Citizen Razor's Attempt at a Review Thread

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CR, As I mentioned in my tell, I ran "The Horseman Chronicles" last night. Once I get ready, would you like the review here or in my The Consequences or War thread?

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Out of curiosity, did you ever write up the notes and post it somewhere? I was looking forward to hearing your thoughts about the story arc. :-)

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I guess I'll use some less obscure lore the next time - the precedent for "heroic" outcasts is a well-hidden CoH "secret".

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Do you mind pointing out that story arc to me? I honestly don't remember it. It might've been something I played years ago or skimmed through.

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It's ok, almost nobody remembers it.

It's a throw-away comment in the introduction to a hunt mission. The contact tells you that Outcast are causing trouble in Boomtown by pretending to be heroes and fining civilians for jaywalking. It's silly because as we all know there are no civilians in Boomtown, but the idea of mutant kids running around pretending to be real heroes and "fining" people for petty cash instead of mugging them stuck with me.

I don't think it's a stretch for a splinter group of Outcasts to decide that "hey, maybe we CAN be heroes!"

The Consequences of War – Part 1 #227331
By @Dalghryn

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 the ultimate sacrifice on the same day. This is their story.

Number of Missions: 5

Level Range: 40-54

Character I’m using: Crazy Girl, Lv36 Illusion Control / Radiation Emission Controller

Challenge Level: 2

This is a story arc that I’ve heard good things about, and the premise is interesting. I’m using Crazy Girl. When I first put this on my queue, the level range was 30-54. Apparently it got bumped up to 40-54 in the meantime. Still, I think Crazy Girl can handle it. The story arc warns me that there may be Archvillains, Elite Bosses, Extreme Elite Bosses, Extreme Bosses, and Extreme Lieutenants. Boy, I’m glad I got in some practice on Crazy Girl earlier.

The contact is Lazon, who is the founder of the SOLUS Collective, a group that accepted heroes not generally accepted by others. Sounds like the perfect place for Crazy Girl.

Mission #1. Lazon informs me that the Rikti war has been wearing everybody down. The vets have been stretched to their limits, and the newbies aren’t up to fighting the kind of war that the Rikti are waging. So Lazon is glad to have me onboard. He informs me that seismic monitors and sewer cameras are indicating that the Rikti are up to something underground. Lazon sent Captain Superior and Billy Bad Boy to investigate, but lost contact with them 30 minutes ago. So it’s up to me to find those two guys and to figure out what the Rikti are doing. The mission briefing indicates that this is going to be a kill-all mission.

I enter the mission. The objective is to find 2 heroes, destroy 5 bombs, and to defeat Tro’Naht. So not a kill-all mission then? I find a bomb and some Rikti guarding them. The Rikti are speaking in symbols.

I find Captain Superior and free him. He says he’ll stay behind and deal with the reinforcements while Billy and I clean up the rest. 1 bomb and 1 hero down.

I take out 1 more bomb, then run into Tro’Naht. He’s speaking English, in the traditional Rikti pattern! I defeat him, and the clue informs me that he had a translator on him. That’ll certainly be helpful.

I find the rest of the bombs and Billy Bad Boy. Billy is not impressed with my help. That’s ok, dear, I’m not impressed with your faux-Hellion self either. After I free him, he apologizes for dissing me and says the Rikti drives him crazy. The mission is over. I get a transmission from Lazon informing me that the Rikti are targeting high-profile targets for bombing. Communications are still jammed, so Lazon sent the two heroes out to find some more reinforcement.

Mission #2. Lazon might have a lead on the whole jamming thingy. He’s located an underground energy signature that indicates it’s a Rikti bunker. There may be some computers there controlling whatever the Rikti are using to jam frequencies and making communication difficult. It’s a long shot, but Lazon can’t ignore it. He gives me a decryption key and tells me that it’s heuristic, meaning it learns, but it will probably fail the first few times it tries. I’m also to meet up with Energy Blastion and Empathy at the bunker.

I enter the mission. The objective is just as Lazon said. Find 2 heroes, hack into the computer system. I see several of those floating Rikti thingy, and I try to hack into them but fail. I then run into Energy Blastion and free him. I find the right computer to hack into, and all of a sudden there’s a bunch of Rikti goons on me. After I survive, I read Energy Blastion’s bio. Apparently he’s married to Empathy and they have a son. I’m sensing a tragic end coming for those two. In any case, I only have one more objective left – find Empathy. After fighting my way through the map, I do find Empathy. She says she thinks Eric (Energy Blastion) is too far away to help, but he’s right there with us. I free her and the mission is over. In any case, I have a small data file. Guess I’ll give this one to Lazon. He runs off to get it translated.

Mission #3. Lazon informs me that the file gave them the break they needed to put a dent in the Rikti plan. It has information on where the Rikti have deployed their jammers. Meanwhile, he still can’t make any sense of the translator I got in the first mission. My next task is to run off to Rebecca Brinell in Galaxy City. Unfortunately, the Rikti are attacking. So I have to go to Dr. Brinell’s lab, hold off the Rikti, and give her the parts when the lab is secure. Lazon informs me that once the lab is secure, Dr. Brinell will give me a directory of files with everything they have on the Rikti. I am to give this directory to Lazon.

