Venture's Reviews IV: The Search for Part III

Administrative note: arc #215257 was removed from the queue because it is a multi-part story.

Current queue status -- still not taking requests:

Hero: 1036, 55715, 37636, 17006, 174368, 60280, 178774, 100306, 181244, 91644, 167493, 149765, 191775, 4824, 171031, 242442, 227331, 41646, 77311, 81043, 67087

Villain:

Neutral: 207827

You know that and I know that, but it's going to take years to get rid of the idea of "Army green" (if they ever do).

Is it just me, or is anyone else not getting e-mails on subscribed threads when you've checked the "instant e-mails" option? I double checked and I'm subscribed to several threads with that option. I've also doubled checked to make sure I've got the right e-mail on file. Nada... bumpkis... even though the threads are active (if what we're seeing on the forums now, compared to before, can be considered active).

I'm not trying to hijack the thread, Venture. This is just the biggest of the threads I'm *trying* to get e-mail from.

Edit: OK, I checked "advanced" for this post and found that "no e-mail" was selected though I know I said instant notification... twice. One way or another, am I the only one having borked forum thread issues?

Couldn't say, I don't use email notification.

Arc #207827, "The Maltese Bird of Prey"
tl;dr: 1 star. Offenses: overpowered mobs, pastiche too obvious

Reviewed on: 8/5/2009
Level Range: 1-54
Architect's Keywords: Custom Characters, Non-Canon Story, Mystery
My Keywords: Non-Canon Story
Character used: Jaidal Singh Bennet/Virtue, Phil Noir/Virtue

While the level range is consistent, it's very dubious that any custom faction actually covers the entire 1-54 range in a balanced fashion. I decided to use one of my lowbies for this reason, a level 15 Dual Blades/Fiery Aura Scrapper, even though the obvious choice was .Phil Noir/Virtue

"Sam Diamond" (ouch) is offering you a chance to get some practical experience towards a PI license. His partner Arch took a case from a woman named Wunderly to look into a guy named Thursty who's seeing her sister...ah, you've heard this one before. The first mission takes place on an instanced city map. The enemies are a custom "The Bad Guys" faction, all with white skin and black and white costumes. I imagine this is supposed to make them look like black and white movie characters, but the effect is to make them look like an army of vampire LARPers. It should go without saying that my character was horribly murdered on the first spawn. The mobs appear to be set to Hard difficulty at least, and one of the Minions models has Kinetics powers that really don't fit the motif. After three deaths trying to clear one spawn point, I felt the point was made and switched to Phil, who only died twice clearing the map. It turns out you only have to find one glowie, which triggers another, which I almost gave up looking for.

Your next task is to grill Joey Morocco...no, I'm not even going to try to outline the plot unless it suddenly deviates from the original. You get Bridget as an Ally, Super Strength/Willpower, but she snuffed it fairly early in the fight with Morocco, also a Super Strength with Rage.

Next is the meeting with the Fat Man. You have to take out "Wilma" (a guy) to trigger his spawn. Defeating the Fat Man (Super Strength/Regen, I think, also with Rage, dropped me in seconds through Instant Healing, then killed me again when I Revived, hit Moment of Glory and used Dull Pain...) triggers the spawn of Sam as an unconscious hostage. Rescuing him triggers a glowie you have to backtrack for.

Moving along, you are to head to the La Paloma to talk to the captain in a 30 minute timed mission. This one does have a small twist as there are some 5th Column mobs fighting the Bad Guys for the bird. You have to find the glowie (ambush) and rescue the hostage captain.

Finally you get to the meeting at Sam's apartment. You have to take out all of the principles again, each one triggering the spawn of the next, except for Bridget whom you only have to escort out (no ambush). The end.

This is a poorly-written copy of a classic novel implemented with boring, unfun custom mobs. Skip it.

