Honest Lazarus's Discount Reviews!

Ah, I see. Understandable. Well, I'm still looking forward to your feedback, anyway!

Critical Review:

Arc ID: 250480
Arc Title: Gangs United
Author: @Ozzie Arcane
Length: 4 Missions
Morality: Heroic
Description: An underground organization is attempting to unite several gangs from Paragon City under their banner in preparation for their evil plot. Can you stop the combined forces of the Hellions, Trolls, Vazhilok, and Gold Brickers before they get their operation off the ground?
Rating: ***

================================

Character used: Anna Nethema, Level 50 Dark Melee/Fire Aura Brute
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 20

================================

Mission 1:
So the contact is someone who may or may not be a nut who thinks that the Illuminati are plotting against Paragon City and asks me to look into it. The first thing Scothew here wants me to do is crash a meeting between some mysterious group and the Hellions. Since we often beat them up just for loitering and jaywalking this is not an unreasonable request.

Hmm, the arc is letting me be level 20 but Hellions cap at level 15. That is a lot of grey I see ahead of me. However there are a few "enhanced" Hellion bosses who are level 20, the Corrupted they are called. That's a fancy Nictus broadsword you have there, son.

Ok, if the objectives say that I need to defeat 2 enhanced Hellions, then why are there half a dozen of these guys hanging around and only certain ones who have the same name as all the others count?

Ok, how did you managed to get those two bosses standing next to each other and having a conversation? Was that just luck that they spawned right next to each other? How come the Damned and the Hellions with him were level 20 when the rest of the map is full of 15s?

Seems we have a spawning bug here of some sort.

Also, why does President Evil have that much info in his description? Should I really know anything about this guy already?

Mission 2:
Anyhow, seems that this Big Evil group is going to be meeting with the Trolls as well and the Damned in the previous mission told me where to find them.

Umm, why are the Trolls hanging out in an arachnoid cave instead of their usual kind? What is an arachnoid cave doing in Paragon City to begin with?

So this time I get ambushed by Vahzilok rather than Trolls, hmm...

Oh dear, a Troll just got ice powers. At least there actually are 3 of him this time instead of "Defeat a random 3 of whatever".

It doesn't seem as if you're using a lot of customs so you probably have a lot of space. It wouldn't hurt to instead use multiple boss spawns and give each one some different dialog to make it less monotonous. You can still use the same plural and single objective text across all of the boss details.

Once again the Big Evil boss gives a bit more info than I probably need. Shouldn't the thing about being a robot be revealed in a clue upon their defeat?

Mission 3:
Apparently Big Evil has some beef with the Family and are sending their own goons to attack them. Except the only ones here that are connected to the Family are the Trolls, not the Hellions and Vazhilok is independent.

The arising Vahzilok zombies at the front door were pretty cool, but the Reaper doing the arise thing needs some dialog. In fact, all of the special spawns need some dialog, this mission was rather boring without any chatter.

Dunno why you bothered making the Zombified Hero really, he didn't do anything that a Luminous Eidolon doesn't already do and they are already known to be zombified heroes.

Also once again there is a spawning issue, the Family I rescued who followed aorund to help me are only level 15.

Ok, it makes no sense for that Goldbricker boss to have a device to control the Clockwork. You know why? Because all the Clockwork in Paragon City are directly animated by the psychic powers of the Clockwork King, they do not actually function as robots at all. The only exception are the ones in Cap Au Diable, which are being animated by the energies being siphoned off of Bat'Zul by the PTS.

Why was the Raid Leader, Psycho Falcon, only a Lieutenant?

Mission 4:
So now I'm hitting Big Evil at their base of operations, which is surprisingly run down looking.

The computer terminal is missing all the interaction text.

Might be neater to use the Superadine Lab destructible, the one that glows and gives you a little recovery boost when you stand near it.

Is Human Succubus supposed to be so much taller than everyone else in the mission? Looks rather odd.

No actual conclusion and no souviner, blah.

================================

The Verdict:
I'm going to have to borrow Venture's favorite phrase for this one, "just a bunch of stuff that happened." The story is barely existent and seems to just be a series of shallow cameos for the author's characters and/or SG mates. Not that it is a bad thing to do cameos, I do it all the time, but these characters have barely any background or characterization. They're simply not interesting and neither is the plot, which doesn't make a lot of sense in many parts either. I think it would help if the author studied up on the game lore a bit more before making any edits.

For now this is a 3-star arc. Just too many errors and too weak of a plot to be worthy of any more than that.

