Venture's Reviews IV: The Search for Part III

The offender turned out to be the graphics card. I've replaced the old 8600 with another 8600...didn't want to spend more on a 9000-series when I wasn't sure about the trouble, and I don't think my box has the power supply for a good 9000 anyway.

Should be back to reviewing soon!

Glad to hear it was just a card and not something worse. Welcome back... not that you were really gone.

Arc #149765 "The Crey Conundrum, Act I - Project: Sleeper"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", borderline Random Events Plot, Your Princess Is In Another Castle, plot issues, poorly written canon characters


Reviewed on: 8/13/2009
Level Range: 40-54/30-54/35-54/30-54/30-54
Architect's Keywords: Canon Related, Sci-Fi, Drama
My Keywords: Canon Related, Sci-Fi
Character used: Gothzilla/Triumph

Messed-up level range and "Act I" in the title...not a good start.

Gordon Stacy asks you to look into "Project Sleeper", which he believes is a Crey project that preceded Revenant Hero. He asks you to do this based on an email he's received, which is probably a reference to the Doctor but as it's not spelled out it seems your character is running off on pretty thin information. Anyway.... The first mission takes you to an abandoned tech map full of Psychic Clockwork. There are six "piles of junk" to search, one of which yields a scrap of paper with the name "Dr. Russom" on it, and another has a USB drive that might be salvageable. There's also a somewhat dimwitted ally to rescue, "Commander Cosmic". His rescue triggers the spawn of Clak-on, a required Boss objective.

Stacy gets too many hits on the name "Russom" and starts working on eliminating suspects. His techs recover two names from the drive: Scratch Kitty and Thermovore, both heroes. He wants you to track them down and speak to them. Kitty is the RWZ assisting Vanguard so that's your first stop while Stacy tries to locate Thermovore. Kitty turns out to be in the midst of a fortress attack, making her a rescuable ally (I didn't try to bring her into combat) and giving you six Rikti Bombs to destroy. Afterwards she tells you she got her powers from Crey, and the project was led by Dr. Timothy Russom. When you get back Stacy tells you he's located Thermovore.

Thermovore has located a new Crey lab being set up by Russom with Protectors on guard duty. Anythere they're doing is worth undoing, so in you go. You are to meet Thermovore (ally, saved for last, also says she got her powers from Crey), click on a bunch of computers (only one of which says anything at all, and that's just the Doctor being cryptic), and take out the base leader who is not Dr. Russom as expected but Commander Cosmic. His combat dialog implies that he's being mind controlled. Stacy is very nonplussed at the fact that you had to pummel a hero to finish up.

The Doctor tips Stacy off to three possible locations for Russom. Wherever he is, he'll be on the move in an hour (timed mission). Stacy sends Scratch Kitty and Thermovore out to two of them and you to the third. It seems pretty obvious at this point that all these heroes who got their powers from Crey have been given the Manchurian Candidate treatment, so sending them out on missions is pretty iffy. It turns out the Doctor agrees: you find a computer with a message from her saying the other two leads were bogus. This means Stacy's the only one catching the Idiot Ball. There are a few computers to save from destruction, which give up a very terse and poorly-written Clue telling you Russom has brainwashed a lot of heroes, and the "base leader" turns out to be a clone of the Invisible Falcon (with a very bad costume and probably the wrong powers) and weaker (Minion) clones of himself and Commander Cosmic. Your Mad Scientist Is In Another Castle, again. Stacy says the brainwashing didn't "take" on most of the heroes...how does he know? He's got SERAPH looking into the clones you fought.

Time for the Fight Scene: Russom has fled to a lab in Boomtown. The clones are not up to Crey's usual standard and will deteriorate in a few hours. You're to go after Russom with a bring-friends warning. You have to defeat all mobs on a large abandoned tech map. Russom himself was an Energy Assault/Ice Manipulation Elite and no big deal. Stacy thanks you for stopping Russom and his clone army (which wouldn't have outlasted milk in any case), says all the remaining heroes associated with Crey have been cleared by psychics, and then gets an email from the Doctor reminding him there's a part II.

This arc needs a lot of work. The early acts border on a Random Events Plot. Important information is only discussed peripherally, Stacy catches the Idiot Ball (but thankfully doesn't pass it), both he and the Doctor are way off in terms of voice, the plot doesn't make much sense (why are we all up in arms over a guy holed up with a bunch of temporary clones?), and frankly the last mission is the opposite of fun. The storyline is really too similar to the Revenant Hero arc as well. I'm not really motivated to check out part II.

Hey, you can say Idiot again!

I swear the forums hate me. I haven't been able to get on hardly at all the last week.

Anyway, thanks for the review, Venture. I appreciate you taking the time.