Arc #1036, "The Mage with the Golden Wand"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", too terse, borderline Random Events Plot

Reviewed on: 8/6/2009
Level Range: 30-54
Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Canon Related, Mystery
My Keywords: Easy, Solo Friendly, Magic
Character used: Ghostblaze/Infinity

Agent Six needs a hero to check out the lab of Dr. Noah, as the silent alarm has been tripped and no one is responding to calls. When you arrive the place is full of Freakshow who seem to be in a daze...more than usual, that is. Dr. Noah is a hostage escort, and on rescue doesn't seem to know what's going on either. Her rescue also triggers a spawn of patrolling Jaegers. Six agrees that this is very unusual (you think?) and goes off to look into it.

Her investigation shows phone calls from Noah's lab to a known Nemesis front right after the alarm went off, so that's your next target. The "Station Chief" (a Fake) doesn't know why you're there, which doesn't stop him from trying to pummel you of course. There are a number of glowies to search, one of which yields detailed activity logs for the past year. Six takes them for analysis on your return.

It turns out that one of the research aides at the lab called his brother for help -- his brother being a Nemesis agent. So that was a dead end. However, Six informs you a psychic managed to recover some of Dr. Noah's memories. She remembered seeing Pharason, a Circle of Thorns mage, ordering the Freaks around. There was a senator from an oversight committee scheduled to visit that day and the feds think he was the target. You're sent off to Pharason's hideout, a warehouse, but he's not there. You beat up another mage named Faculus, who says "You're too late! Pharason is already..." when defeated. He also triggers a fairly sizeable ambush while dying but you can probably click out before they reach you. You recover a parchment with some arcane writing on it.

While Six checks that out, you're sent to guard that senator's motorcade on its way back to the airport. When you arrive at the rendezvous point, though, the motorcade has been attacked by Freaks. This takes place on the villain cape mission map, not the Skyway highway map as expected, but that's neither here nor there. The senator is a hostage escort; rescuing him triggers an ambush of Circle exclaiming that they have to get the senator to Pharason when you get him to the exit but that ends the mission so you can just click out.

Finally, Six manages to decrypt that parchment you found, and learns that it's instructions for Faculus as to where to bring the senator...Pharason's new hideout. It's an abandoned office full of Circle. Pharason is a standard Death Mage who runs when he gets low on health. I was able to chase him down but he's set to Entire Encounter so I had to run back and finish off his guards. It turns out his plan was fairly straightforward: he charmed the Freaks and was going to take over the senator. The end.

The gameplay is decent, but the writing needs a lot of work. There is no theme, the clues are very terse and the plot borders on a Random Events Plot. The Bond references are cute but don't really add much.

Arc #55715, "Freaks and Geeks"
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: minor plot issues, typos

Reviewed on: 8/6/2009
Level Range: 30-54
Architect's Keywords: Custom Characters, Canon Related, Drama
My Keywords: Canon Related, Origin Story, Comedy
Character used: Ghostblaze/Infinity

Dr. Ira McSwiggins has put out a call for help: he received a text from one of his students, Luther Ruzicka, saying the Paragon University chapter of Novices Entering Research Disciplines (groan) is under attack. He needs a hero to rescue them immediately. As soon as you enter University Hall you can hear the buzzing of Freakshow. There are three NERDs to rescue, none of them escorts...and Luther's body to recover. His body is discolored and covered in needle marks.

Unfortunately, the Freaks are still on the move. They've also attacked an artificial-intelligence conference in Founders', making off with two scientists including Ira's friend Dr. Sydney Hu. You're off to the rescue. You also get the autopsy results on Luther, which seems awfully fast given the narrative. It seems that Luther's body was permeated with some kind of cybernetic fiber. Ira thinks the Freaks weren't trying to kill him but rather tried to transform him in some way that didn't work. The acceptance speech includes a get-a-team warning. You have to rescue the two scientists (one an escort) on the Mother Mayhem hospital map (please, give us another hospital map so people will stop using this one....) There are no Freaks here, though...the enemies are Crey, along with some "Crey Gen-X" customs. "The Orderly", a Super Strength/NotSure Elite Boss, gives up some written orders on his defeat saying these guys were hired by the Freaks (which is a turn-around) to produce "super-geeks" using "brilliant but nerdy" humans treated with Freakshow booster drugs and an experimental Crey cyber-fiber. Dr. Hu has already been subjecting to the process and was sporting a Willpower toggle during her rescue....