[ QUOTE ]
Hmm, the arc is letting me be level 20 but Hellions cap at level 15. That is a lot of grey I see ahead of me. However there are a few "enhanced" Hellion bosses who are level 20, the Corrupted they are called. That's a fancy Nictus broadsword you have there, son.

Ok, if the objectives say that I need to defeat 2 enhanced Hellions, then why are there half a dozen of these guys hanging around and only certain ones who have the same name as all the others count?

Ok, how did you managed to get those two bosses standing next to each other and having a conversation? Was that just luck that they spawned right next to each other? How come the Damned and the Hellions with him were level 20 when the rest of the map is full of 15s?

Seems we have a spawning bug here of some sort.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Nictus Sword happened to be the only thing that really resembled what I wanted them to have. The idea is it's a weapon enhanced with dark magic.

As for the levels. You may not have noticed this, but if you go into the group editor the Hellions are 1-20. If you grab them as the enemies for the map itself however it only lists their regular level. So I made a custom group so they could go all the way to 20 and you encountered a bug that I've only seen on one of my playthroughs. Normally it'll spawn the higher level ones, but sometimes it's like it gets confused and won't spawn them at the right level. The Damned boss spawned at the right level though because there is a version of him I specifically picked that is labeled 10-20.

As for the bosses spawning next to each other. It's sort of a coincidence. There is a chance one of them will spawn at the top of the stairs they were next to. It looks kinda cool but it was an effect I hadn't really intended, President Evil was more supposed to be addressing the Hellions that were standing next to him.

[ QUOTE ]
It doesn't seem as if you're using a lot of customs so you probably have a lot of space. It wouldn't hurt to instead use multiple boss spawns and give each one some different dialog to make it less monotonous. You can still use the same plural and single objective text across all of the boss details.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm gonna be honest. I have no idea why this thought didn't occur to me. Especially since I've set up multiple patrols in other arcs that say different things.

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, it makes no sense for that Goldbricker boss to have a device to control the Clockwork. You know why? Because all the Clockwork in Paragon City are directly animated by the psychic powers of the Clockwork King, they do not actually function as robots at all. The only exception are the ones in Cap Au Diable, which are being animated by the energies being siphoned off of Bat'Zul by the PTS.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hadn't really thought of this. I'll remove the Clockwork.

[ QUOTE ]
Why was the Raid Leader, Psycho Falcon, only a Lieutenant?

[/ QUOTE ]

Unlike the other villains present. He's just an underling. If it were a higher level arc, he'd probably be a boss while they'd be elites. But since it's level 10-20 I didn't think he should be as tough as the others.

[ QUOTE ]
So now I'm hitting Big Evil at their base of operations, which is surprisingly run down looking.

[/ QUOTE ]

Their main hide out isn't in Paragon, they're an evil group trying to operate under the radar. Doesn't it make sense considering all the abyssmal looking warehouses some of the gangs hide out in.

[ QUOTE ]
Might be neater to use the Superadine Lab destructible, the one that glows and gives you a little recovery boost when you stand near it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I did, but correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't the destructible items get a massive nerf hammer? I know I had to reselect them all recently during an edit.

[ QUOTE ]
Is Human Succubus supposed to be so much taller than everyone else in the mission? Looks rather odd.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I wanted her to be a rather intimidating looking woman.

[ QUOTE ]
The story is barely existent and seems to just be a series of shallow cameos for the author's characters and/or SG mates.

[/ QUOTE ]

I won't really argue about it but President Evil is the only character that is technically one of my characters. Lord Xuma was my best friend's brute but seeing as he hasn't played the game in over a year, I made massive changes to the character to the point where he's hardly the same character (He never really gave him a backstory). Human Succubus and Psycho Falcon were completely made up for this story.

I do see many of your points and I'll keep them in mind as I continue to edit this story further. Thinking about it, I'm kinda surprised you were the first to point out the things about the Clockwork and Vahzilok.

[ QUOTE ]
I was taking so many notes during this quick one that I decided to turn it into a mini-critical review, on the house.

Arc ID: 227331
Arc Title: The Consequences of War: Part I
Author: @Dalghryn
Morality: Neutral
Length: 5 Missions
Description: On May 23, 2002, the Rikti invaded Earth. During the war that followed, tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers, and heroes sacrificed their lives to save Earth. Over 200 heroes made their ultimate sacrifice on the same day. This is their story.

