Tangler

I just finished the LOLBAT one. I liked the Scrabbler's gimmick, probably not what the author had in mind, but it was a good effort with what we can do with the system.

The difficulty is pretty harsh for what it is, I got one shotted by a mace boss, killed several times by a full powered thugs mm, but arguably the deadliest of all were the chef liutenents with their farsighted/stealth piercing vision coupled with their kb inducing focus spamming.

I found LOLBAT's speech to be grating. I mean I like the 733t-speaking Freakshow, but in this case I just found the interwebz humor to be very forced. The funny thing is the arc actually is pretty humourous when LOLBAT isn't speaking, so it's not like the author can't write funny. It's just a shame the author felt compelled to go for the low hanging fruit.

Hey Sis, I'd recommend submitting your arc to one of the reviewers on this forum if you haven't done so already. It's usually the quickest way to get feedback, and there's some control for you on the level and quality of the feedback received if you look at their past reviews.

I'd like to vote on all the categories, but I doubt I can get through that many arcs before the end of the contest. I might just hold out and vote for the comedy category.

I just finished playing Quest For Magic. I liked the the customs, especially a cat people group that didn't make me cringe, and Willingham does know his CoX lore.

That said, I caught a few odd typos that I'm a bit surprised went through the okay, such as a clue that was missing a name, and it was a bit odd to hear Statesman being referred to as The Statesman (probably not wrong, but it's a bit like hearing Batman being constantly referred to as THE GOSHDARN Batman). My biggest complaint is one spoken already by other posters, in that you can see where the arc is heading from the very first briefing. [SPOILERS AND RANT AHEAD] Seriously, helping your contact attain absolute power to right 'wrongs' is a freakin' villain origin, and PC betrayal is very, very hard to do well, but the absolute worst thing you could do is to turn someone's character into a wall-banging moron in order to make it work. What's that contact? You want me to get you unlimited power AND indestructability? Sure let me just blindly accept, I mean, what could possibly go wrong? [/SPOILERS AND RANT].

Just finished playing it. Not bad.

Is that man holding up a terrified dog?

If you have no problems letting him play a villainous arc, then you can check out my Mercytown arc (lvl 1-10) down on my sig.

Whack A Mole
ID: 2711
Author: Bubbawheat
Tags: Solo Friendly, Moles

Usually whenever I think of the words ‘RPG’ and ‘mini-games’ together, I make these strange gurgling sounds at the back of my throat. Whack A Mole is decidedly one of the rare breeds that don’t make eating pudding while doing this exercise into a fatal combination. In fact, it’s pretty fun.


Oh a wretched hive of scum and villainy, I wonder what these scoundrels are up tAAAAGGH-

Whack A Mole is a simple enough concept. You defeat individual moles within the time limit to earn ‘tickets’ that you can ‘redeem’ for prizes later (presumably it is at this point your carnie contact gives you a nudge and a knowing wink). The beauty of the arc is in the details though, as the short time combined with the absurd task makes it a rather maniacal endeavour, kind of akin to what the Riddler would put Batman through if a clue was vaguely related to moles, or if Scarecrow decided zemmiphobia gas would be a really good idea. Your hero is bombarded with many mole related jokes as he makes his way through the game. The jokes are amusing enough, and they are thrown out with an Airplane! like flurry that even if a few miss there are plenty more that may stick.


Yes, meet Inigo Moletoya.

Through a strange twist of fate, current MA changes do not smile kindly on this arc in regards to XP adjustments, but the new changes to difficulty selection means this arc can now be tailored to suit the difficulty of almost every hero or villain.

Final Verdict: An entertaining diversion from the grind.

4/5 Stars

Blood, Sweat, Toil and Tears
ID: 15447
Author: Megajoule
Tags: Solo Friendly, Canon Related, Drama, Heroic

Blood, Sweat, Toils and Tears is an arc where you visit an alternate Earth designated as Gamma Upsilon 28-3. In this alternate dimension, Nemesis’ original campaign to take over America was successful, and all superheroes in America have been wiped out since. You join Megajoule, a native hero from your hero’s own dimension to support the ensuing rebellion against the Nemesis forces.

