nutshell if they say the gameplay is very great then it’s very great. 

That’s all folks - Porky Pig.

Review #3 MOTW 222, 29-05-23:

MOTW 222 reviews DKH:
PS, a quick tip, use ctrl + f (cmd + F on mac) to look up a specific author's mission if you're interested in only a specific author's or authors mission that I've reviewed, or to simply skip past this review.

• Cocaine Barons (Stardust101):
==========================================

 

Spoiler

The pros:
* Unique ethnicity of a rival gang. 

* The diversity of picking up the packages, with how theres the one on a boat, one under a helicopter etc. 

* Well shot cutscene at the beginning, especially with the sun behind the main character. 

* While the scripted set piece at the end with the Venezuela was easy in my playthrough, it can be a bit tough for a casual player if they aren't careful with the spawned in NPCs and the guy chasing you, and for that I appreciate it's inclusion.

* Nice joke with the dude in the porter potty by the way, that gave me a decent chuckle.

* Decent story with the plot twist affecting the gameplay later on.

* I appreciate that if you look carefully before driving off to Dillimore you can spot a vehicle that can use to drive there instead of the quadbike. And for that I respect the effort.
 

The cons:
* The gunfight was too easy. While I respect that you tried to make it harder with no headshots their low accuracy and generally low health made it a breeze to get through considering you can get the AK or use smg and easily kill them in 2 seconds. 

* The set piece at the end while I respect it's inclusion I felt it too much forced the player to stick to a certain route, and because of that it'll lessen the replay value. 

* The timers in my opinion were too easy, with you allowing to make a lot of mistakes and still get to the objective.

* No soundtrack.

Overall: A mission with thats, alright in the end. 6/10 

 

===========================================
• Green Police (BobBobowski):
===========================================


 

Spoiler

The pros:
* I definitely appreciate the use of TTS voices

* The decent setpieces at the start, I did appreciate how you had scripted NPC and object spawns along the way of talking to Ryder.

 

The cons:
* Ryder sounds too aggressive in my opinion for the context of the cutscenes.

* Ryder's pronouncation of certain words sounds like he's having a stroke.

* Typos and weird choice of words but I'll forgive you since English isn't your strong suit and this won't decrease the score.

* The shooting sections were far too easy, like I could just stand there and take 5 seconds to shoot an enemy and I'll still be alive.

Overall: While this isn't a good mission, I'll give it some credit it's got some charm in it. The dialogue specifically is funny just because of the way the Ryder pronounces things, the weird ways he saids things etc. It is a criticism I have yes but at the charm of it is that you most likely honestly tried with the dialogue and also tried with the TTS. 4.5/10 overall. 

 

PS, this entry isn't even tied to the theme of driving in the first place since the driving bit is like 30% of the mission, the rest is just 2 shootouts and flying a helicopter. 

•  Third Payment (BobBobowski):
===========================================

Spoiler

The pros:
* Neat helicopter chase with getting Ryder to shoot the helicopter down or having the player to kill him instead.

The nitpicks:
* No TTS. Sure the TTS in your attempted entry to this contest was very weird and funny, at least it was there and it did add more to the mission's charm. Here though, theres no TTS man like, it would be nice if you included it because it does make it seem you tried with this mission more.

The cons:
* Uninteresting gameplay at the start, simply because of no challenge and the fact you have to listen to dialogue and wait till the next objective appears.
* Easy shootouts.
* Weird sentences though again, I understand that because english isn't your native language but aside from that it does give your mission some charm.
 

Overall:
4/10. While this mission from you does fit the theme more, I feel like it has less charm than your disqualifed entry. The gameplay side of things, it's both a downgrade and a upgrade, a downgrade in the sense that the beginning isn't as good, and the end being more interesting.

===========================================

 

===========================================
• Good Cops4 Traffic offence (Jayshizzo):
===========================================
 

Spoiler

The pros:
* I appreciate the inclusion of giving people options on what SMGs to pick from. 

* Also love the fact that your police members are actually very handy during the shootout at the warehouse, and if you don't take them with you it'll become significantly more harder to deal with them.

* That took me by surprise with the inclusion of the drive-by mechanic while driving, that was dope asf. Very unique.

* The shootout was pretty good as well, while there was a lot of enemies there and you can easily overwhelmed by the numbers, your buddies are there to help you and if you're overwhelmed just stay back and pick em off, lots of options you have here.

