A great game so far, but-

[FlyinJ]

The art direction, pacing, and overall design of the puzzles has been absolutely top notch so far. This is a very special game, and you did a great job on it.

However, the writing is absolutely terrible. And the voice acting is even worse. It pulls you right out of the dreamy and immersive environment that is so carefully crafted here. For an overall package that is so polished and solid, it's absolutely jarring to have such a sophomoric aspect haphazardly thrown on top of it.

It is so bad I'd seriously recommend patching both the subtitles and the voice over out of the game.

[Misha]

its an indie game, its supposed to have some "bugs" not gamebreaking but like that.

[FlyinJ]

I understand. That's why my suggestion was to remove it entirely as it's so detrimental to the experience. Every other aspect of the game is extremely well done.

If anything in the "writing" is needed to help solve puzzles, just write simple hints that show up.

[OneArmedBandit]

I've just watched a few youtube videos of the game and that voice over with subtitles are terrible. I'd get this game but...

[Sire]

I feel the exact same way, I can't stand the narration and the story is so ham-fisted I roll my eyes everytime the narrator speaks. I really wish you could turn it off.

[Catgirl Jessica]

I agree that the narration sucks, that is why I found a solution.

1. Turn off the subtitles in the in-game options menu.
2. To get rid of the narration, find your game's folder within your Steam folder and go to \...\UDKGame\CookedPC\Maps\Mind\ and delete every file with LOC_INT in the filename. The easiest way is to arrange all files by size and delete the first 28 files up to 4 MB in size.

This should remove the in-game narration. Unfortunately it also removes the "Naya Fornells, Menorca, Spain." location subtitle in the opening scene and possibly other such subtitles.

NOTE
Doing this is modifying the game's files and changing the way the game is meant to be played. Do it at your own risk. I haven't play tested very far so I don't know if it has any negative impacts on the game (apart from losing the story line.)

Keep a backup of these game files just in case.

[Fama]

Hmm, wouldn't taking out the voice over ruin the game? I mean, is the narration a big part of the story progression? I did hear some of the voice work and it did seem average but I wouldn't want to play this game in a way the devs didn't intend.

[Sire]

Technically, yes, you'll lose all of the meaning from the game. It'd be impossible to derive what the game is about without the narration, but it'll be a better experience because for those of us that hate it we're pulled immediately out of the game everytime the narration happens.

[Fama]

Hmm, I wonder if the dev might redo voice acting if sales are good. Not sure if I should play now or wait. I'm sure it's not too bad though.

[FlyinJ]

The voice acting is terrible, but the real problem is the writing itself. It is just awful.

[spoodie]

It would be nice to have an option to mute or disable the voice-over. It may destroy the story aspect of the game, but when you find yourself trying to ignore it or turning the sound down it hardly matters.

A quote from early in the game: "It may sound lame and cheesy". Yes, it does. Please stop.

[Myrmuz [IRL]]

Couldn't tell ya what the narrator was saying half the time, tuned him out.

Lost his sister somewhere, crying about his daddy, etc, etc.

[Catgirl Jessica]

Originally posted by FlyinJ:

The voice acting is terrible, but the real problem is the writing itself. It is just awful.

Agreed. The writing is so bad. Hopefully the dev will give a proper option to turn off the narration in an update so that my work-around won't be necessary. But until then, I've been enjoying the game so much more without the narration. I just wish I didn't hear it at all, since now I know it's aboutsome guy who chases storms who lost his daughter and ended up in a coma while repeating the same mistakes his father did. The internal monologues in the first 30 minutes of the game are so lame.

[agileFlow]

I have to agree. It's horrid.

[rx7chick]

Sorry, but I disagree. I am enjoying the narrative and the voice is just a normal voice to me. The narrative gives substance to the story.

[Dr.Freak]

Originally posted by rx7chick:

Sorry, but I disagree. I am enjoying the narrative and the voice is just a normal voice to me. The narrative gives substance to the story.

agreed