Rating: *****

The Verdict:
Pretty good romp that was, though it has some issues that need addressing. Nothing really major, mostly little nitpicks and a few annoyances. 5-stars overall.

[/ QUOTE ]
Thank you, very much for the 5 stars and the "on the house" critical review, Lazarus. I've already printed the review and highlighted suggestions that I'll be working on. Looks like I'll be making about five small changes as a result of your suggestions. It just keeps getting better, thanks to folks like you.

[ QUOTE ]
As for the levels. You may not have noticed this, but if you go into the group editor the Hellions are 1-20. If you grab them as the enemies for the map itself however it only lists their regular level. So I made a custom group so they could go all the way to 20 and you encountered a bug that I've only seen on one of my playthroughs. Normally it'll spawn the higher level ones, but sometimes it's like it gets confused and won't spawn them at the right level. The Damned boss spawned at the right level though because there is a version of him I specifically picked that is labeled 10-20.

[/ QUOTE ]

I noticed that since the Hellions are not listed among the factions in the description that the first mission must be using a custom version of the group. Are you sure that you grabbed the level 10-20 critters and not some of the 1-14 ones? Also, using Random Minion, Random LT, and such tends to create these bugs, it's what caused the bug where Family were not spawning at all in the 30-40 range.

In fact, is there really any reason not to just use the regular Hellions group in mission 1? You can change the group name of the Corrupted in the boss detail text settings anyway. That would probably fix the bug outright.

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Why was the Raid Leader, Psycho Falcon, only a Lieutenant?

[/ QUOTE ]

Unlike the other villains present. He's just an underling. If it were a higher level arc, he'd probably be a boss while they'd be elites. But since it's level 10-20 I didn't think he should be as tough as the others.

[/ QUOTE ]

It just seems rather anticlimatic that I dealt with so many bosses from the other factions on the way through the mission only to find that the Raid Leader was only a LT.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Might be neater to use the Superadine Lab destructible, the one that glows and gives you a little recovery boost when you stand near it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I did, but correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't the destructible items get a massive nerf hammer? I know I had to reselect them all recently during an edit.


[/ QUOTE ]

You did have to reselect them, but they didn't actually remove them. The only destructible that was removed was the Generator.

[ QUOTE ]
In fact, is there really any reason not to just use the regular Hellions group in mission 1? You can change the group name of the Corrupted in the boss detail text settings anyway. That would probably fix the bug outright.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the ones over level 14 won't spawn if I do that. I'm gonna try fiddling around with it.

On another note. I'm actually kinda surprised, you're the only person who didn't complain about the custom 5th Column.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
In fact, is there really any reason not to just use the regular Hellions group in mission 1? You can change the group name of the Corrupted in the boss detail text settings anyway. That would probably fix the bug outright.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the ones over level 14 won't spawn if I do that. I'm gonna try fiddling around with it.

On another note. I'm actually kinda surprised, you're the only person who didn't complain about the custom 5th Column.

[/ QUOTE ]

Probably because of that throwaway line about them being used 5th Column uniforms and some of them actually being former 5th Column.

[ QUOTE ]
Critical Review

Arc ID: 182874
Arc Title: Time's Maelstrom
Author: @Armory1

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the review, I don't want to belabor this but I did want to respond to a couple of points.

[ QUOTE ]

Bug: you have several customs who are in the All Custom Characters group.

[/ QUOTE ]
As far as I can tell they're fine when I edit the arc, so this one is stumping me right now.

[ QUOTE ]

Ok, so there is one more mission? What would have happened if I had failed mission 4? This one assumes that I suceeded, so why was mission 4 timed anyways if failing it would be ignored?

[/ QUOTE ]
Because even if you fail, there's mish 5 to put everything right. I used the timer more to convey that the launch countdown has begun than anything else.

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, this makes no damn sense. Why did I even bother with this arc if now I'm being asked to go all the way back and prevent this entire arc from happening in the first place? This is the worst use of a reboot button I have ever seen, if it's so necessary then why didn't I do it 3 missions ago?

[/ QUOTE ]
Because as was stated several times, the 'time rupture' effectively disabled their ability to fine-tune the Pillar for time travel. They simply couldn't do it 3 missions ago, not before the disturbance in the time streams had settled. Perhaps I need to clarify that.

As far as the EBs go...yeah, they're designed to be difficult. I will go in and remove Rage, that is a bit much.

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

Bug: you have several customs who are in the All Custom Characters group.

