CoHMR Aggregator (a review thread)

@GlaziusF

Running this on a max-level fire/energy tanker, +1/x2 with bosses on.

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So, flashing back to WW1, under the sardonic guidance of Mender Tesseract. Okay, let's see what's messing things up.

Hmm. Blue tunnels. I would have gone with tan tunnels.

Anyway, grunt soldiers with melee picks and shovels, higher ranks with guns. Very fitting the story. I find some temporal anomalies (all of them in the same room) that seem to denote something notable has been pulled out of time.

Huh. For some reason the Germans are all speaking, well, German, but the officer in charge is spouting English? Anyway, his notes (which I can also read) indicate that he dug too greedily and too deep, and stumbled on weird things which he sealed up behind him.

Any bets where we're going next?

---

Oh lord, Oranbega? That's not supposed to go there!

I hear Germans as I enter. So some of them were stranded back here? ...well, I don't blame them, really. The Circle are pretty freaky.

There are explosive charges leftover from previous tunnel activities, distracting from the real objective, which is to find clues as to what's going on here.

A genuine Circle entry about being displaced in time. A rack of seemingly medieval weapons made by modern recreators. ...which I guess the modern Circle might grab onto?

Everything else seems to point to some mage messing with an obelisk that catapulted them all back into the past.

---

Ah, I see. The Circle didn't do this, but they're investigating, and unlocking the secrets of time travel is a bad thing.

So we have to destroy... however they got pulled here. I wonder what did it?

There are stasis tubes marked as "temporal warp generators" but with their default description, a boss with the default boss description, and a couple of captured soldiers who die horribly to Behemoth fireballs and firebreath. Not much for answering the wonderment there, other than a comment they're made of the same strange metal that wound up in Oranbega.

Apparently Tesseract doesn't know what they are either, and she's passing them up the chain.

---

And now we have a couple other things to do to preserve the timeline. Peachy. Well, nobody ever said this would be easy.

The German officer here has an escort of Circle. That seems like an oversight.

There are also a couple of warding obelisks to break down for... some reason.

I have to spring someone and... actually lead him out of Oranbega. Over the rickety bridges, through the portals, and past the crystals which automatically occupy an escort's attention when they get close to one.

You can't exactly help that last one, but given that this guy's just hangin' out in the end room, and the walk back is completely uneventful, could it not be an escort?

Also the clue I get on mission complete seems to be a dummy -- "Lieutenant: ddd".

The strange temporal devices that caused this all... are still a mystery. Silos maintains they're from the future, and from space, but that's not important right now. What's important is -- I have to believe in myself.

---

Storyline - *****. Now that I think about it, for an organization that's supposed to be dedicated to preserving the sanctity of the timeline, there really aren't a lot of missions like this arc in Ouroboros. I guess the weird temporal artifacts are supposed to be foreshadowing of the Coming Storm?

Regardless, this is a well-contained little story about correcting a timeline through more than just play-acting through history. The only problem I have is that the temporal distortions are set up as a puzzle to solve - I suppose part of that is the limited model selection in the game so you can't actually have genuinely mysterious objects. Everything looks like something I've seen before. But for at least half the arc I'm figuring that I'll find the people responsible and maybe biff them in the face.

I don't know if this is something fixable. I mean, I'm operating at the Ouroboros level but I could stand some reminder at some point that this is yeoman's work, basic investigation.

Design - ****. Oranbega is Oranbega, the tunnels are tunnels. It's nice to see the blue caves when appropriate - though again, this seems kinda like a job for brown caves, mostly to improve visibility of the enemy forces.

Speaking of the enemy forces, there's generally a good job done with them here, too. The minions are melee sappers using mining tools, the higher ranks have guns. Now that you can select the powers an enemy has you might want to take period-inappropriate devices away from the boss rank.

The end mission feels kinda like an early version of itself - there are some obelisks to break that don't do anything and there's dummy text in the mission complete clue.

Gameplay - ***. Mostly for the last mission. I had the entire thing cleared out with an hour to go, but I ran into so many crystals trying to get the escort out that I nearly ran out of time. If I hadn't wanted to see how the story ended for the review, I seriously would have written the arc off there. I know it's not your fault that escorts bug out on crystals, and they actually show up pretty randomly in Oranbega maps, but this needs to be addressed. Maybe if you're going to have an escort, put him up front?