I enter the mission. I don’t see any Vanguards. But then again, my brother called me and started blabbering about the apartments he wanted to rent, so I was distracted for a half hour. I’m guessing the Rikti enjoyed some Vanguard breakfast during that time. I did notice that the Comm Officer had all of his minions out but there was no portal. Anyway, I take care of the first floor then head to the second floor.

I see the Vanguard soldiers now. Unfortunately for me, they triggered a spawn that had a Comm Officer, which means that I had to deal with a whole bunch of ambushes. Yikes. I manage to survive the insanity, then I find the computer with the data on it and download it. Shortly afterwards, I find Dr. Brinell and rescue her.

When I call this information in to Lazon and SOLUS, I see that the base is under attack. I then hear explosions and the screen goes black. Apparently the jammers were a distraction to mask the Rikti’s true intentions – a city-wide attack on Paragon City. Uh oh! This is not good! I can’t get in touch with anybody at the SOLUS Collective base, leading me to suspect it was one of the targets of the Rikti attack, and I’m the only one close enough to help.

Mission #4. I finally manage to contact Lazon. He tells me to get with Penthouse and Commissioner G in the tech sub-floors. I also need to take out a Rikti sub-commander, presumably the one named Dro’Vidt. As I head towards the base, I notice the sheer destruction that the Rikti has done to Paragon City.

I enter the base, and I immediately see Lazon being held by the Rikti. The objective is to find 8 heroes, find the injured rookie, and defeat Dro’Vidt. Yikes! I’m guessing Lazon is one of the heroes. When I free him, he rattles off a whole bunch of names and what the heroes are doing. He then tells me that the Rikti are hitting the residential section and the less-experienced heroes are being slaughtered.

I don’t know how the architect did it, but dang, this base is *full* of Rikti critters. My Phantasm actually died twice just in the first floor when he’s never died in the previous three missions.

In any case, I find a body bag on the second floor. It’s one of the rookies I was sent to find, a superhero named Flash McIntosh. He’s dead. I clear the rest of the second floor, finding several more corpses. I also find Penthouse (interesting bio) and the “newbie” named Prince Nigel IV. I escort the newbie to the door and wish him good luck.

On to the third floor. I have one hero left to find, and I still need to defeat Dro’Vidt. I find Commissioner G soon enough, and now it’s time to take down Dro’Vidt. He’s a Rikti Heavy Elite Boss. I take him down and take care of the ambushes. The mission is completed. I look out a hole in the wall and see a bunch of Rikti troops dropping onto the roof. I see a bunch of heroes wearing “Protector of Innocents” badges. So basically, a bunch of Lv10-19 toons are rushing to their doom. In any case, I’ve cleared the tech sub-floors. Time to join the real battle.

Mission #5. Not surprisingly, the scene is absolutely chaos. Lazon tells me to take care of the wounded and to take out Hro’Dath. The screen suddenly goes on a loop, so it looks as if I’ll have to save Lazon as well. The mission briefing warns me that Hro’Dath is an AV and to plan accordingly.

I enter the fray, and my objective is to find 7 heroes, the injured rookie (Prince Nigel IV again?), and Hro’Dath himself. The injured rookie is not Prince Nigel IV, but a toon by the name of Translucent Girl. Thankfully, she spawned right by the door, so it’s a snap to escort her to the door. I also find one body bag, so I now have 6 heroes to find. I don’t identify the body, as there’s no time. I find another body bag, and it’s time to head to the second floor. The smoke coming from the fire makes it hard to find the glowies. I hope I didn’t skip over one.

I find Lazon on the second floor. Unfortunately, he’s just about ready to go nova. I free him, and he asks me to tell Captain Superior to get the data chip out of the desk after we defeat the Rikti. He then flies right out of the window and explodes. All of a sudden Hro’Dath is right there. I wasn’t expecting him this soon, but my illusions and I still take him down. Unfortunately he teleported away, so I’ll be facing him again. I then uncover two more bodies, but there’s still two more left to find. Looks like I gotta backtrack and begin my favorite game of “Find the Last Glowie(s)!” At least it’s a small map. After searching around for about 10 minutes I find the last body bag, and the mission is over. I leave the mission to my Pyrrhic victory. I then give Captain Superior the message given to me by Lazon. Captain Superior informs me, “We have our orders. We will carry them out.” And the story arc is over, to be continued in Part 2.

Final Summary: Overall a well-done arc. I do have some (admittedly very minor) nitpicks. Throughout the entire arc, whenever I accept the mission the “mission acceptance” text is something like “I agree to do whatever.” That looks a little bit odd to me. I’d remove the personal pronoun from those and make them simply “Agree to do whatever.”

The missions are, for the most part, well-designed, and although none of them were de jure “Defeat All” the architect added enough objectives to make them de facto “Defeat All” missions, and I basically treated them as such. My only complaint was that it was a bit difficult to find the glowies in the burning map in the final mission. I’d suggest making the body bags disappear when you find them, just for convenience’s sake.

