CoHMR Aggregator (a review thread)

@GlaziusF

Running this on a level 50 spine/regen scrapper, all bosses no AVs two heroes at +0.

---

It is a little more plausible to get this line from Ouroboros. One thing that might need a little more elucidation is how she knows someone from the Liberty League went in after. Did she send them in? Are we plan B?

Regardless, off I go.

Objectives in the navbar don't need title case - you can get away with capitalizing the first word of the objective and any proper nouns, like the name of enemy groups.

(If the framing device was more mythic you could probably get away with this, and this would be a workable gimmick for a Mender, but yours has been pretty straight so far.)

Up on the top floor is a room with a normal spawn hiding in the corners, a boss fight, and another group of ALL guarding the hostage. And a safe.

Maybe you can move the boss fight to middle? Room was a bit crowded and I got shot to hell.

Also, the clue from the envelope in the safe should come after the clue for dropping the boss.

---

Ah, blue caves. I pretty much never see them in MA. Still.

A hostage and a glowie, and I take the measure of the enemy group more fully. Looks like fire, ice, and martial arts minions, claws lieutenants, and dark/dark bosses.

So Statesman left this costume for little Liberty to have an adventure and find, but the ALL have gotten in the way. Is that what I'm seeing here? It might be nice to get that more explicitly.

Also the ALL probably shouldn't have the anarchy symbol as their main motif. Anarchy is basically an edgy 90s version of liberty -- if you want to express tyranny you can probably do a good job with one of the fist chest symbols.

---

The sendoff in the briefing is still a little offputting. You could do more to establish Wells as something of a treasure-hunter in the previous briefings - Menders are at least a little eccentric in their own ways.

I think I've figured out what's going wrong with the Deathblossoms, Boulders, and Granites, where it's even odds if they'll actually cough up tickets or not. There are two versions of each, one of which has a power called "SummonFX". I think that latter version may have mistakenly been mixed into the randoms - it's a summoned version that's not designed to give experience or other rewards.

If you explicitly put the versions without SummonFX in your custom enemy group that should get rid of the problem.

Also maybe give all the monsters some kind of alternate description. I can get that Fern would want plants and rocks, but what are the Wisps? Evil sunlight?

---

The descriptions on the ALL would benefit a bit from mentioning that they're all from some kind of dark future.

I mean, they are, right? MAL is some kind of nigh-immortal old man who's sending his minions to mess with history?

Statesman-from-today doesn't make much sense as having been captured, but Statesman-from-the-future, whose powers were depleted by the same catastrophe that destroyed Paragon City, would be perfect.

No clue how the swords wound up here in a coffin, though.

---

And now for the denouement. That's French for "when the villain gets it".

Whether it was in the original spec or not, Liberty Rose looks dashing with her red and blue laser swords.

We make our way over to MAL, collecting a couple helpers on the way. He's some kind of Psy Assault guy, and the shockwave hurts a bit, but thanks to the taunt on Animated Stone's attacks he spends most of his time trying to break the will of a giant hunk of rock, which is about as effective as you'd expect.

No complaints here though, aside from Liberty Rose doing the hundred-yard dash several times because her advanced perception spotted some ALL on the other side of a rock.

Also the souvenir from the arc should probably not be Ms. Liberty's Journal since she's not involved anymore. Unless it's the one from mission 3, in which case say so.

---

Storyline - ***. This arc feels like I'm watching the three-part season finale of Liberty League but only tuned in at episode 2. It seems like it could do more to set up the extent and nature of the ALL, including the elites I fight, and MAL's theft of the essential elements of Liberty Rose's powers and subsequent scattering of them through time.

As it is I feel like these developments are being introduced tangentially but they're never really connected together. Now that you have a contact who's outside of time, you can probably paint a big picture for the player.

Design - ***. Missions 2 and 4 kind of need a boss. I like the idea of MAL entrusting his council of evil with the pieces of the one thing that can destroy him, and we're big heroes now and can take bosses down. They'd also help establishing the story as a whole.

The factions in missions 3 and 4 retain their original descriptions. Custom descriptions are a big use of space, but you can probably get by with just changing the name and giving a single-line blurb.

Gameplay - ****. One frustration here is Liberty Rose running off on the last map because of her Willpower perception boost, which isn't something you can really do much about without gutting the set.

The other is getting no rewards about a third of the time from the enemies in mission 3. It's probably a result of a bug in the MA, but it's one you can work around.