Detail - ***. Circle bosses and destructible objects have their stock descriptions. I forget if that was variable at the time this arc was released, but it certainly is now. Those are nice little ways to drop some hints to people who are paying attention.

On one hand I understand why you have the soldiers, mostly patrols, shouting in German or French. On the other it's kind of weird that occasionally when I should understand someone, like a boss, they speak pretty good English.

Also, look at that German boss in the last map. Pretty sure he's not supposed to have a Circle escort.

Overall - ****. The last mission needs a little patching-up, but most of the problems with the arc aren't necessarily of its own making. And the story - actually doing something to fix time for Ouroboros! - is something worth telling that I haven't seen before.

Another time interval, another random arc.

Tonight's arc: For the People (530574). Verdict - ****. Review in General Forums Thread.

My current queue:

• Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
• I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

Another time interval, another random arc.

Tonight's arc: Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette Task Force (58363). Verdict - ****. Review would be in its thread, but it seems to have gotten mulched during the forums upgrade, so it's just in the space below.

My current queue:

• Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
• I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a low-teens will/dark tank, on old Heroic - +0/x1 with bosses on.

---

Fusionette needs a description, now that you can do that.

One of the Nuclear 90 has mysteriously vanished! Task Force Superawesome is on the case!

The warehouse is oddly silent. Hellions are doing their usual stunts but nobody's saying anything... until right at the end, when one of the 90 has apparently decided to take up a life of crime.

Fusionette, your thoughts? "Weeeeird". Yes, thank you. I suppose blasting Rikti several blocks away does take up most of your time.

---

Another one of the vanished 90 is robbing a bank. Lady Grey has given Fusionette a rerouter so they can be captured by Vanguard when they beam out. That'd be nice as an opening clue, now that you can do that.

Nick has opted for the "like a sun" interpretation of fusion. A clue he drops on defeat reveals some kind of mind-control arifact. Nasty pieces of work, those.

Finding the stolen artifacts isn't hard as they're all in the vault. I think there are only a few bank maps that actually can put glowies outside the vault. If you want them to show up scattered throughout the bank, you might want to confirm glowie location on the map preview, now that we get one.

...apropos of nothing, I wonder if Up-n-Away burger actually has some kind of flying delivery service. It seems pretty natural given the branding. And the wide availability of jet packs.

---

Fusionette reading off a report. This is pretty great. And apparently Faultline's got himself mixed up in this too?

There are Hellions here... IMPUGNING HIGHER LEARNING? This will not stand!

Anyway, two more heroes down and poor Jim Temblor is glad I don't work for the tabloids.

This all seems to be the work of some kid who got booted out of MAGI for conduct unbecoming a decent human being.

---

And now we're going to try some aversion therapy on the guy. I'm in.

A refight with Mandy, and... oh, hey. The end boss is actually an EB. So that's why my health is going down so fast. Good punchup, though.

I've prevented a plan to mind-control the city's heroes at the cost of... being on Fusionette's speed dial. History will remember this sacrifice.

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Storyline - ****. It's a simple story told succinctly - my only problem is with Vanguard's role in the whole thing. I've always thought of Vanguard as kind of a high-test organization more concerned with fighting back the Rikti. They wouldn't really be interested in the Nuclear 90 going on a low-level crime spree. That's really more GIFT's department. I mean, unless there are alien mind-control devices we're lookin' at here, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I mean, Lady Grey's got a very wheels-within-wheels sort of persona, maybe there's something for her in all this, but it'd be nice to get a hint of that. I mean, heck, maybe she's passing us notes because Fusionette is not noted for being a good conductor of information.

Design - ****. Sensible maps overall, and customs tricked out in bright primary colors, with a very Duke Mordrogar final boss. I suppose for a low-level arc there's not much variety to be had, but I would have liked to fight something besides Hellions, even if they are behind it all.

