Venture's Reviews IV: The Search for Part III

Yeah, Venture doesn't like "anyone else" in "his" stories. To each their own.

Arc #178774, "Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name...."
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: none

Reviewed on: 8/8/2009
Level Range: 33-34
Architect's Keywords: Canon Related, Magic, Drama
My Keywords: Challenging, Magic, Mystery
Character used: Venture/Virtue

The ghost of Rose, a little girl found in a graveyard in Croatoa, asks your help in rescuing her friend Billy from Red Caps. On entering their caves you find the bones of some of their victims, no longer identifiable, and some treasure chests of gold and iron loot, including one you have to smash to open. That one contains Billy...a teddy bear. When you return the bear, Rose is forced to confront the fact that she's a ghost.

Next, she asks you to visit the warehouse her father worked at. The place is deserted with skeletal remains of the workers. A battered witch hat leads you to suspect the Cabal was responsible, though it seems too violent for them. A note on a bulletin board reads "She is coming, Adriana, you must" and ends. Rose says her mother used to wear one of those hats when her father wasn't around, and she was having trouble with the Cabal.

Rose next wants you to visit her friend "Jack" who lives in a cave nearby, but too far from the graveyard for Rose to reach. Given the local...population...there are a number of possibilities for Jack's identity, some of which are potentially disturbing, but he turns out to "only" be a friendly Eochai. His caves are under attack by a rogue Cabal sect that practices necromancy (custom faction with some stock Cabal). After freeing him and a few of his friends, Jack tells you Adriana was a member of the Cabal who left to take a husband. She also took an amulet that used to belong to her grandmother, which the leader of the rogue Cabal wants for herself. He also tells you Adriana came to see him a few days ago, and has been driven to talk of revenge. He has no leads for you, unfortunately. Rose is heartbroken by the news and fades away. After she does, you hear a tinkling sound from within Billy, which turns out to be the amulet.

With no leads, it's time for percussive interrogation. You hit the streets and the Cabal for information on the rogues. You're led to an outdoor map with three ceremonies to disrupt and the ghost of Rose's father Patrick to free. The rogues are up to something involving Adriana as their ceremonies seem to be targeting her, and one of them gives up the leader Rhiannon's location under extreme rendition. You return to Rose's gravesite where she's reappeared to tell you her father is with her now.

Finally, Rose asks you to take down Rhiannon and to take Billy with you. You get a bring-a-non-teddy-bear-friend warning for this. The Fight Scene takes place on an abandoned office map. Rhiannon was a Dark Blast/Dark Miasma AV/EB; Jack and Adriana are present as allies but not required. On rescue Adriana reveals she had a deadly self-destruct spell ready to use on Rhiannon but fortunately that wasn't required. When you return to Rose, Adriana has already been to see her and left roses on her grave. Rose gives you one, then fades away, probably forever. You leave Billy on her grave as well, without the amulet.

This is an excellent arc all-around, well-written with strong themes and good gameplay. Recommended.

Thanks for the review, Venture. Glad you enjoyed it.

Arc #100306, "A Spider Weaves His Web"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", plot issues, overpowered allies, poor dialog

Reviewed on: 8/9/2009
Level Range: 50-54
Architect's Keywords: Challenging, Custom Characters, Mystery
My Keywords: Challenging, Canon Related
Character used: Venture/Virtue

The arc opens with your character reading The Paragonian Times off the web, in particular an article on missing military personnel who have been sighted in the Rogue Isles. You decide to investigate this on your own (slow news day, evidently). You end up on the warehouse map used in Dr. Creed's arc with two objectives. The first was to defeat the Arachnos leader, which was "Webweaver Karsky", a Martial Arts/Psychic Assault (I think) Boss with less than stellar dialog and one ambush. The next was to "find clues", which requires entering one of the buildings. People who haven't seen this map before probably won't know they can do that. In any case, the clue is an email from ilovesoaps@arachnos.web.com about a raid on Longbow in Nerva using "the new Webweaver assets", evidently intended to at least make us think Viridian is involved. The debriefing just says you report your findings to the authorities.

