Unexpected Arrival

Deep in the pits of the underworld Shiva finds himself faced with unknown adversary who tries to steal his identity and corrupt the syndicate from within. Teamed up with 2 trusted allies from the syndicate, Shiva begins a long journey in search of truth and to restore the syndicate to its once feared glory!









word of advice, this mod is pretty tough but still beatable without losing a life if you're using 5.1 patch or 5.a patch. although alot tougher with the 5.1 as some of you may know. i actually had to tap into Super Shiva mode a few times just to survive. Hope you all enjoy

http://www.mediafire.com/download/kq8shh7uc5s1p0s/Str8+Business%282%29.rar

A mod with Shiva as the main character, an interesting choice! There are very few mods where you take the side of the bad guys (most likely because you can't have the heroes as enemies), so that's refreshing. Moreover, Shiva is my favorite character, so I'm very interested in a mod centered on him.

So far, I have played the first 4 stages. Here are some impressions.

Well, let me say that the first stage probably isn't the best introduction to your mod. It all looks very samey, empty and undetailed, and the fact that you often stand still in one place fighting several swarms of enemies doesn't help. Also, the flames on the walls don't look too good. The first scene of the second stage looks very good, but the second scene feels again a bit empty. Things get a lot better by the third stage, especially the atmosphere of the second scene. Fourth stage is very original and the best looking so far. I played a little of stage 5 and it's the good old Final Fight bay area, but the blinking city in the background left me a little perplexed.

In regard to difficulty, so far I didn't find the mod too hard. There are often a lot of enemies on screen, but things are always manageable. As previously said, sometimes you stay too long in one place fighting wave after wave, and it's a bit boring. Anyway, overall I liked the combinations of enemies (aside from the

Spoiler:

they feel out of place - not that SOR is a realistic game, but still...). Some difficulty spikes occur at the end of stages, where two bosses are paired and even mooks have a lot of health. I liked the

Spoiler:

at the end of stage 4, it's an interesting fight.

I'll post my impressions on the remaining stages later.


EDIT: I finished the mod.

Regarding stage 5, my humble suggestion would be to substitute it entirely with another stage, for the simple reason that we have all played the Final Fight bay area far too many times now (even in SORR mods). Also...

Spoiler:

The airport stage looks and plays very good. I'm not sure what to think about the airport boss, though:

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The underground labs look good and play good. I liked the way the various types of robots are used throughout the stage and the boss fight is challenging but not unfair or exagerated.

The last stage suffers from the same problem of the first stage: too dark, too samey and flames a bit out of place. The final bosses are very challenging...

Spoiler:

About the music: nice selection, with unfamiliar remixes of familiar songs (also from other games, like Street Fighter and Final Fantasy). Some good original tracks too (or, at least, songs I've not recognized from other games).

About the story: I must say I'm not too fond of plots involving clones. It's not that they're out of place in the SOR universe (after all in SOR3 we have a freaking talking bain), but I just don't like them much. For a Shiva-centered mod, I'd like to see him rebel against Mr. X and take over the Syndicate, for example. But that's just my opinion.

I think you should polish your mod a bit more, especially some backgrounds and some enemy swarms. Perhaps you could extend the stages a little with new scenes, to make the mod a bit longer. But you laid a solid groundwork for what could become a very good mod, keep up the good work!

thanks for the review Reinhart. and yes, i agree with most of the things you pointed out. i actually made this mod in 8 days. it was intended to be longer and have alot more variety but i got back into a game that took me away from sorr in the first place and time restraints stopped me from making this longer. but now that you mention it i guess (if i ever have the time again) i'll make 1 about shiva going head to head against mr x. it actually sounds like a great idea.

I like some of the palettes here. This looks pretty interesting, congrats on making your new mod.

After reading the review by Reinhard seems it's worth downloading. Downloading now.