Time for the Fight Scene: the orders you found include directions to the Big Bad, the "Ub3r-d0rk". Ira tells you he's built a "Geek-Freak Transformer" that can mass-produce cyber-nerds, though this seems like an awful lot of information packed into one scribbled set of orders, but moving on.... You have to destroy the Transformer and take down the Ub3r-d0rk, and you'll have Sydney Hu's help on the job as she's gained superhuman powers. There are three components of the machine to destroy, the Illudium Q-36 Mitochondilizer (spelled "Mitochondrilizer" in the nav bar and completion message), the Automated Re-Encryptor and Cyber-Fiber Inscriber (unassembled, should be "disassembled" or "assembly required"). Destroying these triggers an ambush and a new objective to defeat the Ub3r-d0rk, a guy who got beaten up by Drek after an ill-prepared attempt on his part to take over the Freaks. His new obsession is to produce an army of super-geeks to prove the nerds can be effective Freaks. Dr. Hu was available as an ally hostage but I skipped her until after taking out the Ub3r-d0rk, a Psychic Blast/NotSure Elite Boss. Ira thanks you for saving the city's nerds from transformation and plans to ask Sydney out to dinner...strictly professional, of course....

The arc has a "revenge of the nerds" theme and backs it up with some (IMO) fairly effective comedy (which I felt overshadowed the dramatic elements, thus the tag). The game balance is good, probably a bit on the light side for builds with lots of IOs like the one I used (I pretty much steamrollered the two EBs). This is a fun arc, recommended.

Gah! Umm, thanks Venture - I do appreciate the strong review! *stops to gather me-self*

Arc #37636, "The Missing"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: obvious Expys, balance issues

Reviewed on: 8/6/2009
Level Range: 10-54
Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Drama, Mystery
My Keywords: Drama, Mystery
Character used: Jaidal Singh Bennet/Virtue

Shadowrush, a custom Contact (no bio, author insert), needs your help investigating the disappearance of a Dr. Lorena Charlestin. He has two leads to follow and needs you to check one of them, a Family member called Bobby Red. Red is pulling a bank heist with a mix of Family and custom mobs, which were a bit disconcerting (mobsters with Hurl?) After his dirt nap, Red admits that he heard some freelancers talking about Charlestin and he was raiding the bank for papers in her safety deposit box, which turn out to be about cures for various diseases. Shadowrush's lead turns out to be a dead end.

On further interrogation, Red gives up a possible location for Dr. Charlesin: a Council warehouse. The warehouse (using the map used in the ELITE mission) has some Council and Family in it, the latter worrying about "that thing they made us". A computer gives up some files on Warwolf creation, mentions a "Mr. White Shades" and a "cure" for the process. Which might be handy, since it seems Charlestin isn't quite herself any more...she's a Claws/Invulnerability Boss with a werewolf model. Shadowrush is very distraught when you bring her in.

It turns out whatever process was used on her didn't work completely and it's slowly killing her. Shadowrush comes clean and admits that Charlestin was one of his childhood mentors and practically a mother to him. So, he's going with you to take down this Mr. White Shades (one of his enemies) and hopefully find the cure that was mentioned earlier. White Shades turns out to be an Electric Melee/NotSure Elite Boss, and, of course, there is no cure. He planted the file to lure Shadowrush in. Charlestin dies when you get back, but Shadowrush heeds her last words and renews his commitment to fight for justice instead of taking revenge.

This was a hard one to rate. While it has a theme and it's fairly well-written, it's also blatantly lifted from the Batman mythos. Shadowrush and Charlestin are obvious Expys of Batman and Leslie Thompkins. There are some balance issues as well. The faux Family are a bit over the top and are really unnecessary -- the arc should simply have its level range set to 20-29 and just use the standard mobs. The author-insert ally rubbed me the wrong way too. In the end I decided I couldn't give it more than 3 stars in good conscience. The arc could improve greatly with some extra work.

Thank you Venture for your review on "The Missing".

