1 Response

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this arc on a low 40’s Fire/DB brute. Mission Engineer will not elude me forever!

   —

   If there isn’t much time, why not run a timer?

   Ah, because there really is all the time in the world. The clue’s kind of vague HOW I learn this was a feint. I doubt these guys are the talkative type, as they don’t actually say anything or appear to be doing anything inside the lab besides pacing about. Maybe get a radio message from Ms. Liberty?

   I can see I’ll need to keep some break frees around for these confu lieuts. Fortunately they only have one confuse power.

   Uh, exit text? Maybe you should speak to the mission complete clue, he told me what these people were really after. Makes you look bad.

   Oh. They actually were trying to destroy something. And the contact has no idea about the other thing I learned where they were STEALING ENRICHED PLUTONIUM.

   As an afternote, this was a quite tolerable defeat all. On a tech map with minimal crannies and a very straightforward layout.

   —

   And in the second mission the contact is back in the loop! It’s apparently payback time, though really I was not the one who got jacked around by the feint. I just went to the place and knocked people down until there weren’t no more to knock.

   …this mission has problems. The map is a giant sprawling office-to-cave-to-sewer affair and the only glowie, the one that completes the mission, is right in the first room. The only enemies to say anything are the ambush that shows up after the mission’s already complete.

   Apparently I have the chance to interrogate some mercs after a mission I can complete without killing anyone. What?

   —

   And now I get to trawl, apparently, the entire sewer system looking for a base entrance, because the same group that was introduced to us with a feint surely won’t feint again.

   Well, whatever it takes to advance the plot, I guess.

   I get a boss name in the HUD and… I guess I have to fight the guy? For some reason.

   Yes, there he is. Oozing arrogance and contempt, which are oddly blue and translucent.

   He sets bombs and… I believe tries to run off? Or maybe it’s panic from being knocked down too much. Anyway, for a moment I worry this mission is going to be uncompletable - the demo charges are reporting they’re invalid targets - but once their guard is aggroed they show up as they should.

   And we get no lead on whatever their base is, but I do capture a comlink. So… apparently what this guy added to sewer operations was a communications leak to the people trying to find them. That seems a bit counterproductive.

   —

   …the next mission sets me to max level 34. For no reason I can discern. I don’t complain much about an uneven level range, but the one thing that’ll get me is a mission that takes away powers I had at the start of the arc for no apparent reason.

   I lose access to Fiery Embrace, Mu Lightning, and Rise of the Phoenix, and I deeply miss the last two (the ally rescue spawns right in the middle of two other groups) and wouldn’t mind the first either.

   Taking the ally to the door isn’t much of a challenge. Maybe if it was more than one ambush she could take out with her pinky.

   —

   So… Liberty gets to fight the nameless mooks and I get to fight the ancient supervillain. While she is a wreckin’ machine and would probably trivialize the fight I think I would still miss her.

   …and I not only fight the archvillain but his entire crew of crime. That’s just swell. Good thing I tank-stealthed here, otherwise I’d have nowhere to fill up on insps for the next round.

   Heading deeper into the base I chug my accumulated break frees to not get confused and practice my knockaround since none of the enemies except the downgraded AV seem to resist it, not that I’m complaining.

   But I have to run all the way back to the entrance to mop up the last boss?

   That seems to all have happened in entirely the wrong order. Maybe fight some warmup clone of the end boss right up front, then work through his inner circle to take him down at the very end of it?

   —

   Storyline - **. This is one of those “individual good missions, incoherent whole” things. The clues I get during a mission, the debriefing I get after the mission, and the briefing to kick off the next mission seem to be deciding what happens by majority vote instead of actually agreeing with one another. This really, really needs a pass for consistency. As it is I have no idea what I should be taking as true.

   Design - ****. The two major shortfalls are the giant sprawling map that completes with a glowie in the first room and the end mission, which starts with the toughest fight and then moves into the lesser mop-ups. But the missions themselves are also completely empty of everything but required objectives. A little incidental detail would work very nicely indeed. I’m marking this up a star because of the frankly excellent visual design on the custom enemies.

   Gameplay - ***. The main serious frustration was suddenly losing access to some powers I’d been using in the fourth mission. There was no reason that I could see to do this.

   Detail - ***. The only real attempt to provide any atmosphere happened in the last mission, and while it did make the encounters fell appropriately climactic, every other mission was just bare minimum generic text.

   Overall - ***. A pass for continuity, another pass to put in some incidental detail, and a reworking of that fourth mission to cap at the same level the others cap at would improve this arc greatly. As it is it’s flawed.

   Posted on June 3rd, 2009 at 9:03 pm