The Dink Network

I'm rewriting this review, because after reading through the version from 2009, it was utter garbage (what was I smoking when writing that stuff?!). Sure, a lot of my older reviews are absolutely awful, but this one is such a popular D-Mod, I felt it deserved better. The score still remains the same, as my points of view about the D-Mod itself haven't changed at all. I'm just tidying up the English and trying to give a more detailed explanation. You know, like an actual review.

So, Cast Awakening Part 1 by Dan Walma, better known to the site as Redink1. Many consider him to be one of the best, if not the best D-Mod creator of all time, and Initiation to be amongst his finest work. I can understand why. The D-Mod has a lot going for it. But sadly, I think it also has a lot not going for it. It's as if it had every opportunity to grab my interest, yet fails to do so with most of its aspects.

This is one of the few D-Mods that falls into the Epic -category, but here we already run into my first problem; the fact that it's very arguable whether this D-Mod really is an Epic or not. I know there's really not a definitive rule to this, and the length of D-Mods has changed overtime, but if you were to take a D-Mod like Stone of Balance, for example, you could probably fit 2 or 3 Initiations within that D-Mod. Or approximately 1½ in Cloud Castle 2. So that really raises a question mark on whether this D-Mod really belongs in the Epic category or not. Personally, I'd say no, and that it's a Quest. My reason for bringing this up is that whereas it's been proven without a doubt that size does not matter at all when it comes to D-Mods, Epics do tend to have a certain respect from people, causing them to perhaps be slightly overpraised. Of course, if this D-Mod was a Quest it would without a doubt be one of the best Quest-sized D-Mods out there, but I do think some of its flaws would be slightly more discussed.

Story:
Well, here we have a problem right away. Because the story is without a doubt the weakest part of the D-Mod. In fact, the story of this game is one of the weakest I've ever seen in any D-Mod. The fact that this D-Mod came from the creator of Cycles of Evil, which had one of the best stories ever told in a D-Mod, makes it VERY disappointing.

The storyline is that Dink is led to believe he has joined the Hall of Heroes Society, when in fact it is a trick by The Cast to lock him in their stronghold. Dink escapes the prison and has to escape the gigantic Cast base. That's pretty much it.

The way I see it, a story needs to happen throughout the game. However, it happens anything but throughout the game in Initiation. All the story we get is that of what happens in the intro, and what happens in the endings (which mostly contain nothing storyline-wise, except for with one ending that promotes a sequel, which never happened). Really, I'd go as far as to say that there is no actual storyline. There is just an explanation as to why we end up playing the game, and then there are endings that barely anyhow connect to anything you just went through, leaving you feeling somewhat unrewarded. Imagine if The Lord of the Rings explained how Frodo got The Ring and had to take it to the volcano in the first 5 minutes, just to set up all the action, and then in the end when the action is over, just ended by showing the main cast celebrating and getting their asses drunk at a pub.

Also, there's just a brief explanation as to why The Cast kidnapped Dink. Sure, The Cast is one of Dink's most common enemies so it really needs no that much of an explanation, but a more clear motive would've still been nice. Sadly, there is really no further explanation than a few lines talking about Dink defeating Seth. But I admit, I haven't played the D-Mod in a while and have only finished it once or twice, so maybe there was some explanation that I forgot. But nothing big enough to stick in my mind.

Map:
It's disputable whether the map of this D-Mod is good or not. It's not too detailed, but it isn't an empty screen after another, either. I think with this D-Mod, it really falls more into personal taste. Some might enjoy the map, others don't. I'm one of those who didn't, but I can still appreciate it for what it's worth. Let me offer my personal opinion about the map, which has nothing to do with it being good or bad, but more of why I didn't find it very enjoyable:

The problem I have with the map is that there's really no world to explore. And since this is an Epic (or at least a very lengthy Quest), it is fairly disappointing. The whole D-Mod takes place inside the Cast stronghold, which consists of different levels, including "The Prisons", "The Mines", "Mad Lab", "Recreation" and some weird, trippy as shoot side-world. But all of these levels look basically the same. I mean, sure, there might be some different coloured walls on the cave, and the decoration might change a bit from level-to-level, but I still find it getting boring and redundant to just be in a "cave", which is what 85% of this D-Mod takes place in. After completing about... 3/4, I'd say, of the game, you finally get to see something different in the Hall of Heroes, where the map starts looking more like a castle/dungeon. But to move forward in the story (not to mention, if you want to complete side-quests) you need to go back to the previous levels at points, which just pisses me off at this point, because I thought I was finally done with the cave-scenery. With a D-Mod of this length, it really is a problem that the whole game takes place "inside", so to speak. In Stone of Balance there are different kinds of lands to explore to keep it refreshing and interesting. In Cloud Castle 2 the whole map is a desert, but it is kept interesting with constant new dungeons and areas. Even the original Dink always has something new to keep it fresh. But here, there's no world to explore. All you have is the same levels to look over and over again, hoping desperately to unlock some new area or the next level to get some form of variety.

And as if just to taunt you, some of the endings show parts of the world outside the stronghold, for brief moments. It almost made me feel like "Yes, finally I got out of that first dungeon. Now time to start playing the actual game" just to see Dink walk away to an ending scene. The map outside looks great, too. It's well decorated, whereas the stronghold's map can be a bit bland at times.

Graphics:
Hey, could it be something that I actually like about this D-Mod? Yes, it could! The graphics are very good in this D-Mod. Nothing that I fell in love with, but still nice. The old graphics are used well. There was a bunch of stuff from SimonK, which always means pleasure to the eyes (possibly in more ways than one). The completely new graphics include knights without helmets, new weapons as well as some new doors with different colours, plus a lot more. These are not quite on the level of SimonK's stuff but look very good nonetheless. When it comes to graphics, it seems SimonK is more of a guy who creates his own stuff from scratch, whereas Redink seems to be more into editing RTSoft's already existing graphics. Both do a tremendous job! There were also some new cave-tiles with different colours. Don't know who did those.

Overall, the usage of already-existing graphics was great, and the new ones were very good, as well.

Music:
Not much to say here. The music is good and fits the situations. But I do wish Dan had used more MIDIs than just one per level (if you don't count fights etc.). I understand what he was going for, but if the map got redundant, the one-MIDI-per-level system only adds to it. Also, if there are ten screens with monsters in it after a row, why do we need a new random battle MIDI picked everytime we enter another screen? Plus it to load the level-MIDI back when the fight in the screen is over? This takes lots of extra time, and got really on my nerves when I died and had to go through the screens all over again. Even with Aural+ some of the battle MIDIs take a while to load. Just have one battle music per one monster-area!

Also, just a minor nitpick, but in the intro there is a scene where one MIDI has to load 3 times when the scene itself is approximately only around minute and a half long. As much as I like this MIDI, wouldn't it have been better to just include a longer one instead?

Gameplay:
The storyline wasn't focused on, the map felt uninteresting, the graphics were ok, the MIDIs too though with some problems. So far not looking very good. So it can only mean one thing, right? All the effort was put into the gameplay, correct?

Well, I am happy to say yes! That is correct. The gameplay is what really makes this D-Mod, and what really shines about it. It's obvious the gameplay is Initiation's main focus, its core, whereas everything else just pretty much tries to "guide" the player into the gameplay. There's lots of unlockable areas, side-quests, new weapons and spells, interesting minigames to kill your time (including roulette), collectables and just cool puzzles that you're required to complete. The gameplay's not perfect, and it too can get a bit redundant at times, but it is still done extremely well. If everything about this D-Mod was as great, it'd definitely be in my top 3 favourite D-Mods, which it currently is not (maybe more like in top 20).

One thing I have to say though, is that the fighting can be extremely difficult, even using the easy-mode. And I consider myself a pretty hardcore Dink-player too, so it's not due to lack of skill (I hope ).