* Since theres the inclusion of the buddies, the boss fight on it's own would be pretty bland, but since they distract the boss yet don't survive long on their own, it really incentivises you to let them do a bit of the job and let you some of the job killing him as well.

* Given the location of the warehouse area, theres various ways you can approach the enemies through the front area, of course you can go around the usual entrance to drive in but theres other ways you can approach them.

* The mission design is quite varied, lots of driving of course but I appreciate how theres 2 types of driving sections in it.

* Love that the enemies at the start can actually affect you trying to kill the fleeing gang.
 

The nitpicks:
* Story wasn't that interesting, good for the premise of the gameplay though and does serve a good enough motivation for the player to complete the objectives, but the name of the gang kinda felt lazy. Though, if stories aren't your thing fair enough.

* The camera angles didn't have much effort put in them though with the typical overhead camera angles. 

* No soundtrack though I understand why you couldn't include it if it was due to the fact you didn't know any songs or original soundtrack that fit the mood of whats happening.
 

The cons:
 

Overall: 8.3/10. The gameplay was really good here, and the inclusion of the buddies and the options you have with tactically the enemies and the boss really made you feel like working in a team together. Plus the location allows you to enter it from 3 points at the start. What's holding it back from being above 8/10 is just the lack of soundtrack, a story that does the job well albeit nothing to right home about, meh characters, uniteresting camera angles etc.

===========================================
• The Catalyst (Zeko):
===========================================

Spoiler

The pros:
* Brilliant camerawork, love that the low camera angle reflects the self-empowering nature of Ace.

* Ace is a cool character, with his simple yet confident one liners like e.g "he better get his best car max, because I'm coming with the worst". Also, plus the fact he's to the point and just generally confident.

* Cool opening line btw. Minimalist to the point and just generally, confident.

* Love the time you set with the mission btw, where it really gives you that just made it feeling like the driver games. 

* The style of the cutscenes damn man, very michael mann / driv3r like. What I mean is, I really adore the dark lighting on one side of the character vs the lit up side.

* Story's good, good plot twist during the middle of it all. Good set piece as well.

* That one aussie band music here is banging as well.

* The setpiece during the drive-by section is kicking, especially with the pendulum music here goddamn.

* Good choice you made with the soundtrack in general.

The nitpicks:
* Could of given Ace a health bar just so you know how far away he is from dying.

The cons:
* The race section, was too easy in my opinion. It's a good setup for the plot don't get me wrong but, theres not much incentive to go in first place hell I was 2nd and nothing significant changed. Also, the enemies were quite trivial even if you were going at a normal highway speed.

* The choice of cars you can choose from really don't matter that much getting to the race, since getting there with any of 3 them is bound to give you a very similar 'just made it in time' feeling. I like and respect the idea, but there isn't much point to choosing one or the other since the race is just only a plot device rather than additionally a notable gameplay element.

* The drive-by section can be so frustrating sometimes due to the simple fact that at random, you can easily get dismounted off your bike without warning and won't be able to get back on it. Plus, the feltzers bit is too bullsh*t because they're so far away and they can easily dismount you, plus the AI driving is just sh*t at the feltzer bit.

* The drive by section felt too long in my opinion.

* Easy boss fight.

* Abrupt ending. While I do respect that you do at least it was an objective limit.

Overall:
6.5. Has some decent highs but definitely has some lows. The setpieces are excellent, the main protag is decent and the plot is pretty nice as well. A bit of the gameplay is nice like driving to the race but aside from that it suffers from the element of choice at the beginning not affecting gameplay all that much, very repetitive gameplay and a frustrating drive-by sequence. And the feltzer bit, even if you made it through the feltzers, the AI pathing is most likely gonna drive down a hill and not be able to complete it's pathing.

===========================================

• The Catalyst V2 (Zeko):
===========================================
 

Spoiler

The pros:
* Brilliant camerawork, love that the low camera angle reflects the self-empowering nature of Ace.

* Ace is a cool character, with his simple yet confident one liners like e.g "he better get his best car max, because I'm coming with the worst". Also, plus the fact he's to the point and just generally confident.

* Cool opening line btw. Minimalist to the point and just generally, confident.

* Love the time you set with the mission btw, where it really gives you that just made it feeling like the driver games. 

* The style of the cutscenes damn man, very michael mann / driv3r like. What I mean is, I really adore the dark lighting on one side of the character vs the lit up side.

