4 Responses

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Ice/axe tanker. High 30s. Diff 2 for ~goodfights~.

   —

   Us, huh? Okay, buddy, let’s see if you actually show on the ground.

   Y’know, if every second counts shouldn’t there be a timer?

   Wow. That’s a crowded objective bar. How much of that is actually mandatory?

   Well, what do you know, he actually showed up. Alright, let’s kick some — oh man. Ohhhhh man. Okay. I would like you to think about this:

   Focused Senses boosts perception.

   Quickness boosts run speed.

   Rikti monkey gas makes allies flip out and run the hell away.

   Put them all together and it’s the amazing Two Rooms Away Man!

   I hope I can fly solo for a bit later on.

   Also, the Longbow in charge of the base is an ordinary minigunner. Was that intended?

   Wow, looks like they were all required. I’m not really sure what you can do to collapse everything - maybe lump all the rescues together?

   —

   Make up your mind whether the contact spells out his contractions or not. “I have” -> “she has not” -> “I’ve” -> me going “whuh?”

   Guy, it’s okay. Heroes can help heroes for no reason at all. I am not your damn relationship counselor, nor does this seem like an appropriate time.

   This is going to end up being somebody else who thinks an appropriate memorial for a lost loved one is destroying everything else they ever loved, isn’t it? I only ask because I’ve seen it twice and something’s rubbing me the wrong way now.

   …wow, if this was actually a Crey plan, there are just so many ways for it to fail. In the middle of a Rikti invasion, deliberately take out one base’s defenses and hope that out of all the chaos one particular hero shows up?

   Nothing really interesting on the top floor, wonder what’s through the secret elevator…

   Oh, peachy. He Who Must Be Blamed?

   So Countess Crey and Nemesis walk into a covert Arachnos base. Countess Crey says “Is that a USB drive in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”

   Nemesis isn’t some Republic serial villain. He’ll only tell you what his plan is if he’s pulled it off sometime in the past three dozen minutes or so. So why do I have a feeling that the anachronistic clue Big Brass dropped is going to turn into a lead?

   Yyyyyep. Look, man, three rules of heroing: Shoot Straight. Conserve Your Inspirations. Never, Never Take A Lead From Lord Nemesis.

   —

   Carnies now. I guess we haven’t gotten all the irritating psychic AVs out of the way.

   …okay, Lady Borgia would never say “yucky”. More like “uncouth”, and I don’t believe there’s a Freak who’s ever couthed in his eventful little life.

   Okay, look. Vanessa may be a party girl living in a party world, but that party world is Renaissance-era Italy. Even if she has her mind back at this point, and I have no idea if that’s true or not, Giovanna Scaldi has been talking through her mouth for years now and that’s not something you just give up.

   Agh Malta! Agh Sappers! Agh… they’re not firing at me. Um…

   Okay, random run-in from the defense force of… the same supergroup Fanboy in the first mission was from. That’s not disturbing at all.

   Suuuuure there are worse things than all the villains out there, Mr. Malta guy. BrainwashingparamilitaryorganizationthattriedtodestroyParagonCitywithagiantrobotsaysWHAT?

   Malta are on the scale of “dudes you should trust” somewhere just very slightly above Nemesis. Their modus operandi is brainwashing and information warfare.

   But we’re going to trust them as well, aren’t we? Yes, yes we are.

   —

   Look, my contact, you can’t just throw half the Malta statement out as bullshit and take the other half of the statement at face value!

   Arachnos… and the Council… in a 5th column base. This is turning into like MA Mad Libs at a distressing rate.

   Oh, it’s THAT 5th column base. You should be advised, one of the boss locations is up a dozen flights of stairs on the catwalk overlooking the little “parade ground”.

   GUESS WHERE NOSFY SPAWNS.

   …Bonedog. BONEDOG. That’s a level 0 Skull functionary name. …his description is his name. That’s, uh, that’s real helpful there.

   He’s Thugs/Rad. I have no clue why.

   Why hello there, Gang War. Or should I call you ENERGY ABSORB MAX.

   Almost makes up for the rad debuff.

   So, alright. The guys coordinating every freakin’ high-stakes villain group in possibly the world and planning something unknown, but probably evil, are named TORQUE and BONEDOG.

   Those are names that you might expect to have some trouble breaking into a modestly well reinforced pawn shop.

