1 Response

1. Glazius Says:

   Storyline
   Design
   Gameplay
   Detail

   @GlaziusF

   Running this on a high-40s ice/axe tank, +0/x2 with bosses on.

   —

   It’s really not necessary to put in the fiction about using AE to get heroes together for a punchup. That’s space you could use to talk about other things that actually matter to the plot.

   Still, standard Saturday morning spiel here - whole bunch of archvillains coming together to bring Paragon City to its knees. My part in this begins foiling a prison break in the Zig. …in the bunker? That’s kind of dinky.

   But yeah. Rescue Citadel, throw down with Black Scorpion in this teeny-tiny space.

   (I still can’t believe you can’t call that particular spade a spade.)

   —

   And now someone’s unleashed Arachnoids on Peregrine Island.

   Looks like someone fobbed mind-control duty for them off on the Carnies. Hoo boy. Fortuntately with Manticore and Miss Sis Psyche, there’s not a lot of danger in a single Master Illusionist boss.

   (And just so you know, the list of random civilians includes some distinctly un-civilian entities, like the Tsoo tattoo artists.)

   Apparently there’s some bad mojo brewing on Striga.

   —

   Synapse and Babs? Hoo boy. The Knockback Brothers. And Synapse’s AI makes him rapidly switch targets to show off his speed. If I was worried about getting dogpiled I’d be extra-worried now.

   In attendance at the Center’s control room are Nosferatu and…. some random scrub elite protector. It seems that the Circle are going to summon Baphomet and then Crey and the Council are going to pump him up with mad science.

   The alteration chamber is… up on the catwalks in the Center’s danger room? I didn’t even know there WERE catwalks in the Center’s danger room. Learn something new every day.

   And then Baphomet is out. With a little help from my allies I take him out before the ambush waves even show up, which is kind of sad.

   —

   Now, it’s onto the location in Faultline that these transmissions have been coming from.

   It quickly turns into an all-out brawl. Lord Recluse’s remaining lieutenants and a token Nemesis presence are here, and along with Positron and Numina, Infernal and Valkyrie have come out to play.

   But apparently some superweapon “End Game” is being built here. Let’s see…

   Ah. It’s been whisked away. To the core of the Rogue Isles. And we need to follow it.

   —

   Hey. An MA map that starts in Lord Recluse’s war room and actually uses the rest of the map. This should be fun.

   Well, if Synapse weren’t pulling the entire Fist of Fear down on our heads. He gets Psyche and almost himself creamed by Gyrfalcon the Unheralded.

   Looks like there are actually a whole bunch of dudes kicking around. Dreck, Requiem…

   “End Game” is apparently code for “the part where all the heroes get it”. Recluse just wanted one last throw down - all of us versus all of them.

   Shame we take on all of them one at a time.

   Generally.

   SYNAPSE.

   Recluse thinks he has us trapped here, but the way we got in still works to come out.

   And in the debriefing, we iris out as everyone laughs.

   —

   Storyline - ***. This arc is built to lead up to the final battle, with little teaser installments of the all of us vs. all of them. As such it doesn’t really need a story so much as an excuse that isn’t patently ridiculous, and manages that pretty well.

   I will say a couple things. First, the “our way out still works, guys!” strikes me as a little cheap. I mean, maybe Dr. Aeon was miffed at being left out or something and we’d get a little note from him saying so as a clue in the final mission. Second, don’t play up the Architect. It really doesn’t have anything to do with how the plot progresses — it’s generally assumed that the contact hologram and the architect pillar are just stand-ins for the contact and the mission door in the “real world”. Mentioning the Architect leads to the expectation that it’ll be important somewhere down the line, and that just doesn’t happen.

   Design - ****. No customs to speak of here, it’s all stock. The special maps are all used pretty well to set the stage, with one exception: the villain tutorial mission in the Zig bunker. That map has just enough space for a hostage and a boss fight and absolutely nothing else. As a start to an arc about saving the world with the Freedom Phalanx, it seems just a little bit insignificant.

   Gameplay - ****. I’ll spell it out again: Synapse’s AI is different from pretty much every other ally or enemy. Because a speedster who just stands there is kind of silly, Synapse’s AI is programmed to race around finding new things to beat on and showing off his ridiculous speed.

   In a fight that’s already a giant scrum, Synapse goes out and gets even more fighters. On one hand it wasn’t really all that bad; on the other it might work better if Synapse was either captured in the back room because he always gets at least that far, or was just a rescue who dashed off to give a report or secure an escape or whatever.

   Detail - *****. This whole affair was a very Marvel Adventures sort of take on the game, and it’s not easy to pull that off without getting too facile or too cynical, so points for that.

   Overall - ****. A good punchup with a workable story.

   Posted on January 8th, 2012 at 5:11 pm