This story arc brings to you the harsh realities of war, and all of the dead bodies showed that. I liked how the architect portrayed the “newbies” bravely rushing to what was surely their doom, just because they knew that they couldn’t allow the Rikti to win.

Ultimately, if the devs are looking for a story arc to use as “canon” to portray the first Rikti War, they could do worse than this story arc. Minor nitpicks aside, if I were a dev, I’d give this arc a “Dev’s Choice” badge. There’s very few story arcs that I’d do that to. I’m looking forward to playing Part 2.

My rating: 5 stars

By the way, I am no longer taking submissions for reviews. I have a very busy schedule coming up soon, with summer school coming to an end, and my getting ready to move to a new apartment. Once that's done, I want to take some time to totally revamp my Horsemen/Wolfpack storyline. Due to those circumstances, I don't think I'll be able to provide the quality of review that I should be, and that's not fair to the architects.

I will finish up my queue, which currently has 9 more requested reviews and 8 more "AE Horoscopes" reviews, though.

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The Consequences of War – Part 1 #227331
By @Dalghryn

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 the ultimate sacrifice on the same day. This is their story...

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Oh... my... I'm not even certain what to say except for, "Thanks!" I'm very flattered.

You're the second person that's mentioned the Mission Accept text thing, so nit or not, I'll change that soon. I only hope that the second arc meets any expectations you might have.

After having read your last post, I'm hesitant to ask, but I'm in the process of making some changes to the first arc on my local copy that address some things others have mentioned. I was wondering if you'd mind if I PM you with a quick summary of what I'm doing in order to get your opinion on whether to actually publish the changes or not.

In any case, thank you, again. Regardless of the praise, it's very nice to see pleasant demeanor reign in a thread. I hope, for the sake of everyone else that wants constructive critique, that your "leave of absense," as it were, is a brief one.

Cancer (6/22 – 7/22): Keeping your feelings inside may strain relationships with friends and family. Take an hour of “me time” to vent your frustrations by destroying Doktor Kannoenfutter and his eight elite robot bosses, then approach things with a fresh perspective tomorrow. You will find robots in The Terrible Plan of Doktor Kannoenfutter #N/A by @Eraserdog

Description: The evil Doktor Kannoenfutter is at it again! He has constructed eight powerful themed androids and sealed them up in isolated chambers, while he tries to overwhelm Paragon City with his army of scavenged relics!

Number of Missions: 5

Level Range: 40-54

Character I’m using: Crazy Girl, Lv36 Illusion Control / Radiation Emission Controller

Challenge Level: 2

First of all, the ArcID provided in the AE Horoscopes page is incorrect. It looks like the architect unpublished his story arc and republished it. As it stands, right now the arc has zero ratings. Hmm. In any case, this is the next review in my “AE Horoscopes” series.

While I’m copying the mission description, it suddenly hits me. An evil doctor. Eight powerful themed androids in isolated chambers. An army of scavenged relics. My god, this is a Mega Man rip-off! I run “Kannoenfutter” through BabelFish, and eventually figure out that it’s supposed to be German for “Cannon Fodder.” (The correct spelling for Cannon Fodder, by the way, would be Kanonenfutter.) I don’t want to be biased, but ripping off copyrighted material will practically get this arc an automatic 1-star for me. Still, I’ll give this arc a chance. Maybe this will be a clever homage full of interesting plot twists, but I’m not optimistic. I’m just informing you of my own personal bias right upfront.

In any case, Missions #1-4 have a level range of 1-54, and Mission #5 has a level range of 40-54. I think Crazy Girl probably can handle this, since ill/rad controllers are supposed to be “AV-killers” and probably can handle pesky Elite Bosses.

I start the story arc, and the contact is ... a trash can?!? It’s named “Broken Joe” and doesn’t have a bio. I click on it, and apparently it’s some sort of transmission? Coming from a trash can? My confidence in this story arc is rapidly plummeting, and I’m pondering if TerminusEst13 has room on *his* queue for this story arc. Anyway, this is what Broken Joe says:

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*Eroooomn-click* I used to serve Dr. K – now look at me! I’ll have my revenge, though...let’s just see if his plan can handle a few SUPERHEROES! *nzzzz* I mean, forget what I said about revenge. You must save Paragon City from the eight androids! *vvvt!*

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Mission 1. The objective is to “2 Locate Boss Door.” I’d change that to “2 boss doors to locate.” Anyway, the “Locate Boss Door” is a glowie. I click it, and now I have to defeat “Keiji the Trapper.” I find the robot, and I’m expecting an Elite Boss, as per the description, but I only get a Boss. Huh? I’m playing on Challenge Level 2, I should be getting Elite Bosses. Judging by the name, it looks like it’s a Devices critter. I don’t know what the other powerset was, as I took it down in record time. A clue pops up ... and it tells me “You got Trap Shot!” Oh for Chrissakes, now I *know* this is a lame Mega Man rip-off. I’m sorely tempted to just end the review right here, but I’ll finish the story arc for the sake of this review.