I've had a couple of suggestions from other people as well recently, on removing the faux Family mobs I inserted, and just let the arc have a natural level range in accordance to the usual Family mob level range. At the time, when I first made this, I always had the idea of creating arcs that level 50's could do without being exempted down. Mostly because I wanted a wider audience. But I have decided to move pass that. I'll be following your suggestion.

As for Shadowrush (heh, I really should add a bio to his contact version in this arc, I keep forgetting that I-15 gave us a new feature for that), he was roughly initially inspired by three fictional characters, Neo, Spider-Man, and yes... Batman. But he is quite different from all three in many ways. His personality is quite similar to my own, and he is basically my avatar in the CoH world. I admit I am a Batman fan, and I wanted to do a noir, dark, drama mystery type of story arc, in the same vein as Batman stories, when I was writing this. As well as show an episode in the life of Shadowrush.

As for Charlsetin being an Expy (I actually had to research what this word meant, never heard of it before ) of Leslie Thompkins, I honestly did not think of her while I was doing this. I got an idea for her character from a real-life person.

Charlestin is a scientist, while Leslie was a medical doctor, if I remember correctly. But you are right, that in this story arc they do serve a similar part as to who they are to Shadowrush and Batman respectively. Heh, I didn't even realize that. But it was never my intention though.

I'm not sure how else to improve the arc though, aside from removing the faux Family mobs, reducing the level range, and adding the contact bio. Shadowrush and Charlestin are important to the arc, so I can't really rewrite or remove them. As for Shadowrush being an Ally in the end, he needs to be there for the story, but I wonder if there's some way to lessen his impact. He used to be an Lt., but for balance reasons, people suggested to have him be a Boss to be able to help the player against the EB, and I do agree with them. I could reduce White Shades to a boss, but it would degrade his status in all things within the story. So any suggestions on this would be great.

Would you be willing to re-rate the arc with the changes in the first sentence in the previous paragraph? Or will it not make a difference to the rating? Heh, you don't have to of course. I'm just glad you got to review it. Well, looks like I have some adjustments to do with this arc, thanks again Venture.

Actually Venture, an Expy is a character that's similar to another character by the same creator; when the characters have different creators, the term is Captain Ersatz.

I'm not sure what to think about the review for the Missing. While Venture mentions that it "has a theme and is fairly well written" it loses two stars because of what?

1. Author insert. I don't think that the author is called "Shadowrush" in real life, so who is Shadowrush but a character of the author. Just because he chooses that character for his in game name doesn't mean that Shadowrush is equivical to the author himself. What would you suppose he use instead? What about a random custom contact? If you didn't know that his global and forum handle were Shadowrush, would you be able to tell that Shadowrush was an author insert?

2. Expys to Batman and Leslie Thompkins. I'm not big into comics lore, I'm more of a television and movies person, and I don't remember Leslie from the animated series or any of the movies so I had to wiki her. I was expecting to see something closely following the story of this arc. What I found was a fairly generic link. Shadowrush and Batman are both heroes, Leslie and Charlestin are both doctors and friends of the previous heroes. And... that's it? No one can have a dark hero with a doctor friend without being called a Batman ripoff?

3. Overpowered custom Family. I'll agree with you on this one, though I don't remember having trouble with them. Of course, I might have been playing my easy-mode 50 scrapper.

You're obviously allowed to rate arcs however you want, I'm just giving you a different perspective on some of your judging criteria based on how it was presented in your review.

Arc #17006, "End Game - Final Moves"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", severe balance issues

Reviewed on: 8/7/2009
Level Range: 40-54
Architect's Keywords: Challenging, Custom Characters, Complex Mechanics
My Keywords: Challenging, Sci-Fi
Character used: Venture/Virtue

"Minkia", a custom Contact whose bio says she's the ex-assistant of a supervillain, wants your help (and is either assuming the mission holder is male or is "flexible"...). Said supervillain, Robert Veil, is seeking revenge against his sister Susan at DATA, who happens to be Minkia's new employer. The first step is to stop his robots from trashing a Crey lab. The bots are a mix of customs, Praetorians and a free-standing Assault Bot as the raid leader. The bots were ransacking the place for air compressors and biohazard containers, which is definitely not a good sign.