There's some wacky side-quests going on with Death, some bizarre side-world which I still have no idea how Redink coded. There's also 4 different endings. But sadly, none of these are super-interesting. A lot of D-Mods don't have super-long-amazing endings, but you'd think that out of 4, there'd be at least one that you'd find a bit rewarding. Sadly, this wasn't the case, at least for me.

The NPCs in the game I found uninteresting and really didn't care for much they had to say. The D-Mod tried to give them character, succeeding somewhat, but I still felt like something didn't click. Unlike in CC2, where I can actually feel for every NPC and connect to their everyday life, here I felt like they did have character, but that it wasn't used anyhow and really played no bigger part to anything, including my interest.

There was also some voice-acting done by Dinkers in the intro. This I thought was really good and surprisingly many were amazing at the whole voice-acting thing. Aunt Maria sounded a bit off, and Dink didn't have a voice, but that's ok. My favourite of all the voices was the idiot knight, who I believe was voiced by Kyle. That was so hilarious, and one of the best vocal performances I've heard. Maybe Kyle should start voice-acting? Maybe if this whole voice over thing was done for all the NPCs, they could've been made a bit more interesting. But at the same time I understand that would be an insane amount of voicework to ask for.

Also, I felt a lack of cutscenes in this D-Mod. Good cutscenes make me feel rewarded for getting further, and are that small thing that pushes you to finish the D-Mod. But there were very few of them here, which sometimes had me thinking what was the point. The cutscenes that were there though, were quite good.

But all in all, the gameplay is *the thing* in this D-Mod. I've beaten the Mod pretty much down to ground at this point, but this is what saves the whole game for me.

Good:
The gameplay is amazing, and the D-Mod is worth a download just to experience it. The MIDIs are well picked. The new graphics look great and the voice-acting is funny. Four different endings. And the D-Mod does offer a genuinely good adventure, even if it does have what I think are many flaws.

Bad:
There is really no storyline. The map gets very redundant. Some decisions with the MIDIs baffle me. Quite uninteresting NPCs. Unbalanced combat, though not impossible (maybe should've made the hard mode the easy one and the easy mode even easier? Heh). No world to explore, which I think is a VERY big problem for a D-Mod of this length. Barely any cutscenes. The endings really don't offer much.

Overall:
7.0.
I do believe Initiation is good, and do suggest you give it a go. Maybe you'll like it, or maybe not so much. A lot of people seem to.

But personally, I don't think it's as great as everyone says it is. It suffers from many flaws, in my opinion, that overshadow the good sides. I get the feeling Dan was focusing a bit too much on the gameplay, which really paid off in that regard, but should've spent an extra month or so writing an actual storyline for the D-Mod. The storyline is the most important part of a D-Mod, if you ask me, and when it's not there, everything else feels like it falls flat too, because, simply put, there's no motive for the player to play. Also, I'm just not a fan of the whole idea of having a D-Mod this lengthy entirely taking place in one stronghold.

I hope nobody thinks I was too unfair or bashing towards this D-Mod, as that isn't my goal or anything, but all the points I raised do bother me, and I feel are very valid.

Fit for:
It's not a bad D-Mod, so I suggest everyone gave it a try. But I also feel it has many flaws, so don't be surprised if you don't find it the most enjoyable D-Mod ever.

This is a very correctly named DMOD. Initiation, as a rite of passage usually involves some leve of pain or discomfort. At this DMOD has moments in which you will be frustrated, but at the same time I found it very addictive. I had to finish it, had to!!

Gameplay: An interesting mix of fighting and puzzles/riddles, with at most times a successful non-linear structure. I found a few areas really easy (such as the dancing - none of the arrows seemed to do more than 1 damage, so in the end I stopped dancing) and others really hard (like battling the tree monster) in which I had to spend quite some time levelling up back in the blue level fighting monsters before I could kill the tree thing. This was where a lot of the pain came in for me - the need to fight and fight to boost my levels. The non-linear aspect had other affects on gameplay - I finally found the Sabretrout weapon, but at that point it didn't seem to do much more than the hard bread - my weapon of choice.