Gameplay - *****. Stock Hellions never hurt nobody. Really my only problem is with the recurring radiation-blast boss. At low levels you come to rely quite a bit on the native enemy 50% miss chance for mitigation. You might want to see what kind of XP she gets without Neutrino Bolt.

Detail - *****. The walkers are sparse, but they always have something interesting to say, and the Nuclear 90 have nice little bios.

I'm just disappointed nobody actually mentions Task Force Superawesome outside of Fusionette. Villains have a weird sense for those sorts of things.

Overall - ****. A nice low-level arc that takes the Nuclear 90 and runs with 'em a bit. It could use some slightly varied opposition and Vanguard getting involved seems a bit out of scope, but the core is solid.

Another time interval, another random arc.

Previously-played arcs from the randomizer:
The Doom that Came to Paragon City (28540). Verdict - ***.
Catching Lightning in a Bottle (60639). Verdict - ***.
Of Mentors And Legacy (1589). Verdict - ****.

Tonight's arc: Entrusted with the Other Secret (120462). Verdict - ***. Review below in this thread.

My current queue:

• Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
• I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

@GlaziusF

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

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Mender Tess (she could use a description now that you can do that) sends me off against a group with designs against Ouroboros. Apparently I don't exist in their past, which will let me blindside them.

I begin engaging the soldiers. Let's see here... AR/elec armor and elec melee/elec armor minions, mercs/mind control and AR/empathy lieutenants... and Vanguard Sergeants for some reason?

Yeah, stock description and everything. Are these guys supposed to be here? If so you might want to at least tweak their stock description to note how odd that is.

I meet a metahuman called "The Alpha", a fire blast (with Aim)/fire manip (with Build Up). He shows up later in the mission as a normal boss, which seems a little odd. I also meet a timelost caveman, Mace (with build up)/Invuln, and a mad archer, bow (with aim)/pain dom.

The map boss is an energy melee (with build up) robot who seems to have used my existence to crack Ouroboros.

Problematic.

---

Tess decides to send me after them, surmising I won't die just yet and offering to off me and dump the body down a blind time-hole if I don't get on it.

Woman after my own heart, that one.

I enter the map to a bunch of greens. If you don't want that to happen you should look at the mission pacing setting - this may have been made before it actually worked properly.

Yeah, I'm betting you didn't want The Alpha to be a regular feature, but I fight him all through this place, including three times in one room.

Apparently someone's been feeding this information to the robot...

---

...someone in the 5th Column. Trying to span across history before time travel is uninvented. Tess says she'll come with? Now this will be interesting.

I pick her up in the first room. Pretty standard MA/SR, really. The base is a small 5th Column affair with the troops discussing the upcoming schism. I pick up the drive as a clue, but no idea what's on it yet - I'm guessing Tess will read that after we get out.

---

Not even. But with the drive gone Time-Shift never cuts Ouro off from the time stream, so that's a win of sorts. I go to get news of Ouro while Tess works on figuring out who tipped the robot off.

...well. Somehow things have gone even worse now.

...or... wait. The ambush that shows up when I drop the bot is casting things in a new light. I'm a traitor in this timeline? Are all the other Menders that way too?

---

Huh. Apparently this whole affair was Tess's plan in the future to turn TimeShift into a traitor and seal off Ouroboros against those who would destroy it all. So now I'm going to make sure the robot finds out how to get that done.

Well, this should be an easy little coda.

This... uh... this isn't the same base I was in last time The overall topology is similar, but the last room is markedly different. For a second I think things are going to go weird once I set the drive in place, but the mission ends normally.

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Storyline - ***. But the future refused to change.

It's not really easy to keep up tension in an arc where you're fighting as hard as you can just to stay in the same place. I respect that, but even then mission 2 is pretty much the last time I got in a meaningful fight to learn something novel. Missions 3 and 5 are milk runs through a small 5th base. Mission 4 is ultimately completely misguided, and I'm still not sure how much of it really changed. Absent the other people who've been ill done by time travel... was the whole mission really against Ouroboros loyalists? The actual future threat never appeared on the map?

I was expecting something to try and stop me in the last mission at least, some little glimpse of how bad this alternate future is that Tess would rather turn down an entire army of dudes than face it. But it's just a little stealth to click and then it's over.