You’ll meet some quirkily named characters such as an agent that goes by the codename Calender, and a Nemesis officer called Major Holliday, and there is also a rebel worker that should be a familiar face to your hero.


Calender? Major Holliday? Time to be extra vigilant for some dastardly April Fool's joke.


Beyond that though, there isn’t really much else to say about this arc. There is a definite ‘my first arc’ vibe going on with this arc, as if the author was just experimenting with some objective types, and there is even the infamous empty room that leads to an ambush setup, that was popular in the early days of MA. The missions felt quite Spartan, and could have immensely benefited with some flavour text.

This is a Nemesis arc, so to expect the unexpected twist is only to be expected, though to the author’s credit, at least the double agent’s name wasn’t an anagram for Nemesis.

The arc’s ending heavily hints of there being a sequel, but since there doesn’t seem to be one putting some closure would have been more satisfying.

Final Verdict: This arc probably fared okay in the early days of MA, but with current expectations this arc now falls short.


2.5/5 Stars

Consequences of War 1 & 2
ID: 227331 - 241496
Author: Dalghryn
Tags: War Drama, Rikti, Challenging

The Consequences of War is a war drama set during the Rikti War, between the Rikti’s initial strike on Earth and before Hero 1 and Vanguard devised a way to shut down their invasion for good (almost).

Your hero follows a supergroup known as the SOLUS Collective, a ragtag bunch of heroes who are just one of many groups trying to persevere against the Rikti, and together your hero experiences the events of the Rikti war such as breaking the Rikti language and the great hero base bombings.

By ragtag, I really do mean so. The SOLUS Collective actually has a hiring policy to take in those that other groups would not do so, which certainly puts a question on how your hero winds up with them. Your hero will meet the team’s leader and founder Lazon, a being of pure solar energy, their second in command Captain Superior, an eight foot tall superman-esque figure and a host of many others in their team. The team is similar to the Justice Society of America, acting as a large club that houses and trains recruits by its more veteran members, and having a family like bond.


Lazon, being of pure energy, leader of the the SOLUS Collective, and master of making everyone feel really uncomfortable as they try not to stare at his flaming crotch.

The missions competently reflect the feelings of war with the cries of commands being overheard and the bodies of the fallen that piles up as the war progresses, though there were a few cases where I thought some of the heroes were more blatantly set up for this.


Pro-tip: in a war, stay well away from the guy who can't stop talking about his wife and newborn, as that guy is marked for death.

The first half ends with your hero becoming an honorary member of the SOLUS Collective, where it is hinted at that your hero will be having a hand at reforming the SOLUS Collective after the events of the first chapter, though only just in time for when things get truly serious by the second chapter.

One thing you can say about this arc is that it is epic in both feel and length. The entire arc runs at a whopping 10 missions long, all of which are on large maps with equally large objective lists, there have certainly been a few times where I ended up taking a break because I found it to be draining.


Holy Chao, how did this guy get inside?


Not to be upstaged, Hro'Dath shows his own catflap squeezing skills.


Okay, I can at least explain the Shivan, as that came from my... pants.

The arc can be quite difficult. Rikti are usually problematic for squishies, but it was even more so when the arc throws in over-inflated ambushes for the most trivial objective completes, and has your hero going up against some of the most powerful Rikti bosses. I ended up switching to my brute from my dominator for the second arc, which made for completing the arc a considerably smoother ride. If your hero has problems soloing the RWZ arcs, then you may want to skip this unless you bring a friend.


This happened a lot.

As this arc is a war drama, expect a lot (and I do mean a lot) of heroic sacrifices. Unfortunately a lot of these occur with characters that don’t really get enough character development, or only just a bit rushed in time for their deaths to really cause a strong impact. One death in particular really stuck out, as it was made to be tearfully glorious but because it was so out of the blue, it did nothing for me when I encountered it.