Score 9.2

New Items/Magic - these abound in this DMOD and they work together well. The keys to unlock doors are good, the rancid meat and other assorted weapons were pretty goo to.

Score 9.5

Story: This is the weakest element to this DMOD. Dink is tricked into getting imprisoned by the Cast and must battle his way out of the stronghold

Score 7.0

Map: Good level structure with multiple access points for levels, only had one weird hardness thing with screenlocks and one of the Cast Fathers ending up on a green rock. But this bug is the fault of the Game Engine and not the author. Otherwise the attention to detail was great, as was the use of original and additional graphics. But a couple of the upper levels seemed sparse and bare - my only cricitism.

Score 9.5

Bugs: can't really comment about these as I was a Beta tester, and memories are reconstructions, so my memories of this game are based on both the beta and the final version. The final version seemed as bug free as the best of the DMODs.

Score 9.9

Bonuses:
Well I think the humour and the twists on old graphics and new was really well done. Also the end weird world was a nice mind twister - had to get Redink to help me with killing the hearts during the beta test. Coding on this DMOD is great. Use of the vine to suck life's blood from Dink via the status bar - yippee! Now I can see that's what Seth probably had in mind all along. Not to mention the voices used in the intro - new and freshing!

Score 9.9

So this is one of Redink's better DMODs, in fact his best one for me, as I had to play it, and play, and play it unitl I had gotten thru! It's biggest let down was the story, but that aside it's great!

Overall: 9.2

Roxority. But I imagine the awesomeness of this file would be hard to appreciate for someone not familiar with the Dink engine and the difficulty of coding within it.

Gameplay: 10
Redink has thrown in a variety of new enemies, such as exploding ducks, Cast knights who leave ghosts, leaping fish, and a number of powerups-gone-bad. Also, Dink gets to strike his enemies with bread, fish, Sephiroth's firesword, and a glowing lightsword with cool sound effects. But most importantly, there are three "new" spells, probably even cooler than those of PQ, although they don't add quite so much to the gameplay.

Style: 10
Tinted cave graphics provide a nice background, decorated with all manner of things. The sheer quantity of scripting, though, is what really amazes me. Every screen seems to have something on it, and all sorts of mundane items have scripts attached. Pottery can be shattered, food can be splattered, and Dink gets splinters from hitting everything else. Often times, when you kill all the enemies on a screen, a chest will appear with a gold heart in it. The people all leave permanent corpses. I'd go on, but meh.

The dialogue is also pretty good, and it was cool to hear all the people from the DN.

Story: 9
Not so much. Dink gets tricked into entering the Cast Stronghold and has to escape. Oh wow.

Overall: 9.8
I'm going to have to lower my score for PQ . But people should play a few other dmods before trying this.

This is one really special D-Mod. I've got all endings and all items, all magic and did (I think) all subquests. And jeeze... I still have fun playing it

Warning: Some spoilers ahead, don't say I didn't warn you.

Story: Good old save-the-world-plot... NOT! It's "save-your-head"-time now, as you've been tricked by the Cast to their stronghold and you're locked up. The guards are about to lead you to the evil Cast-King, but there was some avalanche who killed both of them and now you're free to go where you want, preferably out of the Cast-stronghold.

Gameplay: For those of you who hate mazes and caves... good luck. There isn't one playable square in the open. This doesn't mean it's only fighting-time. Oh no, far from that! There are a lot of puzzles to be solved, items to be found and quests to be done. There's so much to do, that even when you've finished the game, you'll want to play it again. Thank god for multiple endings (4 total).

Although there are some good fights, I didn't find them impossible.

Map: As I've mentioned before it's a big maze, consisting of 9 levels. 10 if you count the two-screen Cathedral. It only has the look of a cave, though. There are so much ways and secret passages that it almost feels like a big outdoor-area.

