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Stairway


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Stairway

Mac/Windows

 

Author: Niemand

Rating:

Difficulty:

Version: 1.1.0

 

[composite=eyJ0aXRsZSI6IlN0YWlyd2F5IiwidGlkIjoiMTU2NzciLCJ0YWdzIjpbXSwiYmdhc3AiOnsiNSI6MSwiNCI6NiwiMyI6NCwiMiI6MSwiMSI6MH19]

Composite Score: 3.6/5.0

 

Best: 8.33% (1/12)

Good: 50.00% (6/12)

Average: 33.33% (4/12)

Substandard: 8.33% (1/12)

Poor: 0.00% (0/12)

[encouragenecro]

 

[/composite]

 

Keywords:

Edited by SylaeBot
Automated Sybot edit; worker IPB::csrThread/vanadium
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From The Lurker on the CSR:

 

On one hand, this "thing" is graphically impressive and has some awesome coding tricks (bouncing ring, floating shades, being thrown off the stairway). On the other hand, gameplay is almost nonexistent (only one real 'puzzle', two or three battles) and you spend your time going down a seemingly endless stairway. The plot is just plain obscure. And that's about it.

 

[rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

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From Pinchy the Crab on the CSR:

 

 

Good job, you learned how to code tricks. Next time you make one of these, keep it on your hard drive and play around with it. People dont want a story attached to fancy coding, they want a little innovative coding along with their story.

 

As far as scenarios go, this one wasnt worth my time..

 

[rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]

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From an unknown reviewer on the CSR:

 

I loved the music. I assume it was from some old-school RPG. Any way this scenario has a very cool concept. The charcater is forever doomed to descend the stairway. Perhaps he is in a coma with no way out. Any way cool scenario and cool tricks, animations etc.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From Smoo on the CSR:

 

A short scenario Stairway may be and the scenery doesn't change at all but I liked the dream-like/hallucination look of it nonetheless. The cut scenes for once were enjoyable: they were short and the bouncing ring actually had animation! The fading out effect was also very cool.

 

On the negative side the player could have been given some kind of in-game warning if the pre-made party wasn't being used. <SPOILER> I initially entered Stairway with a too powerful character so the shades were unable to kill her, thus making the scenario unwinnable.<END SPOILER> The minimap blocking wasn't quite successful either. The color for the stairs etc were a few shades off.

 

Combat was, with the pre-made party, not very challenging but then again there weren't many fights to begin with. Nonetheless, I liked the combat where both parties kept missing all the time. If there had been more fights it would have been annoying.

 

As for the plot, I liked it. It's just that I would have liked to have some kind of closure. If there will be a sequel (Bleagh.) that explains everything then I'd prefer if Niemand would simply extend Stairway rather than start fresh. After all Stairway only takes about three minutes to finish. But as it is Stairway works pretty well for what it is: a hallucination trip.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From Lazarus on the CSR:

 

Interesting idea and excellent execution. Coding here is about as good as it gets, it was good to finally see Niemand's scripting abilities put to use. I enjoyed it from start to finish; loved the ending(?).

 

It's nice to get a break from the standard adventure every once in a while, especially when it's as well done as Stairway.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From Jemand on the CSR:

 

I like how abstract and different Stairway is. There was nothing particularly confusing about the plot (there barely is a plot) and there are choices to be made. Yes, there isn't much combat, but it's a scenario about walking up and down stairs, why should there be? The scripting and graphical tricks are another thing that hasn't ever been done before. The best part is the stairway itself and the scripting, the worst part is probably if you have to go back up the stairs for anything.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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  • 2 years later...

This is my favorite custom scenario thus far, and that is saying a lot seeing as how I have played both the Bahssikava add-on scenarios (and enjoyed them). I will say this first to get it out of the way, though. There really should have been a note that you should only use the pre-fabricated character to play this scenario, as I used my group and got stuck in an endless loop.... of killing shades.

 

The combat was obviously minimal, with only shades to fight. However, it was really only there as a plot device, so that can be ignored.

 

The scripting tricks were nice, as were the special effects (ring bounce, fading in and out).

 

The plot was very minimalistic, but again, that was probably a plot device as well, to add to the mystery of the stairway.

 

The ending was actually a surprise for me, and very enjoyable.

 

Honestly, seeing as how this is, in my humble opinion, the best scenario I have played, even noting that this is supposed to be a hack-and-slash type RPG and whatnot, I give it a "[rating]Best[/rating]" rating. I think the idea could be adapted into a movie.

 

SPOILER:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Initially, when I came across those ampersand markings in the wall, along with the shade marking, I thought it was a non-sequitur that he felt a strong urge to erase the markings. Maybe I am dense, but I just now realized why that is the case (I can now note that I had forgotten about Ampersand having a piece of paper that states that he is the ampersand). He must still remember somehow that he is stuck in an endless loop of descending the stairway (and that not erasing the shade marking would create a shade). Erasing the ampersands would give him death, and release from the loop (but he does not remember well enough to keep from re-marking the ampersands when he realizes he is disappearing, likely because of the more immediate fear of disappearing). This scenario is really deep to me. I really think someone should make a movie out of it.

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  • 8 years later...

This is, seemingly, designed to irritate the player as much as possible. That said, it's unique, creative, and a deep puzzle. It's irritating, but it's such a rarity that I think it deserves a good rating for the uniqueness alone...just as as you realize you might be tearing your hair out by the end of it. Save before you go in and don't save over that save so that if you get too frustrated you have a way of backing out of the scenario without using the editor.

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