SOR3 - Adam's Story

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Download link is live.

Make sure you say yes to replace the files when applying the patch, otherwise you'll have the scenes but no way to get to them in the mod.

There wasn't any files to replace...the patch contains all the extra stages but not the altered original stages needed to access them.

Link isn't the right version. There was no insanity mode when I replaced the files.

Falcon sh*t. I knew I messed something up.

One second, putting in the linker scenes and reuploading.

It's a small download so at least it's not as disastrous as messing up the main download. XD

Got it!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/389hki7ei8g1oil/Adam%27s%20Story%20Insanity%20Patch%20Fixed.rar?dl=0

Huge thanks for pointing it out BTW. So glad this was caught early.

New topic for the last version and so no review. Of course, lots of people knows Adam's Story mod but still, it is sad. I know lots of people prefere watching video than reading review but yet, still sad. I don't know how many hours of work took this mod to be made, but it seems insane. More than a great mod, this mod can also be used as a tutorial on "how to make a great mod". I will try to go in depth to explain why I think that without spoilers.

Story :
The story takes risk since it's a parallel story to an already established canon by the main licence (SoR3/BK3). It is a risk since there is a strong mythology behind SoR and you can shock people by using it "the wrong way". What Adam's Story do is very clever since it used in-game humour to tell the audience to put "their cool faces" (to quote the author) when things starts to "jump the shark". The key behind this feature creates empathy and reinforce the credibility of the "serious part" of the plot. This is like a boomerang effect, a "hot vs cold effect". So Adam's Story tell us a great story, while being very funny, is also very consistant with the overall SoR universe, and this is a performance to me. It makes you believe that Adam's Story is a part of the canon thanks to it very scripted plot supported by visual mythology.

Visual :
Adam's Story, as for the plot, use ambivalent symbolism. It offers a lot of nostalgia stages featuring music we all know and love but also brand new stages using ressources from many fighting games and sidescrollers. This permits to "pet" fans while giving them something new in the same time. The nostalgia stages are all tweaked too, it makes like the things have evolved since SoR1 and SoR2. Even the mooks and bosses whom used to "live" here have evloved. The plots use visuals to support them, but the visuals do exactly the same with the plot. This is another point that makes you believe that Adam's Story "exist". Everything is tied but with lots of polished details, and not by splattering it in your fanboy face.

Battle :
The battles are also supported by story and visual. The tweaks used in both plots and stages departments are used to create interesting new battles. I will spoil one battle for the sake of being clear in my explanation, but I will only spoil one. The disco from SoR3 has been fused with the Alien House of SoR2. First there is humour since the music used to be cool, and now we have crappy music. The audience is aware that it is "cool face time" and can enjoy the "jump the shark twist" the fullest. This tweak gives a reason for Soozie (SoR3 disco) to fight along with Vehelits (SoR2 Horror Train), since as Max said "at least, some things don't change !". This fight is very interesting battle wise because of the attack pattern of Soozie combined with the one of Vehelits.

As you can see, everything makes sense, both plots, dialogues, visuals and battles. And almost all the mod is built upon the bond between those three clusters. Even some basic mooks are introduced plot wise, everything has a reason to be there, every fights have something to tell, every situation makes you believe that the mod you're playing is not a "random masher with sor visuals".

The modder like to play with what the audience is used to. "I remember there was an extra life hidden here" and sometime, well, play the mod ^^. The modder like to reward you for your curiosity, with the consistancy between palettes and mook's names. Sometimes, situations are foreshadow by this medium : "hey why this mook is called like that ?" and you understand why in the next scene.

I have so many more things to say about Adam Story, but wow, it's two hours a run ! It is that long, and even though, it never draggs long, nor gets old. Plus some paths are designed to be "short cut" and some are designed to be "it's a long way home !". I sank into it once again and yes , Adam's Story is still the best mod. Lots of mods are great around here, but I don't know why, this one has the cherry on the top. Maybe the difficulty scaling which is really well thought (including the new mania DLC).

Now it's time to replay Nightsweeper (no update, but still, playing HUNTER and Adam Story without playing Nightsweeper, it's like a meal without dessert !).

BigDarsh, I think you get what I was going for more than anyone.
I tried to weave in a lot of implicit ideas all over the place, and you're the type to see right through into them.
Just wondering if you saw the Signal sub-sub-plot I laughed about with Laucorn occasionally while making this. XD

In future projects, I have no idea if I can reach the level I was at when I was making this, but it's a great point of origin to move from.