Unfortunately, your oversexed Contact can't crack the encryption on the bot' memory chip. Her solution is to send you to an Arachnos base dedicated to monitoring Longbow transmissions. Once you install a virus for her she hopes to use their equipment to read the chip. There are several dummy computers that trigger ambushes, and one that works. When you access it you get a call from Minkia: she's detected a large force of Veil's bots heading for the base. It seems Susan followed her own leads to the same base (DATA needs Arachnos equipment to crack a code, and happened to pick the same communications hub?) and the bots are coming to kill her. You now have to find her (hostage, non-escort) and defeat an ambush of bots. Susan tells you Robert is going to use the stolen toxins to kill "the Vox'm clan", some of her friends. She thinks she can come up with an antidote if you pool resources with her.

Act III (typo in briefing: "use" for "used") opens with Minkia raiding Robert's computers for the toxins' current location, a warehouse in Kings Row. She's already had a friend create an anitdote. You're to go in and neutralize his stash. She warns you Robert's got a lot of bots protecting the place, including Calash MK-II, built to damage Calash's (author) reptuation. There are five canisters of toxin to neutralize, and the MK-II to defeat, a Super Strength/Fiery Aura Elite Boss.

Finally, you have to go after Robert himself to get at the remaining supply of the toxin. He's going to skedaddle in 60 minutes so that's the time limit on the next mission (typo: "our" for "out"). You're told that the MK-II never arrived at the Zig so it will probably be there too, and Calash (author insert) will be on the scene as well. He spawned right in front, making avoiding him difficult but I managed it. The MK-II grew Healing Flames (or had it and never used it last time), which along with ambushes containing Empathy mobs made fighting it about as enjoyable as kicking dead whales down the beach. The same goes for the fight against Dark Veil, a Robotics/Invulnerability Elite Boss, during which enough Fortitude was cast to thwart Elude. After downing him two "Escape Drones" spawn, Robotics/NotSure Bosses, which run at low health. Take them out, the end.

This was heading for three or four stars until the last act, which is evidently balanced predicated on the use of the author insert ally. My stand on arcs of this nature is that the player should opt out and allow the author's characters to play with themselves.

Fair enough. Thanks for the review.

Your assessment of the motivation for the balancing in the last act is however incorrect. The ambush encounters are designed to give the player something to do besides "target the big bad guy and mash buttons until dead." The mission offers a couple of different options to deal with the situation. The simple solution is to kill the droids before they reach the EB and eliminate the potental for regen buffing. You can also make use of optional allies, some that have -regen, to help. This takes a bit more time to setup.

It is a different mechanic and some people seem to enjoy it while others do not. My hopes are that we will have better mechanics to work with in the future to get around such things by allowing ambushes to be disabled for example.

Arc #174368, "Embers of the Thorn"
tl;dr: 1 star. Offenses: incomplete, canon issues, seeming inconsistencies

Reviewed on: 8/7/2009
Level Range: 31-54/25-25/31-54/25-25/31-54
Architect's Keywords: Challenging, Custom Characters, Magic
My Keywords: Challenging, Magic
Character used: Venture/Virtue

I can't wait to see the reason for that level range.

"Amaterasu", a custom Contact (no bio), is calling for your help because a few years ago someone gave her a letter saying that when she was in need of help, she was to look for someone with your name and description. She's being stalked by some unusual members of the Circle of Thorns and can't handle them herself. She's got a lead on them from the PPD and wants you to follow up on it. You're sent to an Oranbega map with a mix of Circle and some custom "Thorn Initiates" and "Thorn Circle", the latter of which are altered versions of Ice and Earth Thorns. Amaterasu is inexplicably on the scene as a hostage ally, and between her bio and Clues only makes some vague statements about memory trouble. Her release triggers a glowie, and then another glowie after that. The first gives some information on a Circle mage named Larien who is looking for some special magical archive. The second is a crystal with swirling violet energies in it. The mission exit pop-up says you black out when you touch the crystal, which is also narrated by the debriefing.