[/ QUOTE ]
As far as I can tell they're fine when I edit the arc, so this one is stumping me right now.

[/ QUOTE ]

Check the properties of the characters themselves, not their details in the arc.

Also I have an announcement: I will not be taking any new submissions for critical reviews for the next two weeks. Feel free to submit to the quickie review queue. I'll remind you when I start taking critical submissions again.

Here's one for a quickie review:

"Cat War!" #2788, 1 mission long.

A quick mission for a quick review!

Critical Review:

Arc ID: 4431
Arc Title: Soldiers of Fortune
Author: @Mekkanos
Morality: Villainous
Level Range: 30-35
Length: 5 Missions
Description: Fight two ruthless mercenary groups for an ancient item of power with the help of some unusual allies!
Rating: *****

================================

Character used: Mindskewer, Level 31 Mind Control/Thorn Assault Dominator
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 2)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 31

================================

Mission 1:
Alright, a Sky Raiders arc! We don't get enough of these really. Darrin Wade is the contact as well, bonus!

This is rather amusing as I've been establishing Mindskewer as an associate of Darrin Wade in the two AE arcs that she appears in.

Moving on, Darrin tells me about an art collection that is about to be put on display in multiple museums in Paragon City and would like to get his hands on a few of them. In return, I'll get to keep one of the items, a dormant Mu artifact known as the Eye of Chronos.

Sounds good to me, just tell me where the exhibit is!

Apparently the exhibit items are still being held in a warehouse as this time, pending transfer. Darrin tells that if I'm wondering why he is interested in collecting art then I should remember to take a close look at each item that I secure for him.

Of course things are never simple, I arrive at the warehouse to be greeted by security... or rather their limp bodies. And that's when I meet the custom group of this arc, the Paradigm Company.

Each member has a short background to the group in their description, a mercenary group based out of Europe made of meta-humans who believe that their powers entitle them to much more than that of ordinary humans. The uniforms aren't bad either.

They do hit a bit hard, though try finding custom critters that don't. Nothing out of balance that I see so far. The Technicians could be annoying, as they're minions with Devices, which loves to spam Caltrops and Smoke Grenade. Plus the Targeting Drone sees through Stalker's Hide and Pulse Grenade stuns. We already got the Freezer's spamming slows so we don't really need another one in a low 30's group.

Hmm, seems that all 4 artifacts are using the same glowy but share a single clue, that of a painting of some Rularru. May I suggest having 4 different pieces of art?

Didn't get to see much of the Paradigm boss in action, he spent the entire fight Dominated. I cleared out the room behind him to get an artifact and came back to find a Sky Raider ambush waiting for me. Appears they showed up late and now I have to find their boss and defeat him as well. Eventually I found him and the last artifact.

That first mission does go on a bit long, maybe it's the lack of NPC chatter that caused it to start to drag. Everyone is so quiet aside from the two bosses!

Mission 2:
So Paradigm Company had already taken the Eye of Chronos and ran. Darrin Wade has heard of them and tells me that they must have a very well-paying client to be operating this far from home.

Now Darrin Wade, being the kind to always keep his word, offers to find me the Eye since I did recover all those artifacts for him. It doesn't take long for him to get a lead on the moments of Paradigm Company as they seem to have suddenly started fighting the Sky Raiders out in the open.

I arrive at a street battle in Paragon City, looking for the leaders of the Sky Raiders and Paradigm Company while dodging the PPD at the same time. That didn't take long, as the two Boss groups spawned almost next to one another this time and it was trivial to use some confusion to send them into wiping each other out. On one of them I found a clue telling me what their orders were. Not that it helps me much as the Sky Raiders have the Eye now.

Mission 3:
Hmm, according to Darrin Wade I had found the corridinates of the Sky Raider base on their commander. I don't remember that line of dialog from the boss fight nor do I have a clue about it, you should add one.

Interesting, so the Sky Raider base is an abandoned Portal Corp lab and they got the portal online? How does Darrin know about the status of the portal and that someone has come through it?

Oh, and Darrin says that he'll send me some backup. Just look for someone who doesn't belong.

I recommend you choose something other than Wall Safes for the glowies on this map, some of them spawned in really hard to get to locations, like behind a large crate.

Oh, finally found the allies on the last floor, a couple of giant eyeballs like in the painting.

Protect. Defend. Rularuu.

Shortly after finding them I locate the Sky Raider's client in the portal room, and of course it's none other than Nemesis.