Arc #191775, "How the Other Half Lives"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: throws the Idiot Ball, technical issues, canon issues

Reviewed on: 9/3/2009
Level Range: 43-54/43-54/40-54/40-54
Architect's Keywords: Canon Related, Comedy, Drama
My Keywords: same
Character used: Venture/Virtue

Levantera asks for your help with a new government project. Seems that the Suits think Vanguard's success at working with Rogue Isles supers might lead to bringing some of them over, so they've arranged a "student exchange" program. They're going to send a rookie hero to the Isles for a week, and Arachnos is sending a rookie villain over to serve as your sidekick. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Levantera admits this is pretty hairbrained but with Vanguard's budget coming up for review.... Your first mission is a "routine" sewer run, seeing as how that's where so many new heroes go to cut their teeth. Of course it's anything but, as you've got some workers to rescue. Your "sidekick" turns out to be a Fortunata named Becky...OK, I think we all know which direction this is going in.... Her approach text seems to suggest she's already been naughty. This is reinforced when you discover a machine labeled "Hydra Berserkifier" with little hearts dotting the I's. Levantera has the techs investigate what's left of the machine.

Instead of reaching the obvious conclusion, though, they catch the Idiot Ball and you're sent to a nearby Rikti base they believe may be the source of the device. You're to take Becky with you again as she's driving everyone at the Vanguard base nuts. The Rikti commander, Eiz'nHawa, claims after percussive interrogation that someone broke into the base about a week ago and stole components that could have been used to make the Berserkifier. A check of the storage units and the Rikti's security system verifies that. The video (would Rikti have video?) shows "indistinct but clearly human" figures breaking in, one of which waves to the camera. Becky mysteriously vanishes in the exit pop-up....

Levantera finds out the technicians did notice the Berserkifier was made by humans, but that detail was removed from their report, undoubtedly by Becky. Worse, there's a peace conference under way, and it would be easy to slip one of the Berserkifiers in since it looks like Rikti tech.... When you arrive, you find everyone at each others' throats, as the Berserkifier has been improved to work on everyone. The map is filled with Rikti and Vanguard, all hostile (unfortunately many times I found mixed spawns of Rikti and Vanguard not hostile to each other). The raid leader, "Executioner Wilson", had a miniature Berserkifier in his helmet...but it had been sabotaged and wasn't working at full power, which is evidently why you weren't affected. Levantera informs you that in a backhanded way the Ararchnos attack aided the negotiations by showing everyone how pointless fighting was. And, of course, the "student exchange" program is officially over.

Unfortunately, Vanguard has lost contact with the hero sent over to the Isles. Their beacon is off and Arachnos denies any knowledge of the hero's whereabouts. You're being sent over to find him. Or her, as it turns out, as the hero in question was Fusionette (who, competency notwithstanding, is way past rookie status). You run into Becky on the way in as a hostage, and now a Tarantula Mistress of course. She gives you the security codes you need because you were nice to her, and says Wilson had her turned into a Tarantula Mistress so she retaliated by sabotaging his Berserkifier. Fusionette declares that she's switched sides because the Arachnos guys don't care if she pulls too much agro or causes collateral damage, and all heroes did was make fun of her, but finds out to her dismay that her Arachnos mediporter doesn't work. Fusionette realizes who her friends really are, the end.

The comedy really didn't work for me as it relies too much on throwing the Idiot Ball. There are problems with the use of canon as well: Becky (according to her speech in "Von Grun's Redemption") volunteered to be a Tarantula Mistress, and having Fusionette behave like this wasn't really credible either. There are also issues in the third act with factions that should be hostile but aren't (I've had similar problems and it can be done properly). There's some potential here but it needs a lot of work.

Thanks very much for the review! So as not to derail your thread too much, I posted a couple of comments in my arc thread:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=134124

Apologies for the absence, I was derailed partly by RL and partly by that Other Game, then decided to put things on hold a bit longer to let i16 come out.

Here's the current queue: 4824, 171031, 242442, 227331, 41646, 77311, 81043, 67087. I am still not accepting requests. When the queue empties I am either only going to review arcs I choose to review, or switch to a QPQ format. I haven't decided.

I intend to start reviewing again on 9/23. That gives everyone about a week to make sure their work is up to date with the new issue. If you're not going to make it by that date, or feel that i16's changes make your arc unworkable, etc. and want to be removed from the queue you've got until then to say so....

Are there any particular I16 changes you think are mandatory for a better story? I've looked through everything and, though I do plan on using the health decline comments in a couple of places, I really didn't see anything they've added that would give me the opportunity to improve the story/gameplay. If they'd fix a couple of the ongoing bugs, yeah... but that's a different topic. Besides, something they've done managed to eat up a couple more percent of my avaliable memory, so I'm pushing it already.

Are there any particular I16 changes you think are mandatory for a better story?

No, not really. Some people might want to tweak their custom mobs if they're concerned about XP. There are the new "betrayal" options that might be of interest to some, and there could be any number of undocumented changes that mess up published arcs though I haven't heard of any. I just wanted to give people time to make any adjustments they thought were needed for the new issue.