Design - ***. The maps are alright. The 5th bunkers are 5th bunkers, the lab's a lab, and Eleusis does a decent job standing in for somewhere near Ouro. I don't even think the kickoff for the Alpha unlock arc is available in Mission Architect, and I rather doubt you could put much on it even then.

The custom enemy group's pretty thematically decent. Purple, occasionally sparkity, soldiers.

Mender Tess is some pretty nice design work. I can tell she looks a little bit different, but she doesn't look wrong.

But there are places where the design feels a little unpolished. The Timeshift lab that kicks off with greens, though that might well be a symptom of pacing that's only comparatively recently started working. The incongruous Vanguard soldier, who does kind of look the part in the customs but retains his original title and description, just seeming to have wandered in. The Alpha showing up as a regular boss among the customs, which I'm pretty sure is not intended. And the two 5th bunkers that are almost, but not quite, completely identical-looking.

Gameplay - ***. I occasionally have harsh words for Aim and Build Up in lower-level arcs or on elite bosses, but on bosses they actually make for some pretty notable fights at the higher levels.

Though if the Alpha's really supposed to be a regular presence in the custom group, he's got both Aim and Build up and is a regular fight, so that doesn't work out quite as well.

But there's only one proper melee unit in the custom group, maybe one and a half if the Vanguard lieut is supposed to be there as he sometimes will close to melee. The problem with ranged enemies that I often talk about is that, especially on open ground, there's no real way to get them to group together. So every battle ends with a little bit of mop-up. This is a little bit irritating, but it doesn't really get very bad unless the mission's a defeat all.

Or a chained mission on an outdoor map, which often practically works out to "defeat all" so you have a prayer of finding the new objective when it warps in. And both the outdoor missions with the custom group involve some degree of chaining.

Detail - *****. Mission 4 is actually pretty well-written. The attack calls and such are flavorful enough that it seems to a casual observer like nothing's changed, but the reveal at the end throws the whole thing into pretty sharp contrast. The effect only lasts for a little bit - ultimately it was a lot of running to stand still - but it's a nice effect.

Tess is a sardonic, just barely not murderous joy to listen to, and when the enemy group showed up in the first mission their descriptions and dialogues made me want to see more of them, and explore their deeply-rooted personal animosity against time travel.

Overall - ***. But ultimately the people who hate time travel enough to drown it in the wrathtub play second fiddle to an ouroboros in the snake-eating-own-tail sense and an unspecified future enemy of Ouroboros who never really gets any screen time. That's disappointing, and the little annoyances don't do much to cushion the blow.

But unless I miss my guess, this is an arc that has a lot to gain from the capabilities now present in Architect and perhaps even the expanded file size.

Another time interval, another random arc.

Previously-played arcs from the randomizer:
The Blue Devils (468738). Verdict - *****.
An EPIC Tale: Clown Capers (501562). Verdict - ***
A Tangle In Time (2622). Verdict - *****.

Tonight's arc: A Hero In Need Is A Friend Indeed (375018).Verdict - *****. Review in MA Forums Thread.

My current queue:

• Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
• I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

Another time interval, another random arc.

Previously-played arcs from the randomizer:
Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette Task Force (58363). Verdict - ****.
Get Ye Flask (36433). Verdict - **.

Tonight's arc: Effrego Quartus Parietis (45525). Verdict - ***. Review below in this thread.

My current queue:

• Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
• I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

@GlaziusF

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

---

Ah, dimensional nonsense. This is what a cosmic hero is all about.

Well, partly about. Time counts as a dimension, right?

...huh. My contact's bug text mentions a university, but the mission talks about an abandoned facility in the RWZ.

And at the end of long corridors full of reticent Rikti, some Arachnos agents are taunting a little boy. He thinks this is all a dream.

Yeah, go talk to Lucy about that one, kid.

---

Huh. "An old friend of mine", next mission briefing? There weren't exactly any notable characters in that first mission. Well, let's see.

...it's Dreck. Completely unheralded by so much as a bit of orange text in the mission briefing.

I pop a Shivan, unsure of what to expect from the kid, and AR/Grav might have helped a little, but still, springing Dreck on an unsuspecting audience like that is most heinous.