Ok, died when the Warhulk exploded in my face. Annoyingly I had to come back and go through the entire map to find the last two safes. Another suggestion: since none of the safes have the Eye anyway, make them all optional objectives. Defeating the Warhulk makes it clear that it has already been taken away and should end the mission, no sense putting the player through a wild goose chase 'cause they missed a hard to spot glowy.

Although afterwards the mission success pop-up tells me that the Paradigm Company probably stole it back.

Mission 4:
Like me, Darrin is getting tired of this back and forth game and is resorting to using a locator spell on that clue I found on the Paradigm Company boss back in mission 2. It works and he tells me where I can go to hack into their computer network and locate the Eye. In the meantime he'll have someone else keep the Sky Raiders busy so that they stay away for a bit.

Hmm, maybe give the Rularru allies some guards this time since they were spawning in areas where Paradigm Company were present anyway? The Brute even was in the kneeling captive pose.

You also need to check their settings, Defensive now means that they don't fight unless you take damage and most of the time they were not fighting at all since I was locking spawns down. Pretty useless as allies.

Finally I hacked the computer and took out the base leader. Turns out that Arachnos is the client after all. (I was wondering when they were going to show up, as they're listed in the arc details.)

I just narrowly dodge the arriving Sky Raiders on my way out.

Mission 5:
Time to sneak into the Arachnos sub base that was mentioned in the client's message and get the Eye once and for all. Darrin warns me to bring some extra allies along as he is running out to Rularuu to summon.

The first section of the cave leading to the sub pen was empty aside from my Rularuu allies. After collecting them I started running to Arachnos and dispensed the pain.

Of course after getting the Eye back and defeating the Arachnos Base Commander he turns out to be a Nemesis automaton. The annoying thing is that I have to go all the way back through the tunnel to fight someone else, who turns out to be an Elite Boss and I have no Domination left after those previous two back to back boss fights.

Correct that, he's an archvillain EB, so he has purple triangles of doom as well. Well [censored], Domination wouldn't have been of much use at all anyway.

Of course I missed that detail early on, if I hadn't I'd never have tried to solo this with a Dominator. Really, why does this General White guy need to be an AV anyway?

I come back and somehow manage to get back to my allies and defeat the guy. I don't know how the two remaining Rularuu managed to survive when this guy (AR/SS) could hit for FIVE HUNDRED DAMAGE at level 31!

================================

The Verdict:
Aside from a few annoyingly required glowie hunts that turn out to be cases of "your item is in another base" and a overpowered (for levels 30-35) AV at the end who has no real business being an AV, the arc is very solid. The writing was good and aside from a few slow parts I had a good time. It has some issues to address, but five stars overall.

Could I get a couple quickie re-reviews of my arcs, I'd like to hear what you think of my updates since you played them last. I believe Ctrl + Alt + Reset #137561 has gone through quite a few changes since you played last, and so has Matchstick Women #3369.

Quick Reviews!

Arc ID: 137561
Arc Title: Crtl + Alt + Repeat! aka Time Loop
Author: @Bubbawheat
Morality: Heroic
Length: 4 Missions
Description: You're stuck in a time loop and you must find your way out. You're stuck in...
Quicky Review: I last played this one long ago in it's original, rather buggy version. It's improved quite a lot since then and the "evolving" boss in the final mission is rather neat and creative.
Rating: *****

================================================== ====================================

Arc ID: 281575
Arc Title: Et In Arcadia Ego
Author: @FredrikSvanberg
Morality: Heroic
Length: 5 Missions
Description: You are contacted in a dream by a young man with a problem.
Quicky Review: I'd suggest that in mission 1 you trigger the Dreamsand glowie off of Percy's rescue since he tells you about it, so it doesn't make sense for you to already know about it. Also the Nightmares in mission 1 could use some dialog. There could be some more explanation for the abandoned office map in mission 2, maybe in the Dreamlord's absence the dreamscape is degrading like what happened in 1st volumn of "The Sandman"? Carnie should be capitalized since it's a name. The Hedonist was mentioned in mission 2, so why didn't The Conduit tell me who he is until mission 3? Hmm, why didn't The Conduit mention that The Hedonist had been banished to the Shadow Shard? Overall pretty good despite those issues.
Rating: ****

Thanks for your review!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus_NA I'd suggest that in mission 1 you trigger the Dreamsand glowie off of Percy's rescue since he tells you about it, so it doesn't make sense for you to already know about it.

I was sure that I already had set it up like that but it turns out I hadn't. I guess that change must have been swallowed by a republish bug or something. It should work properly now.