Arc #4824, "Legacy Chain Task Force"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: weak theme, tedious mob, morality issues, plot issues

Reviewed on: 9/24/09
Level Range: 45-54/45-54/35-54/45-54
Architect's Keywords: Challenging, Save the World, Magic
My Keywords: same
Character used: Venture/Virtue
Difficulty: +2x5+B-AV

Abernathy, a Legacy Chain mage, has learned of a plot by a Circle mage named Berith to summon the Demon Kings. This would be Bad. He claims to have specialized knowledge of this guy so he's recruiting help directly instead of passing the info along to MAGI or the like. It turns out Berith was a member of a supergroup called the Conjurers, whom he betrayed to join the Circle. Your first task is to try to recruit the three surviving members, starting with the two he drove insane. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? The mission takes place on the (say it with me now) Mother Mayhem map, with her forces retasked as "Asylum Inmates". The first ex-hero you run into is George "Firecaller" Mathers, who turns out to be in control of his faculties but is also totally uninterested in taking on Berith again. The other, "Ice Qube" (Boss, Icy Assault/Cold Domination, I think), is totally wacky, at least until you administer some kinetic psychotherapy. Abernathy tells you in the debriefing that Ice Qube has recovered enough to want to help.

That leaves the last surviving Conjurer, their former leader Aimi. She almost took out Berith but unfortunately one of her final attacks accidentally blew up a loaded school bus, so you have to...break her out of the Zig. Yep, this is a Heroic arc.... There are three "optional" AV/EBs to fight: Maestro, Drek and the Psychic Clockwork King. These aren't very optional as they'll be spawned in-between you and the exit on the way out, as this mission is an escort. Aimi, an Electric Blast/Storm Summoning Boss, is happy to have a chance at revenge. Maybe too happy, according to her release Clue.

Next, you have to check a book out of the Circle's library for information on how the Demon Kings will be summoned. Naturally you don't have an Oranbega Library Card and they're not on the state's inter-library loan system. Abernathy decides Ice Qube is still too fragile and Aimi too eager for revenge to accompany you, and actually regrets involving them (what a surprise). The map is filled with bookshelf glowies, most of them decoys. One of the early ones actually gave up the necessary Clue, but defeating the Librarian was still necessary. Fortunately this mission uses one of the smaller Oranbega maps. The Librarian taunts you by telling you the summoning ritual has already begun.

Time for the Fight Scene: you have to take on Berith, aided by Ice Qube and Aimi. Abernathy finally admits he was one of the Conjurers but won't be going along for unspecified reasons. The summoning takes place on one of the Vaults of Mu maps. All three Conjurers are present as optional allies; I rescued them all but they all died instantly on the spawn following their rescue thanks to my high difficulty setting. Just in case this wasn't tedious enough, Berith uses the Akarist model, which has insane resists and regen -- it took me about ten minutes to wear him down. Abernathy confesses afterward that Berith was his brother, and he'd had a chance to strike Berith down in the last battle with the Conjurers but couldn't bring himself to do it.

This is a decent arc but it could use some work. It does have a theme but doesn't really do much with it. The level range should be made uniform. The Zig breakout and use of the Akarist model are problematic, but what really bugged me is that this arc really has nothing to do with the Legacy Chain. They're not really involved in it and we don't learn anything new about them, which makes calling this a Legacy Chain TF kind of problematic. There's nothing terrible about this arc but it's got lots of room for improvement.

Arc #171031, "The Fracturing of Time"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory, takes liberties with the PC, plot issues, annoying maps

Reviewed on: 9/26/2009
Level Range: 25-54/25-54/25-54/41-54/41-54
Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Non-Canon Story, Sci-Fi
My Keywords: Solo Friendly, Non-Canon Story, Drama
Character used: Venture/Virtue
Difficulty: +2x5+B-AV

Horrible level range. I'm going to start docking for that in the next set of reviews.

You are contacted in your dreams by a "Fractured One", which claims a peaceful world called Kyrdos is about to be destroyed by the Raigaus, an invading race. It says the Kyrdosi have built a device that will allow them to leave their universe and exist in the "Void Shadow" until they can find a new homeworld. The trouble is only someone from outside their universe can activate the device, which is where you come in. How do you know that you're not actually activating a doomsday weapon for the Raigaus, or helping an evil race escape justice, or that this device is going to do anything at all like what you've been told? You don't. But, the show must go on, so ignoring the potential negative tropes, onward.... You're sent to a tech map, where you have to rescue a scientist to learn how to operate the device, then find and click on it and take out "Worldslayer Krezyrax", a Dual Blades/Willpower (I think) Boss. Raigaus Minions had Claws, Lieutenants had Assault Rifle, all with Willpower secondaries I think. There were some Kyrdosi allies to optionally rescue but they all died on impact. You're told in the exit pop-up that you feel a sense of unease on return to your world. The Fractured One tells you the Kyrdosi did not fully enter the Void Shadow so he still needs your help.

For your next trick he sends you to the fringe of the Void Shadow (you can't enter it entirely for unspecified techobabble reasons), there to find out what happened to the Kyrdosi. You're sent to one of the horrible Arachnoid cave maps, filled with "Echoes" of the Kyrdosi, who have gone all goth and spikey-haired now. You have to confront Echoes of a Scientist, Champion and Hero, all of which blame you for turning everyone into monsters, and why not. The Hero tells you the Kyrdosi wll now destroy your world in retaliation.