---

Anyway, now fighting up a high school locker room. The rage-using boss calls a brute squad which are currently replaced by Architect's I AM ERROR stand-ins, the Proteans, though really they fit the idea well enough.

The kid who was supposed to help me is in a remote corner of the top floor, and his ego's grown to the approximate size of Cleveland.

---

Expecting to fight him in the last mission.

...not expecting unheralded Lord Recluse.

Well, at least he shows up outside the giant elaborate jail cell at the very end of the map.

---

Storyline - ***. Breaking the fourth wall, and more generally the role of the author in the story, is an occasional element of the comics canon, played as funny, heartwarming, head-trippy, or downright disturbing. An Architect story about that is fine on the face of it, and the first person to come crashing through is a flawed character who goes through an understandable arc.

The next handful of people are about as subtle as your average Suda 51 game. Or Duke Nukem, if you prefer. They almost make more sense as elements of what is essentially the first kid's architect mission, "written in" to the world rather than actually coming here. I'm not sure if that's how you actually meant them or not, but there's only one mission to deal with them so it needs some bright lines drawn.

Design - ***. I'm not taking off for the bully's messed-up posse. You'll want to look at them, but they're characteristic of Architect deciding things are invalid after the fact.

What brings this down a little bit is that the kid is as least notionally supposed to help you out, but through chance or deliberation he showed up for me in the most remote corner of the two maps where he appears as an ally - he was basically the last objective I encountered in both of them. For a story that makes something out of his growth in power, he should have the chance to show that off.

Gameplay - **. Multiple unheralded AV/EB fights with some of the toughest customers in the game. Other than those ridiculous spikes, mostly stock enemies in reasonable configurations.

Detail - ****. The arc on the initial kid is a nice piece of work. He changes throughout the missions, powers, dialogue, even the enemy group. It's painted in broad strokes, but there's nothing necessarily wrong with that.

Overall - ***. A simple story that needs more attention paid to both the set dressing and the challenge involved in its big notable fights.

Hey Glazius- if you're willing, I'd be curious to see what you thought of my "Small Fears" arc (12285) that you ran ages ago, now that I've revamped it heavily.

Another time interval, another random arc.

Tonight's arc: A rereview of Small Fears (12285). Verdict - ***. Review below in this thread.

My current queue:

• Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
• I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

@GlaziusF

Rerunning this on the original DB/Fire brute, now at the level cap, +1/x2 with bosses on.

---

Hmm. That big whack of bold yellow text seems like it might make a nice mission start clue, as it doesn't come from the contact necessarily.

Okay. So there's a minion here with Fearsome Stare and a stealth power. That, uh... that's not good. Fear is a debilitating status effect and very few power sets get any kind of resistance to it.

I find a kid and get him to the door, though he doesn't get an objective arrow on it, which is weird. Spawns a nice ambush, though.

After I spring him, the counter in the navbar stays at 2? kids throughout the whole mission. That's... that's not a lot of help there, navbar. As it is I feel like I broke the mission when I freed the last kid on the top floor.

The optional boss is, well, optional, but he's got build up and perma-Deceive.

---

Office mission is a bit better set up this time. Mother Mayhem uncorked something terrible at the BAF and she just bolted across the dimensions. Her escort is a mix of diviners and her old children of anger, but she goes down pretty easy.

---

Despite some talk about going through to Praetoria in the last mission, this one seems to take place in an abandoned hospital on this side. ...which is a real shame because somewhere in the maze of cots Fearsome Stare will always be waiting for me.

It's quiet in here. Too quiet.

...no, seriously. First and second floors are both empty, except for a single patrol. Did something go wrong?

Wait, maybe I am in Praetoria? There seems to be some stuff of Dark Numina's sitting around here, presumably to summon whatever monstrosity is waiting at the end.

The monstrosity isn't so bad, considering -- just a miasma dark blaster, apparently without Blackstar -- and I find out why it was so quiet, as wars break out en masse between Mother Mayhem's security and fear demons, including two bosses I haven't seen before.