The second boss is Tess the Inductor, who seems to have electrical powers. Defeating her nets me the “Tess Coil.” The mission is over.

Mission 2. More of the same. This time I am to defeat the Cooler and the Vector. I do so.

Mission 3. Oh goody, the “Master Door Control” is in this mission. I can free *all* of the remaining robots! Sweet! I destroy the “Master Door Control” and the four robots are freed. I don’t even care enough to list them. Also, I strongly suspect the fact that there are four of those robots in this mission means that Mission #4 will have all 8 robots, and then Mission #5 will have the Doktor himself. At least I managed to ding Lv37 in this mission, so it’s not a total loss. I defeat all 4 “robot masters.”

Mission 4. The trash can tells me I have all of the parts needed to storm Kannoenfutter Robotwerks, which just happens to loom above Paragon City in a cloud. *groan* It’s a straight-up Mega Man rip-off, just as I feared. The trash can informs me that I need to scrap all eight bosses before they’re reactivated. Just as I think I have to fight through the eight bosses again, I find a glowie of broken robot parts. I click on it, and apparently that’s the only thing I need to do. *whew* So at least I don’t have to fight the eight bosses again. Not in this mission anyway. After I find all 8 glowies, a new objective appears – Free Unit 3021. When I free it, it tells me about Alpha-X, the first robot that Dr. K created. I need to defeat it. Unfortunately, that’s not the end of it. After I defeat it, I have to find six escape pods! Lovely, even more backtracking! After destroying the six escape pods, this mission is finally over.

Mission 5. The objective is to defeat Alpha-X. I do so. Now I need to defeat Doctor Wily ... err ... I mean Dr. K. I find him ... and ... umm ... he’s not wearing pants. I’m guessing he’ll be a robots / force field Mastermind. I was close. He’s a Robots / Devices Mastermind. Defeating him summons ... not surprising ... a “Mecha Dr. K.” At least this one is merely a Zeus Class Titan. Maybe I spoke too soon. It has a heck of a punch and actually takes me down. Three times. I eventually manage to take Mecha Dr. K down, but it’s not done yet! Up next is ... Special Dr. K! What, I’m going to defeat a cereal? Oh, not THAT Special K. This one is an Elite Boss, surrounded by a bunch of those healing minions. Oh boy, this is gonna be fun. Oddly enough, Special Dr. K is vastly easier than Mecha Dr. K. Ah well, I take him down, and the mission is over. I have a pre-selected hill all ready to put my helmet on and everything. Wait, no I don’t even have a helmet.

In any case, I exit the mission and talk to the trashcan. Surprise, surprise, Dr. K is still around. He informs me that the robots were programmed to feel pain, and that I was the subject of some psychology experiment. He then asks me to fill out a questionnaire on my experiences. Whatever. Finally, this story arc is mercifully over.

Final Summary: Where to begin? There was no story here, just a rip-off of the Mega Man games. While I suppose the original “Mega Man” games didn’t have much of a story either, at least they were EIGHT-BIT games, and the genre they were in didn’t demand much of a story. The point of those games was not to enjoy the storyline, rather it was to solve the puzzles in the levels. This doesn't translate well in the CoH-verse. The custom critters were not that imaginative, and they all looked like lame, slightly-colored cyborgs. The “Futtdroid” minions were super-annoying with their empathy healing. The missions required that you click on a glowie, which then spawned the boss, resulting in you backtracking all over the place to find the boss you just freed.

Lame rip-off of a well-established franchise. Lack of a story. Tedious missions. Boring custom critters. All of that combine to make my first-ever one-star review. My god, the missions in the AE Horoscopes series are off to a bad start. I’d despair if not for the fact that there’s a couple of Ed Wood riffs coming up, as well as “Escalation” which I’ve heard good things about.

OK, I don’t want to be completely negative here. So I’ll provide some suggestions on how to improve this story arc (besides just trashing it and starting all over again, without being a Mega Man “homage”).

1) For missions #1, #2, and #3, ditch the whole “click on the glowie to release the boss” motif. It’s completely unnecessary and only serves as a time-sink.

2) Provide all of the robots with unique dialogue when you fight them. I did chuckle at several of the clues, particularly the “Maxx Slider” one. Additionally, put some more info in the bios.

3) Diversify the looks of the robots. They don’t all have to look like cyborgs or robots.

4) Remove the Empathy powerset from the “Futtdroid” minions. All that does is make them annoying, and make it difficult for low-damage toons to play through this story arc, especially when multiples of them appear in a single spawn.

5) In Mission #4, there are simply too many objectives, requiring a ton of backtracking. Eliminate the “free Unit 3021” objective. It’s unnecessary. Just have Prototype Alpha-X show up searching for the destroyed robot parts. Likewise, defeating Prototype Alpha-X should end the mission.

My rating: 1 star

Edited to add: I decided to check up on this arc on a whim. It's now gone. I have since edited the review to reflect the fact that there is currently no ArcID for it.