Darsh, loved the review. Yes, plenty of these ideas we were discussing with Nat when we were designing AS was on the go, but somehow, we always keep it tied with a bigger plot and the main big plot (which is BK3/SOR3). It's like we already had the skeleton ready and then fleshed it out with our ideas. Some ideas came up right on the concept of design (Lima Federal being a government building with many rooms, why not using the basic BK3 concept of searching in room but instead of a trap, something... "special" might pop up (and what could be more special than internet memes).

Introducing new characters and factions in the story was crucial. X's syndicate is not the exclusive enemy: there's old mafia groups, the always spoken but never faced corruption in the police force (finally facing corrupt cops, disguised crooks and even the police commissioner himself!) and a new group of hired assassins (The Palm, basically inspired by Marvel's Hand). It was hard not to stray away from the main story, which (fortunately for us), has discrepancies between the original BK3 and SOR3, so, we decided "why the heck not?" and somehow tied them together in this bundle called Adam's Story.

Besides, I'm against the idea that they put Adam as a supporting plot character than a playable character since, I believe, he's quintessential in the game. We needed to give him the spot he deserves... and so does the great Max!

@CajNatalie : I think you underestimate a little your audience. Sure the majority doesn't/can't perceive things related in this review but I'm pretty sure the part who did is more significant than you think.

Regarding the sub sub sub sub signal's plot, I must say no. I played this mod a lot, I find new stuff/easter eggs/details every time (Because Size Matters ! Too Erotic! Too Strong! was the last one) but definitly not. I'm quite curious.

As you speak of Laucorn, he told me I was the only one to notice the "coolface-plothole" between Adam Story and Nightsweeper, but I will speak about that in the Nightsweeper's thread later. I just want to warn/advise you about the universal problem of "open ended game with sequal". Since WSE try to weave a lot of stuff between their mods, sometime it create plotholes because they "forgot" to establish a canon (even if this canon ending is not in the previous mod). Think to that for your futur project in order to avoid the mess that became Mortal Kombat (to speak about the most notable mess in open ended videogame series).

Last but not least.

In future projects, I have no idea if I can reach the level I was at when I was making this, but it's a great point of origin to move from.

I can answer for you. To me, no, you can't, because you made a "classic" with Adam's Story. You are in the "Doom of Classic" setup. It's like the "friend-zone" (you can't go beyond that zone). Michael Jackson has made "thriller". It's a classic. He has made good albums after that but he made a classic and he's "doomed". The key is to not "run after your ass". Just go on, keep doing good work.  

@Don Vecta : As you went in the large "spoiler territory", I can add some comments about what you said. I really like how you expand the vilains factions in this mod and tied them with both BK3 and SoR3. As for the whole stage with phony cops, I just can't help myself but doing all the rooms everytime. Internet memes are so much more rewardig than a bunch of pick-ups. Humour, beat em up needs it. Definitly. To tell the truth, this mods makes me love SoR3 and BK3 plots. I only liked them before, but now, thanks to the lot of work puts in Adam's Story to tie SoR1/2 to SoR3/BK3, I love them just as much as the first games.

Besides, I'm against the idea that they put Adam as a supporting plot character than a playable character since, I believe, he's quintessential in the game. We needed to give him the spot he deserves... and so does the great Max!

I used to share your opinion about the removal of Adam and Max from the SoR Franchise. I thought it was just plain bad, but now I have studied a lot of beat em up and fighting game, I have another perspective about this. I would like 'if you are ok' to open a thread to make an analysis of the roster of the original series (SoR1/2/3) to highlights those decision from sega (battle/visual/story : ).

But don't get me wrong, this is SoRR not SoR2/3, Adam and Max are in the game, and it's just so great to highlight those awesome guys with that SoR3 Backstory mod. I mean I rarely play Adam, and I play sometime Max. But when I launch this mod, I can't help myself : I have to play those guys, and only those guys !

I plan to rebuild Nightsweeper anyway later this year from the ground up. I'm going to try and make it a more close ended deal to account for the different branches in Adam's story, if that can be done. LOL

BigDarsh wrote:I have another perspective about this. I would like 'if you are ok' to open a thread to make an analysis of the roster of the original series (SoR1/2/3) to highlights those decision from sega (battle/visual/story : ).

Yes, please. Yes, please. Be my guest.

Well, I have replayed this mod...the vanilla update, and I have massively enjoyed it. You made something that was already great even better. I've yet to try the insane patch...but I'll be doing that pretty soon. Amazing job Natalie. You put a great deal of effort into the smaller details, whether they were light-hearted or serious.

Okay so despite the original trilogy's canon being the highest priority when we did the plot, I have to make something clear because of recent discovery of someone's "fanon" being insulted, and then because of the way the SoR3 Ultimate Mod's Hardcore Route is going, more detail is required for anyone who wants this to link with that.