The Fractured One says they can pull it off, too, as they are somehow "burrowing" from the Void Shadow into Time itself, and if they are not stopped your world will never have existed at all. In you go, then. The fringes now look like a Rikti cave/base map (you're told the Kyrdosi's efforts are changing the Void Shadow itself), with a couple of Fractures (Shadow Cysts) to destroy. Unfortunately, stopping them here doesn't do much as the bulk of their efforts are deeper in the Void Shadow.

The Fractured One tells you the only way to travel into the Void Shadow is to become unstuck in time, which he fears would turn you into a creature like the Kyrdosi. You decide to do it anyway...it says here.... The Fractured One becomes angry, telling you this means destroying the strongest aspects of yourself and could unmake you worse than the Kyrdosi. He refuses to help but you end up where you need to go anyway, which is the Agony Hall map. Your objectives are to destroy your Love, your Mind and your Hope. These were all Bosses with Ice powers (I think, it was hard to tell), protected by Fragments of Memory, Dream and such (retasked Lanaruu mobs). On exit the pop-up says you too have gone emo and feel immersed in the Void Shadow. The Fractured One confesses that he is a fragment of you, now trapped in the Void Shadow, and had hoped that you would fail so he would be free of his cursed existence. So why did he send me...oh, never mind.

The only thing left to do is to enter the Void Shadow and close the fractures. You tel l yourself the fractures are too large now and can only be sealed if you absorb them into yourself. This will supposedly delete you from Time itself, meaning we can already see the Jolly Candy-Like History Eraser Button being polished.... The Void Shadow now looks like Cimeroran caves, filled with Echoes, along with Echoes of What Was (Love), What Is (Mind), and What Will Be (Hope), captives that spawn the Fractures of Past, Present and Future when rescued. Once all three fractures are destroyed, the Void Shadow is sealed off from your universe, which should destroy you, but the Echoes are able to "preserve your essence" and send you back. The exit pop-up says you feel hollow inside, though, at least until you pull the fading Fractured One back into yourself in the debriefing. I'd actually expected it to end with a time loop as you erase yourself thus preventing the precipitating incident thus restoring yourself, but no.

I gave this one the benefit of the doubt and rounded up from 3.5 stars. There's a theme but it's too heavy-handed and obvious. The precipitating event borders on throwing the Idiot Ball, as you're basically in the "handed a gun" scenario. The arc takes a lot of liberties with the PC, particularly in telling the player what his character feels in a lot of places. The gameplay is adequate; the mob selection is too limited but there is nothing bigger than a Boss and nothing with terribly obnoxious powers (I did see some status effects go by, squishies take note).

Arc #242442, "Pentarchy of Punishment"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: "just a bunch of stuff that happened", plot issues, unconscionably garish mobs

Reviewed on: 9/28/2009
Level Range: 15-54/1-54/1-54/41-54
Architect's Keywords: none
My Keywords: none
Character used: Venture/Virtue
Difficulty: +2x5+B-AV

Not only is the level range all over the place, but the architect's blurb brags about every mission having a challenging EB in it, with two in the final mission. So that's appropriate for a level 1 character, really?

Anyway.

Thomas McKenna, a nanotech researcher working for Crey, needs your help. His daughter has been infected with some inactive grey goo and unless McKenna turns over all his research, it will be activated and kill her. He's not about to do that and wants your help in obtaining the cure by force. McKenna is not forthcoming with the details of who exactly is responsible, meaning there's a high potential for deception down the line, but moving forward, you're sent to a Rogue Arachnos lab to meet with the poisoner's agent. That turns out to be "Melissa Mayhem", an Assault Rifle/Invulnerability EB whose bio says she's a former Vanguard sniper gone bad. She mentions working for someone named Maxwell in her approach text; that name is expanded to Maxwell Machiavelli in her bio. On defeat she gives up a vial of blue goo and a map of the Rogue Isles with an island off the coast of Grandville circled.

Unfortunately, the vial turns out to be only one-fifth of the cure. (Interesting that McKenna is able to figure that out so precisely.) You're off to the island on the map in the hopes of finding more. The island turns out to be a city map (the entry pop-up lampshades the discrepancy) filled with 5th Column. Why they're there, I have no idea. Your target is "Thomas Terror", a Broadsword/Shield EB. Terror gives up a vial of yellow goo and another mention of Maxwell. Evidently we're not supposed to know his last name yet even though it was in the other chick's info box.

Act III is said to take place as you're traveling back from the Isles to report your success to McKenna. If that's so then why did I get a debrief...oh, never mind. Your ship (I fly and have five or six zone teleports, but whatever) is attacked by pirates, which you must repel. Unfortunately, most of the damage these pirates deal is to your eyes, as they are the Pirates That Don't Have Any Fashion Sense:



Yeah. I'm not even going to begin to catalog all the powers these guys had, most of which didn't make much sense.

This act did make me break a sweat, though, as the Pirarate Captain Bosses were Super Strength/Invulnerability with Rage, and one had the poor graces to spawn next to "Mi So Fu" (I'm not going to touch that), the Martial Arts/Super Reflexes (I think) EB. On her defeat she admits that she only served Max because he defeated her in combat, and now that you've defeated her she feels no obligation to him. She gives up her portion of the antidote and a map to Max's island hideout before vanishing in a puff of smoke. When you get back to McKenna (which you already did...oh never mind...) his daughter's condition had deteriorated and may be charitably described as "horrible".