Detail - ***. Now that you have an original contact you can probably give her a personality that justifies the occasional cracks about treasure. I mean, maybe her little eccentricity is that she's a temporal treasure hound, and she was tasked to, or asked to, help with recovering this stuff because she's got a nose for it. That's someone who can wonder why people chase after books and lament at only finding a costume in a treasure chest.

Maybe this is just because I never had much of a nose for the "random interjection" school of comedy, but I tend to find comedy to be a lot funnier when it's actually something plausible to say.

Overall - ***. You've found a better contact to tell the story, and one who's more capable of giving people the big picture. I'd enjoy this more if you established her personality a little bit more, and fleshed out the big picture a little earlier on in the arc.

Thank you so much for the re-review.

You have given me a lot to think about and I plan to make some changes. I could probably make some now, but for some I need more space.

I already created a true custom mendor but have no space to add her. Do you have any idea when we are supposed to get more space for our arcs?

Thanks again!

Tonight's arc: To Dream of Nothing (374644). Verdict - ***. Review in MA Forums Thread.

Thanks a lot for the critique -- it highlighted a lot of weak points! I posted some explanations / comments in the arc's thread.


Thanks again,

-- Z.

Tonight's arc: Enter Japes (96001). Verdict - *. Review lower in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Playing this on a level 15 broadsword/shield scrapper, old Heroic difficulty but with bosses on.

---

Well. This is a simple setup. Random costumed kooks robbin' a bank.

Refreshing, in its own way.

Looks like I'm fighting a bunch of different-colored versions of the stock jester costume. Red and black swords and archers, green lieutenants. All of them have plural names despite presumably being a single example of the enemy rank in question.

I mean, unless they're all two midgets in a clown suit. Weirder things have happened.

Their boss is Japes, presumably different from the Japers, though in a similar costume as another minion. Elite boss. With no warning. Not really good for sub-20 characters, many of whom will never have fought one before, and then only at the end of a storyarc.

I get a Mission Completed clue which should really be the contact's debriefing.

---

And now a jewelry store robbery by the same clown. ...literally.

He runs. At like 75 percent health. With his armor and the tiny distance between him and the door I don't have much prayer of catching him.

---

And the next mission is the tiny speakeasy, with Japes spawning about 5 inches away from the front door.

I throw a few lives at him and he goes down quickly enough.

Wow. Not even a souvenir?

---

Storyline - **. There isn't one. This arc doesn't really go anywhere. In an arc investigating a new villain group I'd expect the progression to be "stop something they're doing" -> "learn about them and find the boss" -> "fight the boss". This is just three boss fights devoid of much in the way of context or progression.

Design - *. Ordinarily I'd expect to get the chance to come to grips with a new villain group. But I don't think I took down even two dozen of Japes' minions. The maps are so tiny. And Japes runs off in the second mission before the fight's even gotten underway, and jumps you right at the entrance of the third. This arc is, well, laughably short. There's no time or space to get a sense of anything.

Gameplay - **. The upside of the missions being so short is that it's easy to get back after the completely unannounced elite boss carves any given pre-SO character up. Missions have warnings about elite bosses for a reason. They also have warnings about bosses escaping -- Japes ran off for whatever reason in the first mission but it was just an AI thing. I didn't know he was actually serious about bolting in the second mission until the door opened, and by then it was too late to do anything. If I could have done anything.

Detail - *. You know what's the most off about Japes? He's serious. Not Why So Serious. Serious. He doesn't make any jokes. The cop tries to make it sound like he's pulling pranks, but there's nothing to distinguish them from the average villain group activity. Japes himself doesn't try puns, jokes, or wordplay -- he doesn't even laugh very much!

Overall - *. This reminds me of the old days of Mission Architect, but in a bad way. It feels like an experimental first try. It's not good for the plot, which is basically xeroxed between missions. It's not good for the fighting, since there are hardly any mooks in the three missions. It's not good for the boss challenge because it's pitched at pre-SO characters. And it's not good for the comedy because there isn't any.

Tonight's arc: A Taste For Evil (349034). Verdict - ****. Review in MA Forums Thread.

As an aside, this is the end of my queue, as I try to put a week in between reviews for any one author. So it'll be on to random CoHMR stuff this weekend unless somebody wants to toss their arc in the ring.

