3 Responses

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running on a low-40s DB/Fire brute (hereafter lovingly called “Easy Mode”) on diff 2. Mission Engineer continues to elude me.

   —

   Have you ever realized that some destructible objects have their targeting center off from their model’s center? You will, when you see this contact.

   Nice choice though.

   Okay! Apparently this thing is fueled by powerful psychoactives. Let’s go fight all the boys from the waiting room at Ding-Dang!

   Nah, just a normal burning place with normal burning people. Wait, strike that last one.

   Here’s the hilarious thing - the patrols are rogue faction which means they can target and destroy anything, including the destructible objects. They put out their own fire for me and the mission completes.

   (maybe just make them enemy and have the council wonder why they can’t touch them or something?)

   Questions tend to end in question marks, return text.

   —

   Hmm. Okay. So this is like the Knives of Artemis but instead of killing people it’s burning everything.

   Yes, probably totally wrong, WORKING ASSUMPTION BACK OFF.

   The bosses have notable toggle powers and the captives notable rescue animations so fortunately I can just poing around and find everybody.

   Hmm, so the cult leader is pulling a Heaven’s Gate on everybody. Alright.

   Unfortunately I spring the fightin’ captive last. Fortunately it doesn’t much matter.

   —

   And now for the denouement. That’s French for “when the villain gets it”. Except not really. The little thread of a good thing gone wrong that came out in the last mission pops up in this one with a vengeance.

   Original Hunch was actually burned, I seem to remember. Perhaps I was wrong about this. Nice book anyway.

   But after the fighting’s over the little coda at the end is rather disappointing. It wraps up the identify of the contact in a neat little package and that’s the end of everything.

   —

   Storyline - ***. The first mission doesn’t seem to have much connection with the second and third. It functions as an introduction to the group, loosely, but there’s no actual link via clues or otherwise. The third mission feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. If the end boss’s “good side” has been helping you out all this time, why not have them show up? Not even as an ally, maybe just as a single-spawn escort-to-entrance that spawns after the end boss goes down.

   Design - ****. Again, the first mission has a chance of finishing all on its own if I enter it and then go make a sandwich. That needs to be addressed. The customs are different both in their costuming and in the various auras they put on, which is always a help.

   Gameplay - *****. I should technically be abstaining from this since I think I was aware perhaps twice that the enemies were actually trying to damage me (how quaint), and that was with Aim and/or Build Up going off. But as it was, everything went off without a hitch.

   Detail - ***. The contact is deliberately written to be wordless, communicating only in pantomime. But the problem with this is that any hints as to its nature don’t mean anything until the end. The earlier missions’ contact pantomime makes sense once I know the end boss’s life story. But I don’t know it ahead of time. To put some words into it, why not have some scraps of newspaper dance up into the flames, display prominent headlines, and then burn away?

   Overall - ****. Most of this is due to the, I suppose you could say, experimental nature of the contact and the impact it has on the storyline. Everything makes retroactive sense at the end, but I’m wandering in the dark before then.

   Posted on June 3rd, 2009 at 6:46 pm

2. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Rereview! High 40s spine/regen scrapper since last time it was way too easy. Still diff 2 though.

   I’ll do this like I did the last rereview: comments on things in missions that may or may not have changed.

   —

   M1: Ah, new contact. Still pretty much the same “dialogue” here, though. I know exactly what it’s supposed to represent now, but if it’s supposed to mean anything to someone playing this arc for the first time, I still think going with burning snatches of newspaper headline is the way to roll.

   M1: The water mains spray for a good long time after they’re destroyed. I don’t really need the system text, it’s a bit redundant. But I like how you restructured the first mission so it doesn’t accidentally complete on its own, anymore.

   M1: If I’m supposed to have caught a glimpse of one of the Sisters of Flame here, that seems like a good candidate for an exit clue.

   M2: Bad news: diff 2 means bosses EVERYWHERE. Good news: that’s a really nice smoke effect on their heads given the fire armor.

   M2: Considering a solo hero can find bosses everywhere, a little custom description on the important ones would be a big help.