Boss wrote:word of advice, this mod is pretty tough but still beatable without losing a life if you're using 5.1 patch or 5.a patch. although alot tougher with the 5.1 as some of you may know. i actually had to tap into Super Shiva mode a few times just to survive. Hope you all enjoy

I actually managed it earlier today (Shiva 2), the last boss isn't quite as tough as I'd feared, probably due to the large amount of space available. Still, only a few toons will be able to manage it.

btw, please don't put enemies dropping from above right next to where you stand...in one stage they wake up immediately.

Alright, I've finished the mod and here it comes my feedback.

• Usually, when modders say "my mod is too difficult", it comes to my mind nasty, unplayable shit with major bosses as mooks and impossible lifebars, etc. Luckily for me, the difficulty was decent enough, challenging and, the most important, fun. Some boss combinations/experiments went pretty well while others needed a bit of polishing (getting a lv. 6 Barbon along with a kickboxer and a full health Vehelits it's dangerous... unless you walk slowly and take Vehelits first before waking up Barbon and the kickboxer). But besides that, the enemy placement is adequate and interesting and had fun with it.
  
• Regarding design... well, considering the mod is created with stages from old OpenBOR games (from my best friend Allan Cyllakes, the Chinese foreigners lover, no less  ), some Final Fight and from other mods (no complaining about that, you credit them, so it's fair), I think that's definitely the weakest part of this mod. However, as you mentioned that you made this mod rather quickly, it's fine. Not sure if you plan to continue the saga you've started (taking in note, the mod ends in a cliffhanger), but if so, I might recommend more work in the stages.
  
• Story-wise is not bad, then again taking elements from those OpenBOR games (Shiva & Lisa stuff). Keeps it short and interesting and with a cliffhanger to continue further development, but maybe needed more consistency to match with the stages selected (I mean, why the guys should find a gang of pipe-wielding thugs inside a computer classroom, right?). I'm sure if there could be better planning with the stage selection and design, the story could evolve better (and this is what I'm hoping if you'd go for a sequel).
  
• Sound and music-wise, was a great selection and it was pleasant to the ear. No complaints from here. Nice choice.
  

Overall, I think the mod is short, straightforward but fun. Needs polishing in some aspects and add that special something that would make me go to countless replays, but in fact, was pretty enjoyable. You know pretty much how to place good enemies along the map so that's an advantage for you to continue modding, and hope you do but with a more polished and dedicated project. Well done!

Oh, BTW, the pack didn't bring the palette pack displayed in the pictures. I'd liked to play it with the palette scheme you created (if you needed certain palette choice to add depth to the story).

Don Vecta wrote:
[*]Regarding design... well, considering the mod is created with stages from old OpenBOR games (from my best friend Allan Cyllakes, the Chinese foreigners lover, no less  )

Oh Don, I love it when you keep bringing that one situation back up at random times on the forum.

Saven wrote:

Don Vecta wrote:
[*]Regarding design... well, considering the mod is created with stages from old OpenBOR games (from my best friend Allan Cyllakes, the Chinese foreigners lover, no less  )

Oh Don, I love it when you keep bringing that one situation back up at random times on the forum.

Some events are just classic and unforgettable!

Don Vecta wrote:Alright, I've finished the mod and here it comes my feedback.


[*]Regarding design... well, considering the mod is created with stages from old OpenBOR games (from my best friend Allan Cyllakes, the Chinese foreigners lover, no less  ),

true, better stages would be nice but i suck at gathering stages from any platform other than bor. ive read the documents of stage gathering from other platforms but just cant seem to get a hang of it. i'd definitely create a sequel with lots of help. and lol at you noticing the shiva and lisa element since you bash bor so hard

Actually, I do like the OpenBOR stuff... but mainly the new generation mods that actually have solid content and new features. Point in fact, I'm collaborating in a couple of BOR projects myself with some paired stuff I'm doing with SORmaker.

Let's say I'm not fan of the stuff done before since they tried so hard to fill in the SORR formula, especially with the stuff created by my best friend, hehe.

Anyways, great job on your mod.

Nice, I am going to download it.

Can not download, please help me

Same here. It keeps trying to get me to download something called str8business.

Karma wrote:Same here.  It keeps trying to get me to download something called str8business.

It is fine the mod is still in there it is no need to worry at all.