1 Response

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on my level 50 spine/regen scrapper, +1/x2 with bosses on.

   —

   Okay. With a vigilante spin this is a much simpler premise - it’s established that you’re willing to risk some civilians to put somebody behind bars.

   Not quite sure about the initial whispered aside, though. Maybe it’d be better off as a note? The clue in the safe is a little more specific…

   —

   Hmm. She’s really feeding out a line. I can’t put my finger on exactly why it rubs me the wrong way to have these “dual briefings”, but having her just put on the blank front and, say, slip some secret instructions on a piece of paper in a farewell handshake wouldn’t be out of line.

   The PPD patrolling the prison yard seem a little conflicted about the guy they just captured. Wonder why.

   Huh. Not even a trot out to the chopper. Once his guards are down, that’s the extent of things.

   Not that I’m complaining, but with all the patrols I saw it might actually be fun making my way back out.

   Little typo in the return text - “handwriting”, it should be.

   —

   I think the reason I don’t really like the dual briefings is because my contact is out in the open but doesn’t seem to have any worries about breaking her cover.

   And the only briefing I’m overtly acting on is the one she delivers first, so there’s that disconnect too.

   Anyhow, kidnap a-go-go.

   I find a bunch of glowies in the front office, including the two things I’m after. Are they supposed to be up in front or was that just my bad luck? I found some distraction glowies spread throughout the mission, which is why I ask.

   —

   Hmm. The note to open the last mission (finally, a note!) talks about some kind of gas. Until I see the canisters in the entry room I don’t really have a context for that. Oh! Actually, re-examining the briefing, it was called out in the sendoff, buried in the middle of a paragraph. That could use some color highlight.

   You know what’d make this party better? Yellow recticles. Shame that technology’s not with us yet.

   Oh. I get some nice effects with a follow-on ambush from one of the canisters running into a party group. That’s pretty well done, and I don’t think yellow recticles would work for it.

   And… somehow my contact’s brother is back? That’s nice, I suppose?

   —

   Storyline - ***. The original storyline makes a bit more sense when you’re coming into it as a vigilante. There’s another plot thread running through this, about my contact’s brother and his previous attempt to address/expose the Greater Good. But it’s taken care of mostly in incidental comments from my contact and the occasional clue. I never actually do anything with the plot thread — it just kinda flails around in the background and gets somehow resolved at the end.

   Here’s an idea. Forget the clue in mission 2, have my contact send me off to her brother’s apartment to meet a friend who the Greater Good are trying to disappear as mission 4. Maybe prevent a boss from escaping or similar. Then before word gets back to HQ about me jumping into the operation, confront our Mr. Worthy. My contact can justify it as going to wash the stink of wealth (and gunpowder) off before the induction ceremony.

   Design - *****. The Greater Good seem like the generic brawler/ranged mix, and are rather monolithic but that’s kinda the point. In general special maps are used pretty reasonably well, though the last two are rather unavoidably offices.

   Extra points here for how the flavor spawns in the last mission react to ambushes. Even if it’s up to chance most of the time, I think the first room will make sure that it’s seen at least once.

   Gameplay - *****. This is pretty solid. You could stand even to have Mr. Worthy or the little rich girl led to a glowie somewhere and it wouldn’t really detract much from the task at hand. This isn’t necessarily a challenging group of missions, but not everything needs to be a slog.

   Detail - ***. The clue in mission 2 is a bit odd to find - why would Worthington throw it away in his jail cell? And finding his appointment book in Richmond’s penthouse is a bit weird too. If you take my suggestion on mission 4, you can probably move the ulk of the clues relating to Worthington there.

   The briefing style and its split personality, while I can see the sense in it, is rather a pain to follow. I think segregating the “alternate briefing” to a passed note would help there.

   Overall - ****. Now that vigilantes exist, it’s easier to feed into this arc. But the extra plot thread, which I guess was supposed to be personally compelling, just sort of flops around resolving itself without really a lot of intervention on our part.

   The new thread could honestly do with a mission to itself, as it doesn’t seem possible to really laer it in very well with the existing structure.

   Posted on August 17th, 2010 at 10:37 pm