   —

   Yeah, uh, mind cluing me in on your relationship to this guy, my contact? This guy who shares your last name? Is he like your evil duplicate from another dimension or a clone that got all uppity or perhaps your former auto mechanic grandfather?

   No timer on the mission. It’s probably already too late.

   …it’s an Arachnos base, intro text, but given that people can’t make SG bases in MA I guess I can forgive it. But… how is this a heroic rescue? It’s some guy’s girlfriend from another guy who hates him. This is like, 80’s teen movie rescue at best.

   Okay, descriptive text, I can guess they’re loyal minions of the faction they’re described as being from. Anything else you want to tell me? No? Okay then.

   So. Rescue over… an emp/rad AV? Ooookay. Looks like an ordinary EB out there, and given that she’s boosting her boyfriend I decide to just walk away for a drink of water, and the fight’s over when I get back.

   I check the guy’s info before he fades away, and yep, Praetorian Contact.

   Oh good, I’m doubting someone as a result of all this. It’s… the guy from Freedom Corps. Because apparently it was completely impossible for Crey to change their mimic-Rikti virus to bypass existing protections.

   WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT.

   With all the dubious links in the chain of events leading up to the final mission, I doubt THE FIRST ONE? That’s like marking Charlie Chaplin down in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest where the other entries are a broom, a block of gelatin, and a small silver bowl full of pudding!

   Oh, and my contact’s getting married. THIS won’t end horribly.

   —-

   Storyline - *. So… every villain group and perhaps some hero groups are teaming up to… to… Gaw, I don’t know, put on the veryest specialest episode of “This is Your Life” for Statesman? I follow quite possibly the least probable chain of clues ever to get to the end of this all… and why was I even here again? My MA/SR ally could probably just solo all of this stuff himself if it wasn’t for the persistent ally range issues.

   Design - *. The secret Arachnos warehouse and the 5th Column’s Last Stand maps don’t really fit the groups you put on them much, if at all. Vanessa for some reason shows up not very far into the abandoned warehouse map, leaving about half of it completely pointless.

   Gameplay - ***. Even when the Rikti monkey gas wasn’t making him cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, my ally still loved to run ahead and slaughter everything. And the “final battle” was over in a handful of seconds without me even having to do anything. Not the fifteen minutes of sweaty-palmed button-mashing action I was expecting.

   Detail - **. I have real trouble believing Torque and Bonedog as global-level threats, if that wasn’t already clear. The rather anemic descriptions on the enemy group minions and boss seem rather out of place, compared to the lavish bios that my contact and his Praetorian self manage.

   Overall - *. As a setup for a larger arc this actually seems completely unnecessary. I mean, I come out the other end knowing pretty much nothing more than when I went in. You’ve heard of “in medias res”, right? Starting a story in the middle? Really I think there’d be a lot to gain from like a hero getting a wedding invitation and showing up to find the place a mess and the “bride” hovering in the air surrounded by a malevolent energy aura saying “FOOL! How could you not recognize I, the malificent Rats E. Daj? My weakling reflection from your world is nothing more than a battery for our Omnivoid Ripper now, and there’s nothing you can do to stop us from DESTROYING TIME AND/OR SPACE!”

   Or, y’know, whatever you had planned for the future of all of this. I’ve got no idea what the shape is of things to come. And if this is a prequel of sorts, shouldn’t I?

   Posted on June 25th, 2009 at 10:48 pm

2. Sun_Shadow Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   Ran this with a team of 5 last night and we had an absolute blast! Very fun AV fights and looking forward to the rest! I PM’ed you in game with my global… let me know when the rest of the story arcs are created! My SG mates and I want to run them!

   So why is a hero (Captain Amazing) taking down the Longbow computer??!! We’re dying to know! LOL!

   5 stars all around!

   Posted on June 26th, 2009 at 8:55 am

3. Miss_Freeze Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   Very fun arc to run with a team or solo. Interesting clues leading to a larger story that we are looking forward to!

   Nicely done!

   Posted on June 30th, 2009 at 6:12 am

4. Kryo-jenn Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   My husband and I ran this arc with our son and we had a great time. What started off as a straightforward “save the Longbow” mission quickly started turning into something much more!

   I enjoyed being on a journey to help Turbo reunite with his old flame! My husband and son just liked beating up all the AVs.

   Very fun all around and looking forward to seeing the rest of the story when its done.

   Posted on July 1st, 2009 at 5:53 am