It's very well decorated, but I don't think you'll encounter many trees in a sewer system, or anywhere else underground. But then, of course, this is Dink, and in the world of Dink, people happen to be very fertilising for plants. Take a look a SoB for example

Anyway, you'll see that, when you've played it for some time, you'll get access to more areas of the maze. Which'll help you solve puzzles, or avoid difficult enemies or riddles, or just to kill some more monsters for experience or powerups.

Items: Redink1 claimed he put 16 usable items in this game, and this is TRUE!! The good thing is, you can have them all at the same time! You'll find items that are familiar to Dink, like fists, sword, elixirs, bombs and such, but also some completely new ones, like the rancid meat. It'll make you fart

New is that you can access your non-usable-inventory trough the escape-menu. This is so your keys and other items won't use up inventory space, which you could use for other things like rancid meat

Magic: There are three spells in this D-Mod. These are fireball, waterball and shock magic. One main difference with the main game magic is that the behaviour of the spells will change if your magic level is high enough. Fireball will become a hellfire-lookalike and even later, it'll leave damaging flames on impact if you're lucky.

Humour: Yes, this D-Mod is full of it. There are a lot of bookshelves which you don't really need, but they often have funny content. Also, when you've done some specific subquest, the guy you did it for might give you different choice options which don't do anything at all, but are just plain funny. What I very much liked was the wizard in prison who started to quote Lord of the Rings "The Cast delved too greedy and too deep" and then... anyway, follow his story and check some of the monsters in the sewers

Bugs: Still some bugs. When I pissed off the cast members in the pub (and killed them) I couldn't use the stairs up anymore. Also, you don't seem to be able to pay the guy with the ladies. Also I didn't notice any difference after putting the faery back to work.

Overall, this game is very much worth the download, and even if you really hate mazes and caves, this one is different. Multiple endings, many items, fun sidequests and a good story. It's a classic! Download now! Stop reading and click that dang button!! Still reading? I'll stop writing then, but DOWNLOAD IT!!

-- 9.5

This game I liked a lot! Unlike my first review...anyways, the story was easy to follow which made this game very enjoyable.

Time to review. first off is the story. The story was very good and simple to understand. Dink was tricked into coming to the hall of heroes but is instead thrown in jail by the pissed-off Cast. I did'nt really find any plot holes which made this game very good. Though this game had a very bad downside, and that is the ending. I played for hours on this game to find out it had two endings: First was the bad ending, which was really bad. The good ending explained nothing at all, so that really made the story a little crappy. But the story is still pretty good. It's just the endings that are bad.

Overall I give the story: 8/10.

Next is the graphics. Nothing to say at all here. No new graphics at all. Except maybe the bunnies...

Overall I give the graphics: 8/10.

Lastly I review the sound if you read my first review. The sound was original, like any other d-mod, but had a lustful fealing to it. That would be the opening where everyone had voice acting, all except Dink. I would like to here would they would make Dink's voice sounds like, but I hardly care. There were a few other sounds I did not really recognize: The sound that plays when dink falls! LMAO!

Overall I give the sound: 9/10.

Being my second review, I still think this is the best d-mod ever made: 10/10

This is a truly great DMod, in fact, it's better then the original.
There is one glitch, and that is; in the room where the pictures come to life, the screen unlocks when they do instead of locking. If you then leave the room and come back, they're gone, making it impossible to get ending four.
The monsters in the training ground are brilliantly original, same for the big red screaming daemon thing, what ever it's called.

I'm holding my breath for the next one (or even a stand-along Dink-Dink-Revolution)

well this was realy a good dmod. I personaly think maybe the best yet but there were a little things that disapointed me but they are very minor. One of the disaponitments was the voice acting. becuse the voices were only in the intro i know it would have been hard to make voice acting for the whole entire game but if you had it for the intro and not the whole game then realy it would have been better if you didn't bother. but thanks for putting voice anyways.

there seem'd to be no glitches in the game well no glitches that i found but it was a very good edited and made dmod.

