CoHMR Aggregator (a review thread)

@GlaziusF

Running on a level 49 spine/regen scrapper, looking to AE to 50 because why not.

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Hey Crimson. Terse as usual. Okay, let's see what's up here.

Longbow base. Pretty standard. Malta lead operatives are named "two NATO phonetics number-number-number". Like Kilo Xray 4-3-4.

Some data remains. Some data's gone. What data's gone? I dunno, let's see what Crimson says.

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Huh. Wonder what was in there about Ms. Liberty. Alright, let's go mow down s'more Malta.

Ah good, it's the little narrow Steel Canyon, not the big northeast quadrant.

So who ordered this op? Dr. Aeon? The banner seems about his sense of aesthetics.

No real information as to what's going on, just that Arachnos and Malta are both interested in Miss Lib for different reasons...

Arachnos, as it shakes out, because someone's nabbed Krylov.

Huh.

I would have figured him for a B-lister given that he's on par with the Spetznaz, but I guess he knows a guy who knows a guy who knows Lord Recluse, or something.

...wait a minute. Silver Mantis's order mentions Krylov and the clue says Arachnos isn't there for the disks, but Crimson and the system message both seem to think they are.

Oh! Okay. Krylov had the disks. I didn't necessarily make that link, just because a lot of people get captured by Longbow.

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So in I go after him.

Huh. Old soviet projects sold to Malta. Okay. But the only text in the navbar for Krylov is his name. Seems like a default result, really.

I think you want to reconsider the ambush - it seems like it should spawn on Krylov's rescue, not on the objective complete.

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And now into a Malta lab. The Data Centers are called out by number instead of being grouped together, might want to collapse them since the navbar's looking rather crowded.

...okay. I find File C in Data Center A, File B In Data Center C (though it's also labeled File C), and File A in Data Center B. Uh. That's... that's a thing.

Huh. Okay, secret Soviet project to destroy Statesman... that worked... but was never actually dispatched to defeat Statesman. Uh. Why, exactly?

Apparently Malta wants to make the next generation of powerful people into threats to Paragon City.

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Something you should know - allies you have to rescue on timed missions currently have to stay alive or the mission will fail. I manage to ditch the lieut so he doesn't ruin this.

Aside from that, pretty nice hunt over the the plains here for way more allies than I really need to take out a tac ops commander.

I wonder why the past is supposed to be kept secret from these people. Is there some secret codephrase that'll make them flamesplode?

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Storyline - ***. Three missions to set the whole project up and two to resolve it, one of which is just investigation? Uh. That's kind of wonky pacing there, really. Among other things it doesn't actually give time to set these people up as a threat or whatever their secret power that wipes out the Freedom Phalanx is.

Design - ****. Generally solid maps with the occasional fight for flavor, and a pretty good likeness of Krylov. Some of the timing on chains seems a bit suspect though and that Malta base was just a land of confusion with the files not showing up where I'd expect them to.

Gameplay - ****. Trying to find a safe place to ditch the more breakable members in the last mission was the main sidetracker. I know it's a bug, but even so.

Detail - ***. Crimson's got a fairly solid voice to him, I have to give you points there. But the mixed-up files in the Malta base and the breakdown in the Liberty vs. Mantis mission both confused me about the direction you were taking the plot.

Overall - ***. Most of this is down to the off-kilter pacing. It doesn't so much end in the fifth mission as run out of space allotted and slam into a wall.

Tonight's random arc: All in the Family (128109). Verdict - ****. Review in MA Forums Thread.

Last night's random arc: Equal Representation (143912). Verdict - *****. Review below in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Running on a spine/regen scrapper exemplared down, diff 2 for real boss fights.

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Invading a Crey lab! This always goes well.

Nice setup for the dummy glowies, and some pretty straightforward investigation results.

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Straightforward setup here too. Time to ride to the rescue!

Huh. Everybody seems to think very highly of Piper, even the guy who betrayed him.