Mother Mayhem comes back... and gets chumped by one of the warring groups of fear monsters. Seriously. I come downstairs and she's getting shivved in a corner by Pain. I'm almost entirely certain that was a coincidence, as it runs back down the hallway to a reset position once she bites it.

After remembering there's a weird little nook in the first room around a blind corner and down some stairs, I take the focus binding the fear demon to this world, and... arc over.

---

Storyline - ***. The progression of what goes on is quite a bit clearer: Mother Mayhem is experimenting, summons a fear demon, has it take over, and then she carves a hole through to our reality through sheer force of will to get away from it all. A young sensitive psychic picks up on it, and enter the hero.

Though this rating hasn't changed, because, well, Praetoria has changed. It used to be pretty simple: Tyrant was worried about his various Praetors turning on him so he played them against each other, and as a result both he and they were weaker and more given to your average Saturday morning cartoon mishaps, like the old "ancient fear demon in the research notes" trick.

But things have gotten a little more complex. Mother Mayhem and Diabolique have a much better reason to be at each others' throats than just infighting, and Diabolique doesn't even need to get a fear demon from another dimension to raise an army of fear warriors. If you can, play through the First Ward content, you'll see what I mean.

Design - ***. The fear demons are still pretty nice, but I really would like to have seen some kind of Praetorian map instead of just the asylum for the last battle. The asylum's so cramped it's just a chore to navigate.

Also, you could stand to break the parts of mission setup that I do for myself -- the ones that show up in bold yellow text -- out from the briefing itself and into mission setup clues, as the contact isn't really providing them.

Sometimes MA seems like it's bugging out but really operating as intended, like with the counter for rescues in the first mission not going down, or the last mission being completely empty but for a couple of patrols. (It also kinda reduces the impact of the powered-up fear demons when we only meet a handful of them before it's time to throw down with the end boss.)

And Mother Mayhem getting mowed down in the last mission before I even had a chance to engage her is rather darkly amusing, but I can't believe it was intentional.

Gameplay - *. So there's a minion with heavy stealth on it that will try to fear you as one of its initial attacks. If your build doesn't resist fear, and there are very, very few who do, you can only make one attack or briefly run away about every ten seconds.

I realize it might sound silly to complain that the fear demons are fearing me, but seriously once you are feared your options are pretty much "pop anti-status insp" and "wait to die".

Also, seriously, one of the custom bosses mowed down Mother Mayhem before I could even process what was going on. They may be pitched just a little too high.

Detail - ****. Overall there are just too many viewpoints crammed into the briefing. Our kid contact, his little finger Tony, and the narration that describes the actions we take.

That, and, well, I've gone into this before. There are three types of horror in video games: shock, suspense, and Castlevania. It's really hard to do anything other than Castlevania in the Mission Architect, and talking up suspense in the mission briefings when the missions themselves are mostly straightforward brawls just kinda rings hollow.

Overall - ***. Canon has changed under a lot of arcs, not least the ones set in or partly in Praetoria. I don't expect everybody to necessarily keep up with it, but in this case taking the current Praetoria into account might be beneficial.

Also, peeling Fearsome Stare off the minions would make battles a lot less frustrating but not really up the difficulty much.

Huh. While I do genuinely appreciate you taking the time to do this, I have to admit, a lot of your beefs with the missions were... kind of unexpected. You've drawn at least a couple of conclusions that I'm looking at and going "... what." As in, I honestly am not sure where you got the idea from. I'll see if I can't respond to them as I go along...

Another time interval, another random arc.

Although today's a little I22 special. A tribute, if you will, to an old departed friend.

Tonight's arc: A full review of Astoria in D Minor (41565). Verdict - *****. Review in MA Forums thread.

My current queue:

• Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
• I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

Another time interval, another random arc.

Previously played:

The Brawler and the Bawler (1053). Verdict - ***.
The Casualties of War (241496). Verdict - ****.
Tainted Waters (69315). Verdict - *.
Death for Dollars! (1050). Verdict - ****.
Superhero Downtime (135096). Verdict - ****.
Assault on Aru Prime (174586). Verdict - ***.

Tonight's arc: A full review of So You Want To Be A Skull (319654). Verdict - ****. Review lower in this thread.