Quote:

Also the Nightmares in mission 1 could use some dialog.

I added some monologue to the boss since it would really clutter up the screen if all the patrols started talking at once - which they will, it's such a small map.

Quote:

There could be some more explanation for the abandoned office map in mission 2, maybe in the Dreamlord's absence the dreamscape is degrading like what happened in 1st volumn of "The Sandman"?

In mission 2 you aren't actually in the dream. The dreamlord's palace just happens to be located "on top of" an abandoned office in the real world. The Conduit mentions that "to you the palace might seem like any ordinary place but in the dreamworld it is magnificent". The dreamsand allows you to see the invading dreams and help him fight them off, even though you are awake.

Quote:

Carnie should be capitalized since it's a name.

You're right. I'm cleaning up all the proper nouns, accordingly.

Quote:

The Hedonist was mentioned in mission 2, so why didn't The Conduit tell me who he is until mission 3?

He doesn't know who he is until the Dreamlord tells him after you rescue him in mission 3. This wasn't exactly clear so I changed that a bit to make it more obvious that the Dreamlord reveals the information.

Quote:

Hmm, why didn't The Conduit mention that The Hedonist had been banished to the Shadow Shard?

He didn't know where The Hedonist had been banished to, just that he had been banished from Arcadia. The Dreamlord wasn't telling him everything.

Quote:

Overall pretty good despite those issues. Rating: ****

Thanks again!

Arc ID: 249469
Arc Title: The Sci-Five
Author: @CyberSunset
Morality: Heroic
Level Range: 15-15
Length: 4 Missions
Description: Mad Scientists are all attempting to join the Sci-Five, a legendary Golden Age coalition of five elite Mad Scientists who share funding and a common vision: the rebuilding of Paragon City as their own utopia!
Rating: ****

================================

Character used: Naga Sombra, Level 19 Human/Nova Warshade
Difficulty: Tenacious (Diff 1)
Level for Arc Playthrough: 15

================================

Mission 1:
The contact is someone named Red Rook who apparently coordinates with heroes and the police when it comes to identifying new threats. Today it's a Doctor Victor Vash who has been wanted for a few weeks now for tampering with the city's medical teleporter system. He's known to associate with Doctor Vahzilok and has been seen heading for a nearby graveyard, which is where I'll be headed to pick him up.

The first thing I notice upon entering, thanks to the dispersion bubble, is a giant robot called an Observer Droid. I guess he likes to be able to see over everything, but it does make him a bit conspicuous. Anyhow, looks like the good doctor has some tricks of his own. Amusingly I found out when I attacked it that it was either being remotely piloted by commitee or afflicted with some sort of multiple-personality disorder.

Hmm, found some Vahz zombies guarding these NecroNet devices that I need to destroy. It'd make more sense if you used a custom group of just Reapers and Mortificators than to have zombies standing around talking so eloquently.

Hmm, so I get the idea that Dr. Vash was trying to use these NecroNet devices to raise the entire graveyard at once? That would explain Doc Vahz's interest. He also had a card on him, apparently there is an opening in this Sci-Five group and he needed to perform a massive act of mad science as part of an audition.

Mission 2:
So this Sci-Five group has been thought to have been dead for decades but are back, or it's someone using their name. Anyhow, a rogue scientist has hijacked a busload of prisoners who were being transfered to the Zig.

I head off to arrest Dr. Shale and find that... she's turned them all into Igneous? Oh dear.

Hello Mister Observer Droid. Hmm, seems the word bubble cut off everything after "Well..." Good thing it shows up intact in the NPC dialog channel.

Hmm, this glowy looks important and was a required objective but it had no clue attached.

Nice dialog on Dr. Shale but, did I just see her use Aim/Buildup in a level 15 arc? Bad, bad author!

Mission 3:
Text error, I'm on mission 3 and it says "Part 4".

Anyhow, Red Rook says that other heroes have reported seeing that big robot at various outbreaks of mad science, which are occuring with increasing regularity. I've been provided with a device to triangulate the controlling signal of the Observer Droid as I patrol Paragon City.

Looks like this part of Steel Canyon is being overrun with mad scientists and robots. I set out to capture a Dr. Malgam, 'cause the objective says so.

These Basic Bolts are getting annoying. Entire spawns made up of minions who can all heal is not that good of an idea, especially in such a low level arc when we do little damage to begin with.

And of course no mad scientist is complete without an Igor, or twenty.