Next, you are again reading the Times when you see an article about your capture of Karsky, who was one of the missing men. It seems you've waited a good bit before following up on that lead. (The article also refers to your character as "the mysterious $NAME"....there's nothing mysterious about my character, he doesn't even have a secret ID, and I really doubt any hero in this level range has anything resembling privacy left, but anyway....) You head over to a Longbow base in Nerva under attack by Arachnos forces. Your objectives are to rescue an Elite Boss Ally, Longbow Witch Anastazi (which I did last, so I have no idea what her powers are), defeat Webweaver Mathers and defeat "V", who turns out to be Viridian, only not really I think as he didn't have his PToD. Mathers claims he is a loyal servant of Arachnos and won't be deceived into thinking that's not true. You also find a memo by Viridian about a plan to use captured and brainwashed military personnel for an attack on Overbrook, initialed by Recluse.

When you get back, you receive an email from "Silver Spinner" who claims to be an undercover agent in Arachnos. Spinner says the four captured men possess "a grand metaphysical awareness that is invaluable in planning and strategizing. With these men at his disposal, Recluse is nearly unstoppable." Um, so far that hasn't really panned out, but anyway, time to stop the attack on Overbrook. This turns out to be a one-hour timed mission (if there was a warning, I didn't see it) on an abandoned warehouse map. You are required to release hostage ally Silver Spinner (Elite Boss, Martial Arts/NotSure, author insert) to trigger the spawn of the other objectives, two more Webweavers and four teleport chambers to destroy. Spinner informs you that Arachnos is going to use the building as a staging area for a major attack by teleporting troops in. I parked the annoying ally out of sight, teleported off the map and re-entered. Webweavers Markus and Crosby are Elite Bosses instead of Bosses, but otherwise there's nothing noteworthy. The debriefing says Spinner vanishes before the police showed up with a who-was-that-masked-man bit, and the "Webweavers" are headed for attempted deprogramming.

There is no theme and there are serious plot and gameplay issues. It needs a lot of work.

Hmm, I do believe that I am next.

If anyone needs me, I'll be off whimpering in the corner.

Arc #260284, "A Warrior's Journey - The Flower Knight Task Force"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: breaks its own immersion, Canon Defilement

Reviewed on: 8/10/2009
Level Range: 45-54
Architect's Keywords: Challenging, Save the World, Magic
My Keywords: Challenging, Magic, Drama
Character used: Tisiphone Delta-7/Virtue

Flower Knight has been having dreams lately of battles in a Japanese-ish setting. She's sure these dreams are communication from her guiding ancestor spirit, especially since Portal Corp has discovered Pi Omega 4-4, a dimension that looks just like her dreams. Unfortunately she can't go there herself because of her low security level, so she's asking you to go instead. You wind up on an outdoor Croatoa map populated by "Spider Clan" soldiers (custom faction) amidst a battle. The soldiers are trying to collect taxes from impoverished peasants, which automatically makes them evil. There are two peasants to rescue, a female samurai named "Fujineko" (who looks familiar) to escort back to Paragon City, who tells you the land of "Perogan" was at peace until Lord Kumo of the Spider Clan began arming his troops with gunpowder weapons. Since the death of the Hawk Clan's leader "Setaetsemon" things have been getting bad. After being led back to the portal Fujineko decided to stay and fight alongside me after all, evidently, which seemed a bit out of place, but moving on.... You also have to take out the enemy leader, Jinkenzo (cough). On your return to Paragon, Fujineko quickly befriends Flower Knight and the two talk about the situation in Perogan at length.

Flower Knight next asks you to investigate a Spider Clan supply depot. She's concerned about the sudden appearance of gunpowder weapons which are well above the general level of technological development in Perogan (they're really not but that's another rant). Tina Macintyre has confirmed the presence of trace energies from dimensional travel in the area near the caves as well. The caves turn out to under the command of "Lord Aion" (Elite Boss, Energy Melee or Assault/Assault Rifle), aided by Jinkenzo (who is complaining about how no one believes his story about superheroes busting up the tax collection). Aion calls for "those worthless ninja sent by our ally", revealing the gunpowder weapons are likely the result not of Klingons but Praetorians. Flower Knight is depressed at missing out on fighting Praetorians (give it a few months, dear....)