The next act opens narrating you coming to in a dense forest. The mission takes place on one of the Croatoa faery-realm maps, which starts out mostly empty. The nav bar says you are to "find your allies". I found an "Earth Tribe Leader" (retasked Legacy Chain Tellus) guarded by "Flame Acolytes" (more Legacy Chain), all calling me "Elder Larien". The leader's bio narrates him brushing off my questions (which is already getting old) and saying that you have to seal a pact with "Archmage Galan" before the "Sun tribe" can interfere. Galan, an Agony Mage, spawns back near the entrance as another hostage and says you'll be given immortality for your efforts. This ends the mission and triggers an ambush. You "wake up" in the exit pop-up.

Amaterasu (somehow) concludes the archive Larien is seeking is actually the Midnighter's Club. You head over to find the place under attack by Larien's forces (AE arcs are rapidly making the Club into a punching bag). You're to free Amaterasu and find a book Larien is searching for, which purports to be about how the Midnighters' made their Aspect of the Pillar (which they didn't). There are also two Midnighters being held hostage, just because. Freeing Amaterasu triggers the spawn of Loralie, a Dark Melee/Dark Miasma Boss; defeating her spawns Larien himself, an Electric Melee (or maybe Assault)/NotSure Boss whose bio says he's trying to "control time". He taunts you during the fight, saying that his "shell" means nothing to him and he already has the information he wanted. The body does have another memory crystal, which the Clue narrates you as accessing....

You end up on another Croatoa map during a battle between the Sun Tribe and Larien's followers, traitors who have sided with the Circle. You only have to defeat the Sun Shaman, a Lieutenant, to end the mission. When you come to and describe what you saw to Amaterasu, she concludes she is a descendant of this Sun Tribe, even though she doesn't know much about her powers or history.

She concludes that Larien must be trying to go back in time to affect the outcome of that battle, perhaps (she thinks) to prevent any of the Sun Tribe from escaping. She needs you to stop him, feeling that you have a better chance since you've seen his memories. In the acceptance text you realize you already know where Larien will be hiding. You also get a bring-a-team warning (not highlighted). The last battle takes place in the Thorn Tree respec map which is overused and tedious. You have to destroy Larien's time portal (glowie), three Portal Generators (Shadow Cysts, neutered of course), free Amaterasu (I skipped her until the end) and defeat Larien, who not only is hiding in the huge room with dozens of obstructions but has Steamy Mist running to boot. Loralie spawns as well with no dialog, even though Larien says "she's already gone through" as you pummel him. You get a fragment of Larien's version of the Aspect of the Pillar as a souvenir. The debriefing says Larien's soul was contained (how?) and claims Loralie got away (I flattened her), undoubtedly through the portal, and MAGI might be able to figure out where/when she's gone from that fragment. It also says we should wait for part II to get any answers, maybe.

Somewhere in this is a good story trying to get out. Unfortunately it is buried under obfuscation and padding. The arc doesn't even begin to answer any of the questions it raised. Since it involves time travel and depends on future installments for resolutions it is impossible to know if seeming inconsistencies are actual problems or just pending matters. The arc is flat-out wrong about the Midnighters' Aspect of the Pillar, which they didn't create (it is implied it was given to them by Mysterious Letter Writer Guy). Since it is not even a complete work I don't see any way not to trash it. That's too bad; as I said it looks like there's something decent in there, somewhere.

*sigh*

Didn't see that one coming...

I'll admit I didn't know about the mystery letter guy flat out giving them the pillar, as all the ouroboros lore is rather muddled. Guess I should have dug deeper for the research.

Loralie should not have been in the last mission. My guess is that she got unflagged as "doesn't show up in normal spawns"... *sigh*

As for it being incomplete, I personally felt that I had told a complete story, that is part of a bigger whole. In the same way that the Harry Potter books are each a story in themselves, but also part of a bigger over arching story. You don't learn everything about "He who must not be named", you learn enough, and I had hoped I had achieved that, but maybe not.

I guess while I was working so hard to avoid the dreaded JABOSTH, I mired my plot in obfuscation.

Thanks for the review.