I see that Dr. Malgam is a fan of lego genetics! He went down without much trouble and now I have to capture someone named Watcher Wight.

OKAY, enough with the damn heal spam! Trying to fight a boss and her minions when they can all turn around and heal away all the damage you did it not fun.

Now I have to track down Memnatic. Why didn't you just put all these guys in the objectives right from the start rather than this aggravating back and forth nonsense?

Okay, so apparently the point of all this was to spawn the Observer Droid. Why not instead just put all the Mad Scientists in, make them optional, and have more than one Observer Droid to take out? I think that'd make more sense since we're triangulating signals and it's obvious by now that they have more than one Observer Droid.

Mission 4:
Ok, so the signal has been triangulated and it seems to be moving towards Striga Island. Time for a trip out of town.

I arrive to find that the Observer Droid is there and apparently it contains the minds of the entire Sci-Five and is being uploaded into the Council base computers. Wait, if they were all in one robot then how do they keep getting new ones? I thought there were being controlled remotely? Is this some "Prime" Robot? If so it didn't seem any stronger than the previous ones.

Oh dear, it appears that they're trying to upload themselves into the Megamech.

They also have grabbed a new body, one of the Council Zenith Mechs, which is somehow an Elite Boss as well. Hmm, a shout-out to the hero Breakneck.

Apparently they failed to upload out of it in time when this body was destroyed, at least that is what SERAPH tells me in the clue. Odd that I got that clue while still in the Council base, shouldn't that info have waited until the contact told me?

================================

The Verdict:
A fun arc that is mared by some clumsly mechanics and annoying custom enemies. Healing minions at such a low level? Bosses with aim/buildup? No, just no. Chained boss battles in a large outdoor map? Tedious and annoying. A few text errors here and there, but nothing major. Overall: 4-stars.

Arc ID: 297943
Arc Title: A Surprise Fit for a Baron
Morality: Heroic
Level Range: 20-50
Length: Long (4 Missions)
Description: The World Organization Summit is in two days, and the Supergroup known as Global Heroics is in charge of security. Spread thin across the world, they require your assistance to stop their wicked counterparts from laying waste to the Summit and disrupting global relations.

I've been looking for critique for this arc, and I'll fill any requirements you have for a critical review.

I've come to a decision and it's that I won't be doing critical reviews from now on. They take so much longer than quick reviews (3-5 times longer depending on the arc) and I am just having too little time to keep up with my queue. It doesn't help that senior year begins this Monday and who knows how much time this semester's labs and design projects are going to take up.

I'll do what I can to finish up the remainder of my queue in a timely matter, but I cannot make any promises as to how fast.

You know what's really funny about being involved in this type of forum? It's that people tend to be seen based on what they say, as opposed to who they are. That's not a bad thing, at all. It's simply that, as a 50 plus year old, I've tended to see some reviewers - Lazarus, Police Woman, Venture, LY, Bubba, and others - from a perspective of... well, inferiority isn't quite the right word, but it's kind of close... from a perspective of looking up to them for their opinions (or at least for their mature approach), I guess you'd say, as opposed to other perspectives - age included.

Senior year... I'm assuming that's *college*? In either case, good for you. Priorities in place and all. You just knock your grades out of the park. We can get by without you.

Yes, Senior year in Chemical Engineering.

Can a Minister of Awesome get a quick review up in here?

Arc ID: 311775
Arc Title: Two Great Tastes
Morality: Heroic
Level Range: 40-54 (but soloable for any character from 30 up)
Length: Long (4 Missions)
Description: In this slightly silly (and if I dare say, perhaps even Pythonesque) romp, you're charged with investigating a meeting between Nemesis and the Freakshow, only to discover that it's all too literal! It's cyborgs galore as you beat down the latest steam-powered contraptions of the world's most "down with the street" criminal genius!

I have a thread for the arc linked through my sig, for feedback and questions (like, "How did you come up with such a brilliant idea, you handsome devil?"). It's also got info on the arc, if you want to arm yourself with knowledge prior to playing it (it isn't necessary, but it can be fun, I was able to get more colorful in my custom mob and arc descriptions than I was in-game). If there's anything that needs changing, let me know, I want my arc to be ultra-perfect (I won't rest until I'm either Hall of Fame or Devs' Choice).

I just ran The Amulet of J'Gara, as you've probably found from looking at your tells. I'll move from this thread to your personal thread to do a quick comment there, but for the folks that don't go there, it's a must play.

