2 Responses

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a high 40s DB/fire brute, all bosses no AVs 2 villains at +1.

   —

   Ah, Phipps. One of the more hilarious things about him was how he’d snap into character all of a sudden. Hope I see some of that.

   Also I think the briefing and sendoff for mission 1 would work better reversed. Set up the do-gooders doing good in the briefing, briefly describe them and their goals in the sendoff.

   Heading into the mission and fighting down. Quick note: all the minions have the typo “serve thier purpose” in their description.

   Other note: “a hundredfold” doesn’t refer to something like a hundred people. It’s a multiplier. Seed that produces a hundredfold produces a hundred seeds for every one planted. Saying that poisoning food will “kill a hundredfold” only makes sense if 99 people other than the one who eats the food will also die. Which, y’know, I wouldn’t put it past certain bioagents? But I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.

   Might want to look into a little more contrast on the minions. under some lighting conditions it’s hard to tell the dark purple medics from the black claw fighters.

   And there’s a hard ambush at the end, which while a thrill to unload AoEs on comes too late to matter.

   …Phipps talking about a hot date? Dude’s got a careful social facade to keep up. It’s not that I couldn’t see him going out with some NGO charity director and then “getting his coat” while the Bane Spiders swoop in, but y’know, put the riders on.

   —

   Little typo in the next mission’s sendoff, “muscial” for “musical”.

   Next mission’s navbar says “2 Destroy 2 Computers”, which in addition to being the worst sequel to “Destroy All Computers” ever needs to be repluralized. “computers to destroy” or something like that.

   Also, surprise bumfight.

   Hmm. Is the safe supposed to be down on the first floor? Seems a bit odd that everything I had to do save one computer showed up there.

   —

   The start of the mission gives me an on-site report of hope in progress. Just kind of… out of the ether. Phipps doesn’t say anything about it.

   Also, dude is pissed. Exactly why I’m not entirely sure.

   Huh. Okay, looks like the bum was actually part of the hero group. You should probably set him not to spawn in regularly.

   You know the Council warehouse goes down to a Council cave complex, right?

   The info on the doc I spring tells me he’s made breakthroughs in time travel and parallel dimensions, which is not the sort of doctor who uses medical supplies. I’m guessing it’s a default description.

   He and the volunteer I rescue both are in the standard “captured (kneeling hands on head)” pose, which doesn’t make sense given that they’re here of their own free will.

   The ending clue has “Phipps crackled”, which I’m guessing should be “cackled”.

   —

   So.

   Enemy base.

   EB with buildup, which I can manage.

   Another one with a giant perception radius… and rage.

   Rage means double damage that never misses. And that’s horrible.

   You know, I thought Too Much Information Mastery was an April Fool’s joke. And here comes the boss, proving me wrong.

   Wow. The combination of rage and willpower means I can’t actually bring this boss down and then bolt during the rage, since the regen/resist factor is high enough that I can’t actually deal enough damage.

   I burn two Shivans to no effect. Dang Rise to the Challenge.

   So, one reload on Shivans (that also reset the mission) and a sum total of FOUR Shivans later, it’s finally over. Not even a closing clue.

   —

   Storyline - **. So there’s this charitable organization, let’s call them Angel International. They set up their little heavens in war-torn and dangerous areas all over the world, providing food, clothing, shelter, and that greatest of all treasures, which is Hope. And now they’ve come to the Rogue Isles. Well, Westin Phipps knows what to do about that!

   Step 1: as founder of Haven House, meet with local civilian coordinator. Talk business.
   Step 2: walk away to get coat. Push Arachnos panic button in lining of shirt. Return to find your new collaborator unaccountably gone with no clues left behind but an Arachnos Flier-shaped hole in the roof.
   Step 3: the following day, lament publicly that you should have been spirited away by spiders instead.
   Step 4: suspiciously well-coordinated villain attacks on remaining charity organization members are death blow for morale, Haven House is once again the only light of hope in Grandville.

   Except Step 4 doesn’t go as planned. The information was all a setup. And it turns out that the Arachnos strike team that was supposed to pull off step 2 never actually returned to base.

   In the frantic investigation that follows, it turns out that Angel International’s “civilian coordinator” was much more than she seemed, and as they have not done great things by being gullible simps, turned the tables on the Arachnos. And, having learned from the captured strike team what a fink-rat Westin Phipps is, they’re going to tell everyone.

   Until a villain raids their headquarters, destroys every last sliver of evidence, and runs off the lady in charge.