Simple Times #70801
By @Justice Blues

Description: Talshak has called you in to handle a small problem in King’s Row. Nothing major, just the same old, same old. At least, that’s what you both thought.

Number of Missions: 5

Level Range: 5-14

Character I’m using: Horsemen Brute, Lv14 Stone Armor / Super Strength Tanker

Challenge Level: 1

This is the sequel to “Future Skulls,” which my review can be found here. I enjoyed that story arc, giving it a 4. Let’s see if the sequel holds up as well. I’m using Horsemen Brute, the same toon that I used in the first story arc.

The contact is Talshak the Mystic. He’s one of the contacts in the Hollows storyline, the one who gives you the infamous Atta mission. His bio says that he spends most of his time keeping the Circle of Thorns and Minions of Igneous in line.

Mission 1. Talshak informs me that there are reports of a small invasion of the Minions of Igneous (or “rockies” as I’ll be calling them from now on) in a warehouse in King’s Row. Well, that’s a bit outside of their usual territory, so the PPD called him because of his experience with them in the Hollows. Talshak finds it a bit annoying being considered an expert, but we must do what we can to keep the chaos at bay. I, personally, prefer to keep chaos at bay by burying them in rocks, but what do I know? I’m just a stoner.

In any case, Talshak asks me to clear the entire map of the rockies. Ack! A defeat-all? This early in our relationship? Very well. Talshak also asks me to keep an eye out to see if I can find any reason the rockies have spread into King’s Row.

I enter the warehouse. The objective is to search for clues, defeat the Seeker, and defeat all of the rockies in the warehouse. The mission is fairly straightforward, and the map is small enough so that a defeat-all is not too aggravating. The Seeker is a rock boss, and he informs me that I’m too late. I wasn’t aware I was being invited to a party. Apparently he was yelling about some sort of object. I shrug and make a note to ask Talshak what’s going on. I also find some packing material to give to Talshak.

I return to Talshak. He’s as confused as I am as to why a rockie was speaking in English, and he informs me that he will use the packing material I found to scry out some information.

Mission 2. Talshak is successful in finding the item of power. Whoa, I thought they all were taken out of the game. Now I can finally get an item of power for my solo SG base. AWESOME! Oh, not THAT kind of item of power? Bummer. Anyway, Talshak tells me that it’s in a cave complex in the Hollows, and that the residue indicates that it can be used to summon an Elder Being, possibly even deities. Talshak reminds me of my experiences with such artifacts from my previous experience in “Future Skulls” and that it would be a Bad Thing. Rockies with voodoo powers? Indeed, I concur. He asks me to investigate the caves and retrieve the artifact. I agree to do so. Upon my agreement, Talshak gives me a sketch of the artifact.

I enter the caves. The objective is simply to find the artifact. Well, that’s simple enough. For some odd reason there’s Hellions in the map as well. Whut? I teleport my stony behind to them and beat them up a little bit. Ah I see I missed a battle. The Hellions are trying to give the other Brothers time to get away. I guess I’m not the only one after this artifact. I find a Magma boss and defeat him. It blabbers some gibberish, but says my name. I suspect that does not bode well for me. The shiny artifact is right next to the boss. I click it but the amulet is not there. Looks like the Hellions beat me to the punch. Bummer.

I bring the bad news to Talshak. He tells me that the Hellions are much too skilled at finding items of powers. Their base must be absolutely rocking. What, I already used that lame joke? My bad. Talshak says he will have to spend some more time trying to scry its location. He is also concerned that I was specifically expected by the rockies, and he concludes that something strange is going on. Gee, ya think?

Mission 3. Talshak tells me that the artifact can be used to summon, and that the rockies believe they can free their Master with it. Talshak also has divined the location of the amulet, and I have to get it before the rockies do. The amulet is too powerful to let the rockies and the Hellions have it. Talshak informs me that the Hellions don’t matter, just getting the amulet before the rockies is what’s important. He also hopes that by studying it, he can find out how information about it is being spread around the city and why the rockies think I have a connection to it.

I enter the Hellions hideout. It’s on fire. Typical. And there are ... Warriors?!? Boy, this amulet is like the town bicycle ... everybody wants a ride on it. The objective is to find the artifact and to question Blaze. I find Blaze right off the bat. He’s surrounded by Warriors. He says that he heard about the amulet from some Skulls girlfriends, raided the tunnels to get the amulet, and turned it over to the Warriors. Apparently it disappeared. Blaze begs the Warriors to convince Tomas that he had nothing to do with its disappearance. I bust up their little party. After Blaze goes down, the objective shifts to “Question Tomas.”

I find some cardboard boxes, and although I don’t find the amulet, I do find a glowing blue cup. I decide to keep it. Now all I have to do is question Tomas. I find him on the second floor. He’s a custom critter wielding a mystical sword. He’s trying to find where they have the amulet hidden. I’m guessing the Warriors don’t have the amulet either. While I fight Tomas, the rockies decide to show up and join in the fun. I take Tomas and the rockies down. In any case, the amulet is nowhere to be found. I give Talshak the news. He decides to investigate the Skulls side of this story.