It definatly is a challenge it took me about 2 days to complete but having a challenge is good.

The story wasn't very appealing to me but i think you did try and it was pretty good and i liked the fact that you made alot of endings it realy brings some light i the game and they all are quite funny and none of them didn't make sense. The credits were also a cool addition i quite liked the little backround video and the fact that you can watch ending over again.

OVERALL this was a great challenging game and it is one of the greatest dmods made.

Download this dmod if it's the last thing you ever do. The author put a *ton* of work into it, and it shows, in everything from the bookshelves to the convoluted level design to the conversations with even the most minor of characters. Many of the weapons (rock-hard bread, anyone?) and monsters (I grew to *loathe* those exploding headless ducks by the time I achieved my first ending) were refreshingly original, and I nearly split my sides laughing at things like the conversation with Harold the Mad Scientist. There were one or two annoying bits (like getting lost in the sewers), but not enough to detract from it overly much. All in all, a great dmod with a metric buttload of replay value, especially when you factor in the four very different endings.

Summary: This is easily one of the best D-Mods ever! Everything is incredibly well-done and thought-through and there's lots of new things all added appropriately.

-Many new graphics
-Many new monsters some of which are very unique including exploding ducks
-New MIDI's and perfect selection by theme and place
-CHOCK full of suprises that will keep you looking and guessing
-Great story with branching paths that lead to many different endings each with its own enjoyable consequence
-Picks up where the original Dink left off without breaking the order of things as they were in the original
-Voices for characters in the introduction done by none other than the Dinker's themselves!
-Numerous references for those affiliated with The Dink Network

I loved it and you should too.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller

Why am I writing this everytime I write a review?

Map. Not much to tell- but it's not boring at all. First cave where I haven't gotten lost.

Graphics. New tiles. Much new tiles. Red, blue, green and black caves. Somehow it adds its own feeling that everytime I see a red cave I am immidiately thinking about Initation.

Sound. There were actually voice actors. No kidding. Voice actors. However, Dink didn't have any - But then I peeked into the sound/midi files, and I found one for Dink too. I understood why doesn't Dink "speak".

Music. There are good ones among the new ones. There's not much I can tell about that anyway.

Story. Get out of the prison. And stop the Cast. Pretty much it.

Gameplay. You might get stuck. I don't wonder if you do. I got terribly stuck in the start but now I am stuck worse. Oooh well - it's not really so much difficult. Really well put difficulty. It's not hard nor too easy. I like it! But just imagine fighting blobs that just divide and divide as you kill them. Boring for me. But easy.

Humour. I like it!

Overall. A D-Mod that you want to play. For sure. There are four endings. Just to tell you. Quit reading this review, download it already.

Wow, this is a pretty good DMOD.

Gameplay: 10 - Monsters are not too hard, you don't get stuck that often, and when you do its not for long

Graphics: 9 - Interesting tilescreens, blob monsters done well

Midi's: Didn't work on my computer until the end can'y really rate them

Monsters: 10 - Loads of different types, pillbugs, boncas, cast members, exploding ducks, blue blobs, green blobs, purple blobs and more blobs, a tree and most people can be killed as well

Story: 8 - The flaw. Dink is tricked into going into a cast base where he escape from prison (level six) and must make it to the top (level one) yipee really exciting

Start: 10 - was not boring to get into

Language: 9 - had an option that if you didn't want to spew bananas you could turn the sexual stuff off, yet still had the occasional swear word

Ending: 10 - There was not only one, but four. I enjoyed the first one the best though

Humour: 9 - Pretty good

Overall -

Now, this was almost the best D-Mod ever. I loved the new graphics and the puzzles were so fun. I got all the endings, in numerical order too...1,2,3,4...Extremely good graphics, a bunch of new monsters, like the exploding duck and the multiplying blobs.