   But Westin Phipps is livid anyway. Not because of any failure of the villain’s, mind you. Because Angel International bought Haven House out from under him while he was distracted, so now dear old Westin Phipps can retire to the Bahamas and reap the reward of a life of community service. Dear old Westin Phipps is not going to stand for being made a fool of, and as soon as he has a plan ready and some favors called in, he and the villain are going to storm the gates of heaven. So to speak.

   This arc’s story is not that story. This arc’s story is a crude copy, in multiple senses. The sisters just come out of nowhere, seem to treat Westin Phipps as exactly what he is instead of the front he puts up for the public, and lead him around with a femme fatale. It all feels rather arbitrary, like some cosmic GM got tired of his messing around and rolled up a grudge monster. There’s also no real impetus for a second arc - the end boss’s description mentions she’s the second in command, but aside from the info window there’s no indication we’re not done yet.

   Design - ***. The Sisters have pretty consistent costuming. Minions have Justice armor, a hood, and a lower-face mask. Lieuts have Ulterior armor and a Blast Bot helm. Bosses have angel wings and Crey Tech armor with an electron pattern, and an electron head. But what am I seeing with that progression? It looks like they’re supposed to be getting more technological, but “Sisters of Light” doesn’t sound very techie, and the angel wings would be tech wings in the final form. Also the dark purple minions are easy to confuse with black ones in poor lighting, and the blue accents on the Ulterior Armor make the fire and ice lieuts look more alike than they should. It also seems like the hobo is supposed to be a unique boss, but he shows up with other bosses in normal spawns.

   Gameplay - **. Without Rage, the end boss would have been a formidable wall with a relentless attack chain, and overall a tough but satisfying fight. With Rage, the end boss is a lot of staring and waiting for the yellow aura of nearly instant death to go away, and then praying my Shivan can get in a lucky streak of hits before it’s Rage time again.

   Detail - *. TMI line rips at your mind for 432.15 points of psychic damage, and terrorizes you! You cower in fear!

   Seriously. I could have lived a happy and productive life without contemplating the contents of Westin Phipps’s pants. Also, there’s no background in the description of any of the Sisters, just some practical notes, and there aren’t any clues to their origins, either. They really do just seem to have come out of nowhere, which isn’t a good thing given how savvy they are about the Rogue Isles. And my favorite part of Westin Phipps, the simpering spin-doctor public facade, doesn’t show up at all. He’s just a big ball of nerd rage.

   Overall - **. An interesting new angle for Westin Phipps to pursue, dampened by a grudge-monster enemy group, an impenetrable wall of a final boss, and the lack of any more varied reaction from Westin Phipps than impotent rage.

   Posted on October 22nd, 2009 at 10:16 pm

2. @Unregistered Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   I’m not really sure what’s going on with Phipps, but my imaginary strike force team are his flunkies and do his bidding anyway and run around, poison food, beat up battle-nuns, multiple clones of a hero call “Homeless Hobo”, and nude-like winged angels.

   The missions are rather standard, so most of it was a beat mobs up thing. The beat mobs up thing was rather enjoyable because it made me do a bit of strategizing.

   I ran it solo on my DM/WP brute but I think the mobs allow for different ATs in the team to be shine. Minions are standard except for the medics that heal. The lieutenants are a threat with slows and short circuit. These two need to be controlled or taken down. The bosses tend to be heavy melee hitters (possibly non-mezzable, I don’t know) and more for brutes and corrupters to deal with.

   I don’t like the mob’s costumes at all but they seem to be put together with design. Except for the angels with these weird wings.

   The final boss was challenging to fight and gave me a workout, which was nice. But I don’t fancy seeing the boss in its AV glory if its default is AV. I also think it unfairly penalises defense-base sets because of Rage.

   I don’t think this arc is for me. The writing, clues, and even the mobs’ costumes turned me off. It lost me the moment Phipps declared that he had a “hot date”, and even more when he started singing. It just doesn’t read like Phipps to me.

   I found the blatant description of torture, the homeless hobo hints of having sex with the battle-nuns, the “archangel’s” description of Phipps penile size, in very poor taste. Torture and sex have their places in stories, but there’s no need to describe how Phipps made the doctor screamed. I don’t get it why the archangel was comparing my character fighting her with having sex with Phipps — what makes the writer think VillainName is male in the first place?

   And I never did get how Phipp didn’t notice his “hot date” had weirdly coloured skin and huge feathered wings.

   Posted on October 25th, 2009 at 10:21 pm