Mission 4. Talshak does his magic voodoo thingy once again, and has tracked it down to a Skulls warehouse. He tells me that the spells are harder than they should be, as if somebody is fighting him. All he could find out was the location the trail started, and he doesn’t know what is there right now. Still, I should go and check it out anyway. He doubts it’ll be the end of the story. Duh, we’re on Mission #4 out of 5. Of course it’s not over yet. It’s like when Dr. House “solves” the medical mystery at the half-hour mark. Of course it’s going to be the wrong answer. We still have 30 more minutes to go!

Anyway, I head off to the Skulls hideout. The objective is to search for information and to defeat the warehouse boss. I also catch a whiff of a familiar smell, but can’t quite identify it. I knew I should’ve not eaten that week-old bean burrito last night. Oh, it’s not me.

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[NPC] Gravedigger Slammer: I know he's in charge, but I really wish he didn't stink to badly.

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“to” should be “too” in that sentence.

One of the Skulls patrols mention something about wondering what it’s like to be changed “like that” and the other Skulls replies “power, pure power.” Hmm. Is it that Future Skulls boss I fought in the first arc, perhaps? I find the warehouse boss, and it’s a Future Skulls named “Death Skull.” Hmm, I don’t remember fighting a “Death Skull.” I go and check my review, and it mentions fighting a guy named “Bonesnap.” Are they the same guy, or is it just the Future Skulls that I’m supposed to find familiar?

The information that I find is a crumpled piece of paper. The clue seems to be incomplete to me. It has female handwriting on it and mentions the address where the artifact was originally. So now I know how the Hellions got the information.

In any case, I return to Talshak and give him the news. He tells me that it’s very bad news that the Future Skulls was there. No feces, Sherlock.

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You know how closely ran the last encounter with them was.

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That sentence is awkward. I’d change it to “You know how closely fought that last encounter with them was.”

Talshak informs me that Mirror Spirit is working with the Legacy Chain elsewhere, but he will go ahead and contact MAGI and the Midnight Squad anyway. We still need to figure out how the rockies got involved in the first place.

Mission 5. Talshak informs me that the artifact was fake and covered with illusions to fool all who saw it or scryed it from a distance. When somebody finally caught up to it, it became dust and fell apart. So I’ve been wasting my time this entire mission? Not to worry, Talshak says, as we will just find out who cast the spell on the amulet in the first place. He also tells me that the Future Skulls have arrived in the present and are attempting to bring around their future. Obviously I have to prevent this from happening. Again.

I enter the mission. The objective is to stop the Future Skulls from completing the ritual by defeating Bonesnap (again) and the Future Bride (again). I’m not sure how the Future Skulls managed to set up their ritual by making me run all over the place trying to track down a worthless amulet, unless the point was to keep me distracted so that I’d not be around to stop this ritual. If I had not played the first story arc, I’d be completely confused by now, and I’d be thinking this story arc was “just a bunch of stuff that happens.”

Anyway, I find the Future Bride and turn her into dust. I then look around for Bonesnap, find him, and prevent him from completing the ritual. The mission is over. Well, that was kinda anti-climatic.

I return to Talshak. He informs me that now we know there are Future Skulls among in our time. Well, that’s something, at least. But we still don’t know who told the rockies about the artifact. Apparently it was designed to trap Azuria and Mirror Spirit, but because of the connection to the rockies, Talshak was brought in instead. And because Talshak got involved, we were able to halt this ritual. So either it was a pure fluke, or somebody did this on purpose. The story arc close with this cliffhanger.

Final Summary: This story arc was a bit of a let-down and didn’t really work as a stand-alone. The involvement of the Future Skulls felt shoe-horned into this story arc, and the “chase for the amulet” felt a little bit pointless and could probably be wrapped up in fewer missions. The finale was a little bit anti-climatic and didn’t really seem connected to the rest of the story arc. Overall, I’m not sure exactly what it was that my character accomplished, other than preventing the Future Skulls from being successful, which he already did in the first story arc.

My rating: 3 stars

Leo (7/23 – 8/22): Math is not your friend this week, especially Bunnygirl multiplication! Be careful where you step. You will find fun in TOO MANY BUNNYGIRLS! #101165 by @Clave Dark 5

Description: You can’t swing a dead cat around here without hitting another stupid bunnygirl mission. Ugh. Somebody should do something about them, once and for all.

Number of Missions: 3

Level Range: 1-54

Character I’m using: Crazy Girl, Lv37 Illusion Control / Radiation Emission Controller

Challenge Level: 2

When I called this story arc up in the queue, I find out that apparently I’ve played this before, and gave it a rating of 4 stars. I barely remember this story arc, so I’ll be giving it another play-through. Let’s see if it retains its 4-stars rating. I think I used Citizen Razor the last time, so this time I’ll use Crazy Girl, since this story arc seems to be suite for her.

The contact is a filing cabinet. Apparently I’m sick and tired of all those bunnygirl missions that’s multiplied in AE, so it’s time to go to the source and destroy them for once and for all. There’s also a tabloid, named “The Rogue Isles / Paragon City X-aminer” that’s been portraying those bunnygirls as clean, harmless fun. They’ve ruined many superheroes’ careers by publishing lurid, photochopped pictures of them.

