2 Responses

1. DKellis Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   Throughout the arc, the question which was upper-most in my mind was: “Why should I care?”

   There’s no investment into the story for the player. Caroline Chan is much too dismissive, which should probably be looked at: the player should not feel that he is doing the missions on sufferance. There’s no real personality or development to the necromancer, and the missions don’t seem to have much of a theme to link together.

   And Jarst is an enigma. Who is he? If he’s so great, why haven’t I heard of him before? What’s his personality like? His motivations? His reasons for being there?

   Which all boils down to “Why should I care?” As a player, I have no idea who Jarst or Nigel Graves or Caroline Chan are, and it has to be the arc’s job to make me care.

   Posted on April 28th, 2009 at 2:42 pm

2. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a low 40s DB/Fire brute, on diff 2, so bosses is bosses. Mission Engineer ain’t gonna earn itself, after all.

   —

   “Shady” characters, not “shaddy”.

   It’s rather tough for a hero to get over to Mercy Island in the first place, given the rather dim view Arachnos takes of trespassers.

   And… 5th? What? Why? If he’s looking for mercenaries the Council would probably do just as well and also not canonically be in deep cover hiding.

   Uh, you don’t get to tell me I’m shuddering, clue. It’s fine to just say “he must have been some kind of simulacrum. What’s the real thing like?”

   —

   Okay, she’s got a fangirl crush on some kind of professional magician. I’m sure he won’t turn out to ironically be the mastermind here.

   Huh, he’s actually in the mission. Reading a newspaper in the middle of a crowd. Okay, guy. Apparently I need to get you out of here alive (why, exactly?) so out you go so I don’t get failed because an ambush spawns.

   …and you’re following me around anyway. Uh, okay, I guess? Fire/mental is a bit of overkill but I ain’t complaining.

   When you complete any single objective that has multiples, the clue and system text for completion will show up. So they shouldn’t imply that you’re done.

   Sure, plucky girl reporter. Your crush isn’t a zombie. Don’t let me stop you from drooling on your signed photos, there. Never mind that apparently this stuff doesn’t work on the living.

   —

   …uh. Okay, the mission’s called “diversion”, and it’s assumed that the key I picked up is for one of the many branches of the 22nd National that’s being robbed.

   Somehow I don’t think I’m going to find anything useful here, but oh well.

   And all I get is a newspaper about a crackdown on villain groups in Europe and a little lecture about how beating the boss all but assures the next step in the plan will work.

   Whatever, guy. I didn’t really see too many alternatives to swording you into a fine red paste.

   Can the contact at least acknowledge that the guy who’s being held hostage is the same guy in the paper?

   —

   You know, if the police band is going nuts about the ambassador’s kidnapping, maybe they’re also going nuts about the zombies?

   It wouldn’t hurt for that clue from Jarst to be an actual explanation from him of what’s going on.

   Hmm. Looks like you got some stuff scrambled in the battle dialogue. PPD/Undead saying some PPD stuff, and then PPD/undead both doing zombie moans.

   Bombs should be defused. If they diffuse, it’s rather bad.

   All the bombs seem to be clumped up together at the end. Is that deliberate?

   Hmm. Ambushes can contain the Gateway lieutenants, who are definitely not zombies. Not sure what to tell you about dialogue in that case, though.

   …what do you mean this was a hollow victory, exit text? Losing one guy and saving several city blocks from being zombie slaves sounds like a pretty good deal in the end.

   —

   Storyline - ***. I don’t much like being told how I react to things. Aside from that, the justifications for hitting the warehouse and then the bank seem a bit weak. Maybe in the pile of simulacrum dust Graves leaves behind there’s a more tangible link to the warehouse - same with the key and the specific branch of the bank.

   Design - **: Having the 5th Column say that they’re just placeholders doesn’t excuse them just being placeholders. Aside from that the map choices and custom enemy designs are pretty reasonable, though Gateway could stand with a little more than one minion and one lieutenant. I have no idea why you escort the magician to the entrance in the second mission if he’s just going to follow you around anyway, though.

   Gameplay - ****. It runs smooth, aside from that meaningless escort bit.

   Detail - *. A lot of problems here. Objectives and interaction text that don’t start with capital letters, typos and word confusions, the souvenir giving the contact’s name a couple of different spellings… it really, really needs another pass.

   Overall - **. The idea’s alright, the customs are reasonable, but the missions need more of a link between them, and the text really needs a pass to correct errors.

   Posted on June 2nd, 2009 at 10:29 pm