* Story's good, good plot twist during the middle of it all. Good set piece as well.

* That one aussie band music here is banging as well.

* Enjoyed the speedboat chase with killing Arthur and his guards.

* The following Arthur to the jetty was interesting.

* Varied gameplay in general.

* Good choice you made with the soundtrack in general.

The nitpicks:

The cons:
* The race section, was too easy in my opinion. It's a good setup for the plot don't get me wrong but, theres not much incentive to go in first place hell I was 2nd and nothing significant changed. Also, the enemies were quite trivial even if you were going at a normal highway speed.

* The choice of cars you can choose from really don't matter that much getting to the race, since getting there with any of 3 them is bound to give you a very similar 'just made it in time' feeling. I like and respect the idea, but there isn't much point to choosing one or the other since the race is just only a plot device rather than additionally a notable gameplay element.

* Abrupt ending. While I do respect that you do at least it was an objective limit.
 

Overall:
8.2. Has some decent highs and minimal lows. The setpieces are excellent, the main protag is decent and the plot is pretty nice as well. A bit of the gameplay is nice like driving to the race but aside from that it suffers from the element of choice at the beginning not affecting gameplay all that much, very repetitive gameplay at the start. The speedboat chase, the helicopter bit, man theres a lot of variety here it's just awesome. 

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• Most Wasted (TMX92):
===========================================

Spoiler

The pros:
* Phenomenal camerawork, like the flow of it all, the different camera angles like one showing half a dude's face.

* A twist on the homage to NFS Most Wanted, instead of playing as a racer you play as the pursuer.

* Very immersive, instead of giving you objective markers to drive to during the chase rather you chase the racer to get to the checkpoints.

* Good banter between the 2 racers at the start.

* Nice twist of reveal with playing as the cops by the way, you've certainly done a great job with surpassing the audiences expectations.

* Double edged sword, but it is nice to have killing that infernus dude affect the drive-by sequence later on, gives it more of a sandbox feel.

* Change of perspectives, where like at some point you think you're playing as a street racer, but then you're thrown into the shoes of cop responding to a dispatch call. After that, you're done as a cop and back as a racer again.

* This entry fits the driving theme the most, as it's all driving but it's very fresh with the sections.
 

V2 Pros:
* Better drive-by sequence (doesn’t count towards the pros nor does it affect the score)

* The soundtrack at the start and end is quite fitting, especially with it suiting the whole atmosphere of mood of first it’s the setup to the race and at the end you’ve escaped from the cops and meeting up with someone.

The nitpicks:
* May be difficult to find the racer but I suppose thats a limitation for you at this time. Perhaps maybe in the future use objects to guide the player in a subtle way to find a guy you have to chase while keeping the immersion factor intact.

* Long loads between objectives. You probably might be pushing DYOM a bit too far lol haha.

* Loss of immersion factor that was present in the V1 version. I really liked it because it was giving your mission some worldbuilding, but with just the cops talking to each other it feels less immersive and more scripted and less subtle.

* Abrupt ending.

* In my opinion the Pursuit theme remix don’t really fit chasing the racers and the escaping from the cops, the pursuit themes work better for that.

The cons:
 

Overall:
8.4 (was 8.6 in V1). Charming homage to Most Wanted, pheonomal camerawork, matches the tone of the original most wanted dialogue, very immersive (was), fits the theme the most and comes with the most varied gameplay while offering different setpieces.

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Review #4 MOTW 223, 12-06-23:

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MOTW 223 reviews:
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PS, a quick tip, use ctrl + f (cmd + F on mac) to look up a specific author's mission if you're interested in only a specific author's or authors mission that I've reviewed, or to simply skip past this review.


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• Divestment Banking (Stardust101):
==========================================

Spoiler

The pros:
• Neat detail with the planning board being updated btw, appreciate it.

• Good work around with using masked NPCs, that being using the SWAT members as a way to have the crew all masked up.

• Nice detail of your money count going up after getting the money.

The nitpicks:
• Humour is subjective of course but, the CBT and use of the slurs didn’t get a laugh out of me to be honest. But, I respect your commitment to the humour nonetheless.

• I respect that you wanted the money pickups to be different, but it just looks like you’re picking up like $5000 or $50,000 instead of a million dollars. I like that you tried innovate but, I feel like the money bag pickup would of been better because, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

The cons:
• The enemies are so easy in fact that you take very minimal damage when getting to the vault, to me they are just there if you want to kill time.

