2 Responses

1. cruise Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   First up - this arc appears to have ben republished, and can be now found on ID 43610.

   The overall concept is good, and provides a decent variety and challenge in missions. The last mission perhaps overdoes the glowie hunt, especially since several of them appear to spawn inside walls (damn caves!).

   “Fortunately” I failed the last mission, so I have no idea if they’re essential or not. The hostage you have to escort can be hurt by the enemies, and seems to have a fondness for standing in ambushes’ damage auras :/

   There are a few typos and grammatical mistakes, and a lack of info on the final mission’s custom enemies lets it down a little, but for a group looking for a decent fight the arc is a solid choice.

   Posted on July 8th, 2009 at 3:45 am

2. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a low 40s ice/axe tank, all bosses no AVs two heroes at +0.

   —

   Oh. Timed mission. Sense of urgency. Nicely done.

   It’d be nice if the briefing explained this time limit and the reason for it.

   Now, uh, why am I angry, exactly? Innocent until proven guilty or they collide with my fist, right? I mean, there are all sorts of ways for a virus to get out of a lab. Most of them are accidental.

   Anyway, I find a bodybag on the first level, which apparently I can tell is a casualty of the Dante virus right away. It takes me a long time to read the nametag, though.

   I head up to the third floor and find a whole lot of battles with the same exact dialogue for each one, and… nothing.

   Though down on the second floor I find the computer I was looking for… and get jumped by archmages.

   Since I don’t have to fight them it’s alright, but archmages are really closer to elite bosses than bosses in challenge. I believe they would have been elite bosses had elite bosses existed at the time.

   —

   Oh boy, I WILL be fighting one. I can hardly contain my enthusiasm.

   Also can I get some multiple paragraphs all up ins? Makes individual ideas easier to figure out.

   Um. So to find this guy I should look in… Oranbega? That’s all I get?

   Oranbega is an entire lost city. That’s like telling me he’s somewhere in Paragon City!

   Oh, this is the map called “Oranbega”. It’s actually pretty reasonable as far as Circle maps go, but it’s basically made entirely of corridors.

   Bah bah bah MULTIPLE ARCHMAGES AS ESCORTS?

   At least Varal’s a normal boss.

   Oh wait. NO HE’S NOT. And there’s an Agony Archmage in the escort! Go go Absorb Pain!

   …where are all these Behemoth Overlords coming from? There’s like eight of them. Is this two ambushes that both got severely lost?

   Looking at the NPC dialogue, it would seem so!

   And there’s one more coming, too.

   Through intervention at the hand of some god, I manage to pull just the Agony mage off when I get back from the hospital, along with two ambushes of behemoths.

   And then I defeat the Inquisitor… and find out I actually have to take out his entire spawn of three arch-mages.

   Let me be very clear here: archmages have about 80% resist to all damage. Natively. Coupled with the buffing powers, ONE archmage is a giant meatwall of a nightmare.

   Three, fought together, is NINE TIMES THE NIGHTMARE.

   I get two clues on completion which a) could probably just be the one mission complete clue, as the boss clue just describes the mission complete one anyway, and b) could stand to be the archmage’s actual words.

   Apparently the big piece of vital information he has for me is that… the Dante virus preferentially targets people with magical
   potential. Thanks, pal. I’m sure MAGI wasn’t going to work that one out on their own. Eesh.

   —

   …oh, Baron Zoria. Poor, misunderstood Baron Zoria.

   “With this thorn, I gain the power of an ancient civilization!” shouted Zoria.

   The acolyte said, “No, Zoria. You are the ancient civilization.”

   And Zoria was a crystal.

   He shows up in the end of the “Smoke and Mirrors” Ouro TF titled Baron Zoria but with Akarist’s description, and his model is the Akarist model from the Library of Souls arc.

   But Baron Zoria is part of the library of souls. There’s a circle mage jacking his body, as it is with all the other mortal members of the Circle of Thorns. (We don’t know who it is. It’s probably not Akarist, though,) Publicly, yes, the Circle of Thorns is a revivalist cult led by Zoria, but given that I’m level 40 for this arc the truth should be out there, especially for Cadao Kestrel.

   Anyway, I’m going to stock up on Shivans as I have no idea what the difficulty will accidentally be.

   Ah, the Leviathan cave map. Notable in that it has so many special TF spawns that half of it is completely empty. Except for the spaces to put glowies, anyway.

   Also since I get something to start the mission that strikes me as a nice place for a begin mission clue.

   …uh, okay. So this mission is coded “ramp up” which means that it starts with giant swarms of minions.

   Except they’re giant swarms of lieutenants, since the enemy group doesn’t have any minions.

   And a sizable majority of them start battle by popping AIM AND INFERNO.

   Oh, and there’s Blackstar and Dreadful Wail in there too. Glorious.

   A boss who is… Fire Control/Willpower? Seems like it. A self-rez with a giant damage period afterward.

   …so there’s this attackable minion who charges right into melee when half the lieutenants drop damage fields and the other half drop tier 9s and all of them have AIm or Build Up.

   And I actually have to get him out.

   Alive.

   Yeah, no. Before I even realized where he WAS his body was already sliding down the hill.

   I don’t think I’ll be replaying this to see what happens if by some miracle of chance and strategy I can actually get him out alive.

   —

   Storyline - ***. So as far as I can figure the plot goes something like this: a mad Crey scientist decides he’d like a walking tour of Hell, so he creates a virus to send himself there, and to ensure that a hero comes to take him back, he releases it to the general public. I didn’t really get the point of the detour into Oranbega — if the Circle were in such dire straits that they’d be coming forward voluntarily, striking out to take some of them down would be counterproductive.

   Design - *. Three consecutive unnanounced timed missions. Agh. A boss group composed entirely of Circle Archmages. Aaagh. A group composed entirely of lieutenant and boss enemies, many with tier 9 powers, most with Build Up. Aaaaagh. Having to lead a damageable minion through said group and somehow come out the other side. MAGNA AAGH.

   Gameplay - *. MAGNA AAGH. I feel this is all I can say on a family-friendly forum. The first mission is somewhat reasonable, but the last two are exercises in cranial-architectural interfacing.

   Detail - **. None of the custom enemies had any descriptions - they were all using the default description for their rank. The archmages also have their default descriptions, even the custom ones, even the ones who pass off clues that ought to be their descriptions for all the relevant info they give you. And then there’s that doubled-up clue in the second mission.

   Overall - *. Not an average. The second mission was a giant slog of a boss fight. The third mission was a giant slog in every fight followed by a task which may be a mathematical impossibility unless you see it coming and try to lose the hostage so he can’t run into the middle of the lieutenants’ zone of death. I might have come away with a slightly more favorable impression if the escort was non-combat, but the crazily high difficulty of the custom enemies and the mandatory-defeat group made of archmages were the real pains here.

   Posted on November 29th, 2009 at 8:30 pm