...I wonder if there's more to his powers.

Trekking out over four floors of empty with him in tow doesn't seem like a productive use of my time, though.

Heh. Yeah, thanks for confirming it, my elected official.

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Why reluctantly, mission 3 accept text? I've hardly spent any time around this guy and his mind woogie.

Stealth, huh? Can do. Let's see how well it works.

Surprisingly well, actually, as long as the captains and officers don't run Tactics.

Huh. Guess he just convinced the Crey, then? He's not one of their projects? Because he seems the type.

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Heh. Interesting various guards for this guy...

What, a Warhulk? Can't wait to see what this guy says... heh. Oh, that's a nice reason. Always easier to con the guys who think they're putting the screws to you.

Final boss has a pretty predictable powerset. I've long since started saving break frees for MAs.

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Storyline - *****. It sold the Crey plot hard enough that the undercurrent was a genuine twist. I wondered for a moment why Crey wasn't telling anybody else about their concerns, but then I realized they probably didn't care.

Design - ****. The last three missions are all in identical tilesets. They all fit, but even so a little variety wouldn't hurt. Even just blue office instead of red office, but it would be hilarious if Piper's campaign was headquartered in a sewer or something and nobody cared.

Gameplay - *****. Everything went pretty smoothly. No hunting around cleaning stuff up.

Detail - ****. Would've liked to see a little more incidental stuff, after the first mission played a nice trick with dummy glowies.

Overall - *****. But overall there's nothing too overpowering about my objections. This is solid work.

Tonight's arc: Crossing Over (111352). Verdict - ****. Review lower in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Playing on a high 40s DB/fire brute, diff 2 for real boss fights.

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Contact is Operative Parks. He introduces himself as Arbiter Parks. Probably just a little confusion there.

Interesting plan here. Let's see how it plays out.

Ah, good ol' chaotic neutral. So it's a freedom vs. restrictions thing set up.

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Alright, let's see how this goes.

Not bad, actually. Hook up with her halfway through the base, frob a glowie, clear the place out...

You might want to look into your captive animations, though, they rejiggered those a while back and the scientist is doing a standard kneeling animation.

Power Transmuter... we're not seeing the rise of Darla Mavis, are we?

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Woo, Zig breakout!

Pretty straightforward. Took me maybe 10 minutes, so bringing the time down to 15 might not be out of the question if you're going for pressure.

On rescue Irene says "So my being captured and thrown in here part of Arachnos' plan?" That sentence no verb.

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Nice scenery for the final fight. Crey and Arachnos repelling a Longbow incursion.

Also the final room has the protectable near a normal spawn, which means lots and lots of fighting. Pretty keen anyway, feels about right for a climactic rush.

The special power-transmuted troops add a nice wrinkle and they look appropriately "next level of Longbow".

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There are technically already Longbow imbued with super powers - they're the Wardens. Still, legitimate concern here.

Two transmuters I can understand, but why does the mainframe also look like a stasis tube?

(also the stasis tubes have their default descriptions)

Posi up, Posi down. Rad vs Rad. Pretty good fight all in all.

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Storyline - ***. Not that my villain minds, but I have to say - what exactly did this girl go through that she's willing to join up with Arachnos with a little card that says "hey there we're the Rogue Isles. FREEDOM! Now murder your former friends." I mean, let her rant on in the mission clues or something. Villains love to rant, right?

Design - ****. Great work on the Longbow Elite corps. ...not so great work on the clues, which disappeared after mission 2. I like seeing a little progress, at least.

Gameplay - *****. Very smooth run, though. Help was enough to take out the end boss, and while there were some challenging stretches they weren't anything that you could tweak the mission to get rid of.

Detail - ***. Default descriptions for the stasis tubes, and one of them was used to represent something there are already models for (mainframes).

OVerall - ****. Solid mission that needs a little more attention to detail and a little more character background to shine.