<QR>

When you get a chance, could you please review either 22740 or 365851? (Or both, if you've got the time. XD)

Neither of them have threads as yet, since I haven't done much to publicize them. So I'll be watching here for your reply, when you get the time. Thank you! ^^

Would love a review on my arc #9852. Aside from my sig, I haven't really tried to advertise it. I'm just really looking for some honest feedback that I can use to help improve the arc if needed.

Please review it when you have the time. A review posted here in this thread would be fantastic. Thank you!

Unfortunately I just crashed out last night, so there'll just be this one arc for the weekend.

The Golden Scepter (9852). Verdict - ***. Review lower in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Running this on my level 50 spine/regen scrapper, +0 x2 with bosses on.

---

Hey, it's Legally Distinct From Dr. Fate!

Actually I shouldn't say anything there, blue and gold is a pretty stylin' combo. Anyway, my job is to go find a scepter and hand it over to be destroyed. Sounds simple enough.

I find an ill/psy EB waiting to help me. He's not guarded and I can't exactly turn him down, but on the meager followers I've seen so far he's just a bit of overkill.

Though on the Cyclops which shows up after I free Doc Delilah he's a bit of a help. The Cyclops has his stock description, which seems pretty off, considering how he's introduced.

Got a mixup in the debriefing - "specter" for "scepter".

---

Hmm. Alright, something's gone wrong and now I have to pull my contact's component bits back together.

Aw geez. Red Atlas. Ah well, it can't be too bad since I'm looking for a person rather than a glowie.

The place is full of storm elementals, and the navbar informs me I have to ask some kind of trickster spirit for directions, which seems odd as I haven't been told anything about him by my contact.

For some reason defeating the boss the trickster points me to reveals what I was looking for. Not that I'm complaining that I can stop running all over Red Atlas, but it's rather arbitrary.

---

Man, these demons did a number on my contact. They also stripped him of the artifact that's the source of his powers, and took it to Oranbega.

I guess unlocking the boss by clicking a glowie is alright, but my contact didn't tell me anything about this tome of judgment.

The boss is a minotaur with a stock description. I get a clue for beating him, but I get nothing for opening the chest with the Eye of Horus.

---

And now it's the finale. Seems a bit abrupt, but at least I'll get some help near the end.

Oh. The graveyard. I guess that's an alright temple, but I was expecting something with a few more walls.

Seems to be completely empty. I guess I fight the guardians alone.

The stone elemental was a bit of a challenge -- if you're using Earth Assault for him you should be aware that its damage scales are way out of whack with, say, Stone Melee.

The fire elemental might be able to do without Fiery Embrace, as it seriously boosts his damage, and because of their powersets both the air and "water" elementals both drop a ton of slow on a hero.

But with them all down, I... make a couple laps around the graveyard searching for what turns out to be a tiny transparent glowie that blends in with the rock. Not much fun, that.

Fortunately, afterward it's pretty easy to find what needs to be done as the hostage guards are pretty obvious and I got perhaps a bit lucky to get Pathos close by.

Weirdly enough since I don't have AVs on he's actually the easiest of the five things I have to fight. Sure, psy assault is a bit hard to handle, but that's the extent of his repertoire.

And that's it. Universe saved.

---

Storyline - ****. Pretty standard story here, sensible progression. But I'd have liked to see more than one coincidental mission against the main enemy group before they messed everything up, learn something about them and perhaps their master before we just had to go all-out stopping them from getting the Golden Scepter and doing...

What were they planning, anyway? And how would the Scepter help?

Design - ***. The customs look generally fitting, but it's a bit easy to confuse the flame-lobbers with the necromancers, since they're all about the same size and overall color. Pathos also seemed to be the smallest boss in the end mission -- I realize he's not supposed to be a physical powerhouse, but it doesn't feel right for the end boss to be less intimidating than his entourage.

Most of this is for the second and third missions, though, which toss objectives up on the navbar without much plot justification for why they're there.

Gameplay - ***. The custom bosses, especially Earth and Fire elementals, can be a bit unreasonable. But this is mostly for the other parts of the empty last mission, trying to find two glowies on an outdoor map, the second one transparent. (I was expecting a destructible instead of the first glowie, to be honest.)

Detail - ***. You used a lot of stock enemies in new or interesting ways, but seeing a stock Cyclops/Minotaur description when I was expecting a little lore about a servant of Pathos or the ancient bounds champion was a bit of a disappointment.