Arc #60280, "Dr. Dave and the Copper Legion"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", some minor plot issues

Reviewed on: 8/8/2009
Level Range: 40-54
Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Magic
My Keywords: Challenging, Save the World, Magic
Character used: Venture/Virtue

Dr. David Diaz y Callerojo (author insert) of the SAC Academy of Heroes, an archaeologist/anthropologist, has manage to lose one of his assistants on a field trip to Cimerora. He wants you to help rescue the young lady, one Heather Glass. She's a hostage in a Cimeroran cave map. Rescuing her triggers a Boss spawn back near the entrance, one "Miles Gloriosus" (it says here); the mission end clue, about a previous ruler of Cimerora named Praenuntius and an army of terra^H^H^H^H^Hgold^H^H^H^Hmetal soldiers that doesn't seem to take into account that Cimerora is set just after the fall of the Roman Empire. (Of course, Cimerora is a festering sinkhole of historical defilement in the first place.)

Diaz lets on when you get back that he's looking for this "Copper Legion" (and references Ch'in Shih Huang-Ti's terra cotta army). One of the other parties out searching for Heather actually turned up a lead on it, pointing to the Circle of Thorns. He wants you to check out one of their lairs. Diaz tells you that you are to find two scrolls; if they are not there you'll have to defeat the head librarian. Six bookcases and the head librarian come up in the nav bar on entry (Oranbega map) and sure enough, you have to beat the information out of him. He tells you another mage, Janus, came by days ago and took all the scrolls on the Copper Legion, but he knows where it is -- Sicily.

But, that will have to wait. The Midnighters' Club is under attack. (That's twice in two reviews...see what I mean?) Heather is there, so you'll have to rescue her again. The attackers are...the Copper Legion, so it's safe to say you've already come in second in this two-man race. You have to beat them all up and collect five Cimeroran tablets (that you can't read). On your return, Diaz tells you the tablets are written in code, which is why they were overlooked earlier, and now that they've been decoded they contain instructions on how to control the Copper Legion. They can't do that just yet because in addition to needing a powerful enough spellcaster (which they have) they need a special crown^H^H^H^H^Hkeystone.

Unfortunately the enemy is pressing his advantage, as the Copper Legion mounts an all-out attack on Paragon City. It's off to a city map to fight the Legion, rescue 9 civilians (two of them didn't make it, actually), and hook up with "Pyralis", one of Diaz's hero friends. He conveniently spawned in back so I didn't have to skip him. Spurious Bosses were out in force on this map, making it pretty lucrative (541 bonus tickets). On rescue, Pyralis tells you his suit has a limited ability to detect magical energies and he thinks the Legion soldiers are absorbing a magical signal...if this signal were cut off they might stop functioning.

For the Fight Scene, Diaz gambles that whatever is powering or controlling the Legion is immobile and thus still at the location you got from the Circle. He and Heather go in ahead to scout the catacombs. They're both in as their hero IDs (Sun Coyote and Glass Dragon) but I passed them up as usual. There's also a Ruin Mage hostage who activated the Legion because...Malta forced him to. The keystone is in the possession of Moment, currently borrowing Scirocco's form. There are some glowies to click but the mission ends when Moment snuffs it. When you get back, Diaz tells you the keystone has been moved to a secure location (What Could Possibly Go Wrong?) and the Legion itself has been sealed back in their cave with a battalion of Longbow permanently assigned to guard duty (I'm sure the Italian government loved that idea). Moment, however, escapes (Diaz says he can look like "anyone or anything"; since Moment's powers require copying the target's genetic code I don't think he can turn into inanimate objects, but that's a nit).

It's a fun enough romp, even if the plot is reminiscent of some recent movies, but there's no theme and a few small plot issues. Malta's appearance at the end is kind of a gratuitous twist, as it pretty much comes out of nowhere. The name "Janus" might have been intended as a reference to Moment but that's pretty weak.

P.S. -- very disappointing, when I pasted the text over from my ODF file the strikethroughs showed in the WYSIWYG editor, but were stripped in the preview. Seems that format code isn't enabled. Bummer.