After speaking with Fujineko again, Flower Knight learns that a "great lord" matching Chimera's description was seen courting a Lady Sayaki several years ago. Sayaki has since retired to a hermitage, becoming a priestess known as the Oracle of Amaterasu. You're sent to talk to her. Her cave contains some books, amidst which you find some romantic poetry (you suddenly read Japanese, it seems) and an altar to the goddess Amaterasu with a written prayer upon it, praying for the strength to resist the temptations of the flesh and the outside world. Sayaki herself is the prisoner of some of Chimera's ninja. On her release you have to escort her out past a few Boss ninja spawns. Once outside she confesses she had an affair with Chimera, disgraced her clan and was sent into exile. But now, with the Spider Clan on the attack, she recognizes her duty to the Hawk Clan and gives up the location of Chimera's base.

Sure enough, your next task is to take down that base. Flower Knight expresses her frustration at not being allowed to fight archvillains (kid, really, pace yourself). You're to take out Chimera (bring a friend), destroy any stockpiled weapons and if he has a portal back to Praetoria, that too. This is pretty much a rerun of the usual Chimera mission (imagine an outdoor map with caltrops instead of grass), with a few glowies added: two shipments of weapons, a crate that is now empty except for a note from Black Swan saying she's shipped over "Sir Recluse's old armor" which "didn't help that idiot hero when Tyrant went after him", and another note from Tyrant telling Chimera to finish conquering this dimension already, and the portal generator to destroy. Chimera himself commits suicide (it says here) rather than allow himself to be captured, spouting off a haiku about his love to Sayaki as he dies. As you portal back home, you have a vision of Sayaki committing suicide herself over his death. Flower Knight is distraught over her death when you return, unable to understand why she did it (here kid, you can borrow my copy of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon).

Time for the Fight Scene: the Praetorians are out of the picture but the Spider Clan is still armed for bear, and now they're on the move. You have to take down Kumo and his four generals. Fujineko will be returning with you, and security level restrictions notwithstanding Flower Knight herself insists on coming too. The first general I found was "Gaki-Onna", a creatively-reskinned Ghost Widow. She had the poor fortune to be fighting a Dark Armor Scrapper so between my resists and her constant use of Black Hole, this fight was kind of like watching paint dry. On her death she calls forth Lord Kumo (Recluse), who spawned juuuuuust outside of agro range. This was the usual absurd fight you always get with Recluse, and completely tosses immersion into the trash. Black Scorpion and "General Mako" were both (I think) Dual Blades/Willpower Elites; "Master of the East Wind" was Scirocco (didn't appear to be reskinned). The allies are listed in the nav bar but weren't required for completion (I skipped them entirely). On your return, Flower Knight informs you she's staying in Perogan to help rebuild.

There are three things keeping this from being a five-star arc. The biggest of them is Lord Kumo. Sorry, but the spider legs are not worth the disconnect when he starts throwing Arachnos agents at you. No, "just pretend they're Spider Clan guys" doesn't cut it. I know it's frustrating when the system won't let you build exactly what you want but simply put, this is a darling that needs to be killed. The other two things are the abuse of canon characters, Chimera and Flower Knight, both of which are essentially written out by this arc. When you use a canon character you're supposed to return it in something resembling the condition it was in when you borrowed it. Other than that, while I think we've had way more than our share of these goatee-universe stories this is very well written.

Venture,

What are your criteria for taking existing mobs and "rebranding" them as something else? Can you rework the mobs as something new or are they forever what they are supposed to be according to the game canon?

Example: If I wanted to reuse Malta Titans as part of a custom faction, because they have the look and types of powers I'm looking for, can I rename them, rewrite the info on them, and not get beaten over the head with "Well they're still Malta Titans" as part of one of your reviews?

Whoops, guess I wasn't next. Must've miscounted. Should be soon though. I hope so, I've only got so much nervous cowering in me.

