REGALIS, PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE THING. I BELIEVE YOU MAY FIND IT EXTREMELY USEFUL!

HELLO FRIENDS.
As you all know, version 1.0 has been released and we have all came our pants over it, multiple times over.
So I'm just gonna write a little review on it, so that Regalis could learn what people are thinking about this game and possibly make it better in the future! Goody!
Anyways, I'm gonna split this up into different sections going over different parts of the game, like mechanics, gameplay, graphics, etc.

#1 : PERFORMANCE
SCP: CB is a very good looking game, considering the engine that it was built on is Blitz3D, which is about ten years old.
Being very old, its easy to realize that its not going to run very well even with new hardware and such, due to major compatibility flaws. However, I did not expect for the performance to be as choppy as they are within this version. Especially since this is VERSION 1.0. Milestones in development like this should contain mostly performance fixes and enhancements, but about 90% of people here are saying that their frames were lower than ever. Mine were mostly dropping below 25, even with bump maps disabled. The reason they were disabled was simply because a MAV was impossible to avoid when they were enabled, and even then they don't work well with my graphics card, which is a GeForce 630M. A pretty good graphics card for a laptop, if I do say so myself.
MAV's were also very common, appearing mostly if I entered an elevator, or entered SCP-860.
Lag seemed to be only an issue when dealing with NPC's, which is probably the problem in the first place. AI is a very tricky thing to work with, so I understand that with all of these new additions, lag may be unavoidable at first.
However, I do hope that this issue is fixed quickly. I would hate for this release to have so much hype, just to be crushed. I doubt that will happen, however.

#2: GAMEPLAY
As usual, gameplay was pretty much the same. Avoiding 173 is still very tedious and frightening. However, I've noticed that it becomes a lot less frightening when in more well lit environments. I can tell this because before I played the game, I went back to version 0.1 to see how far its come. The game was very dark, and 173 was extremely horrifying to encounter simply because it was hard to see where it was, and what it was going to do.
And to be frank, its not that the brightness has been increased, but its that the environment itself (textures of walls and floors) now contrast more with the sculpture itself, making it more visible and less frightening. So what I would recommend is an update to textures, making them look darker in general. (Maybe dark grey smooth metal panels, kinda like Portal 2)
Another culprit of this is the texture of 173 itself. Nowadays it looks very bright and shiny, while before it was more dark and gritty, like actual concrete. Bump maps don't help either, because they just make it look even more shiny.
The final reason that I believe 173 has lost it's touch is the actual layout of the facility. There are far more large open spaces than before, like the four way hallways, that make the game pretty boring since all you do is wander around looking for a keycard for another door.
Back in 0.1, the game mostly consisted of cramped corridors or gas rooms which were dark and gritty, making the place already have an eerie look to it. But not like a practical state-of-the-art facility, which is why it was changed. However, this major change made it completely possible for you to just walk around 173 in a vast open space, while back in 0.1, if 173 was blocking a hallway, IT WAS BLOCKING THE FUCKING HALLWAY (if you see what I mean).
In a sense, it made it super easy to just avoid the sculpture. So now it doesn't seem like your main enemy, but that shitty little sidekick that tries to come in and piss you off.
So what I'm saying is, make the hallways more cramped and complex to navigate through, so that 173 is actually something you have to get close to, and one blink can either mean life or death, not it getting two feet closer.
In general, these changes should put the horror back into the sculpture.

NOW FOR SCP-106!
106 is still pretty damn horrid. Scares me shitless. But its hard to take him seriously when his animations make it look like he's constipated. He doesn't actually seem like something to fear, more like just a bit creepy.
In 0.1, 106 was faster paced. His animation made him look like he was running at you, determined to remove your existence from this earth. Now it looks like he couldn't care less. Casually strolling at you with his little potty-dance walk. I laughed at him more than I was actually scared, to be honest. In short, he truly just needs to be faster than the player, and have more animations to make him look like an actual predator thats hungry.
"But Jackson, if he's faster, then he'll always catch the player!!!11" Remember how he can walk through walls? A simple animation that makes him corrode through doors -leaving a gaping hole in them so that the player can pass through after he gives up chase- can fix this. The door slows down 106 for a matter of seconds, but also makes the door useless to the player when avoiding SCP-173! Two birds with one stone!
In general, all of that should make 106 just as terrifying.