So, it's time for the Fight Scene. The last act takes place in the Striga Base map used in the Lazarus TF filled with Malta. You have to dispatch "Suzanne Spectre", whose dialog indicates she's an unwilling servant of Max, and then take on Max himself, a Mercenaries/Electric Manipulation EB. He's about as well-dressed as the pirates, lampshaded in his bio; I was too busy to get a screenshot. He gives up the last two vials of the antidote, the girl is cured, the end.

The arc has no theme and almost as much internal logic. Enemy groups appear and disappear without rhyme or reason, seemingly the result of random encounter tables. The pirates in act III are just terrible, though (except for the Bosses) not problematic in terms of powers. Most of the plot makes little or no sense: why divide up the antidote or Max's forces (put all your eggs in one basket and protect that basket!), if he's got all this firepower couldn't he have done better than poisoning McKenna's kid, McKenna's working for Crey so it's not much of a win to let them keep his work...et cetera. I gave it an extra star for not being as bad as "Blight" but this one needs a lot of work.

Oh, I've seen some rather dastardly villains in far more garish get-ups. At least these pirates avoided the whole neon day-glo theme.

Those really are brain hemorrhages waiting to happen.

Arc #227331, "The Consequences of War - Part I"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: gameplay issues, minor anachronisms, incomplete

Reviewed on: 10/7/2009
Level Range: 40-54
Architect's Keywords: Challenging, Canon Related, Drama
My Keywords: same
Character used: GI Jane/Virtue
Difficulty: +1x2+B-AV

Lazon, a being seemingly composed of intelligent solar plasma and head of the "SOLUS Collective", asks for your help. Two of the Collective's members, including the second-in-command, have gone missing investigating Rikti activity and now the Rikti are jamming communications. The arc appears to be set during the first invasion, though that isn't as clear as it could be from the browser info and isn't given in the briefing. The mission-begin clue in Act I helps. In any case, off you go into the sewers, to find two heroes, destroy five bombs (strategically placed under high-profile targets) and take out the Rikti officer in charge. "Captain Superior", the aforementioned second-in-command, stays put when rescued to deal with reinforcements. The other super, "Billy Bad Boy" (Martial Arts/Super Reflexes LT), was way in back behind the Rikti Boss, who inconveniently hit me in the back with what looked like two ambush waves. You salvage some of the parts from his armor which might have a translator device in them as he spoke a little English during the fight. (The Rikti in this arc all talk in non-alphanumeric Unicode characters, which is very sharp-looking but can annoy people on low-end machines.) Clearing the place out doesn't do much for the communications problems, but Lazon does get a signal through telling you the bombs were placed to take out military and supergroup bases. When you return, Lazon tells you he's send Superior and Billy to round up other SOLUS members in person since communications are still unreliable and he'll have something for you soon.

That turns out to be a strike at the jamming problem. Lazon's identified what he thinks might be the source of the jamming. You're to meet up with two more heroes, Energy Blastion and Empathy, who are to cover you while you try to hack into the Rikti network with some software he gives you. The action takes place on an abandoned office-to-caves-to-Rikti base map. The two heroes spawned behind all the computer consoles, and had bios that basically said "dead meat". Hacking the network only nets you a small file.

The file does turn out to have a solid lead on the locations of the Rikti jammers, but that's not your next assignment. Lazon was going to send the parts of powered armor you salvaged from the Chief back in Act I to Rebecca Brinell, but her position in Galaxy City has come under heavy attack. Vanguard forces are getting overrun so off you go to back them up. You're to rescue Brinell and recover any data she's compiled on the Rikti's jammers. The SERAPH lab is all shot up when you get there (abandoned lab map) with ongoing battles between Vanguard and Rikti (the Vanguard all died long before I reached them, so I'm not sure what kind of models they were -- the contemporary ones would be out of place). Recovering the jammer data triggered a sizable ambush (two Mentalists, three Drones, one or two others) which flattened me. The battles were set large enough to spawn extra Bosses, too, so I had more than a few tight spots to deal with. On rescue Brinell runs off to help with the Vanguard wounded and tells you she'll make the armor parts her priority. Unfortunately when you call in, the other shoe drops: the jammer file was a diversion, and the SOLUS base is under heavy attack.

You manage to get a signal through for the next act's briefing, and it's bad: Lazon sent the SOLUS rookies and their mentor into the basement thinking they'd be safer, but the Rikti have swarmed over the whole building and now they're cut off. Everyone else is either drawn away or pinned down, so it's up to you to save them. There's a whole bucketful of objectives, including at least nine hostages and a Rikti Boss. The mentor turns out to be "Commissioner G", former police commisioner Wayne Gordon (cough). The kids, unfortunately, are not all right: two of them are wounded, one requiring an escort out, and the rest are dead. The Boss turns out to be an Elite Boss, a Heavy Assault Suit (anachronism, these weren't used until the second war).