Overall - ***. Work a bit on retuning or selecting new sets for the elementals - it was a good setpiece but the fights were a bit unreasonable at times. Try picking more visible objectives for the clicks in the final mission as well - they can be anywhere, and even though the outdoor map is on the small side, it's still a lot of ground to cover.

Do a little more to distinguish minions from lieutenants. There is the flame aura, but it's not quite enough to rely on. And the enemy group as a whole could use a little more definition, both in establishing before they start messing with my contact and the description of the minotaur and cyclops.

There's not much I can do to the story arc, mechanics wise, as the arc with mostly full briefings/debriefings and 12 custom critters is tapped out at 99.82%.

I have changes in the works for the third mission encounter with the minotaur. As well as adding unique descriptions to the canon critters used. I just don't have the room for all that right now. I owe that to Doc Delilah who I was forced to create as a custom critter since she doesn't exist in the AE except as a contact.. (What's up with that devs?!).

I can't really complain about you running at +0 x2, but that might explain why you didn't encounter Brimstone Champions (aside from the named one in the second mission) and Brimstone Succubi.

As for your complaints about the final mission, be glad I decided to spawn it blank.. otherwise you'd get to run around spawn to spawn trying to find the glowies, or have a EB encounter spawn too close to a regular map spawn. Of course this is the problem with out door maps, their spawning points are a f***ing joke.. if you have any ideas for an indoor map that would get the 'Temple of Time' concept across without using a super giant Oranbega cave I'm open to suggestions!

Overall, you have some great points, I'll try and rework the story a bit when I have more space to play with. Thanks for the feedback!

Tonight's arc: The Skein of Fate (22740). Verdict - **. Review lower in this thread.

Also, nobody's arc is going to come up until Thursday, so tomorrow and Wednesday will be random runs unless somebody wants to jump in line.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a low-40s ice/axe tanker, +0 x2 with bosses on (but no AVs).

---

Hmm. No description on my contact. Probably a relic of when you couldn't have them. One would be nice, though.

Anyway, off to grab artifacts that can manipulate fate and bring them to the Midnighter Club. I'm sure they won't be misused in any way.

The first mission is grabbing a spindle from an Arachnos base. The popup suggests that the base has no idea what it actually possesses, and this is certainly true as far as I can tell.

Then again, I can't tell very much, as the base is packed full of silent Arachnos with the glowie in the middle rather than the end (this map is probably one of the many where glowies are mislocated). A patrol or a base commander wouldn't be unwelcome.

---

Mission two, find-and-replace Council for Arachnos on mission one. Silent base, single glowie.

My contact remarks that it's odd no reinforcements showed up. Yes, it is, thanks for pointing that out.

---

Will there actually be something in this Circle base other than a bunch of silent CoT and a single glowie? ...I'm not getting my hopes up.

A bunch of silent green CoT. This is less fun than it might be because the axe tosses them all over the place.

You might want to take another look at the mission pacing setting, since it actually works right now.

Yep. Single glowie, not even any interaction time, and this one's at the middle of the map too. No bosses, no chattiness, nada.

---

Okay, so something's gone wrong and there's a riot in progress. Let's go see.

Okay, it looks like there's an entire cult of heirs to the fates who want their toys back. I find the boss right near the start of the level (you can't really help it with outdoor maps sometimes), and after she goes down that's the mission over.

Looks like there's a grav/kin minion, an arch/emp minion, and a psy/psy minion, a blade/shield lieutenant, and a mace/fire armor boss. Not a bad mix, but the descriptions are rather generic. Why do they have these powers?

Also, way to notice when disparate villain groups actually had the stuff you complained about missing.

---

And... they had legitimate complaints and we're doing what they asked. I'm sure this won't come back to bite me.

Oh look, a bunch of 5th Column. Who are here for... a reason.

Anyway, with inscribing the wards, it might be nice if the pillars could do the fade in from transparency.

And I lay the artifacts to rest... among piles of bones. Sure, why not.

In lieu of an actual last boss, I just aggro the entire end room onto myself.

Not even any clues for what's going on here? Or why the 5th Column are here instead of the Council or a mix of the groups I've been fighting so far?

Oh. Apparently, according to my contact, they've come from Cimerora? Somehow?

---

Storyline - ***. I have to admit, this is possibly the first "gather the artifacts"-themed mission I've seen played completely straight. And the random rioting people were actually airing a legitimate grievance!