STEALTH TACTICS AND MTF UNITS
When avoiding MTF Units or SCP-939, stealth is very handy. However, there aren't many places to use it unless its pre-planned. In hallways, if you encounter an MTF Unit, in basic sense, you are royally fucked. Theres nothing to hide with unless you run, and they will still chase you down and insta-kill you with their magical aimbot P90s. In an office room, its easy to hide. But a random hallway? Nope.
I simply think that hallways should have more rooms branching off of them that you can slip into. Since this is the foundation, laboratories should be pretty common. Or staff rooms. Dorms. There are endless possibilities. All of these rooms can be a stealth puzzle in itself, and contain vital information and/or supplies. Either way, they would be useful for the gameplay and the player. (Note: MTF AI seems to be a major cause of lag issues as it has been before)

SCP-939 was also a recent addition in this version. And it was terrifying. I felt almost like I was playing amnesia. However, it lost it's touch once you see the animations for the monsters, and what they look like in general.
Truly, they just aren't that scary looking. And the environment is made up of metal boxes. I think that this needs to be expanded upon in order to seem genuinely like they're out to kill. There should be a blood stain or two, signs of struggle and an overall feeling that shit just went down. If these things eat people, and just did, there should be a very obvious sign that these things are not to be messed with.
So yeah, thats my thoughts on those things. I did find it to be a very nice addition however, so well done. (Note: SCP 939's AI also seems to cause lag issues, so heads up on that)

MUSIC: Extremely well done in this version. Seems a lot more scary and tense. I especially love the part right after the intro, while the containment breach is breaking out full-force. Bone chilling. Fantastic!

GRAPHICS: Like I said up in the performance section, the graphics are pretty nice. However, this time by graphics I mean models and animations.
Animations for characters and such can be a HUGE part of a game when attempting to display emotion, character, and just as well horror. The animations in SCP CB, at least right now, are either stock, or very poorly made temporary ones. Which has a drastic effect on the game when it comes to the MTF's and SCP 106. Even SCP 939 has this problem. The animations are stiff and not organic at all. And I do understand that people have been working night and day to produce this, and you've all been doing a damn good job at it too, but this is a serious issue when it comes to making people scared. When you have MTF's walking like they have an anvil shoved in their pants, its hard to have much immersion. Same with 106. He doesn't seem scary as he slowly strolls towards you like some sort of toy robot. SCP 939 also needs work on the animations as well. If a professional animator happened to join the development team, that person could work wonders. People would play the game and be scared shitless. I'm emphasising on this simply because most of the game already looks fine. Most of the models and textures for NPC's are polished and good-looking. But you can't put a good costume on a person and have them stand there doing nothing, and expect people to believe that it's an actual person doing what that person would have done. They need to act, and thats how they immerse people.

If these ideas are considered and/or implemented, I believe that they will make the game a lot more scary and believable.
I would like to see what you guys think about this, and conversation is encouraged. Most importantly, I hope that Regalis and other devs take this into mind.
Thanks for the wonderful game. So heres my two cents.
-MagicJackz

I was thinking along the same lines with SCP-106, he doesn't really look or act intimidating and that should be improved. There's plenty of ways I think this can be done:

- Give the impression that isn't chasing you, instead he is taunting you to deliver a slow and frightening death. It seems like he doesn't use many of the capabilities at his disposal to catch you, which is odd considering his sadistic nature and incredible efficiency at catching prey. Rather than making him mindlessly walk in a straight line towards the player, how about make him reappear in front, next to, above, or below when you run too far from him. Make him leap out of the walls, reach out of the ground to trip you over, jump scare you behind doors and many other attempts to push you around until he finally moves in for the kill.

- A more aggressive, brutal attack/grab animation that the player is forced to watch. It's worth showing off his brutality to the player so we are even more terrified of being caught in the first place. The abduction could involve being grabbed by the lower leg and having a piece of your shin-bone torn out only to be pulled into a black hole in the floor, and when he kills you it could be as simple as him digging into your chest and pulling your heart out Kali Ma style.