Observations:
• Did the purple shirt dude make a pimp purge reference?
 

Overall:

6.5. It’s a mission that exists.

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• Stealth, Strength, Survive (Mr.M):
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Spoiler

The pros:
• Decent dialogue, with there being a bit of passive conflict between the characters with one being unsure what the plan is, then being explained the plan. One line is a bit cheesy but it works plus it is a bit badass e.g the line at objective 19, 2 lines before Adin hangs up.

• Well executed way of revealing the base, the way you excellently hyped up the reveal of the base by having Barack be worried about this job and having the characters questioning him, up till the reveal of the base where Adin is shocked at the scale of the base.

• Nicely done stealth sequence, with a good usage of the container objects as a way to create a custom designed stealth section.

• Brilliant object placement, and I commend you for the effort more considering from the looks of it, you most likely didn’t even use DYOM# either. I’ll let my critique of you most likely not using DYOM# slide since, it’s up to you whether or not you want to use it or not.

• I like the humour in it, very subtle, and the banter feels very natural.

• Varied enemy behaviour, ones that swarm you others that stay in position.

• The need to create your own strategy immediately, especially when the enemies inside swarm you.

• Varied gameplay, theres a stealth section, shooting galleries in different interiors, the next part and yeah, good stuff all around.

The nitpicks:
• Long phone call. I understand it’s to make it so the protagonist is calling his associates, but, the issue is that when replaying it, you’ll have to 51 seconds for the call to end perhaps even more if you count loading the objective text and if your PC lags enough to create slowdown.

• Either 2 or all of the spas 12 dudes during the stealth section fail the mission if you kill them. I put this as a nitpick due to it being unexplained as to why they fail the mission as oppose to the dudes with the AKs as well, could of been explained why they fail the mission but ah well, it is what it is I suppose.

• Too much ammo for the silenced pistol to consider using the knife, as the enemies are headshotable and aside for using the knife for, style and maybe immersion reasons, theres no much reason to use the knife.

• If you don’t kill the enemies with the AKs during the stealth section, and you get up to the part where you have to kill all the enemies while Cyano is downloading the files from the PC, you’ll end up getting soft locked because you didn’t kill the AK dudes at the start.

• No usage of SD. It’s a nitpick simply because you may not know of any fitting music for the mission nor perhaps, any decent sources of where to get possible sound effects from.

The cons:

(None that I saw from my experience personally):

Observations:
• - I noticed you seemed to use the same guard model a lot. Fair enough if you couldn’t find another model to use in order to represent the enemies but, it is to repetitive in my opinion.

Overall:
8.2. It has variety, well written dialogue, awesome object placement and varying situations you can be in with the enemies. What’s stopping the rating from being higher for me personally is that, simply it lacks SD. Other than that, decent mission, keep it up Mr M. To sum it up in one sentence, ambitious and varied with consistent polish.

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• Taming The Dragon in Italian (BobBobowski):
===========================================
 

Spoiler

The pros:
• Unique idea of making the Italian characters speak, actual Italian and complimenting it, with decent TTS.

• Funny deadpan title name, ‘Taming the dragon in Italian’, I like and appreciate the humour in it it’s very charming.

• I like the banter between the boss’s associates, and the general way they plan out things. Gives the mission even more charm.

• That is impressive on how not only you created 2 separate markers, but how you added 2 objectives in one, one being going to the casino the other finding the weapons on the map with using the markers as reference before the markers become less accurate.

• Intense shootout with the triads in the casino, as theres a lot of them that can swarm you.

• Decent amount of variety with the enemies, and I appreciate how the player can easily know what kind of enemy will wield which weapon depending on their skin e.g waitress with a micro SMG and a 9mm, and with the triads wielding either an SMG or AK47.

• Destroyable cover, I like it I respect it a lot makes the shootout up in the rooftop more dynamic.

• Your ally is pretty useful during the rooftop shootout.

The nitpicks:
• Oversight with despawning the actors too early at the bus station.
• Like Redbaron said, the Italian robbers said outside that they aren’t gonna speak Italian inside yet they do anyways.