-The extra robotic skeletons in the Stage 4 Boss should be considered an Easter Egg reference to the old SoR3 mod that couldn't implement Break. Their presence or lack thereof has no effect on the plot.
Of course there could always be more or less robots. The presence or lack of dead ones doesn't affect shit - don't be an idiot.
-Technical Retcon: The current Chief of Police was recently promoted by Mayor Bingo after the previous one went missing (SoR3 mod Hardcore route). This honestly isn't even really a retcon, more like additional level of detail.

So much drama for a mod plot using a custom character, pfft~!

I'm actually lost, if Adam's story was tied to the original canon then that means break is canon to that mod anyway. <_< v4/v5 is a totally separate canon, not sure what the issue is there.

Mr.Din wrote:I'm actually lost, if Adam's story was tied to the original canon then that means break is canon to that mod anyway. <_< v4/v5 is a totally separate canon, not sure what the issue is there.

Exactly, there never was an issue.
Just had to make shit clear.

The Hardcore Extended Plot though was worth mentioning since we went to the trouble of realising how simple it could be.

Adam reference later in the video.
Someone finally gives BadJab credit for the effort getting this concept started... but then he gets credit for the ENTIRE mod.
*facedesk*
Maximum kek.

XD

Replayed this a few times this week. Either I got better at SoRR compared to a few years back, or 5.1 made things a bit easier or... I don't know what. It's still hard as nails, though. The hidden lab with all the freaking bikers/grenades/laserbots is murderous. And the climactic fight in the church, damn. Yamato got boosted in the latest SoRR patch and it's very noticeable there. I did appreciate the "move slowly" hint in the church yard which led to my timer running out. Har har har.

Review wise, well, I agree 100% with BigDarsh. As always, really.

Hmmm? Well, i am NOT an epic player, but i finished the mod with 8 lives, no continues and naturally, max in mania... And i even chose the insanity path during the points it was selectable! Even the stage with grenades constantly dropping from above, didn't manage to get me lower than 4 lives. Add to that the fact that food is regularly dropped and at the later stages, even the occasional 1up and it was quite player favoring, actually!

This isn't from the very hard mods... The "mod queen's" other mods, like Golden Rage 2, or the mega drive route of Sor 2 Collection, punished me a lot more! The second one even gave me a game over, once, even!

All in all, a great mod to beat hordes of enemies senselessly, in order to work out RL frustration and stuff! Also, exceptionally well made mod! I didn't beat it in one go (used savestate this time), or else i would have thrown in my video, as usual...

I played as Max (on Very Hard though, could play Mania but let's be honest I would just be doing the Blitz-2 nonstop and I refuse to do that). Other than that, having pretty much the same experience as you, then played the mod again as Adam (much harder indeed! I finished with 0 lives left ).

Then I played as Elle and I pwned that sh*t, hard. She's just so good against enemies that outrange most other characters.

WillyTheSquid wrote:I played as Max (on Very Hard though, could play Mania but let's be honest I would just be doing the Blitz-2 nonstop and I refuse to do that). Other than that, having pretty much the same experience as you, then played the mod again as Adam (much harder indeed! I finished with 0 lives left ).

Then I played as Elle and I pwned that sh*t, hard. She's just so good against enemies that outrange most other characters.

If you know her moveset and have fast reflexes, Elle is THE, real beast! Also, her special weapons (dagger and sword) are exceptionally dangerous, she has like a couple of special moves on both...!

She is one of my favorite characters, but i can't use her outside Normal. A skilled Elle player is easily one of the top ranking players; she is made 70% from skill, 25% from speed/reflexes and 5% pure awesomeness!

I've found that the need for superhuman reflexes can be somewhat mitigated by not walking up to enemies to punch them (and taking a 1/2-frame jab in the face) but halting a few pixels earlier and having the enemies walk into your attacks instead. This is what makes a big difference when playing characters like Rudra, Blaze2 or Adam, for me.

With Elle you can pretty much ignore the above and just rely on the range of her basic combo to get that first hit in. And with Hakuyos, SoR2/3 Electras and pipe/bat users (basically all those f*ckers that like to hang back just outside the reach of most player characters)... well, Elle can start comboing them before they can get a hit in, since her basic attacks outrange them ever so slightly.
I do agree especially that using her Blitz2/3 effectively requires good reflexes/timing/positioning when playing on the highest difficulty settings.

(All this is on my preferred settings of Remake pause delay and SoR3 combo type.)

Anyway, Security, have you tried playing this mod as Adam on Mania?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYwuJD7Ld4A

Here is my play!

The dropbox link is dead for generating too much traffic. Got another download link?