3 Responses

1. Xenite Blackthread Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   I played a Lv50 PB on Heroic difficulty.

   First off, Coyote does a great job of briefing the player about the odds of facing very powerful enemies (EB’s on Heroic), but states that caution and sticking with the team will help. Like a good team-member, that’s what I did. I went on slowly (the maps luckily were not too large or complex) and made sure I kept the Teen Phalanx close by before starting a fight.

   The flow of the story and action was excellent so much so that although I started out with a “been-there, done-that” feeling, by the end of the first mission, the dialogs and compelling “teen-drama” captured my interest and amused me to no end. (I’m easily amused at times…)

   Entering the Monitor Duty mission, a staple in most TV shows about Super-groups, had me expecting somewhat of a let-down, just click the Monitor, have it display a very long progress-bar and then the mission would end. So, I took my time to explore the Teen Phalanx Base. Boy oh boy did I ever find goodies! I never knew Cora had such an artistic flare and inserting a self-reference was cleverly done!

   After the exploration part was complete, and with a lot of time on the clock, I clicked the Monitor, and settled in to wait for the progress-bar to go down… *WOAH!* was I ever surprised at what happened next!

   The plot then shifted past the “we’ve got trouble” moment and things got real serious when… (that’s it, I won’t tell you, you’ll have to play it yourself).

   The good parts: Solid writing, clever use of maps, good character highlighting and a sense of accomplishment that grows from mission to mission.

   The bad parts?: Not much, perhaps simply the fact that it’s been done before… and maybe that St…Stacy.. that’s right, Stacy never made an appearance! I’d have loved to have seen that!

   Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 9:06 am

2. Citizen Razor Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   I found this story-arc to be well-done. Basically, you (or rather, a kid version of your toon) have been invited to join the Teen Phalanx. The group consists of Kid Valkyrie (the bright, cheerleader girl), Back Alley Boy (the street-smart kid), Citadel XP (the know-everything android), and Manticora (the surly wise-cracker). And you, of course.

   The missions, especially the second mission where the Clockwork King creates his own “World of Warcraft” rip-off, and the third mission where you have to do monitor duty, were well-done. The dialogue was well-done and hilarious. The details were great.

   My one sole complaint, and it is a minor complaint, is that once you’ve assembled the Teen Phalanx, you pretty much just sit back and let them do all of the work.

   Overall, an excellent story arc, one that gets the “Citizen Razor’s Seal of Approval.”

   Posted on June 16th, 2009 at 1:34 pm

3. GlaziusF Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Playin’ on a mid-20s mind/kin controller, diff 3 not that it’ll make much difference. Just wonder how it’s all going to shake out this second time through.

   Just to get a little meta in here, this kid’s a very rough take on somebody from the Teen Titans cartoon.

   —-

   Thanks for not putting me into the training room, Coyote… but the malfunctioning training room is practically a staple of these sorts of things. How much space you got?

   I don’t know if it’s something about her power set or what, but Manticora is first to get left behind and last to actually hit anything. Maybe it’s just luck on my part.

   Oof. This is a twisted little scheme here. I was going to make a joke about SZM seeks SLF for life-changing experience but then I saw the customs in the last room. Actual morbidity tends to put a damper on black humor.

   Can they be boss-class? Lieutenant-class, at least? Miss Valk likes to put a throwing knife through their eyeballs at 50 paces and that has a way of turning a minion into a rapidly vanishing speed bump.

   —

   Coyote needs a contact description, by the way.

   Aw, Valk. I’m in a supergroup that I like too! :3

   Shame these guys haven’t farmed up enough Mechanical Lords faction to get their anti-mez trinkets.

   Penny needs to mention her aura somehow. “Look guys, I know I’m glowing, but that doesn’t make me an NPC!”

   Kingy also needs to dip into the miasma a bit. “ZONE QUEST! 100 psychobrass pieces to whoever rids me of this bothersome Teen Phalanx!”

   Loved the poster.

   Hmm though. If this is supposed to be a Teen Phalanx arc, then aren’t we in the future? Hasn’t Penny grown up a bit by now? (I didn’t check her description though.)

   —

   Ah, monitor duty.

   I still think that something in the base should be trying to eat me alive, though.

   (Also think the note for Citadel 2.0 shouldn’t seem to come from Kid Valk in the most bizarre team infighting ever. Maybe sign it “Longhorn”? That was the internal beta name for Vista.)

   Irony Alert: Staring at the monitor for an interminable amount of time gave me the “Poor Impulse Control” badge.

   (The clue from the monitor should probably also “come after” the contents of the lockers and fridge. I checked all of ‘em first.)

   …huh. Guess this is another bug with timed missions. When Clamor mowed down Kid Valk, the mission failed. Hoping they fix this soon.

   —

   I didn’t exactly see Clamor’s confession, but in I go… and the first thing I wonder is, how much can you recolor these enemies to be “Citadel” blue and black?

   Tactics + speed boost now that I have access to both of ‘em is producing hilarious results in some of these big rooms - when I control a spawn the Phalanx just zips over to the next run.

   And now Cora’s a lot more eager to get into scraps. It’s probably just the Tactics talking but it feels right for story purposes.

   Vista himself gets shredded between the allies. I drop a Mass Hyp on his help and wait for everyone else to shred through ‘em.

   —

   Storyline - *****. My suggestions for things to add are… well, things to add. A mission where the training room goes hilariously wrong, a little more “in-world commentary” from NPCs in the World of Clockwork, the combined detritus of the base trying to rip my face off. The story as it is doesn’t suffer from their absence.

   Design - ****. Little things here and there.- Penny Yin’s model not changing, the custom group of Vista’s supporters being basically a brushed-aside afterthought with the Phalanx in full fury, the Vahz brides being too speedbumpy to really get a fix on (same’s true of the roboPhalanx to be honest).

   Gameplay - *****. Smooth. No backtracking. Interesting fights. What else is there?

   Detail - *****. This is pretty solid too. About the only thing I’d ask for are more interesting bug texts from Coyote.

   Overall - *****. No reason to pull it down from this, though. The idea’s definitely made me want to see more of it get fleshed out, but there aren’t really words for how stupid it would be to hold that against you.

   Posted on July 27th, 2009 at 9:24 pm