The debriefing for act IV and briefing for act V combine; you are to head upstairs and help with the rest of the fighting. Commissioner G has beaten you up there somehow (actually he snuffed it in act IV for me). The final battle takes place in the Hellion burning office map. There are two Rikti Bosses to defeat (typo: they are both named "Field Captains"), one of which gets a large ambush wave, and Hro'Dath, who as the name implies is an AV using the Hro'Dtohz model. He gets an ambush wave too, and since you have to fight in a shoebox this was not very enjoyable for a squishy. There are a number of dead heroes (optional glowies), Commissioner G as an ally and Lazon as a rescue (he is losing containment and has to flee). The arc closes with you and Captain Superior surveying the burning debris of what was the SOLUS HQ and Superior vowing revenge.

The arc does have a theme, though I didn't feel that it was fully explored. You can tell this is only a "part I" (I expect Energy Blastion and/or Empathy buy the farm in part II). G's name is a darling that really ought to be killed. There are too many ambushes (exacerbated by the indecipherable Rikti speech) and more than a few places where I felt the difficulty was upped gratuitiously. A little fine-tuning would improve this a lot.

Thanks for the review, Venture. I can stop holding my breath now. I had commented in some short length in reply to your review, but then remembered your original post to this thread. I cut my comments from here and pasted them in a post in my thread if you wouldn't mind checking them out.

In any case, I'll look at this as a low-level lottery win. Not so good as the mega ball, but I'll still get a few free dinners out of the deal.

Arc #337435, "OMG it's the LOLBAT!"
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: "just a bunch of stuff that happened" (but comedic), possible bugs in act III, odd choice of level range

Reviewed on: 10/16/2009
Level Range: 35-40
Architect's Keywords: Non-Canon Story, Comedy, Kid Friendly
My Keywords: Custom Characters, Non-Canon Story, Comedy
Character used: Venture/Virtue
Difficulty: +2x5+B-AV

The LOLBAT, meme-powered hero of an unnamed nearby city, has come to Paragon to warn you of an imminent attack...you think. Something about rats "in ur vaults stealin ur monies". When you arrive at the designated bank, the leader of the "Algonquin Hate Table", one Monsieur Ronguer (Thugs/DiedTooFast Boss, typo in defeat clue: "Monsier") is robbing the place with his "Ratters" (recolored Redcaps). He vanishes when defeated, but during the fight drops a list of orders to "Croc Pot".

On your return, LOLBAT is approached by a woman wearing an "I CAN HAZ CHEESEBURGERS" T-shirt asking for help, which coincides neatly with the orders to Croc Pot, directing him to the Paragon Burger offices. Translating from the lolcat, LOLBAT says Croc Pot wants everyone to eat healthy and you have to stop him since "ur manz can't survive on broccoli alonz." The "Culinary Institute of Evil" is on the site in force with four hostages. The Chefs all use a similar minimalist but effective costume design, with a mix of bladed weapons and Fiery Assault for the Bosses (which also have Shield Defense, which I thought was a bit off...Willpower maybe). The four hostages include a customer, a model (with the Most Common Superpower), an employee and a chef, all with fairly cute bios. Croc Pot (War Mace/Invulnerability Boss) drops a recipe for Mind-Control Custard on defeat. LOLBAT is surrounded by cheering burger lovers on your return.

Later, LOLBAT asks you to stop The Scrabbler from taking over the Paragon City Press. You get a Clue on acceptance which describes some of The Scrabbler's tactics. Following these instructions makes the mission pretty easy. Unfortunately, it's a decoy: The Scrabbler is a fake and the whole thing was a set-up to distract you while the Algonquin Hate Table kidnapped LOLBAT. You rush back but too late: he's gone and there's a taped message from Ronguer taunting you. (N.B. a few players have commented that the spawn triggers in this act haven't worked for them. It worked fine for me on the first try, YMMV.)

The Table's real plan is to force-feed LOLBAT the Mind-Control Custard then unleash him on the city, causing his meme-ridden speech to infect the entire population. Now that's evil. You track Ronguer to his lair to stop them, which you realize will probably mean fighting LOLBAT himself now. All the Table's members are present (Croc Pot bribed his guards with tasty and nutritious cuisine), though you'll have to draw out Scrabbler again (the same instructions apply). This is a straightforward set of fights (except for triggering Scrabbler but that's not hard) on the flooded office map. You do have to fight LOLBAT (Martial Arts/DiedTooFast Boss), and there's a bit of a twist at the end I won't spoil.

This was really a four-star effort, I thought, but some of the humor, low-key though it was, pushed it up to five for me. There's no theme, and though strictly speaking as a comedy it doesn't really need one, I do think it would be improved if the dichotomy between LOLBAT and his intellectual foes was played up into one. I did feel kind of sorry for Croc Pot, but then I liked his one appearance in PvP too, waging his one-reptile war against high-glycemic carbs and saturated fats.... The one other nit I'd pick is the level range. I can see flooring the arc at 35 as some of the customs can be nasty, but I don't see any reason why the ceiling is set to 40. The only stock mobs used are the recolored Redcaps and they should go all the way to the top. Still, it's a solid arc and well worth a play.

