Celebrity Kidnapping
Story Description: Boy, does Willy Wheeler have a deal for you! A celebrity heiress has been sentenced to jail for drunk driving. The plan is to break her out of the Zig with the help of some thugs, then hold her for ransom for immense profit! What could go wrong?
Story Arc ID: 1388
Author’s Global Chat Handle: @PW
Length: Medium (3 missions)
Level Range: 30-40
Alignment: Villainous
Designer Notes: This arc is inspired by classic heist movies where a team of criminals enacts a daring caper which should make them wildly rich, but then the crooks end up quarreling over how to split the money, and eventually after many plot twists the main protagonist ends up with the goods. And of course the item that gets “stolen” is ripped from the headlines, being a rich celebutante who gets thrown in jail. I’ve injected some humor and pop culture references to make things more fun, but the main focus is really the heist movie aspect. Enjoy!
In-Game Keywords: Solo Friendly, Complex Mechanics, Comedy
CoH Forums Link: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=villains&Number=13277125&fpart=&PHPSESSID=
Similar Missions:
- All in the Family
- Crossing Over
- Redoubt Operations #2: Wrath of the Imperium
- A Twist of Destiny
- The Fight of Angels
Eclipse Y
Says:
Found it out to be an extremelly fun and entertaining arc.
IMO, the only flaw in the arc, is the story arc… Seems a bit “cliche” the part of kidnapping a celebrity to get the rescue money. But, although beeing cliche, it did work. I think it was ’cause of the contact. Did seem very reallistic, acting like the REAL Wheeler would.
Also, the humorous content helped, and a lot. Papparazzi? Man, that was creative. IMO, it was one of the best parts of the arc.
Really loved it, rated it 5 stars in game :).
Posted on May 20th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Glazius
Says:
@GlaziusF
Runnin’ this one on my high 30s icer/axer/tanker. Diff 2 for ~goodfights~.
—
Willy Wheeler has a brilliant plan! How many things could not go wrong?
…well, the prison yard’s full of Longbow and PPD but no actual rioters. There’s one thing!
Oh wait, there they are. Took a little moving in to trigger the dialogue.
I’m gonna see what happens if the escort bites it, so I’m going to leave most of these guys for us to “take out together” and if she goes down, welp.
Nice prison scrubs on her. I half expect to see a Zig logo on ‘em.
Ah, but as broken up as the prison yard is, it’s murder to try and path an ally through it. Fortunately most of the infighting has culled the numbers topside so I don’t have to worry about her deciding to jump a fence and land in the middle of five angry dudes.
—
Ah, heist movies. What crazy little twist will lead to the unraveling of this whole operation? Does a concerned Longbow Eagle fan call in his entire regiment?
Oh, the Freakshow decided to come in and go crazy. That’s okay too!
You know, ordinarily I would throw a fit when SS customs start raging, but in this case how could he not! (but seriously, no rage please)
This is gonna be a fun debriefing, I can tell right now.
Huh. It’s actually here. No tracers, explosives, or dye packs? Who knew Hollywood could deal square?
Willy, you are one coldhearted sunova. And I mean that in the best way.
—
Oh, hello there empty warehouse. You’re not suspicious at all.
Oh, hello there Family boss. Oh, wait, you’re a custom. Man, I could hardly tell you apart.
Crud! Hello, ambush photographers!
Hoo boy, looks like a lot of people decided to sneak in during that fight.
Paris, honey, I’m sure if you asked your good buddy TV that question he’d set you up.
Lois Watson. You’re not… YOU ARE. Oh good lord, how many freakin’ people are going to be waiting at the door?
Less than expected, actually. I was kinda expecting the bum and Unbelievable Man to show up to ruin the party.
—
Storyline - ****. So why didn’t the bum and Unbelievable Man show up to ruin the party? (aside from maybe arc size limits) I was all set up for the crazy escalating showdown you get at the end of certain heist movies, but it was all just a bunch of cops.
Design - *****. A shame you can’t equip NPCs with cameras, but other than that, fitting use of maps and an understated but solid design on the customs.
Gameplay - ****. Little irritations in running the first escort over all that broken terrain and watching her trip on rubble and fallen guard towers. Maybe just make her an ally and have the rescue spawn a Longbow Warden fanboy back near the chopper who flew in to make sure Paris was alright?
Detail - *****. No complaints here. Pretty solid work on the customs, even if they’re only a few fitting lines.
Overall - ****. I went back and forth on this, but overall, I was disappointed, just a little, to see the arc making promises it didn’t keep. Dammit, I wanted to finally see what Unbelievable Man looks like!
Posted on June 28th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Airhead
Says:
I liked this a lot. Funny, with great customs and dialog, just the right length, and full of interesting events.
I found this through the CoH forum, so I hadn’t read the Designer Notes above. Due to the outrageously silly nature of the hostage, I thought it was primarily a comedy, with a consistent and reliable plot being secondary to help move from sketch to sketch. That didn’t detract from my enjoyment of it one bit.
Well done!
Posted on July 3rd, 2009 at 3:20 am