   M2: One of the hostages is called “Pecular”. “Peculiar”, right? If she’s supposed to be the same person from mission to mission why not give her the same name?

   M2: In contrast to the quiet girl’s system text she’s following me around and wrecking things.

   M3: When I drop the lit matchstick near the front I get system text “No! The cleansing must go on as planned!” Sounds like dialog that got misdirected.

   M3: Are both of the glowies supposed to be in the very first room, too?

   M3: You know, I never noticed that obnoxious patterned fabric on the burning couch before.

   M3: I think the boss defeat clue should come after the two glowie clues, given that she’s guaranteed to be at the end. Clues come in the same order as the objectives are positioned, IIRC.

   —

   Storyline - ***. Not much has changed here, fundamentally. The story’s still told largely in pantomime but without the context the pantomime’s just a bunch of pretty pictures. I’ll reiterate the idea of newspaper clippings/evil journals/childhood crayon drawings burning up in the fire as a means of providing something a bit more substantive.

   Design - *****. Call this “6 - 1″. One off for stock descriptions of the special bosses on that outdoor map when actual bosses are a real possibility, but the 6 for the smoke effect on the bosses after they “burn out”. That was really nice and felt completely natural.

   Gameplay - *****. Nothing to complain about here, though do be warned that objectives have a way of falling down that one drop to the science store level in the Royal Overlook map.

   Detail - ***. I guess what I’m really expecting here is some sense of why I’m doing the first two missions. Why am I playing firefighter in an abandoned base that’s just going to wake up somebody’s superpowers anyway? Why am I trying to stop people from being indoctrinated in this cult when ultimately I’m going to cut their supply of napalm Kool-Aid off at the source?

   Overall - ****, but a bit higher than it was the last time. Really, I need a sort of definiteness about things that the contact pantomime just isn’t giving me right now.

   Posted on August 25th, 2009 at 12:26 am

3. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   A full review since apparently there have been significant changes. Running this on my stone/ice tank, +1 x1 with bosses on.

   —

   First mission much the same as it was last time - jump into a burning base, try to put out the flames. What’s new here is the martial artist in fire marshal getup, who assumes that I (and not the dozen or so people running around on fire but not discomforted by it) am the one who set the blaze.

   Her defeat completes the “find any civilians” mission objective, which kinda seems off given that “civilian” usually has hints of “non-combatant” in it,, but whatever, I’m running into the middle of confusion and I don’t blame the navbar.

   I get one ambush as I try to break open the fire extinguishers. Did you want exactly one or were you going for one at each valve? You need to create four unique valve names (maybe some numerical junction code or something) if you want the latter.

   The return briefing mentions catching a glimpse of one of the firebugs, which (still) sounds like an excellent candidate for a mission exit clue.

   —

   I sort through the entrance area of this new place (apparently not dyin’ in the face of a fireman got me some burn cred) and find burn cream, a journal (fits some kind of “look for stuff” objective but doesn’t count as a clue), a map (counts as a clue), and a burn station (doesn’t count as a clue). My navbar now says “You thought you saw an odd painting around here, Meet someone”, but I’ve already found the map under the painting.

   Single entries to objectives grouped together under a plural just act kinda weird. There’s no predicting which one will actually show up, or if it’ll relate to what single objective is actually left.

   I go up to the top floor, and the boss says “I’m glad you came after our encounter, but now that I see you in person. I don’t think you fit here”, but I’m sure I’d remember seeing her before.

   I’m fairly certain she wasn’t the one fighting fires in the base, as I saw that woman’s face full on. Or is she using the “our” to refer to her little group?

   Anyway, as I pull an ominous note from a bulletin board upstairs and head back down, I have no idea how much of this was actually necessary. It seems like the only important thing aside from the escort, as referenced in the exit clue, is a journal I pulled out of the first room.

   —

   The guards on the quiet woman don’t capitalize “he” in their second sentence. You can use $Heshe to get that effect.

   Nobody’s down in that little corner by the science store, which is lucky, but by the end of the map, Quiet, Scared, and Peculiar are all following me around.