Arc #337434, "Quest For Magic"
tl;dr: 2 stars. Offenses: throws the Idiot Ball HARD, borderline Idiot Plot, telegraphed Contact name

Reviewed on: 10/17/2009
Level Range: 46-50
Architect's Keywords: None
My Keywords: Challenging, Magic
Character used: Venture/Virtue
Difficulty: +2x5+B-AV

Irena Faust (-2.5 stars for telegraphed Contact name) wants your help in obtaining magical power. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? After catching the Idiot Ball your first task is to retrieve a book for her. According to her anyone who masters this "Book of Lost Marvels" will become a champion of good, but it's currently in the hands of a "Dr. Mordrin Marrow" who is attempting to corrupt its powers. He's being aided by the Pride, a mercenary cat-themed supergroup:



...so Venture was used to dealing with large numbers of catpeople. Statesman put in a cameo, front-loaded as a hostage, but he took off on rescue to "take care of the east wing". He did mention he was there as a favor to one "Irena Carey", a woman he had saved some time ago. Dr. Marrow turned out to be a Electric Blast/Energy Blast Boss, meaning two Aim powers so I finally had to push the You Lose button (Elude). Along with the book, you find evidence that Marrow was looking for two other artifacts as well. Irena lets slip that Statesman had saved her and starts thinking of what codename to use. She's also interested in those other artifacts, of course.

After having a chance to read up a bit on the Book of Lost Marvels, Irena determines she needs a source of magical energy to really take advantage of its spells. Fortunately Marrow located one for her, the "Casket of Ancient Days", which is also in villainous hands (according to her at least). She emphasizes that getting the Casket away from the bad guys is worth doing on its own, which is true. It's just the part about giving it to her any rational being should have a problem with. The Casket is the hands of "The Black Legion", a Roman-esque outfit reportedly led by a vampire.



These are not reskinned Cimerorans, so they don't have some of their annoying features, but they do have two LT models with Aim and/or BuildUp. Your objectives are to defeat the Tribune (there were several thanks to my difficulty setting, couldn't tell which was the Tribune) and the "Vampire Caesar". He turns out to be "Marcus Londinius" (bio says "Gius Markus", pretty sure that's supposed to be "Gaius Marcus"), one of Julius Caesar's engineers who got turned way back when. He was an Elite Boss with two Bosses in agro range, so I just said "screw it" and hit Elude to start. He does the turns-to-dust thing on defeat, threatening to return and hunt you down (And Your Little Dog Too, no doubt). His defeat triggers the spawn of the Casket, which required backtracking to find for no clear reason. Irena is happy that you've brought her semi-phenomenal nearly-cosmic power, and why not.

Just one problem. The Book is full of offensive spells. She doesn't want to get shot full of holes her first time out, so off you go to find the other artifact Marrow was interested in, the Cloak of Protection (no plus specified). This is in the hands of the Snakes...presumably this mission takes place in the Rogue Isles but that's never said and isn't all that important anyway. You have to take out the lead Snake, "Karatos the Mighty", and find the chest with the Cloak, very straightforward. On your return, Irena pulls her Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal, but while gloating gets possessed by her old master, Dr. Marrow. (S)he vanishes in a puff of plot.

You quickly run off to Azuria hoping she can divine Marrow's location. She finds him/her gloating over a defeated Statesman, who is being dragged away by the goons so Marrow can steal the power of Zeus from him. You rush off to the rescue (with a bring-friends warning). You arrive at an office-to-caves-to-sewers map loaded with Hydra, which Marrow has taken over with his/her new powers. You do get two allies for this, "Raptor Septavia" of the Black Legion and Ratas Hurr of the Pride, but they are both LTs meaning neither one lasted nearly as long as, say, a pork chop in a piranha tank. There's a named Hydra Boss to take down, then the new improved Dr. Marrow (now with 100% less Y chromosome), an Earth Control/Fiery Assault (I think) Elite Boss. Defeating him/her triggers Statesman as a rescue (which spawned Rocks Fall Everyone Dies style for me; fortunately Elude was still up). The artifacts are shattered, Irene is depowered and Marrow forced back into his body in prison. Irene admits she was corrupted by power but claims when she gets out of the Zig she's going to show she's a changed person and really wants to help people. Riiiiiiight.

There's nothing really horrible about the gameplay, except maybe too many mobs with +tohit but that's not going to be a factor to many builds. The story, however, needs to be taken out and shot (bury it first). I gave it an extra star for having moderately-interesting custom mobs and not being as bad as "Blight" (but not by much).

Out of curiosity, are you actually typing out those quips while in the middle of a fight?

Oh, and I don't think I could have gotten past the shotgun blast of memes to ever rate LOLBAT all that highly sadly.

Yes, I typed them during combat. SR perk.