Since you're pretty swamped, I won't officially ask you to review The Consequences of War - Part 2, but if you ever get time for a quicky review, I'd love to hear your thoughts - both of the arc on its own and as a capper to Part 1.

Thanks for a fun romp.

Quick Review:

Arc ID: 297943
Arc Title: A Surprise Fit for a Baron
Author: @Baron Von Doffen
Morality: Heroic
Length: 4 Missions
Description: The World Organization Summit is in two days and the supergroup known as Global Heroics is in charge of security. Spread thin across the world, they require your assistance to stop their wicked counterparts from laying waste to the Summit and disrupting global relations.
Quicky Review: It starts out ok but has a lot of flaws. The arc assumes too much and seems to think that the player already knows who Global Heroics and the Rogue Nations are. Yes, you do get a clue at the beginning about them but no details on the villains that show up. The Rogue Militia are rather uninspired Malta clones and made me wonder when the real Malta would show up, I didn't know that they leased out their Hercules Titan robots. Devices on a minion is also really annoying. Then there is that boss "Harvester" who has both Fire and Plasma Shield (giving him around magnitude 13 protection to stuns, sleep, and holds) which is really aggravating for squishy ATs. Then there is the 4th mission, which makes no sense and I cannot find anything in the clues that indicates why I make this decision. Suddenly there are 5th Column everywhere and this Baron guy I've never heard of before who is also a pretty obnoxious EB. I wasn't motivated enough to try again after he wiped the floor with my Dominator, so I'm ending the arc without seeing the ending.
Rating: UNRATED

Quick review of an arc I heard about on Architect Chat last night.

Arc ID: 277277
Arc Title: A Portrait of the Artist as a Madman
Author: @Rodion
Morality: Heroic
Length: 4 Missions
Description: An artist who the cops have blown off as a nutcase asks for your help. Is her as crazy as he seems, or is he just a magnet for weirdness.
Quicky Review: This is a pretty fun and creative story but it's only a 4-star arc at this time. There are a lot of big and little details that keep it from getting that last star.

Mission 1: The contact needs some info as to who he is when you click "Ask About This Contact". The hostage in the first mission doesn't give any story clues, one should be added. Also the boss in the first mission lacks dialog. I do like the idea that the monsters came out of the painting, does somewhat explain the Hydra mixed in with the Rularru. First mission should be set to be 45-54 like the other three missions to remain consistent.

Mission 2: Needs intro pop-up text. Nice custom critters but they all need descriptions. Decently balanced, nothing difficult for my Dominator to handle. What was the purpose of that destructible statue? Maybe it should be a defendable object or summon an ambush or something. Wait, so 4 of the 5 intruders listed in the objectives were these Statues. No wonder the mission was taking long to complete, I was looking for more of those Carnie bosses. The clue at the end is utterly redundant, I already know that the warehouse was full of living statues.

Mission 3: "This lunatics" should be "These lunatics". Tom Witherspoon also has a typo in his description. Finding Amanda is a pain, just keep coming across Tom over and over. I don't see what "Discover Plot" involved finding the crate, that's something that the Carnie leader could have easily revealed and would cut out some tedious map searching. Killed the Carnie leader Persephone, it doesn't make sense that she defected as Carnies are enslaved to Vanessa DeVore by those masks that give them their powers. Still can't find Amanda! There she is, only found her because I got close enough to trigger dialog.

Mission 4: Ok, why would I send Amanda to the nightmare insane asylum instead of a proper hospital and what does Hallward mean that he first met the Circus there? Ok, so according to the clue he has been here before, and he is an Illusion Controller. Amanda ought to give a clue upon her rescue, especially since she appears to be normal again. It could be very easy to miss this painting and have to backtrack for it after you got all the way to the end and found the Circus Master. Maybe either make it an optional objective or put it in the last room and have finding it trigger the appearance of the Circus Master in that last room. This mission could use a longer debriefing, Basil has some explaining to do.

I would love a quick review of my arc.

Arc ID: 221702
Arc Title: In Pursuit of Liberty
Author:@Gypsy Rose
Morality: Heroic
Number of Missions: 5 (but some are short - about 1 hr total play time)
Description: Work with Ms. Liberty to turn a willful young child into a hero. Travel through time, fight evil villains, solve a mystery but most of all, have fun! This arc is a modern fairytale spanning nine years in the life of Liberty Rose Jones. Help her find her destiny and in the process, find yours!

Thanks, I hope you have fun.