Arc #181244, "Waves of Chaos"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", balance issues, plot issues, poor custom faction, borderline Mary Sue

Reviewed on: 8/11/2009
Level Range: 5-54
Architect's Keywords: Save the World, Comedy, Drama
My Keywords:
Character used: The Philosoraptor/Freedom

This arc's warning messages include AVs, EBs, Extreme AVs, Extreme LTs, Extreme Minions and mobs with custom powers...at level 5? OK, deal, here's trying with an 11 Spines/Invul....

"Bloodstreak" (author insert) who says he hates his codename and asks you to call him Scott, needs your help with a difficult case. His nemesis Stryker (author insert) is gathering "the Zodiac Stones". Scott doesn't know what they do but is trying to get them first on general principles. His supergroup is already on the job, but he needs someone to follow up on a member who hasn't checked in. He can't do it himself because Azuria has him researching what the stones do. Why not send an intern to the library instead so...eh, never mind.... You're sent to a warehouse full of ninja cyborgs made by Stryker (based on the technology used to make both him and Bloodstreak...I already don't like the direction this is going in), with five stones to find, an ally to rescue and a raid leader to take out. The Lieutenants are Archery/Trick Arrow with both Entangling Arrow and Ice Arrow, lots of fun for a melee with no status protection yet. The raid leader didn't even have a name, just his mob designation. The ally was "Plasmon"; I have no idea what he does because I rescued him last. Bloodstreak says he's glad you made it back since Stryker's goons are so dangerous...yeah.

Bloodstreak's research turned up some scrolls Azuria is off translating. Next he wants you to accompany him on an Orenbega raid, as it seems the Circle has the last stone. Or not; I'd assumed we'd be off to Oranbega as it turns out this is on a sewer map for some inexplicable reason. There are some dummy glowies to check, one real one, and Bloodstreak to rescue from Stryker's ninja, only when you do so he tells you they infected him with something that's shutting down his nanomachines, so it's only a matter of time before his cybernetics shut down completely.

Act III opens with Bloodstreak telling you the Zodiac Stones are needed to release some "incarnation of chaos" thing when The Stars Are Right, which will be happening shortly...and one of his teammates has stolen the stones. Plasmon just went nuts while everyone else was out, blew the vault's door off and made off with the stones. Bloodstreak is out of commission and everyone else is dealing with other problems, so it's up to you to recover the stones. You're sent to an outdoor map full of ninja, which I just stealthed past to deal with Plasmon, a Fiery Melee/Fiery Aura Boss. On his defeat he manages to gasp out that he was taken over by the stones and delivered them to Stryker...and destroyed his own Medicom beacon, and thus dies of his wounds. Or not, Bloodstreak tells you he was taken to a hospital the old-fashioned way and is in critical condition.

So, you've got an hour (timed mission) to take down Stryker and prevent the release of the Big Bad. You're sent to a Troll cave map with Bloodstreak as a Minion level ally (skipped) and Stryker as a Dual Blades/Dark Blast Elite Boss. I cleared him after a few deaths only to find out that the stones he has are fakes; he knew Bloodstreak would go after him so he used himself as a decoy and sent the real stones elsewhere. The mission exit pop-up says you don't find the real site in time and chaos is unleashed.

With people going crazy all over the city, MAGI manages to locate seven possible locations for the Big Bad. You're sent to one of them, hoping it hasn't reached full power and can still be defeated. Now you are sent to an Oranbega map, Infernal's to be precise, to deal with Chaos, an Energy Assault/Dark Armor AV/EB. I stealthed past all his goons and took about half a dozen deaths but he eventually snuffed it. The mission end Clue narrates you as using a ritual you received from Azuria (when?) to seal Chaos away again for another few thousand years. Order is restored, yadda yadda yadda.

The arc has no theme and more than a few plot issues. The custom faction consists of exactly three mobs that I saw, one each of Boss/LT/Minion, and in terms of appearance they're all pretty much palette-swapped versions of each other. For an arc tagged as "comedy" there really wasn't anything funny about it. And it is really way too centered on the author's player-characters. This one needs a lot of work.