Basic Story: The Cast have lured dink into their HQ, so they can kill him for killing Seth. Dink is told that it's the "Hall of Heroes Society. Dink is thrown into the prisons, and after the guards that take him to be executioned get killed by an "avelanche," Dink has to find a way to escape. It's up to you to help him.

Many good cutscenes as well. Voices done by fellow Dinkers in the begining of the D-Mod, the opening cutscene...Many new weapons such as the rancid meat (makes you fart...lol,) the sabretrout, the rock hard bread, firesword, etc.

Storyline---10.5
Plot---10.0
Graphics---15.0+
MIDIs---10.0 (i noticed a MIDI that was Coldplay, Speed of Sound I think)
New Weapons---15.0+
Lasting Appeal---10.0
Overall---9.9

One of the best D-Mods ever and fun for 4+hours. Recomended to: Everyone!

the cast awakening part one was a good game that was very well done and that making the game just a whole lot more enjoyable to play

New Graphics:
there were alot of new graphics in this mod all really well animated new monsters that keep multiplying was a new and inseresting way to extend the game play

New Items:
there were some mew items for dink to use witch is always an up for the game not having to use the same old stuff over and over

Game Play:
the game play in this mod was some of the best i have expirienced in all of the dink mods i've played mutiplying monsters puzzles password doors riddles and sutch added another edge to the way you think about playing the game

Music:
good music and the whole most of it suited the situation

Over All:
a really well make and well played mod that is worth replaying witch really adds more to the game than most others have

Weee.I loved this game so much.I got a bad ending the first time around and
a good ending the next.YAY.I didn't much like the blob enemies at first but after I got tougher it was much funner.I loved all the sneaky little surprises,the gathering of keys,the slot games,the cathedral where things were not as they seem.The music was fun and bouncy.I didn't really like the sewer enemy creature,he was way too tough.And I can't stand kamikaze,headless ducks!I got snagged on the edge of a screen in the cathedral area and had to shut down.I also got shut down a couple times in the mining area.Luckily there were lots of saves,so it hardly mattered.And even though I pretty much killed everyone I was still able to finish the game.There was also a lot of funny little jabs at dink network members and I enjoyed that quite a bit.Overall,I thoroughly had a blast playing this game.Can't wait till part 2.

Cast Awakening Part 1: Initiation by redink1

Pros: An excellent dmod, not only does it have *actual voices* at the beginning, and if you like scourging around in caves (sorry, I kept getting claustrophobic), but also many clues and mazes and knights and Death (edging you on), assorted monsters to be fought, sometimes difficult barriers to get past. Did I mention you could go in circles for hours, in this labyrinth of underground caverns? Lots of save bots (thank goodness) and lots of people(??) to talk to along the way (most of which I killed after I found out what I needed, boy Death liked me)

Cons: There were a few hardness errors, and at one point I was actually walking ontop of the caves, but that is a long story and tg I had saved it first. It seems I had to fight forever, to save up enough money to get the weapons I needed…was that on Level 3?? OK, I got lost in the levels and kept backtracking and falling down holes and opening secrets, I think the author went a little crazy on some of his mystery’s guess that is not really a con, but for me was quite confusing. It was “let me out of here”. Though I did finish the game, not really it seems as I got the wrong ending,(found out there was 3 endings) and there is no peace in the dink world.

Overall: If you like wandering about in caves, never to see the light of day, till the end, and enjoy a very complex and somewhat confusing dmod, this is the one for you. Myself, I shall never play it again; but like I said before an excellent and challenging dmod.

Dink is invited to join The Hall of Heroes society.
Pros: It was brilliant that you weren't restricted to killing the guards; you are encouraged by Death to. I liked the new axe graphics and dance floor, and especially the fact there is many levels with many different things on them. The riddles are fairly easy, which is a pro because I suck at them . It is quite a rewarding, satisfying game.
Cons: A bit short. I finished it off in two days. Also the fact that Tantrum (a giant rabbit boss) has so much HP; I had to hit him repeatedly without stopping for 3 minutes until he died, of course, I shouldn't be saying this because he IS a boss.