Mission 1. There are 7 possible clues to find. I find a photographer named Annie Ying who is taking pictures of Bunnygirls. I “free” her and she informs me that she can see the headlines now. “Crazy Girl in Bouncing Bunny Bacchanal.” That ungrateful witch! I free 5 “poor schmucks” who actually think they have a chance with the Bunnygirls. None of them thank me for saving their lives. I also save a Bunnygirl who was being held captive in some ritual. Mission over.

Mission 2. There’s a name connected to all of this. Dr. Maggie von BunnyGirl. She’s been using some sort of transformation ray to change ordinary people into BunnyGirls. This must be stopped! I go into the warehouse, and the objective is to check the shipping records, destroy the device, and defeat the Warehouse manager. The warehouse manager is a guy by the name of Rabbitual Criminal. I defeat him. The shipping records mention something about scientific equipment coming in to be assembled. They’re making more transformation rays! But only one is working. I destroy the one that’s working. The mission is over.

Mission 3. It’s off to the office of “The Rogue Isles / Paragon City X-aminer” to put an end to Dr. Maggie von BunnyGirl’s evil plan for once and for all. And to prevent those scandalous (photochopped) pictures of me cavorting with BunnyGirls from being published. I enter the mission, and the objective is to take down 4 “Ripsy-X” staff members.

The first boss is Miss Agonyheart, who writes a love advice column. She lives alone with four small cats. She belittles me during our battle, then informs me that I’ll never find love.

The second boss is Watership Doom, who is the fashion writer. She thinks my boots look horrible with that top. She then places me on the “Top Ten Worst Dressed” list. Oh the horrors!

The third boss is Annie Yin, the photographer from the first mission. I defeat her and grab her camera. Now the pictures should be safe!

The final boss is Dr. Maggie von BunnyGirl herself! She speaks in a terrible German accent, and it’s quickly apparent that the accent is fake. After I defeat her, she drops a disk. The world is free from bunnygirls!!!!! Unfortunately, the disk has a complete layout, set “ready to publish” and, unsurprisingly, it has pictures of my adventure with the BunnyGirls. They’re not going away just yet.

Final Summary: You know what’s funny. When I first played this story arc, this was shortly after Issue 14 published. I enjoyed it and gave it 4 stars. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to play a lot more story arcs, and I’ve seen arcs that were considerably funnier. New Age Ronin’s “Becky” trilogy, Wrong Number’s arcs, and of course the “History of Statesman” story arc that got five stars from me. Compared to those arcs, this one is merely OK.

Having said that, this story arc does have its high points. The bios of the “Ripsy-X” staff were hilarious and is what saves this story arc. The missions were short and not too difficult – essentially what a comedy arc should be.

The plot isn’t perfect, and the second mission doesn’t have much point to it other than to have you destroy the transformation ray (which can easily be put in the third mission). There was a lack of diversity among the “BunnyGirls” which could’ve lead to some more comedy.

I’m downgrading this one to three stars. My apologizes to @Clave Dark 5.

My rating: 3 stars

Thanks for the review. Sorry to hear it does not stand by itself well.

Others have said the Future Skulls felt tacked on, and then they were only in the last mission.

The Death Skull was a an Lt. from the Future Skulls. I didn't want to use one of the 2 bosses from that group and I figured that you would have ran into one of the Lts. in the first arc, so it would look familiar. I guess I could change it to a Bride.

[ QUOTE ]
unless the point was to keep me distracted so that I’d not be around to stop this ritual.

[/ QUOTE ]
This was exactly the point of the artifact. Talshak even says, in the intro to the last mission:
[ QUOTE ]
just to keep us busy looking for something worthless.

[/ QUOTE ] when he was explaining what had been going on. I am not sure what else I could do to make it clear that it was meant as a distraction.

[ QUOTE ]
Others have said the Future Skulls felt tacked on, and then they were only in the last mission.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that's the real problem with this story arc. The Future Skulls did feel tacked on, and the last mission was a bit anti-climatic and unsatisfying. Up to that point, the arc was a solid 4-stars.

I don't know how to "fix" that, other than to drop the Future Skulls from the story arc entirely and find another conclusion for "Simple Times." Find a CoH lore group that would have a reason for setting up the Hellions *and* has access to the Minions of Igneous. Somebody like ... the Circle of Thorns. Don't have the amulet be a fake / distraction, rather have the CoT manipulate all of those groups so that they'll end up with the amulet itself. Maybe they're using the amulet to summon Senestrus (that'd also tie it into the Hellions)?

Yeah, I know that'll completely change the ending of your story. It's only a suggestion. Ultimately it's your story.

It would not only require a re-writing of this arc, it would require a re-writing of the third arc. I don't think I am ready to give up on the 3 arcs being a connected series just yet.

Thank you for your review.

Ah, it's good to see the forums back. Even if it looks all different and weird-ish. I was starting to go through forum withdrawals.