Thanks again for the review. Y'know, I swear I toned all those mobs down so that there shouldn't be any set to extreme, but since they were at some point the MA still claims them as such. I would've set the level range higher, but I've played through it with a couple lowbies without any real trouble.

The biggest problem with the arc, as I see it, is that it's basically something I started writing before City of Heroes was even released. Incidentally, that's why I feel no shame about inserting my own characters. Yes, these are characters I play as, but I've been writing for them for a while now, and I know their 'voices' so to speak. But anyway, back then, I just wasn't a very good writer (which is not to imply that I'm a terribly good one now...) and the arc shows it, but I felt like had to get the story out in some form or another just to let it stop festering in my head. I had to cut a lot of stuff too, so that didn't help. If you think I focused too much on my own characters as it is, you should've seen the pre-publishing version.

I tagged it comedy because I felt there were a number of light-hearted bits in the first two missions, particularly the second one. The various dialogues between the combats going on especially, plus the dialogue from the boss is humorous and explains why it's in a sewer. I didn't make the boss a required objective because there just wasn't any real reason to do so, IMO. Another reviewer called me out for the tone shift in the third mission, but we had to agree to disagree on that one. I like stories that start off light and amusing, and then suddenly get serious after the drama bomb hits.

If there's one beef I have with your review, is that I just don't feel like you put a lot of effort into it. There's a couple of things you said that are, frankly, just plain wrong. I never said Bloodstreak was 'doing research' for Azuria. He says that she's 'got [him] searching for info' which would imply he's gathering research materials from who knows where throughout the city. Okay, that's not a big deal, I can accept that you interpreted it differently. What really bugs me are where you state that Stryker made his cyborg army (I very specifically stated that Crey created them, he only reprogrammed them to be loyal to him. Fine, whatever, same difference I guess), and you keep making reference to a character named Plasmon. That's funny, I don't remember a Plasmon. There's a Plasman in there however. Again, that's really not a big deal, but all these things just make me feel like you decided right off the bat that you weren't going to like the arc, and just glossed through it without giving it your full attention.

Overall however, I can't really argue with your rating. Frankly, the more I look at it, the less I like this arc. I've always been the type of artist who is embarrassed by his own work.

On that note, I look forward to you reopening your queue for submissions. I think this arc is beyond saving, but hopefully you'll like my other one better.

Arc #91644, "Shenanigans on Striga"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", undeclared timed defeat-all, typos, weak writing

Reviewed on: 8/12/2009
Level Range: 20-29/25-29/20-29/20-29
Architect's Keywords: Canon Related, Mystery
My Keywords:
Character used: Mr. Pagliacci/Virtue

Shaun McPherson (no bio), a guy who says he keeps an eye on the Striga docks, wants you to break up a Warriors' raid on a pawn shop (typo: "warriors", also in nav bar). This map had the indecency to only spawn two Bosses, which is not the author's fault. A search turned up a broken safe with a few random items in it, nothing obviously linked to the Warriors. Shaun says according to the owner nothing was missing ("warriors" still spelled in lower case).

Shaun is still wondering what the pawn shop raid was all about when the Warriors suddenly attack a Council warehouse. He says this level of violence is unusual and asks you to stop it before it escalates. This is a short fight on the small newbie Council map. "Archon Kiwi" (really...) implies they were attacked by the Family before the Warriors showed up, but there's still no indication as to what this is all about.

The Warriors are still on the move (and still in lower case) in act III. Now they've brought a truckload of explosives onto a Family-owned ship. Shaun wants you to clear the ship of hostiles so the bomb squad can move in (Striga has a bomb squad? Striga has police?) A defeat-all on a ship...with an undeclared one-hour time limit. Blech. This map really broke out the spurious Bosses for me, I think I counted six of them, including a Consigliere encountered after the named Consigliere, Lefty Legalle, who managed to drain my tray of Break Frees. After his pummeling Left says this whole thing was "Knuckles' "idea", and he's got "it" over at his club, whatever "it" is. Shaun fills you in a bit more, telling you that Lefty is the second in command of Knuckles Calbrase, one of the Family big shots. Knuckles arranged to have an important relic stolen from the Warriors and pinned the blame on the Council, hoping to spark a costly war between the two. (All the gang names are in lower cases here.)

