1 Response

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on my low-40s merc/TA mastermind, +0/x2 with bosses on and normal architect rewards also on.

   —

   Interesting. Contact actually has a description! Nice to see a Dev Choice that’s still updated to keep with the modern limits.

   Though whatever Wretch gives you to start the mission would make a nice leadoff clue, assuming you’ve a mind to.

   So the “Nihilists” are the weird group who invaded the base. They are what it says on the tin, committed to the destruction of all life with the manic intensity of the Freakshow.

   The traditional doom intersections are alive and well, but aside from that there’s some decent variety in showing off this enemy group - my only gripe is that the minions don’t try to close to melee, which is a bit of a pain for melee fighters who all expect it to some extent.

   Two glowies show up in the last room — are you sure this is where you wanted to put them? Anyway, one clicky stops the base from blowing up, one reveals that these yahoos wanted Seer Marino.

   Or perhaps our local Hulk or Hulk equivalent. People were all the time trying to force the Hulk into all sorts of weirdness.

   —

   Anyway, off to the CoT for a withdrawal from their library.

   Up front is who I think might be a succubus but is actually I believe a fire/mental blaster. Nice custom. Some fights take place deeper in, and at this point it’s safer to assume that they’ll never work “properly” — that is, the dialogue that’s supposed to take place on initial aggro just play when they fight each other.

   For some reason the custom chains into another boss fight? Ah, with the nihilist in her death clue. Not sure why that should chain, though. I can appreciate not being initially aware, but in these cases where there isn’t a necessary causal relationship I find it a good idea to have the player be initially aware of something. Like, an entrance popup that judging from the bullet casings in the entrance the CoT seem to be preoccupied, with “find the other intruder” in the navbar. Something like that.

   Finding books in this three-story end room is kind of weird, though, especially since the room in the center of the spire is a valid glowie location.

   The two books detailing the ritual are pretty far apart in the clue list. Since you can rearrange mission objectives now, and therefore the order clues show up in… well, probably there’s no changing this, but just in general, it’s worthwhile so people don’t have to scroll back and forth trying to piece something together.

   —

   Man, they’re trying to wire blood sacrifice into a particle inverter? No wonder they’re all so loopy, when I think how involved a transformer you’d need for that…

   Anyway! Gonna stomp on Crey for a little. That’ll be a treat.

   Look, I know lolcats are consuming the Internet, but just spouting off memes is the opposite of nothing.

   …bother. I pick a lucky branch of the tech lab and find the single glowie that completes the map first thing. Maybe you could consider a more linear tech map? This branched structure is great for searching out multiple objectives but can just make for frustration with a single thing to look for.

   It really strikes me that these guys don’t really have a philosophy very far removed from the Freakshow. It’s just destruction on a larger scale.

   —

   Wretch is… pranking Mako and Black Scorpion. Oh lord. I wonder if I’ll be able to move in this cave for tarantulas and crabs.

   Wow. Lots of fights breaking out everywhere. Entire rooms just turn into little balls of everyone shooting at everyone else.

   I’m not sure why I have to take down the CoT custom boss from the second mission. She doesn’t seem to be essential to fooling the Nihilists into leading us right to them.

   But I suppose the CoT do know what these cosmic fools are planning.

   —

   Ah. Now I get Wretch and everything goes flying.

   Hoo boy. The university rescue map. This one’s always a pain to find things on because of all the overhangs.

   Someone who knows the MA a little better than me: can you lead an ally to another ally and get “you led me here” dialogue from the first ally but still have it follow you and fight? It seems like that sort of thing would be good for modeling reunions.

   Ah. I thought so. The name of the clue when you find the thing in the Crey lab was too long and scrolled past the end of the clue window. As a destructible here it’s just got very very tiny font.

   End boss! …well, with the Wretch in tow there’s really nothing to any end boss. He whimpers about how rude it is to stop the end of all existence.

   —

   Storyline - ****. Pretty much the only problem I have with how things are going down here is: why Pia? Do they need someone who’s suffered to usher in the end of the universe? I could kind of buy that, except then they’re tangling with Arachnos and plenty of other people in the world are suffering.

   ..wait, given these yahoos Arachnos wouldn’t really be an obstacle either, would it?

   I was kind of expecting something after the pattern of the classic Hulk where they were doing this all to draw in the Wretch for his special significance, but again there’s not much in evidence to support that.

   I don’t really NEED a reason why they’ve involved Pia, necessarily, but it would be nice to have.

   Design - ****. The problem with the Nihilists is that they’re as near to all black as they can get. This is offset somewhat by the decent variety in armament and behavior that gives them weapons and particle effects with generally distinctive colors. From a decisions-in-combat standpoint this works very well, but approaching a bunch of Nihilists at rest it’s generally a guessfest as to who has what power and is what rank.

   The concern I have with the Nihilists is that this is basically what a splinter Freakshow faction that dabbled in the arcane (as Freakshow sometimes do) would pull off. Like, right down to the dialogue. That’s kinda the problem with making “the X equivalent of the Freakshow” — the Freakshow are such anarchists that they’ll try anything.

   I have a couple of concerns with objective placement, nothing too major. I don’t know if there are Arachnos bases with big end rooms, but putting mulltiple objectives at the end as happens in the first mission results in a very crowded-feeling room. The end room of the Circle map you’ve chosen can park glowies in weird places, including a room halfway up the central spire which I don’t believe is actually accessible by walking. The Crey lab is better support for a more comprehensive search but can be short-circuited in the case of a single objective.

   The use of in-mission battles is a pretty good way to present the Nihilists as an active force. The only concern I have with them is that I seem to recall some of the dialogue assuming the battle would kick off with a hero in close proximity, or at least visual range, and by this point I’ve given up on that ever actually happening.

   Gameplay - ****. The Nihilists, especially at the boss rank, are hard but fair, though guaranteeing the Wretch takes some sting out of the last fight. My only real problem is that of all the things happening on the last map, only the boss had any kind of particle effects to make him stand out. Dashing around pounding tilde to look for allies in a mostly empty map is a bit of a chore, but the provided allies make it a little easier to scrub the place clean, at least.

   Detail - ***. This is where things kinda fall down. Wretch’s unique idiosyncracies often make it difficult to understand what he’s actually talking about. Generally this isn’t an issue for very long, as conditions on the ground become apparent, but when Wretch is taking about what he’s doing in spider central it’s a little more hazy.

   Is the “smarty guy” he’s collaborating with a poor beleaguered Bane Spider who made the mistake of helping him once, or just poor beleaguered Dr. Aeon? I mean, when you’re Wretch, everybody else is kind of a smarty guy. It’s kind of hilarious either way, but getting the occasional note (“Smarty guy say give you this!”) would both make it clearer what was going on on the Arachnos end and change up the humor a bit.

   Overall - ****. This is a great example of the good things that came out of the early days of MA. I can’t review it as I would have been then, though, only as I am now, more than a year and a half later. It’s a solid arc, and would still be a good intro to what you can do in MA for somebody who’s never seen it before, but after twenty months I can see some room for improvement.

   Posted on December 19th, 2010 at 8:01 pm