2 Responses

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on the same mid-40s ice/axe tanker, +0/x2 with bosses on.

   —

   So, Manticore recaps the events of the previous arc and says he has a lead on some alien general inbound in… one of three seemingly random locations in Paragon City. Why do I get the feeling I’ll be seeing the other two.

   Anyway, he warns me to demolish the comm console before they call for help.

   Huh. Looks like I’ve wandered into the SCA.

   Icecon/fire, elec/emp, mace/something, axe/something on the minions; arch/TA, BS/shield, energy/DMias on the lieuts, BS/emp on the bosses.

   I find history files indicating that these yahoos are part of an organization for fostering galactic peace. …seems to be working out rather poorly so far.

   I briefly wonder why I’ve hit the end of the area and not hit the mainframe, and then I remember the three branches on the first floor. Also the Paladin’s dialogue seems to indicate he’s got something like healing aura or regen aura, but I don’t see either go off.

   Ah, there it is. Last place I visit.

   Kind of a shame that on these grody old maps the mainframes also have to be old and grody, but what can you do?

   —

   So Synapse has gone to scout the building in grand old cutscene fashion, huh? Alright, let’s go see who’s got a chokehold on him this time.

   Well, he’s down a side passage, and there are two EB versions of the archer and sorceror lieutenants, which is a pretty nice touch if it was deliberate.

   They’re practically right next to each other because of the vagaries of the map, which isn’t so nice.

   I do get a chance to see some more Paladins in combat conditions, and they do pop Recovergen Aura, so there’s that, at least.

   And Synapse… well, between Thunderstrike, Thunderclap, and his custom Lightning Whirlwind, he just blows things all over the place. His “run to different targets to show off my speed” AI isn’t much of a help either.

   I find a report about… Sister Psyche. Man, is this whole arc series going to be rescuing the Surviving Eight?

   —

   Man, defeat all on an outdoor map?

   Phew, thankfully no, though Manticore’s briefing made it sound like it’d work that way.

   Anyway. Thanks to the vagaries of outdoor spawning and the AI Architect’s keen sense of irony, I find Sister Psyche right when I cut to the coast and General Gwen just a bit further down. I free Manti after everything’s blown over to see if he’s got some clues, but no, just more dialogue.

   —

   Storyline - ***. Well, there’s actually a notional coordinated plan going on here, which is a step up from the previous arc, but the plan just seems to be to go after this general, and along the way we just run into Sister Psyche being held captive. Obviously, springing her is a good thing, but why did this general have custody? Heightened mental discipline?

   I may be demanding too much here. I have no idea how much the human Resistance actually knows about the nature of their own opposition. …which is kind of a problem in itself given that I’m two arcs into this storyline. The Resistance haven’t told me much about what’s going on here — even hearing “we don’t know” would establish things I might want to keep an eye out for.

   Design - **. The enemy group is much easier to come to grips with than last time, thanks to the much more reasonable variety among its members and the unifying central theme. The colors still kind of mute the differentiation between enemies — yes, there’s guy who passed his initiation and is well on his way to being a Galactic Knight, and there’s a guy who failed and turned to dark fury in his self-loathing, but they’re both just dudes in blue and white armor (and I think the ragemonkey is actually the guy whose armor is mostly white).

   I can appreciate the leadership - bosses or EBs and above - dressing in official Protectorate colors, but because there’s so much diversity among the rank and file I really think they could do with some diversity of color too.

   Going back to Longbow, they’re all basically just dudes in decent armor with normal weapons. The spec-ops is one exception and the Wardens are others, so they have unique flair to their costumes. What you’ve got here is a big apparent variety of power sources — even if they all boil down to “swords, bows, and magic” — which you try to express with different patterns in costume design, but as I’ve said before patterns really don’t resolve too well on most models so it just looks like blue-and-white static. If they were all the same costume design but with different “highlight colors” — the minions were grey/white with highlights, the lieuts blue with highlights — they’d be easier to tell apart.

   And the third mission just feels a bit off. Synapse is supposed to be drawing people out to the far perimeter, leaving this central position exposed, but there’s not really much of a “fortified position” going on here. I realize I’m saying this about the “war wall generators” map, but it really isn’t very defensible. I can think of outdoor maps that might apply to — the factory spire, the Fab, Thorn Isle (though that one doesn’t take hostages), Villa Requin (aka the Snaptooth map, though it’s not in yet). I realize there isn’t much you can do about it, but it still doesn’t feel right.

   Gameplay - ****. The only real downside was finding the mainframe in the three-branched abandoned lab map, and that only because I was lucky enough to find the relevant boss first. Well, and Synapse, but I’m not counting him because I had no idea what a pain his ally AI would be when I grabbed him.

   Detail - ***. Once again, there’s a modest amount of backstory provided via clues, but it needs to be taken with a grain of salt as history is written by the victors. You technically miss out on a chance to give General Gwen a little character by making the clues to her operation be general-purpose “here’s what you find” bits rather than actual notes from her, but honestly as soon as I saw the SCA I knew what was going down.

   The rank and file enemy descriptions are still their ungainly wall of text selves, though.

   Overall - ***. This arc doesn’t try to cram as much into three missions as its predecessor, and so isn’t quite as strained. I can actually come to grips with the enemy group before the arc is over and, presumably, never see them again.

   But some of the problems from the first arc still remain. I still have no idea what the big picture is — not even the invasion.s big picture, the Resistance’s. Why go after this general? What are they hoping to accomplish? The enemy design still kind of blends together, and now that the pattern’s been established that each enemy group is unique to its own arc, the walls of text are even more puzzling. They won’t inform on this group’s future actions because there aren’t any, and they don’t seem to inform on their present actions either.

   I mean, we’ve got a group of basically space knights. But they still use computers, they still use Earth-relative futuristic technology, there’s nothing in their bases to suggest they operate any differently from Division 0 in the last arc, there’s no particular stated reason for them to have custody of Sister Psyche, and Synapse performs a conventional distraction maneuver instead of say, Manticore challenging the Gweneral to open combat on the field of honor, army against army (except that his army has two dudes but this is a trivial detail).

   Overall, while the enemy group and presentation has improved, the worries I had about the structure of these arcs-within-the-series seem to be borne out in practice.

   Posted on July 27th, 2010 at 11:12 pm

2. PW Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   This felt like a middle installment in a serial, which it is; as such, the story didn’t really grab me that strongly. The arc did have a logical start and finish, though, so it didn’t seem justified to mark off points for this. I’m not quite sure what to suggest on making the story more involving; it might just be me. The gameplay of the arc seemed fine, and each mission has a decent amount of stuff to do. The arc as a whole has a plot of its own, in addition to moving the overarching “Galactic Protectorate” plot forward a little bit.

   I liked that the big bad guy of the arc (Gen. Guinevere) had lots of foreshadowing and build-up from the various other NPCs you encounter. The GP - Division 12 group seemed reasonably balanced for a high-end mission group; I thought it was a bit weird that they were using mostly high fantasy equipment, but the lore in this arc spins this as being Division 12’s “schtick”, so I can accept that.

   Posted on July 29th, 2010 at 11:12 am