1 Response

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Taking on this corporate slime with a high-20s stone/stone brute, +0/x2 with bosses on

   —

   Well well well. Go to another dimension and stomp around as a miniature giant monster in order to get them to outsource their security? Sounds right up my alley.

   You want an incoherent screed about their various personal failings that prompted this rampage? Only those are extra.

   (Executive could do with a description, by the by.)

   Anyway, looks like these cops are a mix of stock PPD, RIP, and private security, which could do with a little renaming and rebackstorying now that that’s possible.

   Green Shield could use a little more bio than just her archetype.

   The boosted perception range on the rippers combined with the swat and ghost gadgets (specifically the glue grenade and long-duration -hit -def flash grenade) actually make these cops a decent handful.

   Maybe that’s just a special consequence of playing it at 30.

   —

   And now a little more murder and kidnapping. Should be fun.

   This building starts off pretty slowly. Two teeny little corridors before I get to anywhere where an actual objective might happen.

   In an interesting touch I use some of the world’s native Council gear that I… uh… happened to loot in the prior mission? I’m pretty sure that wasn’t suggested.

   Maybe it should be, since my contact seems to have a plan for mayhem.

   Wow. That’s a teeny little bomb. If there’s just one of it for this whole building it should probably be one of those big chemical drums.

   Seriously, all the glowies in this mission are kinda rinky-dink. It’s easy to lose sight of them behind potted plants and such.

   I find a supposed member of The Five, “Green Fingers”, who is a 5th Column wolfpack bossbot. …is this a dig at how there used to be 5th automatons everywhere? He makes plant jokes, but, uh, pretty clearly isn’t.

   I have to lead the secretary down five empty floors to the exit, save for a single ambush.

   I completed the objectives in about the order the clues appear, but planted the fake evidence first. I don’t know if it should be the first clue but it should definitely be up there with the bomb. Now that you can drag and drop objectives this is possible.

   —

   Ahaha, great. Now I’m sneaking a protector in to wreck the Council so Crey can run some guns to ‘em.

   I spring him (he’s a custom DMelee/DArmor) and then I patch in the cameras and run him up to the base commander to say hi. With his skull.

   The base commander’s clue should probably show up after the video feed one, though.

   Oddly, the commander doesn’t say anything as he goes down.

   —

   And now it’s time to snuff out the major superpowers entirely.

   Oh. The Black is some kind of supertech heroine. Not what I expected. Tech implies being capable of mass production, but I guess this last prototype will have to do.

   …sadly, as the Council fights spawn bosses and a few of them range near her, I only get to watch her fight, not experience it myself.

   …um. I’m seeing some superelite Citadel model mech men here. Elite bosses. Were they part of the random spawn somehow?

   Red Flame is a space alien… looks like fire/ice blaster. Unfortunately she too gets unceremoniously taken out by a warwolf before I can really make contact.

   Wow. These lieutenant protectors have aim, short circuit, and electric manipulation. Pretty much a quick ticket to the bottom of the blue bar.

   I swear, these PPD Ghost flashbangs are broken. -40% tohit and defense?

   Having some real trouble finding where Doc Silver may be. Can’t exactly pick him out from a crowd.

   Finally I see him back near the entrance, and this time I actually get the chance to fight him before the Council do. He’s a robotics mastermind who spends most of the fight horizontal so I don’t get much idea of his auxiliary power. He does actually seem to understand what’s going on here, but too little, too late.

   And there goes Crey, funding each side of a war against the other. Godspeed, you crazy plutocrats.

   —

   Storyline - ****. I’m a little torn on this. On the one hand it’s a pretty systematic invasion and demolition of a bunch of chumps to set up a slow and fraudulent drain of their money and plunge their world into chaos, which is pretty well-done.

   On the other hand, well, timelines. While it’s not a hard-and-fast rule what level band links up with what plot point, or who runs in sync with who and when, there’s definitely a sense that time passes as your level rises. And in this range heroside, Crey are still getting the hang of mass-cloning Paragon Protectors, so it’s not like they can just press a button and send a whole bunch of them with novel powersets to another dimension.

   I mean, if they want to use Tau Phi 7-1 as a testing ground for some new prototypes, that’s great. If this was Sigma Psi 20-7 that’d be even better. (If they’re just going to use stock protectors for a little bit and later on clone the remains of the Five as Protectors in a “symbolic gesture” and this was Sigma Psi 20-7 that’d just be icing on the cake.)

   The issue of where the Protectors came from isn’t that much of a worry. I mean, making Protectors is what Crey does. But their operation isn’t sophisticated enough that they can just pump clones with arbitrary powersets into an alternate dimension. Well, unless you say otherwise. But you have to say otherwise.

   Design - **. The last mission, though it’s pretty good for atmosphere, is pretty terrible for payoff, both because the battles, while certainly atmosopheric and fitting, are pitched in the Council’s favor and the winners can take out one of the remaining The Five all on their own, and because somehow the Council have an elite Citadel-copy mech on their team. Did you toss that into the random spawner or is it some kind of purpose-placed spawn?

   Also the PPD don’t mesh well with this being a low-tech low-power word. The equalizers and ghosts can lay down some pretty crippling debuffs, and when you get higher than them you get guys in powered armor firing off plasma bolts. The ordinary SWAT troopers fit the amalgam police, but they don’t have much of a presence in the operational level range.

   Speaking of the operational level range, you should probably make all the missions share a common range, ideally 30-35 since that’s what the last mission is locked into.

   Oh, and I’m pretty sure Green Fingers shouldn’t be a Wolfpack bot.

   Gameplay - **. This arc has kind of an inverse difficulty progression. The big open first mission with lots of cops running Tactics in fairly close proximity to one another is a constant threat to run out of control. The second mission is a normal run against the amalgamated police forces. The third mission is a short council map with a boss ally for most of it. The fourth mission… well, it’s a wild card. It can pretty much complete itself under the right circumstances, but straight-up some of the Protector choices, especially the elec/elec with aim, can make things a real trial.

   Also there’s the bit about escorting a hostage over five floors of empty office. That’s not very exciting. And the bit in the last mission, roaming through an overworld filled with dozens of bosses to find the arbitrary spot where three specific boss groups with no distinguishing animations have shown up? That’s not so hot either, if you don’t get lucky and have the battles pop the dialogue out.

   Detail - ****. Now that you can put custom names and descriptions on stock characters, you should look into that, so the police and perhaps Council of Tau Phi 7-1 have their own, more fitting, names and descriptions.

   And since The Five are basically one-and-done in their appearances, they could use a little more in the way of backstory. Crey’s got intel on these guys, right?

   Overall - ***. It’s a good plot idea. Very fitting of an amoral plutocracy. But the mechanical execution in terms of enemy, map, and objective choices is lacking.

   Posted on January 21st, 2011 at 12:48 pm