Arc ID: 296884
Arc Title: A Show of Hands
Morality: Villainous
Level Range: 40-54
Length: 4 Missions
Description: Things go topsy turvy when just a couple of hours before the sale somebody robs your fence. Get the item back in time and teach the thieves a lesson about stealing from the likes of you. (Ambush-heavy, teams or strong soloers recommended.)

Requesting a review for Rider's Ribs Restaurant Rescue: http://cohmissionreview.com/2009/05/...aurant-rescue/
Was a little mistaken since I thought you had reviewed it already.

Tonight's arc: A Show of Hands (296884). Verdict - ****. Review in MA Forums Thread.

Tonight's arc: Rider's Ribs Restaurant Rescue (163967). Verdict - ****. Review in MA Forums Thread.

Tonight's arc: Vienna Rising (286563). Verdict - *. Review below in this thread.

@GlaziusF

Playing on a mid-40s DB/fire brute, diff 2 for real boss fights.

Amusing aside - viewed slightly off-kilter I parsed the contact as bare-chested with red suspenders.

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Huh. The Circle may have a reputation for worshipping demons but in my experience they just go through the necessary motions to summon one.

Now Hellions, those guys definitely worship demons.

Hey mister? I don't know how long you've been down there but there's way more than one woman in Steel Canyon. Can I get a picture? A description? Ice sculpture, maybe?

I mean, the Longbow running around, half of them are women.

Okay, the guys chattering about Escalus, one of them says "on On Peregrine Island", and the other one talks about him going through Independence Port?

Le what?

Indy port is on the opposite side of the city from PI, check a tram station for a big city map.

...um. You might wanna give Helen a description that is not a spoiler for the rest of this arc. (at least now we know she falls into the "pure evil" bucket of the great dead/all-powerful/pure evil Summers Memorial Comic Book Wife Sorter)

I'm glad I got frustrated a couple arcs back, makes it easy to remember the little nook under the construction scaffolding where she actually ends up.

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Yes, the Mu are treacherous monomaniacs, and there's a lot more people with Mu blood than make it into Arachnos.

But the Vaults of Mu are some crazy spiritual plane, a reverse run of the (also CoT special) Spirit City map. They're not what happens when the Mu settle in Oranbega.

Due to my level any variant groups you had in the custom don't actually spawn - I know I'm out of range for the midnighters. The result is wall to wall Super Strikers (at high levels they get more lightning powers), who don't so much chew away at my blue bar as swallow it whole.

Fortunately I have a little temp stealth saved up for a rainy day.

More fortunately the books I'm looking for are about halfway through the city itself.

Yes, yes, I've done very well, thank you demonically Liefeldian Mr. Grace.

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Sweet Christmas, brother. You need to take some laughin' lessons from Vernon von Grun.

Hmm. It'd be interesting to have a mission that spit out endless waves of attackers that you'd beat when the timer hit zeroh wait that actually happens in Croatoa.

I suppose this is a good substitute.

Whoa whoa whoa. I have to wipe out all the Longbow on Thorn Isle in half an hour? That's not a very good prize!

Let me tell you how big Thorn Isle is. I spent the entire time at maximum rage, ended with 45 seconds still on the clock, and cleared 400 bonus tickets.

That is how big Thorn Isle is.

And that's without having to backtrack, just running right from one spawn to another! There's obstructing terrain and sheer drops all over Thorn Isle and the Longbow can fly, so all it would have taken was one runner and that would've been it. I would have carved my way through a wall of human flesh for half an hour solid and still failed the mission.

Maybe this would be a workable replacement: Escalus and N Longbow sorcery/excavation teams (boss spawns), where N is modestly small. After that they won't have the manpower to break through in time.

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Uh... yay Rosemary's baby? Apparently I get to go off and have the Best Day Ever in the meanwhile.

Or not. My spree of destruction through Oranbega destroys no artifacts, disrupts no rituals, and steals no fenceable shinies. Instead I... help someone out of the goodness of my navbar. I mean heart.

