2 Responses

1. @PW Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   I really liked the mad scientist theme. Igor’s lisp was extremely annoying and I think needs to be scaled back a little (some words and phrases were practically unreadable, such as “thmathing thuctheth” for “smashing success”) but I got a good laugh out of when he briefly forgot to use it.

   I kind of feel like we have an AWFUL lot of zombies in the game already, so I thought adding another zombie faction was a little redundant; consider directly adding some of the standard zombies to your custom undead faction maybe? I really liked the look of the “Remade” technozombie, though.

   I think the first two missions both needed a little something more to spice them up; both are fairly straightforward glowy hunts with nothing but generic low level minions in them. Maybe some patrols of zombies saying “Braiiiinnnsss” or some sort of weird science boss. I also think having Igor be an elite boss in the last mission is a bit overpowering; after I freed him, all I had to do was get near some enemies and he would smash them flat with only a little help from me.

   I had a good time though and thought it was a fun story.

   Posted on June 16th, 2009 at 11:41 am

2. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a level 50 DB/Fire brute, +1/x2 with bosses on.

   —

   Ah, Igor. When you want a dab hand with the needle and a willingness to stick all manner of jury-rigged devices out in the harshest weather, you can always count on an Igor.

   So let’s go fetch some bodies. For SCIENCE! And also maniacal affective disorder.

   Oh man. ZOMBIES. Zombies with freakish undead strength! Zombies with bone clubs! Zombies with bone claws! Zombie soldiers with guns! Zombies with… freaky radiation powers? Okay, I can kinda buy that. Though watch the rad/rad synergy, a little casual combat had me down under Base Defense -50% (the technical term for this is Base Defense: Haha, No). Zombies with… gravity control and sonics? You lost me.

   —

   Zombies ain’t cutting it, it would seem. Welp, time to hold the world for ransom. Let’s just nick a standard in-package doomsday device here.

   Man. Freaky radiation zombie plus soldier zombie equals base defense minus a hundred. (So do two freaky radiation zombies in quick succession, before the click radiation powers wear off.)

   I see some bosses in here. A claws… something, and a necro… something. Casually using necro on bosses can turn out wrong, as you can get focus-fired by the minions and lose all your accuracy. It isn’t as bad without the lich vomiting darkness everywhere, but you might want to keep it to just minion zombies.

   Wisely I decide not to prod happy fun doomsday device and just leave it in its protective packaging.

   —

   Doomsday ain’t cuttin’ it either, it would seem. Only one hope remains: horrifying abominations of mad science! What has man wrought?

   …well, I suppose we’ll see.

   Oh. Standard super mutant. Big, blue, exposed brain, giant power gauntlets. He is silent, some might say stoic, as we head for the exit.

   I bypass the guard and drop the super mutant off, and this turns out to be a pretty big mistake as I wind up facing a +2 axe/will elite boss with buildup.

   And a name you probably never thought would be relevant again, but surprise surprise! That’s Rick and his mask, alright.

   —

   Even a super mutant doesn’t work. Igor’s so shocked he drops his accent.

   And decides to go off and extract a brain that still loves mad science, in the vain hope of getting his doctor’s spark back.

   Unfortunately he runs into a bit of trouble. Well, well.

   So I hook up with an elec/elec brute and start laying waste to some zombies.

   And then the doctor on the top floor, whose energy melee/energy aura suit gets shredded by the both of us.

   Unfortunately then I have to run Igor back to the main door before the mission will complete. I think there’s a better way to do this, but more on that later. With Igor’s grim work both finished and started, the arc’s over.

   —

   Storyline - ****. A little light mad science parody, though I was a little disappointed we didn’t spend a last mission butting heads with Igor’s now-overenthusiastic master. Never addressed (perhaps not important?) is the source of Igor’s animosity towards Dr. Weirdstrum. It’s not as though there isn’t a whole academy’s worth of mad science out there in the Rogue Isles so we only need to pick on one guy.

   Design - ***. I’d suggest dropping the two required escorts. In the third mission, it means that if the super mutant dies it fails the mission, and I’ve had bad experiences with custom bosses getting lucky before, so the design encourages people to fight the elite boss in that mission without any help. In the last mission similarly, if Igor dies it fails, and after the doctor drops he needs to be led to the exit.

   I would have suggested making Igor an escort who responds to being led to the doctor in the last mission, except the Mission Architect is apparently interpreting all escort arrival directives as “do nothing”, so having him respond on arrival would disable his combat capabilities for the fight.

   Also it’s a little off for the doomsday device to be just a single glowie in a plain wooden box at the end of a lab map. Maybe we can pick up a bunch of crazy components with no idea how they fit together? Just a thought.

   Gameplay - ***. I applaud not giving all the custom zombies dark powers as that often makes it impossible for me to fight enemies in large groups. Unfortunately two of the lieutenants have such drastic defense debuffing powers that it makes it impossible or me to survive against enemies in large groups. I’d suggest making the radiation zombie just have radiant aura and accelerate metabolism.

   Also, watch the use of Aim and similar short-term buffing powers, especially on boss and elite enemies, who can take out an entire health bar in a good burst.

   Detail - ***. While I can appreciate the desire to replicate the cinematic Igor accent, giant blocks of Igor text (such as is found in every briefing) stop looking like words. The practical payoff seems to be Igor being so shocked on one briefing that he temporarily drops his accent, and honestly it’s not worth the hassle.

   Overall - ***. There’s definitely some comedy going on here, but the customs can be a bit of a doomed endeavor to fight, the escorts you grab in missions are set up so that you’re reluctant to rely on them as allies, and Igor is true to the flavor but a real pain to actually understand.

   Posted on December 30th, 2010 at 4:57 pm