Time for the Fight Scene: Shaun suggests you bring friends to pummel Knuckles. He was only a Super Strength/Invulnerability Boss, though, and not very difficulty (of course, I was tossing Psi at him). After clearing out his club you find a medallion with the initials "D.O.H" engraved on it and a crossed-swords emblem. Shaun tells you the initials stood for David "Odysseus" Hill, the Warriors' leader, and it's been returned to him to quiet things down. The end.

This would be a three-star arc if it had some more polish to it. It's going to need some work to do better than that, though. There's no theme, the writing is pretty weak and that kill-all on a ship map is a real groaner.

Arc #167493, "Gizmette"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: weak theme, limited enemy selection

Reviewed on: 6/13/2009
Level Range: 50-54
Architect's Keywords: Challenging, Custom Characters, Origin Story
My Keywords: Challenging, Non-Canon, Sci-Fi
Character used: Venture/Virtue

"A strange little girl" (no bio), obviously a robot of some kind, asks for your help. Her "daddy" is asking her and her "sisters" to hurt people, which she knows is wrong and isn't like him. She wants you to talk to him. You're sent to an abandoned lab with a defeat-all objective. The place is full of robots resembling your Contact with a variety of powers. There's a homeless man to rescue but he doesn't know anything useful. The patrols talk about looking for a locket, which you find on the leader. Inside there's a picture of a man in a lab coat and a little girl who looks like the robots.

When you get back, your Contact gets a message from "dad" telling the girls to go to the home of a hero, Captain Barnstorm, and attack him. She says there's no record of any previous interaction with him and wants you to intervene. This takes place on the increasingly-overused Midnighters' Club map. You have to rescue Captain Barnstorm (no bio) who just runs away, asking you to save his wife for him. She's triggered by his rescue, held hostage by a bunch of robot girls asking her to be their mommy. She does get a bio, which asks if you should tell her that her husband just ran off and left her (I totally would).

Next, "dad" tells your Contact to come in for "repairs" since she's been disobedient (typo: "disobediant") by working with you. She's going to go, but wants you to go with him. There's a warning on this one to "let the tank go first", which to me is an indication that maybe this map wasn't such a good idea, but the author seems to like special maps and this one is Ghost Widow's tower. You have to confront Dr. Gizmo (actually, you have to find his journal in a safe) and free your Contact (Robotics/Force Fields Elite Boss), which triggers the spawn of Dr. Gizmo (Assault Rifle/Invulnerability, I think, either Elite Boss or AV). He, in turn, spawns "Gizmette", a copy of your Contact only at AV strength, when he gets low (Rocks Fall Everyone Dies style). From his journal you learn that Dr. Gizmo blames heroes for the death of his daughter, who died while he was out protecting other people, thus turning him from hero to villain. Your Contact takes the news pretty hard as there's no information in her database about Gizmo's real daughter.

After she composes herself, she suggest you look for Dr. Gizmo at the site of his daughter's death. She wants you to take him in without killing him, but can't bring herself to come along. You get yet another special map (three out of four in this arc, for those keeping score at home), this time the flooded office map. The only objective is Dr. Gizmo himself, who sported Gravity Control for a secondary this time (and maybe last, but I didn't see him use any powers from it....). An ambush spawns when he gets low but it's a friendly one, as several of the robot girls tell him he has to give up the memory of his daughter. He asks you tell his "girls" that he is sorry as the PPD takes him away in the exit pop-up. Your Contact thanks you and gives you a metal heart with the words "Thank You" engraved on it.

While the arc does have a theme I didn't feel it was very well explored. Dr. Gizmo just has the truth beaten into him and we never learn very much about the precipitating incident, or Gizmo's past history, or anything really. The exclusive use of the one custom faction leaves the arc lacking in variety as well; all four missions feel pretty much the same. It's good but with some extra work could be outstanding.

Reviews will be delayed indefinitely as my computer up and died last night (mid-review as it happens). The machine I'm posting from would spontaneously combust if I even tried to install City on it....

I have no idea how long I'll be without game access.