My current queue:

• Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
• I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a single-digit beam/time corruptor, old heroic at +0/x1 with bosses on.

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Low-tier villain throws in with a low-tier gang. Mission 1: beat up security and grab some Hellion swag.

Everything happens pretty straightforwardly - the Hellions are also trying to get their stuff back, but private security is handling them just fine.

Have to wonder how high in the ranks my contact really is if he's still trying to come up with a name.

---

And a quick little raid on a police station to grab some more gear, plant a bomb, and get out in 15 minutes. Carved through a few ambushes but I made it.

---

Aw. Our contact wants to believe Marrowsnap is invincible. You want to tell him or should I?

He's sounding off right when I enter, for some reason, and then... oh, hey. Hellion elite boss. Might want to put in a warning about that, though he's one of the low-level ones that I think the Mook guy in Port Oakes makes you fight.

---

My contact has chosen a name for me. I wonder if I should disabuse him of this.

Anyhow he's got a list for me that could stand to be a mission start clue, but eh. Securing a Superadine shipment.

Or deciding I've had enough of the Skulls and blowing it all up. That works too.

Big ship, patrolling Cage guards (had no idea they really spawned this low, but I guess so) and it all goes down easy.

---

Raid a Longbow safehouse, ransom Arachnos tech back to Arachnos. Yeah, I'd say my contact's getting just a little too big for his darktalon bloodbritches.

As I free the Arachnos and wreck their stolen tech, the Skulls attempt to stop me. Key word: attempt.

No souvenir, weirdly enough.

---

Storyline - ****. I liked the way this story ended: the Skulls, with unforeseen help from some heavy villain muscle (the player), decide to bat suicidally above their weight, leading the muscle to bail before things get too out of hand.

I wish it hadn't taken that turn so suddenly, though. Everything we were doing previously seemed like pretty normal low-level villain stuff, and there wasn't really a sense that this would all come back to bite us. Having things start to turn sour before the big stupid plan shows up would make the transition seem a little more natural.

Though it's not really a deal-breaker. I mean, it's not like stupid plans out of nowhere don't make sense coming from this contact, and it's not like he's got a record of stellar life choices up until now. Still, it's entertaining to see things go wrong, even if they're going wrong all over the player's face.

Design - ****. The missions seemed rather heavy on patrols, often largely to the exclusion of normal spawns. Patrols and objectives in Architect are generally not in addition to the normal spawns on mission maps, but instead replace them.

I'm not sure why all the patrols, though. They don't have interesting things to say and it doesn't seem that the places I visit should be quite so heavy on patrols.

Gameplay - ****. A warning about 3K Kelvin would have been nice. But more than that, the high number of patrols means the concentration of enemies is very, very uneven. This is especially a caution for low-level characters, who don't really have the bag of tricks high-level characters do that lets them survive things like fighting one spawn and a patrol when another patrol drops from the balcony above.

Detail - ****. Not a lot of out-there customization going on that would need explaining; most detail is stock but the few unique things look alright. I would like to get a souvenir of this whole crazy misadventure, though.

Overall - ****. A good newbie arc with a solid plot and a little room for improvement.

I just added save the diver, save the world (in sig) to commissionreview and would love your stream of consciousness review. It is "final" though always open to improvements and refinements!

Another time interval, another random arc.

Previously played:

A Warrior's Journey: the Flower Knight Task Force (260284). Verdict - *****
A Tex-Mex Mess (127677). Verdict - ***
Quoth the Raven (74617). Verdict - ***
Simple Times (70801). Verdict - ***

Tonight's arc: A full review of Being Devoured (112023). Verdict - ****. Review lower in this thread.

My current queue:

• Random reviews! Due to the overeager text censor I can't be sure that any random arc I encounter will actually function as originally intended. Text, enemies, and entire enemy groups can be replaced depending on what the censor objects to. In that case I'll message the arc author and call it a night.
• I'm still open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a fire/energy tanker, +1/x2 with bosses on.

---

Well, this is an auspicious start. Hero-for-hire wants some help corralling the Devouring Earth on account of how bad they stink.

Though he could use a bio.

He's getting absolutely leveled by some rock monsters (shame the higher-level DE have absolutely no variety to them).