Anyway, during the hitaus, I played through, and reviewed, one story arc. Alas, it's currently stored on my PC, which is in my new apartment. Which is currently internet-less. I'm typing this on my laptop at my old apartment, which will continue to get internet until it's cut off tomorrow. When I'm fully settled in, I'll post the review and start going through my queue.

Yes, I'm moving during Double XP weekend and I'm missing all of the fun. I know.

First of all, my apologizes for taking so long to get back to this. I played this story arc a while back, but first the forums were down, then I moved to a new place and it took a while for my new place to finally get internet set up. I'm still not quite done settling into the place, but at least the majority of the work is done. So without further ado, here's the review.

Halloween Night #227436
By @BinkDeBook

Description: On a dark and stormy Halloween night, you decided to knock on the door of that scary house down the street. How were you to know that a real witch lives there, and wouldn’t be happy with you bothering her. Oh well, maybe some good candy will come out of this.

Number of Missions: 1

Level Range: 1-34

Character I’m using: Wolfpack Blunt, Lv12 Spines / Willpower Stalker

Challenge Level: 1

This is only one mission, and it’s a humor-focused mission. Sounds fun. I decide to bust out one of my many lowbies for this story arc. The contact is named Witch of the Night. I check her bio. It informs me that this is the witch down the street. “In” should not be capitalized, since this is the continuation of a sentence. She spends her days torturing small woodland creatures and might turn me into one if I get on her bad side. Eh. I’m guessing she’ll go down quickly to my Assassin’s Impaler.

I talk to her, and she informs me that her porch light wasn’t on. There’s a joke about a witch and her intelligence somewhere there, but since I don’t know how powerful this witch is, I’ll refrain for now. She informs me that she’ll send me somewhere where the tricks will hurt, but the treats can help. Well, now why would she do that? She hopes my silly costume is hiding something powerful, as I’ll need it. I politely inform her that my “silly costume” is a Facemaker original.

The witch informs me that in order to escape her realm, I’ll have to find all of the treats. Or I could simply hit “Quit Strike Force.” That sounds much easier, and would show that witch who’s the boss. I decide to play her game anyway. She wishes me luck telling the tricks from the treats, and informs me that the tricks are deadly. I’m guessing ambushes are chained to those treats.

The witch also warns me to watch out for her sisters. “Watch out” should be two separate words, not one single word. She also informs me that there’s someone who is even scarier than her. The Easter Bunny? A baby in a cradle? Oh I know! It’s Michael Jackson! He’s definitely scary to an “Lv12” boy.

Anyway, I enter the mission. There are 9 trick or treat locations. It’s on the Dark Astoria graveyard map. And poor me, with no travel power other than the temp jet pack. The mobs are “Creatures of the Night” aka various Tautha de Denann and Spectral Pirates mobs. I also see a patrol of “Raven Witches” with various elemental powers.

I find a glowie. It’s titled “Trick_or Treat Location.” I suspect it’s a trick, but I go ahead and test my theory. My hypothesis is wrong. It’s a chocolate bar.

I find glowie #2. This is “Trick_or_Treat Location.” Is this the trick? Let’s go ahead and test it. It’s a yummy candy! So apparently all of the glowies are labeled differently, so merely checking the glowie’s name will not provide me with any hints. Drats!

I look around, and a glowie gives me a pencil? Another one gives me broccoli. Both of those had slightly different names, but no ambushes. I start randomly clicking on glowies. Apparently if you find all of a “trick” group then you spawn an ambush. I didn’t realize this and finished two “trick” groups and get witch-slapped by two ambushes. I manage to take out a few of the witches before paying a visit to the hospital. I return and repay the favor.

In any case, I’ve now learned to look for “Trick_or Treat Location,” “Trick_or_Treat Location,” and “Trick or_Treat Location” and ignore everything else.

Apparently finding all of a set of “treats” spawn some Hesling spawns. I thought they hunted vampires, not witches. Also, one of the glowies spawned a boss named “Dentist.” OK, I was wrong. There’s nothing more terrifying than a dentist. Except maybe Michael Jackson as a dentist. After I take him out in a single hit, there’s only one glowie left to find. And now begins my all-time favorite game of CoH – “Find the Last Glowie!” This map is simply too large for that kind of game. After looking around for the last glowie for something like 20 minutes and burning up a ton of temp jet fuel, I give up and quit the mission. At least I managed to ding Lv13 in this mission.

Final Summary: Honestly, I didn’t really see the humor in this story arc. The only thing that got a chuckle out of me was the Dentist boss. While the idea of a “trick and treat” mission using “good” glowies to trigger allies and “bad” glowies to trigger ambushes is an interesting idea, there were simply too many glowies on the outdoors map. A humor-focused story arc is something that should be relatively easy to complete and shouldn’t be tedious. The custom critters were all slightly different colored varieties of women in the “witch” outfit with the chest slider set to max. I entered this mission thinking it’d be a quick and short mission, and ended up spending nearly an hour. I think “The History of Statesman” took that long to complete, and it was 4 missions.

My rating: 2 stars