The arc ends on a bittersweet note, and it's one that is only appropriate for an arc on the consequences of war.

Final Verdict: The Consequences of War does what it sets out to do and well, though I would not have said no to an abridged version.

4/5 Stars

A quick update: I've edited my first post to state that I will no longer be accepting new submissions for the time being. Reason being that I already have a sizable backlog as it is, and after experiencing some of the enlightening work of others as well as critique on my own arcs, I want to put my free time into developing my own arcs again once I'm finished with my current review batch.

Splintered Shields
ID: 253991
Author: Venture
Tags: Challenging, Canon Related, Drama

Splintered Shields is probably best described as a crime or police drama, though it’s less about good cops busting bad robbers, and more about bad cops and heroes among thieves.

Your hero is contacted by everyone’s favourite Longbow with trust issues, Captain Wilhelmina Marlena Dietrich, who has been taken off the Rikti Countermeasure team after the events in the Vanguard arcs. One of Longbow’s facilities is currently under siege by Arachnos forces at Independence Port, though the leader of the attack has been identified as a bane spider called Operative Kobushi, who until now was known to only operate within the Port Oakes and Cap au Diable region of the Rogue Isles. Dietrich claims she is unable to deploy reinforcements to the area in time and so needs your hero’s help, and so off you go to bash some Arachnos heads.




I don't see how this could possibly go wr- oh hang on, my hero is actually genre-savvy this time.

Everything is not as clear cut as your hero is led to believe however, when the Longbow unit are eager to take you down under the guise of tragic 'friendly-fire' along with Arachnos, and so your hero embarks on an investigation that slowly uncovers possible corruption within Longbow.


This probably isn't how friendly-fire works.

Your hero will meet the Arachnos leader Operative Kobushi, who is a bit of an odd-ball as far as Banes Spiders go. I’m kind of surprised that Arachnos haven’t stamped down on his rebellious attitude sooner, but given how nuked the bane spider lore is anyway I won’t bother going into that.


'But I will turn a blind eye to where my enemy is actually standing!'


It's probably the combination of Daos using the most hilariously nonthreatening threat I have ever heard of, and the 'better learn to place nice with the other kids!' line, but I just found this conversation more funny that it should be.

Your hero will also meet with Longbow Captain Adam Vaughn Livingstone, a decorated and popular personality who otherwise leads the Longbow team that decided to perforate your hero. There is an interesting back and forth between him and Captain Dietrich, as to whose story your hero should believe, that is unfortunately not fully played out for the arc.



This arc also features a few surprise guests. A villain by the name of Victor Praetorius shows up in one of the missions to cause general mayhem. He (it?) appears for a short though entertaining bout with your hero. His appearance doesn’t add much to the arc in terms of relevance, though he doesn't detract from it either.


Because cyber-zombies with lasers make everything better.

Malta also make an appearance, albeit reimagined with the use of customs and under the reason of them using experimental tech. While the customs are well designed, I can’t see the reason why the author did this in the first place, though since it replaces the usual endurance draining, prod stunning, and missile swarm gassing Malta with a robotics summoning, kinetics using, and slow spamming one, I can say that it wasn’t to make Malta easier.

The arc also contains a few optional objectives, though they weren’t as good as I hoped. One objective provided a subtle clue in the chat log, which can be easy to forget by the time it makes sense unless you were really paying attention. There was also an optional defeat, though it was more for completionist’s sake, and didn’t yield any tasty information or colour to reinforce the story.

The arc is on the whole, a well-polished and made arc, and while I did not find that the arc had any real faults in itself, the story just didn’t hook me as well as it could.

Final Verdict: An interesting take on Longbow.

3.5/5 Stars

Thanks for the review, it was certainly quite a (dare I say...) mad take on it.

