1 Response

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a level 50 spine/regen scrapper, all bosses no AVs 2 heroes at +0.

   —

   Okay, it generally helps to offer up a statement of the mission objective in the mission briefing.

   Carnies… and the Circle. Uh, okay. Let’s see what this is, then.

   The cops have already collared one boss when I step in. Good for them.

   Oh gawww. No! Bad! Arch-Mages are like bosses with 75% resistances to everything! DO NOT USE IN REGULAR SPAWNS UNLESS YOU LIKE INFLICTING PAIN ON PLAYERS.

   And then I find the boss. I was expecting a joke on how you occasionally get Strongmen voicing Carnie lines, but nope, boss level War Mace/Waste Your Time, er, Regen with Instant Healing.

   Apparently he’s decided to take off his helmet and make a name for himself, which is kind of odd since as far as I knew the Strongmen were just psychically dominated meatwalls.

   He’s about halfway up the building. The ascent continues!

   Hmm. A cloud of steamy mist with no obvious source. Ah! Hello, ally.

   So somehow, I know Shanghai is hanging out here? …alright.

   Ah. There she is. After I run downstairs, to the entrance, and back up, she was in the boss room all along.

   Okay. Her body hop is a sort of free-roaming thing that doesn’t need physical contact? It would have been nice of you to say something about that, Lumi.

   —

   Carnies raiding the Library? I can buy what they’d be doing there, but it honestly strikes me as a bit off. Generally they prefer to put on a show and siphon off some exuberance. If they’re going to kill someone then they take the whole thing so it doesn’t go to waste, but absent any particular malice on the Circle’s part I can’t see them wanting the Library.

   Both the Circle and the Carnies operate under their own twisted territorial moralities. I guess the Library might be particularly tempting even if they’re not planning to consume it, just use it as a large “captive audience”.

   Two important notes: first, allies or captives with auras will run them and damage their captors. They may even kill them before the hero actually shows up.

   Second, not only can battles start when heroes aren’t there, it’s exceedingly rare for them to start when heroes ARE there.

   I get an electric blast ally but it doesn’t seem to be necessary, this is just a normal Carnie boss. She even pops her Mask of Vitiation trying to handle one of the battle groups that gets out of hand. (Air Thorns fly EVERYWHERE.)

   Seems an awful waste of a big outdoor map just to put one boss fight in it.

   —

   And, alright, there’s a massive prison break in progress by some factions who want to get the villain to work for them, so I go in to smack all of them upside the head. Works for me.

   Huh. Looks like a whole bunch of other villain groups have decided to show up. After the same guy?

   Judging by his description it would seem so.

   Also when I pop Ohmboy free I get some cop reinforcements who are allies. Not sure what to make of that.

   Also Shanghai shows up immediately after I spring Junk, when she should probably be around after I drop him off if the PPD allies who show up then are supposed to be an indication. Pretty sure that “rescue” is the tag for the spring and the objective is for the delivery.

   Lumi says I’m “right to be suspicious of Ohmboy”. Did I… have a reason for that? Given all the other possibilities crawling around that prison compound i’m not sure I’d make the leap automatically.

   —

   The Circle would apparently steal and use a piece of tech to keep Shanghai out of their library. Doesn’t seem their style.

   But they’re here busting things up.

   Shanghai in her new body is here, as is Acupuncher.

   …okay, I actually expected a puncher out of that name, but whatever.

   I find Dr. Aldritch, who tells me he’s finished the prototype and runs off… with no clue of where it is. Perhaps this “Ophelia” in the navbar knows where to find it.

   Apparently she’s a Carnie Ring Mistress. She doesn’t say anything, and drops down off the top rope while I’m fighting some Circle.

   When I take down the last jugglers in her spawn, the mission completes. Somehow. No clue, no system text, no nothing.

   Oh! Okay, the mission was just to spring the doc. …so why didn’t it complete until I took out the Carnie?

   —

   And now it’s time for the denouement. That’s French for “when the villain gets it”. …on a cargo ship. Um, yay?

   The ship is full of Freakshow. Why is the ship full of Freakshow?

   Anyway, I pick up the various swapped-around people on my way to the back, take out Junk (MA/Robotics), and then drop Shanghai, who’s inside Acupuncher, a Spine/Waste Your Time, er, Regen with access to Instant Healing.

   And, jammed in that body and focus-fired by four ally bosses, she doesn’t have much chance. Once Instant Healing drops, anyway.

   And that’s all. Not even a souvenir for my troubles.

   —

   Storyline - ***. Couple problems. I don’t really buy the reasons given, but I can buy the Carnies and the Circle coming to blows, especially if the Circle are doing something in one of the Carnies’ adopted neighborhoods. In fact, that can be part of the investigation in the first mission - the Circle grabbed a few people the Carnies considered themselves as protecting, then the Carnies jacked some Circle mages, and back and forth et cetera. Also, why does Shanghai keep jumping between heroes? A keen desire for irony? Seems like it’d be better to jump into some innocent civilian and then slip under the radar, at least with a manhunt on. (Also I was kinda expecting Shanghai to brain-jump in at least one of the missions, with that ally betrayal code that’s so popular these days.)

   Design - ***. Some issues with timing and completion - a boss fight as the only required objective on an outdoor map (if the ally was required, he freed himself), the early appearance of Shanghai at the prison break, the seemingly superfluous Carnie boss in mission 4. Also, the last map is full of Freakshow. I don’t know why. Did they all just decide to hop a lift to the Rogue Isles? Does Junk have a large following of Freakshow fanboys?

   Gameplay - ****. No real annoyances, aside from the Arch-Mages and the self-imposed backtracking in the first mission. But the final mission was a bit of a letdown. Four bosses vs. an EB is more than an even match just on the face of it. I appreciate seeing them again for the comedy one-liners, but if you have space maybe you can rank ‘em down a bit to represent the lack of expertise in controlling another hero’s powers? (Shanghai doesn’t operate under this limitation, obviously.)

   Detail - ***. I don’t think I get any clues after mission 2. Especially since I was supposed to be drawing conclusions about stuff, like Ohmboy or Dr. Aldritch’s device, that didn’t get a chance to really shine in the limited space available in the NPC dialog window. Ophelia in mission 4 is a complete enigma, with no dialogue, system text on defeat, or clue text on death.

   Overall - ***. Needs a better Carnie/Circle backing story and a little more consideration given to objective timing. And some more clues never hurt anybody.

   Posted on November 24th, 2009 at 7:17 pm