   How many of those were supposed to be? Following me around, that is.

   Maybe you should move this to some kind of indoor arena. Like an office complex or warehouse or something. They flush the other workers out except the handful they’re interested in.

   Also, apparently this coalition’s founder thinks it’s evil and wants it all to go back to the hell dimension.

   Debriefing, why am I wondering about what the cleansing is? That Burnt Match just TOLD me. Am I doubting her veracity?

   —

   It’s nice how you’ve established the compound in its not on fire form.

   The boss is surprisingly not fire armor. What her secondary ability is I don’t know, but it’s no help against Ice Patch. Damage piles on easily enough and she goes down.

   And that’s the end of things again.

   —

   Storyline - ***. The extra mission doesn’t really bring much to the table in this regard. The one thing I was the most sure about from the original story was that the customs were members of an initially-beneficial fire cult type of thing that had slowly gone evil as its leader went mad.

   Here are some things I’m less sure about: how much time passed between this accident and the establishing of the cult? How was it spent? Coma, psych ward, Legally Distinct From Arkham Asylum? How did it go south? Was it madness pushing the cult to more terrible deeds? Were there cult members (like the Matchbook Collector) pushing for those, and that consequently drove the leader mad? Or were those two factors coincident but unrelated? And where does my contact, the little match girl, come into things? How was she created, and why did she choose me to talk to? Or would anyone have done?

   Design - ****. Couple of things about the MA. There’s the “unpredictable singular” which I’ve talked about before - when you’re down to one objective out of a plural you don’t necessarily get the navbar entry associated with its singular. This isn’t how it should work, but it does. Second, inactive captives - like the summoner in the new second mission - don’t actually say anything until you aggro their associated spawn. So any vocal indication you may want her to give that you should attack her grays (which may pass as cosmetic details) can’t show up until they aggro or somebody actually attacks them. This isn’t how it should work, but it does.

   The unpredictable singular is never easy to work around. Singulars need to either be made generic, which may not work; take up their own slot in the navbar, which all starts to run together when there are more than about three lines in it; or chain off other objectives, which can lead to backtracking at the best of times. Inactive captives in this particular case can be fixed by giving her a mix of demons of Bat’zul and behemoths so that at any given level there’s something which will aggro on the player. Call them “flame spirits” or something. (Or heck, are the fire imps the Legacy Chain occasionally unleashes on you from magical wards available under their group?)

   Gameplay - *****. No hiccups here. The lower-level corner of the Steel Canyon map is always a concern, but it didn’t come into play. Smoke on the lieutenant controllers is a little irritating, but it passes quickly at least.

   Detail - ***. See the storyline entry above about nothing really changing. The new mission doesn’t really add anything as far as clues go, aside from some foreshadowing that also shows up in the now-third mission. (The journal from the Burnt Match would be an equally suitable end clue there too.)

   Overall - ****. I understand how you’re attached to the gimmick of finding a mission in the images of a fire. That’s the one thing that hasn’t changed about this arc as I’ve played it. But the big problem with that is that you can’t convey nearly as much information in the briefings this way. That’s because it puts players through two layers of indirection instead of the usual one; instead of reading the briefing and figuring out what it means (which is often trivial) they have to read the briefing, figure out what sorts of images it’s describing, and then figure out what those images mean. It gets a bit “telephone game” at times, and the net effect for me was to make the briefings feel otherworldly and disconnected from the missions, which felt more real since they contained “actual” characters and dialogue.

   I could definitely see this gimmick operating in an animated feature, or even in a comic book. But one of the unfortunate differences between the mission architect and a comic book is that a comic book can use pictures. The mission architect can’t — heck, briefings are only 1000 characters, not 1000 words. “Unusual contacts” like TV, Radio, and Slot Machine may borrow their words, but they have some nonetheless. I’m not expecting fifty-foot-high letters of fire here, but I’ll say it again — something more than pantomime from the contact would really help.

   Posted on April 7th, 2010 at 3:46 pm