But the Moirae and the 5th Column were both completely out of nowhere. A guest appearance by the Moirae or some files in the Council base would have helped set them up.

Design - **. It doesn't sit well with me to have a whole mission with nothing going on but a glowie in the back. I realize my contact says some things about how it's odd the bases are so quiet, but that just brings it to my attention, raising the expectation that something's up that will be explained later on.

When it isn't, that's a double letdown. Once for no explanation, and once retroactively for the empty mission..

Gameplay - ***. One boss fight, and that in the fourth mission. Heck, the first three missions are completely stealthable and the only fighting in the last mission is because of the defeat all condition. I guess if that's what you were going for it's alright, but I honestly expect a little more opposition when I'm trying to do something that will reset the nature of destiny.

Detail - **. There's nothing there but the minimum clues. Nobody outside the fourth mission actually talks. About anything. Patrols and destructibles can be used to add text without adding bosses, if for some reason you don't want to. (or you could foreshadow some of the Moirae by putting them in as captives)

Overall - **. An arc that was probably alright when the Architect first came out, but the story's a bit disjointed and the missions are painfully simple. Adding foreshadowing to the first three missions would help fix both problems, and I wouldn't say no to an end boss, even if it was just a stock one.

I admit readily that I haven't really tinkered around with this arc since *early* MA... so a lot of things are rather basic, back when there were a few less options. (Some of the stuff, like dialogue, was due to this being my first arc and my not thinking about having patrol dialogue.)

The idea about adding bosses/captives to the earlier missions to give them a bit more flesh isn't a bad one. I'd originally had a fairly linear idea on this mission, but doing that would add some interesting options for extrapolation, so that's definitely worth looking into.

The zero-interaction was actually due to the glowie's bad habit of spawning directly on top of red crystals in my initial testing.

Looks like I've got some serious revamping to do. If it's all right with you, once I put some hefty reworking into it, might I ask you to see what you think of the changes? ^^;

[Editnote] I updated the arc along the lines of your comments. I also ended up changing it to 30-54... not sure what my original motivation was in making all my arcs 50-54 (I think it was before team SK/EX, so that people of all levels could play it together). Overall, I'm much more pleased with it now, to be honest... it *was* lacking, for certain, and I feel in retesting it (on a mid-level DP, so YMMV) that it's a stronger arc for the changes. I stand by my earlier request if you'll give it a second look; if you don't have the time to, though, I certainly understand.

Thanks in advance! I think you'll be more pleased overall. ^^;;;

I would appreciate a review on my latest arc:

Arc Name: Three (working title)
Arc ID: 382760
Faction: Heroic
Synopsis: 12/9/04. Paragon City suffers still from the Rikti attacks 3 years ago, many remain homeless, cowering from innumerable threats. This is the story of one such individual who lived in the darkest depths of Paragon, and through him how the populace's ignorance almost lead to their destruction.
Estimated Time to Play: Very Long (there is also a great deal of text to be read)
Notes: Read the Still Busy text if you can, I think it adds a great deal to the story. Well, in Missions 1 and 2 at least. After that you can probably leave it if you want. I especially wasn't a big fan of it in Mission 3. Also, because of the sheer volume of text - especially if you find all the optional clues - this may take some time.

I'd appreciate a review of one (or more) of my EPIC TRILOGY... War Against the Undying One.

(How undying is he? You'll have to play the arcs to find out)

ArcIDs in my sig

Tonight is for random arcs, but I'll pick things up starting tomorrow.

First off the randomizer: Red Scare (77395). Previously reviewed as ***.
Second off: Spanks for the Memories (21144). Verdict - **. Review lower in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a high-teens Peacebringer, old Heroic difficulty with bosses on.

---

Investigating the dark history of Spanky Rabinowitz. Yeah, this is something I've been wishing the canon would do for a while. Time to... uh... investigate ancient city records.

FOR JUSTICE!

And apparently, for sticking it to the Circle of Thorns.

Why they're here I don't know. I find some old records but the clue says they're unremarkable, and now there's a boss I have to defeat.

I guess because having the CoT poking around city records is a pretty bad idea.

The boss is called "Burning Sulphur', which is rather odd as a name for a stock CoT boss -- I was expecting some kind of custom villain. Using a generic CoT-style name like the ones you get from paper missions for CoT bosses isn't a bad idea.

Anyway, now I know what old-timey radio programs Spanky used to listen to. Uh... go me?