And hey, it's Pyriss, disguised as a mysterious Devoured. After she's down some spires pop up in the cave to block the exit.

---

Huh. Uni basement map. Haven't seen that one for a while.

Some of the samples have broken free... and judging by the spire that just popped up, I am now a beloved toy of Hamixom.

---

Researchers have gone out to gather samples, and oh hey it's eleven things to do in Eden. Well, let's get to it.

Actually the spires are pretty visible, and the researchers are being subject to Crey's open disclosure policies, so their escorts stand out from the rocks. This was actually a pretty solid outdoor mission.

---

Bad news: one of the researchers accidentally processed a sample from me instead of the DE.

Worse news: apparently I've been contaminated. Wonder how this is going to play out.

Oh hey, more of Crey's open disclosure policies. Well, this'll be interesting.

After freeing a wildlife biologist, I plow through some more Crey and drink up the cure.

---

But the DE come back and completely trash the lab. My contact's there to help me run them off (with a guest appearance from Pyriss) but the damage is done.

---

Storyline - ****. Fairly straightforward but a little more sinister than the typical DE arc, what with the looming presence of Hamidon and all. There's one thing I have a little quibble with, though.

The Devouring is treated as a single plague with a single cure, but there are at least two extant named vectors for it that we know of: the Will of the Earth and the Unity Plague, in addition to whatever they put into Terra. The Will of the Earth has a touch of magic to it, indicating that Hamidon may not be merely biological in nature, though many of his minions respond to biological signals.

Nothing wrong with Hamidon coming out with yet another new strain and just fighting to deny the cure for it, but it doesn't make much sense that what we're dealing with in this arc is an absolute cure.

Design - ***. The choice of maps is good, the rock spires are a nice recurring element, and it's fun to see what new scrape my contact has gotten himself into.

But this arc has a really unusual level range and I don't really get why it's there.

I mean, of course I get the simple mechanical reason: the DE don't have many non-giant monster big threats aside from Terra and Devoured Pyriss, and Terra's just a big green Devoured. But that's the sort of thing custom enemies are wonderful for.

At the levels this arc runs, both Crey and the Devouring Earth are at their most boring. Crey is Tanks and Protectors, the DE are just rocks. Using a custom or customs instead of just Pyriss would let the fights be a lot more interesting.

Also I was expecting something interesting to show up in the lab in mission 4, while I was getting the cure. Hive Spires talking to me or something. As it is nothing really comes of the infection; the mission's not any different from one I would run to pick up a cure for my contact. If you're going to put the plot point in at least get a little flavor out of it.

Gameplay - *****. Crey and the DE are stock and hardly frustrating, and the outdoor mission with a ton of objectives was a relative snap thanks to clever choice of objectives and escorts. (Though maybe the Crey guys could stand to be waving around a medical recorder or something to spit out particles.)

Detail - ****. Mostly stock descriptions; very little that needed explanation here. The clues that showed up were sensible and serviceable.

Overall - ****. A good arc, but the titular plot development barely registers at all, and the choice of Pyriss rather than some custom DE makes the fights a lot less varied than either of the two marquee enemy groups are capable of producing.

In addition to Save the Diver, Save the World in my sig, I've added The Serpent Beyond the Horizon (also in my sig) to cohmissionreview.com.

I am sure it too can benefit from your attentions and insights. It's final also, though i do make the occasional pass looking for errant typos.

Hello GlaziusF,

I've added a bunch of my arcs to COHMR and I would love for you to review them.

They are:

Project Dragon (#522067)

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend (#114284)

The Murders In The RWZ Morgue (#452144)

Arena (#456200)

Looking forward to see what you think about them.

Well hey, we got requests! So here goes.

Tonight's arc: A full review of Save the Diver, Save the World (112023). Verdict - ***. Review lower in this thread.

My current queue:

• A review of The Serpent Beyond the Horizon (515140), no earlier than April 10th.
• Reviews for The Doctor Returns (1140), Arena (456200), The Murders in the RWZ Morgue (452144), Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend (114284), Et in Arcadia Ego (525441), and Project Dragon (522067)
• I'm also open to reviews by request, for anything you know is working.