1 Response

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a DBlade/Fire brute, high 40s +1 x2 with bosses on.

   —

   Okay, so there’s a bunch of peasants getting their mad on, on account of some kind of curse.

   Possessions are appropriately creepy, enemies are generally alright but I wonder why the hunter’s using gunpowder weapons rather than a bow.

   Anyway, I save some normal people and then pick up the king. …who screams in rage and runs away.

   That doesn’t bode well.

   —

   King Anansi?

   Okay, I have a better idea than fighting through his retinue. We wait, like, a week, for him to get thrown out of his own kingdom and meet him at the border.

   Eh, but time’s of the essence. So let’s do this.

   Oh. Not recolored Arachnoids, as I had thought. Custom spiners.

   And weirder things.

   Anansi is a recolored Arachnoid boss… and really, I’d rather it was the other way around, as the regen on Arachnoid bosses is pretty sick, elite bosses more so.

   Anyway, because he’s in this for the laughs, he puts me in a race against his own minions to break open a box before they bury it.

   It’s a map to… somewhere. And offhand he mentions his own people are drowning in rage too.

   —

   So I get warned about terrible ambushes if I disturb the dead.

   Well, the treasure. I pay my respects to some coffins, even though there isn’t anything in the way of a progress bar.

   Hmm. About halfway through the cave I find an inactive stone altar. This seems like it has potential to be the final glowie.

   Ah, alright. There’s an actual portal in the final screen. I realize you can’t very well put glowies in order with multiples in the middle, but maybe you could pick a map with a large last room and put two there?

   Pretty nice ending here. My destiny is to wreck the guy in charge of this nightmare because it’s nothing personal for me. Sensible.

   —

   So in I go.

   I’m seeing Storm Shamans, Thorn Wielders, and Squall Elementals. (They’re called “Essense” but need that last as a C.) Can I get some more Shaman variety? Hurricane is pretty punishing.

   Or maybe just an Avalanche Shaman instead. Hurricane plus a Strongman Mask equals a negative to-hit bonus.

   Have to pop another Shivan to deal with the boss. He seems to have some armor set, and stacking dark blasts ruin my ability to hit him for more than Siphon Life regenerates back.

   —

   And now, to restore the king’s reason.

   I’m a little disappointed that these optional emotion helpers are just tempest elementals instead of being, like, a warrior and the queen.

   Then again, given that this dude apparently pops a tier 9 willpower buff, the tempest elementals help.

   I get an ambush of more elementals and… apparently some custom mind controllers? when the king is low on health. Fortunately I’ve got my luck up so the mind controls don’t land too much before I carve them up.

   Pretty nice stage to fight this on, though.

   —

   Storyline - ****. About the only real hiccup here is the prophecy. It kind of makes my contact redundant - I’d think at least it would have some special in-world knowledge required for understanding that my contact would be able to provide.

   Also there’s no guarantee I don’t hate this guy. Maybe the spell needs to fixate on somebody HE hates? And as a Johnny-come-lately, he can’t manage to muster up enough hate against me to stay immortal.

   Design - ***. I was expecting a little more out of the final assists than just a couple more giant balls of plasma, but I guess they’re one of the few enemies that can punch through Strength of Will? They seemed more thematically “evil” given how that enemy group had been previously used.

   The possessed citizens and Anansi’s soldiers are impressive in their own way, but I don’t think all those customs were strictly necessary; arachnoids with maybe one custom for flavor would have been fine.

   And while I get what you were going for with the mysterious oracle’s cavern, the cavern itself was a bit mazelike and could stand to be on a more straightforward map. …assuming those things actually exist for the blue caves.

   Gameplay - ***. Backtracking in the cave I can understand. If I hadn’t noticed that obelisk I’d be hunting a bit longer, but there’s not much to be done there unfortunately.

   But I basically gave up on cracking the regen of most of the big bosses. Anansi could be a custom with less ludicrous regeneration than the Arachnoid EBs usually get. For whatever reasons I was having trouble with the sorceror as well. Maybe all the -hit and self-healing from dark blasts were what did it, as I didn’t particularly notice much armor. And of course the end boss, a Willpower EB with the tier 9 in full effect.

   The sorceror’s minions were a bit of a hassle too, with the lieutenants and boss all able to debuff accuracy. Any two of those hit I was looking at a base negative to-hit, and that’s not a happy place to be. Anger masks and Avalanche shamans.might be better choices there.

   Detail - ****. Solid work. A few typos in places but nothing a second read won’t fix.

   Overall - ****. Despite the complaints I had, in the end? I went to Dhahabu Kingdom and lifted the Indelible Curse of Hate, in fine pulp-adventure style. And most of the issues I had could be pretty easily addressed. Give this one a try.

   Posted on April 26th, 2010 at 11:09 pm