4 Responses

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on my level 50 spine/regen scrapper, no bosses all AVs 2 heroes at +0.

   —

   Hmm. This is somebody who could be improved by the little bio option they give for arc contacts now. As it is she’s a mystery, and I’m wondering why she’s so dismissive of the scientists at Portal Corp.

   Oh well, let’s go see these horrors from another dimension.

   Looks like DMelee/DArmor minions and DBlast/SonicR lieuts. Pretty reasonable mix so far. DMelee/DArmor bosses too.

   Heh. Just checked the navbar. Dr. Joike, Dr. Bobo, and Dr. I’m Different, I presume?

   Anyway, it seems like I may have been misled by the contact I’ve never seen before. Either that or these guys are good at mind control.

   Anyway, I get the “we must understand these creatures!” explanation in a clue once all three of them come outside.

   Hmm. My contact doesn’t say anything about the mind control. I have a feeling I’m being lied to.

   —

   My contact says the plants have spoken to her. Uh… huh.

   I wonder if these guys are just - gasp! - HERBIVORES.

   Anyway, it’s a defeat all in a short cave and everybody in it is absolutely silent. Not much to say there.

   —

   These briefings could use some paragraph breaks. They help break up ideas for easier consumption.

   And something the canon missions tend to do that I like is generally spell out the location of the missions and what I’m expected to do there, the latter in green text, with the accept text an objective restatement of the same.

   Anyway, I go in to a place to save some people. A fire controller in a suit and an elec/elec bug, who because he’s running Lightning Aura speaks up as soon as I enter the door and almost takes out the guards before I get up to him.

   I dunno, maybe that’s intended for him?

   But a couple of EBs are really overkill as allies.

   Though this is like a two-floor building so I don’t even get the chance to ditch them before I’ve cleared it out.
   —

   And some heroes are trying to get in our way, so my contact and her EB buddies are going to hold them off while I wreck the queen. Alone.

   She’s probably an EB so there should be a warning about that.

   Huh. The Paragon Police are here? I don’t see ‘em. A talky patrol would be a good idea.

   …a fire control/radiation elite boss. Ouch.

   Well, there should be a warning anyway, even if it’s not the queen.

   But there’s no real reason to believe the hero over the scientists from the first mission. Especially if my contact could hint that they’re being compromised.

   It does bother me a bit how I managed to MEET the villain in the first place. Neutral territory?

   I let the queen get away? She was out the door before I ever got there, lady.

   —

   Anyway, the final mission briefing could use some commentary from my hero on what I was planning to do.

   …what?

   Spirit Croatoa?

   How did I wind up here?

   Okay, having rescued the Queen, these Oraith guys ARE psychic.

   And having an Oraith boss as an ally means he’s running his dark aura and killing his guards.

   Anyway, with a sonic blast/DMiasma EB and two bosses and two lieutenants, the end boss (plant/psy assault) goes down like whoa.

   In the end she rants about making the tough choices.

   And that gets me to thinking…

   —

   Storyline - **. It’s pretty clear from the first mission that there’s a disconnect between my contact’s orders and the way other people are reacting to these creatures. And my contact doesn’t seem interested in addressing that disconnect, which makes me doubly suspicious. Honestly, I wouldn’t voluntarily be following along after the first mission.

   But here’s something. These things are psychic. My contact can claim they use mind control. It actually makes what happens to her grandparents more terrifying - they were controlled into shooting these things so they could claim “self-defense”.

   And after the fourth mission, she’s convinced I’m in on the conspiracy, so she fights me in mission 5 no matter what - and then I decide whether the queen in mission 5 gets away or not.

   As it is, if I’ve decided to go ahead with things after mission 1, I don’t think the new information in mission 4 is going to change my mind.

   Design - ***. The enemy group, while small, is interesting, and the allies are pretty nice jobs too. There are things like vocal patrols for mission 4 which would help set the scene, but with the exception of the Spirit Croatoa final map I can mostly follow allong.

   Gameplay - ***. On occasion when I get swarmed by lieutenants the sonic dispersion/sonic siphon proved to be too much. But this is really for the overpowering allies in the third and fifth mission, and the rather unreasonable boss in the fourth mission. I may as well have just stood still for the big climatic boss fight, and the fire/rad can kill anybody’s greatest defensive strength.

   Detail - **. It doesn’t help that I only get two clues and both of them are about people who’ve talked to these dimensional creatures already. There isn’t a single thing in any of the missions that isn’t required, which is a real shame because I’m clearly supposed to have developed some kind of sense of both my contact and the mysterious invaders by the end. Finding clues in the lab, in the cave, in the crumbling office, and in the police warehouse can inform my decision about what I “should” be doing, even if the last mission isn’t a choice at all.

   Overall - ***. Overall it’s an interesting concept for an arc, but the difficulty is a bit uneven and the plot is a bit more obviously railroading than I’d like.

   Posted on December 3rd, 2009 at 11:31 pm

2. @Kendai Says:

   In response to the above review, I take in the comments, and am grateful to Glazius for reviewing my arc. There’s a lot of criticism, and I much appreciate it. Please could you mail me some suggestions on how to improve it or how to make it better? What AT did you use for playing and reviewing this?

   Also - telepathy doesn’t mean they can control your mind. They do communicate with it but that doesn’t mean they force your mind to submit to their thoughts…

   This therefore means the Oraith have been innocent all along. They didn’t force Carmina’s grandparents to shoot them, Carmina is just on a rampage of vengeance, and you (the hero) has to stop her revenge.

   The allies in the final mission are optional (except the Queen). As EBs I’ve heard that the Queen can defeat Carmina over time, but as AVs neither can defeat the other.

   Posted on December 10th, 2009 at 2:25 pm

3. @Kendai Says:

   Whoops - I misunderstood what you said and my British friend just explained to me your review to me so I see what you mean about the mind control thing.

   In response, your suggestion there sounds great. But mind control does get complicated - is your contact being controlled? Are you being controlled? etc.

   Again, thanks for playing my arc and giving me food for thought!

   Posted on December 10th, 2009 at 2:55 pm

4. Glazius Says:

   As an extremely belated comment, though I don’t know if you’ll get this — my suggestion is not to have anybody actually mind-controlled in the arc, but to have my villainous contact use “mind control” as an explanation for why nobody else but her seems to have it in for these things.

   As it is I have her word that the Oraith are dangerous and everyone else’s word that they’re benign, and she doesn’t really address anything I’m finding out in the missions.

   Posted on February 23rd, 2010 at 7:12 pm