1 Response

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on my level 50 spine/regen scrapper, +0 x2 with bosses on.

   —

   Hey, it’s Legally Distinct From Dr. Fate!

   Actually I shouldn’t say anything there, blue and gold is a pretty stylin’ combo. Anyway, my job is to go find a scepter and hand it over to be destroyed. Sounds simple enough.

   I find an ill/psy EB waiting to help me. He’s not guarded and I can’t exactly turn him down, but on the meager followers I’ve seen so far he’s just a bit of overkill.

   Though on the Cyclops which shows up after I free Doc Delilah he’s a bit of a help. The Cyclops has his stock description, which seems pretty off, considering how he’s introduced.

   Got a mixup in the debriefing - “specter” for “scepter”.

   —

   Hmm. Alright, something’s gone wrong and now I have to pull my contact’s component bits back together.

   Aw geez. Red Atlas. Ah well, it can’t be too bad since I’m looking for a person rather than a glowie.

   The place is full of storm elementals, and the navbar informs me I have to ask some kind of trickster spirit for directions, which seems odd as I haven’t been told anything about him by my contact.

   For some reason defeating the boss the trickster points me to reveals what I was looking for. Not that I’m complaining that I can stop running all over Red Atlas, but it’s rather arbitrary.

   —

   Man, these demons did a number on my contact. They also stripped him of the artifact that’s the source of his powers, and took it to Oranbega.

   I guess unlocking the boss by clicking a glowie is alright, but my contact didn’t tell me anything about this tome of judgment.

   The boss is a minotaur with a stock description. I get a clue for beating him, but I get nothing for opening the chest with the Eye of Horus.

   —

   And now it’s the finale. Seems a bit abrupt, but at least I’ll get some help near the end.

   Oh. The graveyard. I guess that’s an alright temple, but I was expecting something with a few more walls.

   Seems to be completely empty. I guess I fight the guardians alone.

   The stone elemental was a bit of a challenge — if you’re using Earth Assault for him you should be aware that its damage scales are way out of whack with, say, Stone Melee.

   The fire elemental might be able to do without Fiery Embrace, as it seriously boosts his damage, and because of their powersets both the air and “water” elementals both drop a ton of slow on a hero.

   But with them all down, I… make a couple laps around the graveyard searching for what turns out to be a tiny transparent glowie that blends in with the rock. Not much fun, that.

   Fortunately, afterward it’s pretty easy to find what needs to be done as the hostage guards are pretty obvious and I got perhaps a bit lucky to get Pathos close by.

   Weirdly enough since I don’t have AVs on he’s actually the easiest of the five things I have to fight. Sure, psy assault is a bit hard to handle, but that’s the extent of his repertoire.

   And that’s it. Universe saved.

   —

   Storyline - ****. Pretty standard story here, sensible progression. But I’d have liked to see more than one coincidental mission against the main enemy group before they messed everything up, learn something about them and perhaps their master before we just had to go all-out stopping them from getting the Golden Scepter and doing…

   What were they planning, anyway? And how would the Scepter help?

   Design - ***. The customs look generally fitting, but it’s a bit easy to confuse the flame-lobbers with the necromancers, since they’re all about the same size and overall color. Pathos also seemed to be the smallest boss in the end mission — I realize he’s not supposed to be a physical powerhouse, but it doesn’t feel right for the end boss to be less intimidating than his entourage.

   Most of this is for the second and third missions, though, which toss objectives up on the navbar without much plot justification for why they’re there.

   Gameplay - ***. The custom bosses, especially Earth and Fire elementals, can be a bit unreasonable. But this is mostly for the other parts of the empty last mission, trying to find two glowies on an outdoor map, the second one transparent. (I was expecting a destructible instead of the first glowie, to be honest.)

   Detail - ***. You used a lot of stock enemies in new or interesting ways, but seeing a stock Cyclops/Minotaur description when I was expecting a little lore about a servant of Pathos or the ancient bounds champion was a bit of a disappointment.

   Overall - ***. Work a bit on retuning or selecting new sets for the elementals - it was a good setpiece but the fights were a bit unreasonable at times. Try picking more visible objectives for the clicks in the final mission as well - they can be anywhere, and even though the outdoor map is on the small side, it’s still a lot of ground to cover.

   Do a little more to distinguish minions from lieutenants. There is the flame aura, but it’s not quite enough to rely on. And the enemy group as a whole could use a little more definition, both in establishing before they start messing with my contact and the description of the minotaur and cyclops.

   Posted on March 7th, 2010 at 9:02 pm