The cons:
(None that I found in my experience)

Observations: 
• - It seems you haven’t published your mission. Fair enough, I mean, since it’s not published but rather editable, it’s open source and we can what you’ve done with your mission which is neat. But, people may first perceive your mission as not being professional which, in my opinion, is a valid criticism.
• - No soundtrack. While I would put this as a nitpick, the Italian TTS do make up for this and in a way, it does give the mission a unique mood without the soundtrack, in my personal opinion that is.
• - Bit of grammatical errors, but I’ll let it slide since english isn’t your native language like I’ve said previously.

Overall:
8.75. The problems I have with this entry are very minimal, and this entry brings a lot of unique sh*t to the table. Dynamic environment, intense shootouts, 2 types of markers with one objectives, etc. Plus it has charming dialogue and charming production value especially the Italian TTS. Excellent mission all around. One word I would give this mission would be that, it’s unique.

====================================================================================================================


 

===========================================
• The Energy of Zeus Heist (Redbaron):
==========================================

Spoiler

The pros:
• Very well designed exterior and interior of alcatraz. Love the detail you put into the interior and the soundtrack that plays during it really fits because it encapsulates that mood of being amazed yet unsettled when in a unknown area especially a prison.

• Creative kill opportunities in the land area.

• Exploration elements, always appreciated.

• Creative stunt sequence with trying to jump onto the ship. Pretty hard though but satisfying to complete.

• Decent gameplay variety.

The nitpicks:
• Weird location and premise for a mission as a heist theme. Unless it was a comedy mission it would work but, the writing isn’t really comedic so yeah.

• Dialogue is weird. I appreciate the effort of like attempting to create charming yet cheeky lines of dialogue, but it comes off as out of place in the sense that it makes the character think younger than he is. e.g fistful of broomstick.

• Some of the soundtrack fits, some don’t. The track that plays when you first enter the cell area fits very well, the tracks that play when you infiltrate going inside alcatraz and the RC land area, don’t in my opinion.

• Trivial tank fight sequence and too cheesy of a line after the fight. I appreciate the homage and all but, this is more copying than making a homage. A good homage in my opinion is when you try something different, add a twist to it, this isn’t really a good homage simply because it’s not that original.

• The way the ramp is positioned at the start of the countdown sequence is a bit inconvenient for trying to get onto the ship, as when you try to get on, your bike will most likely be on the side of the ship not on the runway instead.

Bordering on as a con but is a nitpick:
• Very large SD file. I’ll forgive you for that for the reason of, perhaps the fact you may not know how to cut and loop songs properly in something like audacity, but this may be an issue for others with poor internet trying to download your mission and mod files.
• - A critique of this is that, it’s just poor size management.

The cons:
• Some of the interiors feel out of place in my opinion.
• The dialogue is too cheesy in my opinion.
• If you don’t use limit adjuster (or maybe because I’m emulating GTA SA through wineskin and this critique may not count), when attempting to get into the room

Disclaimer: How I’m critiquing the mission past the 2nd keycard is because I played it on my main PC, then played it again on my MacBook for review.

Overall:
7.25. I found the experience to be, mixed. On the one hand, brilliant object placement and great ambition, but on the other, the writing and some gameplay sequences just let the experience down for me personally. A small sentence to describe this entry would be, ambitious but misguided.

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And those are the reviews for all the missions submitted for this contest. Hope you all have a wonderful and for the designers, keep on designing whilst enjoying making your missions. Have a good one folks.

Review #5 MOTW 224, 22-06-23: 

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MOTW 224 reviews:
============================
PS, a quick tip, use ctrl + f (cmd + F on mac) to look up a specific author's mission if you're interested in only a specific author's or authors mission that I've reviewed, or to simply skip past this review.

====================================================================================
• 'The Return of the Ronin' (BobBobowski)
====================================================================================

Spoiler

The pros:
* Phenomenal looking outside prison. Smart and creative idea to use the Liberty City area as a base and the LC buildings as background for the prison.
* - The attention to detail with the outside, with the NPCs doing various things, some doing funny things like one trying to get into a porty potty.

* Excellent Japanese AI TTS voices.

* Varied character personalities, and how each character acts distinct from one another.
 
* Good humour, always enjoy self-deprecating jokes. Aside from that, just the random prisoners just adding to the humour as well.

* f*cking cool use of the cop model to smoothly transition to his head getting chopped his head off. PS, nice sound effect by the way. Besides those 2 things, cool f*cking surprise moment in general, and great suspense.

* Good choice of interiors especially the dining area.

* Nice added alarm sfx.

* Like that your friends are quite useful during the shootouts.

* I love how the transition from each interiors to the outside is seamless.