Arc #337438, "Mission: Awesome"
tl;dr: 1 star. Offenses: legion

Reviewed on: 10/18/2009
Level Range: 1-40
Architect's Keywords: Custom Characters, Non-Canon Story, Comedy
My Keywords: Challenging, Sci-Fi, Comedy
Character used: Venture/Virtue
Difficulty: +2x5+B-AV

Murray, leader of the Marketeers (4th best marketing department in Paragon), wants you to find Captain Dynamic. The Captain went to rescue a kitten in a box but is hours overdue and Murray would really owe you for helping him out, in a non-monetary way of course. The office with the kitten is overrun with diminutive robots:




These turn out to be the minions of Captain Dynamic's arch-enemy The Great Face. The box contained not a kitten but a note from Face, intended to delay Captain Dynamic long enough for the robots to capture him. The bots are actually pretty nasty, loaded with -Defense, +tohit buffs and END drains. Enough of them have Web Grenade to debuff my Recharge to -28%...and I start at 72.5% and I've got Quickness. As for the -Defense, I have just under 80% resistance to -Defense when EXed to 38, and I still saw my Base Defense get knocked down by -45% or so at times....

Murray tells you that the Captain must be in the hands of The Great Face's lackey, Tech Guy and his evil IT Department. And you've only got 30 minutes to rescue him for a conference call about a photo shoot (inadequate warning for the timed mission). The Captain turns out to be in the sewers under the IT Department's office. He claims to be pretending to be captured and is irate when you rescue him. Sadly, you can't feed him to the gnomes.

Unfortunately, the call doesn't happen because the Great Face and Tech Guy have taken over the phone company and installed a Call Waiting Disruptor, so Murray couldn't switch over from his call to the Tie of the Month Club. The lack of call waiting will cause chaos throughout the city (according to Murray, anyway) so you and the Captain have to race over to the phone company and take out the disruptor. Murray warns you Tech Guy might be there to defend it personally. Thanks to overlapping spawns this was less fun than watching paint dry. Tech Guy had some kind of Ice powers; I can't be more specific because I'd finally had enough and had used Elude while destroying the CWD, which triggered his spawn.

Sadly, saving the city's phone system wasn't nearly as impressive as Murray had hoped, so the Marketeers still need a way to make Captain Dynamic look good. Taking out the Great Face should do that, and they know where he is now. You're going along, I guess to keep the Captain from hurting himself or getting lost on the way. Just to complicate things, actors the Marketeers hired to portray the Captain's fans (seeing as how he doesn't actually have any) have been captured so you'll have to rescue them. For some reason the Great Face's hideout is on fire, as the mission uses the Hellions burning office map. The Marketeers' writers are inexplicably amongst the hostages as well, and you have to find one of their laptops to trigger the spawn of the Great Face, a Mind Control/Dark Armor Elite Boss (opens with fear). Murray is happy with the publicity, and you get a pat on the back.

There's more wrong with this than there is right with it. Nintendo Hard mobs are not appropriate for a comedy arc. The floor and ceiling don't make any sense to me -- these mobs are way too hard for anyone below SO level at least, and there are no canon factions at all so why cap it at 40? The plot can't seem to decide if it's something that's supposed to be happening in Paragon City or if the whole thing is a simulation. There's a certain style needed to pull off breaking the fourth wall and this arc doesn't have it. The comedy just didn't work for me, in part because the inept fiddling with the fourth wall deprived the comedy of context. Give this one a pass.

Arc #337436 "The Great Face-Off"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: "ain't half bad, ain't half good neither"

Reviewed on: 10/19/2009
Level Range: 1-40
Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Custom Characters, Comedy
My Keywords: Comedy
Character used: Venture/Virtue
Difficulty: +1x2+B-AV

"Solo Friendly", and has warning tags for extreme AVs and EBs. OK.....

Tech Guy, head of the Great Face's IT department, needs your help breaking the Great Face out of jail, mainly because his last check bounced. You're to slip in during a prison riot to fetch him. The Great Face's uncle is a lawyer and he'll be there to help you...eh? It turns out the Face is being held without bail due to over 300 unpaid parking tickets. His uncle turned out to have Super Strength (and maybe Assault Rifle, not sure). His rescue triggers the spawn of the Great Face, whom you have to escort out. When you get to the chopper Face says his uncle had already gotten him off on a technicality so you didn't have to break him out after all.

However, in order to pay Tech Guy and the rest of the goons, the Great Face needs to rob a bank, and you're asked to help. This is a 30 minute timed mission with no warning at all. You have to free the Face (Mind Control/Dark Miasma AV/EB) then steal the money, which triggers the spawn of Geoff from the Marketeers (one of Captain Dynamic's writers) as a hostage and more PPD goons, including a Boss you have to defeat. This mission is a bit discordant as half the speaking characters act as if the Great Face is a joke and half act as if he's a dangerous supervillain.

Thanks to the influx of cash, Tech Guy is able to move forward with the Great Face's master plan: uploading a virus onto the computer networks of Paragon City that will prevent anyone from blocking his IMs. Yeah. You're sent to a tech lab map to destroy some firewall computers, upload the virus, and then fight Captain Dynamic (Martial Arts/Regeneration Elite Boss). Joel, the other Marketeer writer, is in as a hostage as well. Dynamic has Instant Healing so the first ninety seconds of your fight don't count. The Great Face starts his campaign of evil IMing, the end.

This arc is just kind of there. It ain't half bad...ain't half good, neither. I didn't think it was particularly funny. In particular the appearances by Geoff and Joel were totally gratuitous.