1 Response

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a DB/fire brute, 2 villains, +1, no AVs, all bosses.

   —

   One mission? Okay, this should be fun. Let’s see what I’m walking into.

   Huh. Some generic security guy is gonna let me off the hook if I mess up somebody else’s plans.

   Can’t be that simple, but let’s roll with it.

   Huh. Freakshow.

   Well, it’s probably gonna be that simple.

   Okay. Three identical hostages with three identical descriptions and three identical conversations leave me a clue about what’s going on - the Freaks are trying to spring a blood relative of one of their bosses.

   Alright.

   So I get up to the boss, he talks about a chopper on the roof (which, okay, is practically impossible to implement) and then calls for Johnny to back him up… but Johnny never shows.

   So… where’s Johnny? The mission’s over.

   And the arc’s over.

   —

   Storyline - **. The entire reason the Freaks show up and we never see hide or hair of him? C’mon now. Maybe he’s another hostage who never asked for this crap? Maybe he’s the cleaner’s big bro and he’s like Metal Shift or t3h s00p3rfr34k with a different name. I was expecting more than just Freakshow, too. Some crazy over-the-top thing where the Devouring Earth brought the donuts and the Carnies spiked the coffee and Arachnos is going overboard to restore order and the judge is a Nemesis automaton. I do admittedly expect more in terms of complications from single missions than from individual missions in arcs.

   Design - **. I do admittedly expect more in terms of complications from single missions than from individual missions in arcs. Like chaining objectives - the mission sets up to be a normal day at the DMV and then there’s this hostage in the lobby with Freakshow and when I rescue him the place goes nuts. Or “choices” - maybe Johnny promises me a fat wad of cash if I let him run away. This is pretty much just any filler Freakshow mission I could pick up from a hero contact with the text slightly changed.

   Gameplay - ****. What can I say? It’s pretty fun to fight the Freaks.

   Detail - ***. Pretty simple stuff all told. Nothing really wrong with it, but it’s all rather generic. The Cleaner doesn’t even have his own bio.

   Overall - **. Okay, I’ll admit: I talked this up to myself a bit. I was expecting some kind of insane bureaucratic runaround that’d take me through a bunch of villain groups, or an offer from the villains to join forces with them, or… well, something other than a filler Freakshow mission. In every arc I expect something I can’t get from the game. For a 5-mission arc that can be a plot thread. For a single mission, not so much, unless the mission’s a big one and the plot’s created through chained objectives and the like. Single missions are also a good showcase for complex mechanics or custom groups, neither of which are present here.

   Posted on September 27th, 2009 at 5:49 pm