1 Response

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a level 50 spine/regen scrapper, +0 x2 with bosses on.

   —

   My contact has become aware of his nature as a character in a MMORPG - the Freaks are always going to be breaking in to his building.

   Ooh, and he’s gave me a thing that I don’t know what it does. Those are always fun.

   There seems to be a wandering patrol of Freaks on the first level but I don’t see them saying anything.

   Several wandering patrols. Those things actually count toward the defeat all, or they did last I checked anyway. Bit of a problem if one of them gets painted into a corner.

   Still, very vanilla mission to start with, but then perhaps that’s the point. The device has done its science so it’s time to go home.

   Ouroboros is creating paradoxes? Like, deliberately or accidentally? Generally they seem a bit concerned about the timeline and various forces messing with it.

   —

   Oh. It’s not the same mission again? Just when I was all set to go through another time loop.

   Regardless, this promises to be interesting!

   Quick tip on mission structure — generally how missions work in-game is that some important part of the mission dialogue, in this case it would be “find out what’s happening”, is highlighted in light green. The accept text is an objective restatement of the mission goals, such as “investigate the abandoned building”.

   I go in and — dang. Menders. Pretty snazzy design and color scheme on them, too.

   On the second floor I encounter the mainframe that may complete the mission. I save it for later.

   A lot of the mender power sets make some kind of sense, but on the top floor the randomizer spits out ice/elec melee bosses, which both sap the blue bar something fierce and don’t make a whole lot of sense together. Energy aura/elec are a little more thematic while preserving the same defense type.

   Yep, the glowie on the second floor completed the mission. This is probably another case where a map confuses “back” and “middle” for glowies.

   Oh. And there was a silent ambush attached to it. Would’ve been helpful to know before I alt-tabbed out.

   The doctor talks about the evidence I found, though my clues tab hasn’t had anything added to it. Seems like a bit of an oversight.

   —

   The doc wants me to talk with a mender he knows for… some reason? Have they worked together before, are they mutual acquaintances through a hero?

   Anyway. I get the feeling it’s not going to be a simple chat.

   Hmm. Mock combat. But everyone here seems eager to fight me.

   Maybe my contact could call ahead to Tesla? I have to admit I don’t exactly see my motivation to beat these people down, but if Tesla’s in on it their hostility could be an early clue.

   So I just stealth up to Tesla. Defeating him and his entourage doesn’t actually seem to complete the mission. I clear out the end room, and with the mission still not complete I make one more sweep, wondering if this was a defeat all with an odd name.

   Nope. A minion in Tesla’s spawn showed up behind a stack of crates. Taking her down gives me the defeat text; I stopped him from fleeing, which a spine scrapper is pretty good at doing. His dialogue did seem to indicate he was making a break for it, but it’s a bit hard to tell either way since a lot of knockdown and slow will get an enemy to turn tail on occasion.

   Tesla seemed like a normal boss of the faction, which I guess makes sense, but because that last room can put spawns in odd places I’d suggest scaling the objective back to just him.

   Apparently there’s a splinter group within Ouroboros that just loves them some paradoxes.

   —

   A cave that’s seemingly gone unnoticed. The warren of some temporal mastermind. Wonder who it is?

   A snake outline? Holy crap, it’s Stheno! Ouroboros is the Snake biting its tail! This is gonna be an epic-

   Oh. It’s… just a Cobra. Who is, according to her description, a complete mystery.

   I return to my contact, only to find the snake has eaten its tail and he has no clue what went on. Very Twilight Zone of him.

   —

   Storyline - ***. Ordinarily I don’t much like arcs that keep you running as fast as you can just to stay in the same place, but in this case it’s not so bad because it’s the entire point.

   The problem is that the links between the missions are a little tenuous, especially the jump between 2 and 3. Maybe Tesla shows up on that footage? But with the clue missing, I can’t really tell.

   Design - ****. The Menders are pretty great, visually, anyway. But the two lieutenants and the boss all like getting into melee, which can be a little punishing. I’ve already talked about the weirdness of the ice/elec bosses; what I’m suggesting here is that you swap the fire lieutenant for fire assault/prefers range, and maybe make an alternate, ranged, boss.

   Gameplay - ****. The only real letdown was just facing a boss at the end. I’ve had some great fights with Stheno, and I was looking forward to another one. I think the cobra was actually less of a challenge than the rank-and-file Mender bosses, which seems a bit off.

   Detail - **. The mainframe is missing interact text and its associated clue is missing completely, and every mission contains only the single objective necessary to complete it. That’s pretty sparse. I’d like to see some flavor - if this is supposed to be a funny commentary on how nothing ever seems to change, have the Menders talk about how some villains accidentally saw Boomtown being constructed or how many people have tried to burn down Perez Park. Give the Freaks lines about deja vu - each successive patrol gets even more freaked out that they’re all saying the same thing. Have a wooden barrel full of apples just follow you from mission to mission, for no apparent reason.

   Overall - ***. An arc with an interesting and visually solid custom group. It aims at the fourth wall but doesn’t take more than a half-hearted swing, though there’s plenty of room to expand that.

   Posted on March 15th, 2010 at 10:18 pm