Oh hey, I didn't know the missing fortune teller scaled so high. But... is she supposed to just have the missing fortune teller description? And shouldn't she stick around (ally not captive) instead of just bolting if she's going to discuss stuff with me?

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! You know, if this guy was gonna wreck the world you'd think they'd spare more than a mook squad of Longbow to take him out.

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Um... description, I'm pretty sure she's not actually brainwashed here, or she'd be trying to kill me too. Though I guess there's something going on since she doesn't remember me, she's not exactly a pawn of the big man either.

The destroyer of worlds... isn't even an EB? Le what? The ambushes come out way too fast here, even with me dealing with them and claw-lady on whatever she feels like his HP just plummets like a stone.

Also he seems to open with Inferno, which would be a pretty big deal to some other guy without capped fire resist.

And after that I need to push a Warden down the giant stone stairs. Bit of an anticlimax... and for some reason the clue from him comes before the clue for springing Viv.

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Storyline - *. Vivian being everything bad that happens to women in comics crammed into one little package aside, there's stuff I really don't buy here. The Circle is summoning this guy who wants to destroy the world - but they're actual people, or the spirits of same, and the world is where they keep all their stuff. The hero opposition to this guy, though they apparently know about him and his plans, consists of one actual hero and a big pile of Longbow. And I only find out about him because I stop to help some random person on my rampage through Oranbega? Even if he's just planning to rip my heart out instead of destroy civilization, that last one's still a bit of a problem.

Design - **. A custom group where the level range makes it made entirely of Mu Strikers, a final boss who's a paper tiger (seriously, the Warden gave me more problems), map choice that's pretty much the entirety of the "special Circle" maps but without much appreciation of how the maps actually play (the "Oranbega" map is just a giant tunnel run crampathon), and a 30-minute red-and-white armored wall of human flesh with the only notable element being one single vocal boss spawn.

Gameplay - **. Seriously, that mission on Thorn Isle is absolutely terrible. It made me want to stop playing the arc. The other missions are well enough in their own way, but if I was only doing this casually I would have jumped ship right then and there.

Detail - *. Checking Viv's description in the first mission, even though it wasn't even the same model as her final appearance, spoiled the plot of the whole affair for me.

Overall - *. Needs a story that doesn't have the heroes trying to put out a forest fire with an eyedropper, a custom enemy group which will never be composed entirely of Arachnos Mu at any level range, hostage/ally descriptions that make sense for the person they're supposed to be at the point in the plot they're supposed to be (the standard fortuneteller description is also out of place since I don't care about Paragon City), and a third mission that's anything but "defeat all Longbow on Thorn Isle".

I've just submitted my newest arc, The Rikti Accession, to CoHMR and it should be up shortly. My other two arcs were among the first ones submitted to that site, but I'm particularly looking for feedback on this arc (Although you're certainly welcome to try the other two out if you like this one). Since you said you like reading everything, I'm certain that this arc will definitely appeal to you. Its information is in my signature.

If you would, I would love to see a review of Redoubt Operations #1 and #2 found in their feedback thread.

I believe I also mentioned that I had updated my arc Ctrl + Alt + Reset! 137561 and I also have updated Matchstick Women #3369 wouldn't mind seeing these get tossed into the mix in lieu of a random arc. They rated 4s previously, but I see that as room for improvement.

@GlaziusF

Running this on a merc/TA mastermind, diff 3 because swarms are a problem and I want to see real bosses.

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Ah, the Mark III. About dang time.

Oh boy, it's thoughtcrime! Time to get all Ministry of Peace on these guys. ...although when I bug C'Kelkah I get the sudden image of a Freak with a psi amplifier trolling the Rikti internet.

Short little base later, we find him. The lighting in here's pretty awful and it looks like this dude is pretty dark anyway, so I can't really make him out. But he looks Riktoid. And apparently he's the next step in Rikti evolution?

Eh, whatever, let's see what CK has to CSay.