- A constant, God-like presence in the Pocket Dimension. SCP-106 really doesn't appear enough in the PD, I mean it's HIS dimension for Christ's sake. You should be always reminded that your time in his dimension is running out and 106 has not lost sight of you. Perhaps make him defy gravity and stand on a wall in a crouched position right above a doorway you're about to go through, like a gargoyle statue. Have him sitting down or hanging from the ceiling in the large multiple corridor room over-watching your slow progress through the PD. Perhaps even make him disorientate the player by forcing you through short scripted events such as: being dragged and thrown into an abyss to end up somewhere else, pushing you the player over and laughing, making a piece of the ground fall beneath threatening to drop the player, or being stuck in a cage momentarily to be monitored by 106.

I feel as if the player could be improved, as it looks like he just collasped and fell asleep. There needs to be more varied animations based on the death the player gets.

- If the player dies from gunfire, the MTF will keep on shooting while the player is still standing, making your view to jerk up everytime a bullet pierces through your already mangled body. The ground meets your face.
- If the character dies of blood loss or disease, the player's view will sway around as if drowsy, then he will fall down to his knees, then crumple forwards or backwards in a heap. Can also apply to the 895 death.
- If the character dies of dangerous substances produced by the coffee machine, such as bleach, the player's view would jerk around as if writhing in pain, tries crouching over to lessen the pain in the stomach, and then collaspe as strange sounds come out of your mouth.
- If the character is caught by 106, the player will initiate a struggle while still incapicitated on the ground (and to make it more immersive have the player try to fight and crawl away from 106 by moving forward) and is then pulled through the floor.
- If the player is killed by 106, there will be the sickening burning sound of his goo on you, the player writhing in pain as it comes forwards to finish you off in his own way as a parting gift.
- If the player is killed by 173, the death should be pretty obvious. The view will swing around for the lack of neck.
- The blur out time after the player is killed should be delayed after like 2 seconds as I expect most of these animations to have the player's head facing side ways or upwards, rarely does the player's head is facing the ground.
- There wil be more, but I cannot process more ideas now. Need brain food.

The death screen is pretty bland, and I was thinking something close to the deaths in the Journeyman Project death screens, serious the first time you died, and gets wittier if you died the same way again.:

Very good points here. I agree especially with your thoughts on the animations - I think they could do with a LOT of improvement, probably more than any other aspect of the game.

Here something Regalis said in another thread, (http://scpcbgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3981), that addresses the Framerate Drop:

Regalis wrote: Just found a severe bug in the UpdateRooms-function, specifically the part where the distance to rooms is calculated. It didn't assign the distance to the distance-field of the rooms if the player was further away from the room than the hide distance (dist = x instead of r\dist = x), which made it appear as if the player was 0 units away from those rooms. This caused at least the radio- and navigator bugs because the game though the player is constantly inside 895's room, and the frequent 079 sounds because it appeared as if the player was in all the rooms with a security camera monitor in them. I'm sure it also caused other bugs as well, and it was one of the causes of the framerate issues, because the game was constantly doing visibility checks with the monitors even if the player was at the other side of the map.

You'd be surprised how hard it is to animate humanoids properly without the use of motion capture.

This is how bland I think the death animations are for the player. It's like a cardboard cutout falling down. And some extras I made for other specific deaths.

Spiffycat wrote:This is how bland I think the death animations are for the player. It's like a cardboard cutout falling down.

Spoiler

I can just image D-9341 getting hit by a stone in the PD and falling into the abyss like a statue.

dude yes it would be awesome to just jump over the railing when you die from 895 instead of the overused hur hur cardiac arrest things.

Animating humans are trickier (we as humans notice our unnatural movements quicker and our brain react to it), and I think the rigs in these characters are a bit restricted. For example, they don't footplant.

Spiffycat wrote:This is how bland I think the death animations are for the player. It's like a cardboard cutout falling down.

Spoiler

They're tidy, nicely folded up corpses.