* Unique use of the airport interior and how you made it have collision for the cutscene.

* Accurate or at least great effort with the way you wrote how the 2 Japanese characters talked to each other.

The nitpicks:
* Bit disappointed how it ends on a cliff-hanger but, at least there's a cool sfx that plays.

* Not as much gameplay variety though, I understand that due to perhaps object limits and objective limits.

The cons:

Overall:
8.3. While it is a lower rating than your previous entry which was Taming the dragon in Italian, it's still a pretty solid and engaging mission generally with engaging cutscenes complimented with the voices, the charming humour, characters with different personalities, the subtle sound effects, polished gameplay and most importantly, the excellently crafted outside prison and just genuinely, a memorable experience. A quick sentence to describe this mission would be, charming, ambitious, different and solid.

====================================================================================
* Not leaving in a bodybag (Redbaron)
====================================================================================

Spoiler

The pros:
* Nicely done recolouring and retextures of the protagonist and prisoners. While it is simple especially the fact that you pasted numbers on the skin, it is commendable for the effort and for the extra immersion factor.

 

* Well designed exterior and interior of Alcatraz. While there are weird oversights in it especially the interior I'll skim over them due to the sheer ambition of it.

 

* Exploration elements, makes it more replayable gameplay wise. Especially the sawn off giving you options on what shotgun to have.

 

* I also appreciate the multiple approaches to getting to the ranch even if one makes the other obsolete.

 

* Decent gameplay variety between each area, one being the suspense which is the solitary area, the other stealth (albeit a bit flawed), the escape and holding off the cops.

* Great camera angles at the start, even if most of it isn't original.

The nitpicks:
* You can easily clip through the cell bars and go past unlocking the doors. Should of made the checkpoint either big enough or have an object to create invisible collision with the cell bars and door.

 

* - Continuing from a con, the 3rd track, I mean it fits the mood. It doesn't fit the environment but at least it fits the mood.

 

* Underutilised alcatraz interior. I mean, it's a well designed interior for what it is but the large scale of it makes it feel like to me, you could of utilised more of it.

 

* While the exploration elements especially the interior and exterior are great, the exploration element outside which is finding a certain better method of transportation, it makes one obsolete and makes the choice of approach to the ranch also obsolete because one is more faster and more easier to get there than the other. Though, I appreciate the effort nonetheless and does make the mission, more replayable but only if you're doing it the 2nd time trying to find all the goodies and things.

 

* I respect the exploration elements in the HQ but, one route is easier than the other and all you need to get through the prison bit is a 9mm and thats it. Plus at the ranch you're given a suitable weapon that's better so it doesn't matter that much.

 

* The stealth section is a bit flawed in my opinion since, it's quite easy to obtain a weapon and that the enemy's accuracy doesn't really encourage stealth all that much.

The cons:
* Very weird choice of soundtrack. The 1st track definitely suits the atmosphere but I have some gripes with it. 1 is that the harmonica isn't really that pleasing for your ears but besides that in my personal opinion you don't necessarily have to take this point of criticism in but, the casual vibe of the track fits best with a Goodfellas esque monologue to be honest.

 

* - The 2nd track is very strange. I find it strange as in my beliefs, I do not find it fitting for a 60s running prison with normal human beings in it; it's more fitting for a more unsettling, unfamiliar and hellish like environment and atmosphere in my perspective.

 

* - 4th track, like the 2nd track, it doesn't fit the environment and atmosphere and generally, it's also quite strange of a track choice. Though different to the 2nd track, it's more action focused of course but again, it doesn't fit and I'll reinterate, this is my own opinion after all.

 

Overall:  

6.5 (7.8 without the soundtrack). It's an ok mission. I respect the ambition but I feel like you didn't utilise all of it's ambition. The soundtrack however, made the mission very weirdly amusing to experience, but however not in a good way. I guess, the same sentence from your previous entry can apply here, however both have different focus. So, here's my short take away from this. Underutilised potential and generally misguided. 

And those are my reviews for the participants' entries for this contest. Hope you all have a wonderful and for the designers, keep on designing whilst enjoying making your missions. Have a good one folks.

 

Edited July 11 by DuckingHeights
Dumb frickin site atm isn't correctly undoing changes

[RithRake24]

Suggestion - put all the reviews into individual spoiler tags with headings so that it is much easier on the eyes. Users can click to open and read each review as they wish