Looks like I'll be doing some more tweaking, the life of an author is certainly a restless one.

Damn, those are some awesome shots Cap, I especially like the villainous posing (or loafing, in this case).

Hey thanks for the review, as for some of your comments:

The Most Important Thing
ID: 266877
Author: Aisynia
Tags: Hero, Challenging, Drama, Mystery, Time Travel

The Most Important Thing is an arc wrapped around a simple premise, that the most important thing in the world is family. It’s an innocuous idea that drives the characters in this arc, leading to great misdeeds of doom as well as great deeds of salvation.

The arc starts with your hero answering to the call of one Amy Callahan, a teenage mutant with some measure of time manipulating powers who is in serious need of your help. Amy is being coerced by a man named Dr Albright to use her powers to perform acts of theft, under the threat of her harm to her family if she does not comply. Amy is pushed to her limits however when Albright’s next demand is for her to kill someone, and so discreetly turns to you to try and help her out of this mess.

Amy at first asks you to break into Albright’s lab under the guise of a randomly snooping hero, and to ensure that Albright does not suspect treachery also wants you to defeat her in a mock fight, though she was a bit too eager to make the performance convincing when I met her.


One to mediport please...

Further inside you uncover a glimpse of Albright’s depravity and confront Albright himself, though he manages to teleport away before you can arrest him. From here on out, your hero’s adventures will lead you to unravelling a decades long plot as you chase Albright further into his past.


Superhero rule #57: Nothing good ever comes out of opening a fridge.


Dr Albright. A man unfazed by a walking inferno heading towards him.

There are some things that the arc does exceptionally well. The first thing I want to write about is the C.L.U.E. or otherwise known as the Communication Link Uploading Equipment. It’s basically a hacking gizmo that doubles as a comm-link to Amy, that your hero can access by clicking the (wait for it) clues button. It’s a simple and yet incredibly effective story-telling technique, allowing Amy to voice her opinions and provide details without having to have her there present in the mission, which also gives Amy ample character development that isn’t restricted to the briefing pages.



The second thing is that chained objectives were effectively used to create fleshed out missions efficiently out of tiny maps. One mission has you exploring a small tech lab that thanks to the use of some very cleverly chained objectives, made me feel that my hero was doing some actual investigation work, and then for the author’s next trick, he pulls off the same feat but in the even tinier university basement map.


Someone needs to make an entire arc within this map.

A third thing is that the character Albright was an excellently presented villain, as your hero meets the many incarnations of Albright as he travels further into his past. It’s a slow unveiling of Albright’s origins and motives, and reveals the ramifications of his many past crimes and how it effects the present.

The final thing I want to highlight is that the arc’s recurring theme on the importance of family. It drives the plot, in more ways than one, and the entire arc resonates to this theme from the very last beat of your hero’s souvenir.

Was there anything I think the arc didn’t do well? Well yes, there was. One quibble I had can be described in two words – time paradox. I won’t go into details as I try to avoid spoilers in my reviews, but there is a certain event in the past that I can’t help but wonder how it occurred without meddling to begin with. I can see how it could happen without meddling, but without the author's word on it it’s just wild speculations on my part - which works for some stories, but I doubt was the intention for this particular part.

The arc’s enjoyment also heavily banks on whether you like Amy’s character, and if you can accept the dictated interactions of your hero with her. It’s a major gamble whenever authors attempt this, and I am not one to discourage authors to take the risk as done well or for the right player, the pay off can be huge. That said, I thought the whole thing was too woobie, but ultimately it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the arc. Some may love it, and others may hate it, though you’d have to have a heart of ice to not feel something by the end of the souvenir.

Final Verdict: A brilliant arc. What problems this arc may have is vastly overshadowed by everything else it does right.

5/5 Stars

I'll nominate some more later, but for now I'll be seconding:

Best comedy arc:
ID: 115174.
Author: Igor Blimey
Title: Verner von Grun's Extraordinary Extradimensional Excursions