---

Now it's time to meet a random Family boss and hope he knows something useful about Spanky?

Because... decades later, somebody might know that?

I work my way through the cargo ship, seeing a lot of spawns of one lieutenant. I wonder why the Frosts specifically have custom enemies. (AR/SS minion, DB/SR and SS/MA lieuts) I mean, Sebastian Frost heads up the Family, and they certainly exist over a decent level range.

Villainside, anyway. You might be able to make a custom group renaming Marcones to Frosts or whatever.

Anyway, after I laser the boss enough he says that... Spanky used to buy off the Frosts to keep civil.

Not exactly earthshaking, that.

---

And the Circle broke in and stole a map to Dark Astoria. Okay. That's a thing they do, certainly.

There's a Ruin Mage in here I need to drop and a... Soul Seductress? Different from the Succubi the CoT usually call up, I suppose? Some other party interested in Spanky's soul.

You know, I thought that thing would have shuffled off to Buffalo by now.

Anyway, two guys down, with only the map left to find.

...and only the Behemoth portal room to find it in.

Mommy.

Oh lord it's RIGHT NEXT TO ONE.

Die. Die. Die. Die. Chug lucks. Die. Die. Chug more lucks. Die.

FINALLY click the glowie.

So, reading over the clues, Spanky Rabinowitz was... an ancient soul of immense power.

And he decided mayor was a step up?

---

Going to Moth Cemetary to find it overrun by...

Minions: claws/kin, fire blast/fire manip, mind control/fire control

Lieutenants: elec blast (with Aim)/psy blast, dark blast/dark armor?

Not a very reasonable mix for someone who isn't even in SOs yet.

The "boss" here is the elec blast lieutenant. Not exactly complaining, even had a nice animation to help find it, but I beat two bosses in the last map and one lieutenant in this one?

---

Last attempt to save the departed mayor's soul...

Oh for the love of little green apples, it's the Ruladak cave.

This works well for the Rularuu because all of them GLOW. It's just a pain to navigate otherwise.

Also stumbling into controller minions is pretty much the opposite of fun.

I try and rescue the ally for some help but they're vulnerable to control sets too.

Oh! Hey, it's Yamanari, or whatever that name was.

But getting ambushed by controllers over and over again means I die over and over again.

The boss is a fire blast/fire armor elite boss with Aim. ...yeah, pulling the Shivan out for this one.

So that's Spanky's grand bargain. Didn't want to sell his soul, so the demons gave him a reason -- the fog in Dark Astoria.

---

Storyline - **. The end revelation is kind of a let down. We come all this way, fight that monster of an end boss, and... in the end all we can do is hear the truth. There's nothing we can actually do for Spanky. The first two missions are pretty much pointless distractions that don't really tell us anything notable about the guy -- things only start with the theft of the map in mission 3, and I don't know what I did in mission 4 that helped my contact read the map. Probably nothing.

I could say a few things about Spanky and Dark Astoria, but frankly the continuity is a bit snarled. It's possible to untangle it by making some assumptions, but that's neither here nor there. One part of it that I thought would be appropriate to address was the fate of the Moiraine, a ship that left port without being christened by Spanky, as was the style at the time. It was swallowed up by fog and never seen again until it showed up all green, translucent, and spewing ghost sailors.

Design - **. The new enemy groups seem a bit... unnecessary. The Frost family already exists. It's just the Family. And whatever new group you designed to be the custodians of Spanky's soul... why not just the Banished Pantheon? They're based out of Dark Astoria already.

Also, enemies with two melee sets or two ranged sets are bad enough, but two control sets? On a minion? Ow. And the claw minion had access to Transference, which is just a kick in the blue bar.

The missions really need a narrower level range. Just to establish the power level of a character who's supposed to confront everything. I played the entire arc except the last mission at my natural level, which I think was a bit out of whack.

Gameplay - *. Managing the control minions was a bit of a challenge even when I could see them. The last mission with its literal blind curves was a nightmare. The only way to see many of the customs was through the targeting recticle.

The adventure I had trying to click a glowie right in front of a Behemoth portal wasn't exactly pleasant either.

Detail - ****. Even though the story was a bit of a letdown, the detail throughout was solid and believable. I wasn't confused or misled by anything.

Overall - **. The anticlimax ending, overpowering enemy sets, seemingly unnecessary customs, and overly broad level range all drag this one down.