Pff. You know how Positron goes all cat-stance? Or used to, anyway? Outside the mission CK is doing Captured (Energy Field). Pretty funny.

Hmm. Wait a second. Meta-humans? The Rikti should have guys like that, they just cut off the Magic power source to amp the progress of Science. Mutant should still be sticking around.

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...and the Rikti are humans. It doesn't make much sense to say "a mix of Rikti and humans", CK. But okay, let's go grab a nerd for ya.

Well, this is interesting. The base defenses and Vanguard patrols manage to accomplish the mission by the time I load in and get my guys summoned up.

Not really complaining, but that's a risk you take with these types of maps. This one especially.

I roam around anyway, trying to get a feel for the enemy group. All the bios start out with the same information CK already told me. It's only at the end they actually get a bit different. Maybe just make that their whole thing?

Also according to CK they're quite, quite insane and may drive all the Rikti down with them.

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Hmm. Proper Rikti values, huh? Usually whenever somebody says something like that it's cover to do something terrible.

Eh, whatever.

Wow, a couple of bosses in the first room. Another heretic from the first mission and a recolored (?) magus.

Oh, so this isn't the mothership abandoned lab ...and apparently the Restructurists were cribbing.

Your thoughts, CK?

...so wait. There was actually a "meta-Rikti" before the Rikti even came over here. But CK said they were made by fusing metahuman DNA.

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Okay, wreck everything. I can wreck pretty well.

Explosive crates but no canisters. I guess I'm disposing of them more discreetly?

Because of the vagaries of mapping I find an unescorted Meta in the last room I check. Thank goodness for Reveal or I'd have overlooked it forever.

Anyway, H-Dotz is in a room without even any obstacles in it, which is kind of a pain if you want to fight him for the tickets.

Huh. Okay, dude from mission 2 wants to wreck everyone.

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Well well. Choice is up for me. Let's see here. Well, I'll try to contain him. Don't know how well it'll work. The insano factor here is more from these guys being turbonically grown than anything innate.

I take advantage of the confusion to slip through the battles. ...you know, I guess it's because Vangaurd are just kinda wrecking machines but they're really getting the better of those new Rikti.

Rhodes should probably make to bolt a little earlier than 25% health. He barely had the chance to get up from a little knockdown my mercs threw at him before he passed out. Either that or give him a defense set in addition to MA or AR.

Interesting conceit with the souvenir's mandatory ambiguity, I'll give you that.

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Storyline - ***. Mission 3 pretty much sums up my biggest objections to the meta-Rikti. Or really the first room of same. I wrecked the meta-boss just fine but the Rikti Magus wrecked me. And then there was the reveal at the end that contradicted what CK had to say about the metas. It's like... the Restructs were trying to make some kind of superior troop, but the Rikti are already top-tier and I didn't feel the customs were any more threatening, and H-Dotz was risking sending his own troops insane in the process. Also CK's all up about a ritual to destroy the meta's mental network and everyone connected to it, but isn't that most of the Rikti on both sides?

Design - ***. I don't know if it was the lighting in their missions, but most of the metas just looked like black, vaguely man-shaped blobs with glowing eyes. They need more contrast and more bright colors. Also mission 2 needs to be on a different map or something so it doesn't complete itself in a few minutes.

Gameplay - ****. The usual little frustrations, missing a room in the big Rikti base, not actually getting to participate in one of the missions, that sort of thing.

Detail - ****. Generally good stuff, though that whole affair with the box feels a bit kludgy. I mean, it's not like CK will say anything different if she knows he's asked me to spare him. Wouldn't he beg for his life on the same grounds within the mission anyway?

Overall - ***. The somewhat confused story brings this one down. There are about three separate contradictory explanations for what the metas are, how they're created, and how their mental comm-net affects the Rikti.

Well, thank you for running my arc. While I disagree with a few of your criticisms, you still made a number of points worth addressing, which I will now do to the best of my ability.