1 Response

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a max-level ice/stone tanker, +1/x2 with bosses on.

   —

   Hmm. Contact’s got no description. Then again this is a four-digit arc, so it probably wasn’t available at the time.

   He’s got… a hero girlfriend, or at least a girlfriend with a codename, who works for Crey?

   Hmm. Maybe a nickname, judging by the phonetics? The highlighting makes it seem like it’s more than just that, though.

   Anyhow. Office building full of tank suits.

   Did I say “hero”? At the top of this four-floor office building, I find a single computer with an apparent appointment with the CoT on it. Makes me wonder.

   —

   Apparently my contact’s a hero too? Or at least thinks he can take on some Circle.

   Anyway, I search an entire graveyard for a random group of CoT with no distinguishing marks, whose boss is an archmage, a prototype elite boss who is basically a boss with maxed resistances. Not fun.

   Anyway, he says that Andrea was looking to vanish for some reason. I’m sure the CoT would have been happy to oblige by hiding her inside a tiny crystal forever.

   And apparently my contact’s been compromised, or mind controlled, or replaced with some manner of artificial duplicate, as he gives his girlfriend a formal title and asks me to give up.

   —

   Unsurprisingly, I don’t. I lift a little note from his employers and trace it back to source.

   Well, who else would send telegrams? IT WAS ALL A NEMESIS PLOT!

   …maybe. I’ll see.

   Nemesis seem to have kidnapped Dean and replaced him for some reason. I can’t quite figure out why, as the clue I get from him ends abruptly at “ ‘Anyway, I’m grateful for the help, and I think I know where to go from’ “

   It may just be ‘here’?

   —

   Yes, it seems so. Apparently Nemesis is going to pay a visit to some facility where she’s stored. …well, maybe Nemesis. He comes in six-packs these days.

   I rescue her, and… she’s a lieutenant with enhanced perception who I have to lead out. I do alright up until she gets a whiff of Nemesis Gas and bolts off somewhere. Wherever it is, it’s lethal. Maybe she gets caught up in the ambush that shows up?

   Anyhow, mission failed, and the debrief acts like I let the timer expire. Apparently Andrea was a prototype intelligent automaton, and like any intelligent being, got fed up with Nemesis. Things went from there.

   —

   Storyline - ****. So there are about three rough spheres of heroic activity. Street-level heroics, which run about level 1-25; cosmic-level heroics, which run 40+; and global-level heroics, which occupy the space in between and overlap the ends a bit. This is basically a street-level story freaturing global-level villains, but set in the cosmic-level band.

   And that presents a bit of a problem as far as finding a good guest villain, though. Well, guest enemy group. I can appreciate trying to find a rather dodgy enemy group who’s got some magical chops to them, but about all you’ve got at the cosmic level are the immortal mages from the beneathiverse, the mad servants of the cannibal gods from outside time, and the crazy clowns. And maybe the Mu mystics. None of them make all that much sense for an apparent civilian to just be walking up to.

   This might be a hint that Andrea is more than she seems, but my contact certainly doesn’t sell it that way. I’d suggest kicking this down a bit in levels and using the Tsoo, or keeping it steady and using the Carnies, who are at least not opposed to the idea of human life as it currently exists.

   Design - ***. The first three missions have one required objective, but only the third one is really the right length for exactly one objective. Four floors of office building and a single giant overworld map with no indication where the end boss is are just a lot of fighting without a lot of real feeling of progression.

   I’ve got a problem with the objective spread in the last mission, too - I have no idea if it was even intended to be failed by the ally’s death, since the failure message doesn’t seem to mention it at all. But I’ll talk more about that later.

   Gameplay - **. Circle of Thorns Archmages are an anomaly in enemy group design. I’ve called them prototype elite bosses before, but I’ve never really explained that tag. Back when the Shadow Shard was first released, in issue 2, they featured as the enemy leaders in the Augustine task force. They conned as bosses, but were more resilient to accommodate the reality that entire groups of heroes carve through bosses like so much chaff. I’m pretty sure this is the same conceit that would lead to the creation of the “elite boss” rank much later, around the time Faultline showed up if I’m not mistaken.

   Anyway, CoT Archmages are basically the normal boss-types they represent except they have tremendous resistances. They show up in Architect as normal bosses, so a lot of people use them when they might not mean to. The problem is that while they were a neat idea for large numbers of heroes, you can’t assume anything about team size in the Mission Architect. A solo boss fight against an Archmage is rather like fighting an ordinary CoT boss except that the fight goes on much longer — it’s a lot like an elite boss fight except the elite boss will probably take less damage (before resistances) and dish out more. So basically, more boring. I can’t think of a scenario where you’d want to use a CoT archmage, except perhaps as a very resilient ally.

   And speaking of allies, let’s talk about that escort through the last mission. First, a lieutenant-rank ally isn’t very sturdy - an enemy group needs only a little uninterrupted time to chew through their hit points. Some boss-class enemies carry attacks powerful enough to one-shot lieutenants even through their resistances. Second, an ally with enhanced perception such as is provided by the willpower armor can run off on their own to engage enemy groups, as I found out to my detriment. They hadn’t attacked me, either, so I’m not sure if she was set to aggressive for some reason or what. Third, Nemesis is a bad choice for trying to keep an ally safe. Many of their powers do some form of splash damage, so even being the sole target isn’t enough to prevent the ally from being hit, and even worse is the Nemesis Gas. Allies will flee more or less blindly away from Nemesis Gas and similar “damage area” powers, which is basically the enhanced-perception woes except amped up even further.

   If the challenge in the last mission is supposed to be the time limit, set the escort to be pacifist. If the challenge in the last mission is supposed to be keeping the ally safe in a room you may not have cleared out with an ambush on the way, rank her up to a boss at least? But honestly I’d rather just see the challenge be to get out in time.

   Detail - ****. The level of detail is pretty light but serviceable to move the plot along. The only issue I have is that as far as I could tell I wouldn’t find out that Andrea was an automaton until she was safely outside the final mission. I’d actually suggest that hint be dropped by the required glowie you find on the way up to her, just to build up the anticipation a little.

   Overall - ***. The first two missions are long and mostly featureless. The last one pitches you an unexpected challenge that’s a little too easy to fail. Under it all the story’s worth following, but the mechanics could use some revision.

   Posted on March 22nd, 2011 at 6:18 pm