Tangler's Review Thread

Update - copy/pasted from my latest post

Quote:

*Wipes off the dust* Well I hope everyone's been having fun with GR, things are starting to slow down a bit so I thought now is a good time to re-open this old thread for new submissions. I've decided to go with a different format this time round: I'll write up a review like I normally do, but now I also want to write up some technical feedback directed to the author. The first part will be a player review, giving my general thoughts on the arc and how I would rate it. The second part will be a line by line examination as it were, highlighting any parts that I thought worked and what didn't, any errors or general comments. The second part will by its nature contain spoilers, and is really only for the benefit of the author and anyone interested in the craft. Also new rules: this will be quid pro quo, and so I ask anyone that submits a review to have rated and commented on at least one of my arcs (you don't have to comment or rate my arcs as the bestest arcs evar, but I do ask that you submit a reason on why you think the arc did not work). If your board names differs from your global, do be sure to tell me as well. Lastly to ensure that the reviews are done in some semblance of reasonable time, I will only have 5 arcs queued for review at any one time. Happy MA'ing everyone.

Welcome fellow MA fans to my review thread, where I'll be reviewing MA arcs to showcase a glimpse of what the MA pool has to offer.

As you undoubtedly know the drill already, Authors who would like their arcs to be reviewed should post here and I will do my very best to review them thoroughly and in a timely manner.

With that out of the way, let me lay out the general guidelines so you know where I stand:

Ratings

5 stars - I would sing the praises about this arc to anyone that will listen, and I definitely think this arc deserves some kind of distinction as well as a cookie or two.
4 stars - A really good and solid arc, and while not *quite* good enough that I would put it on a shiny pedestal to lovingly polish everyday, it will still be an arc I would immediately suggest to others who are after an arc with 'theme x' and etc.
3 stars - A solid arc, more often than not the difference between getting a 3 or a 4 is just a matter of polish. I would recommend this arc to someone if it fit their specific criteria.
2 stars - The arc might have some good ideas, but something about it was just done poorly, and would have greatly benefited with the arc having being cooked in the proverbial oven longer.
1 star - The arc must be so severely flawed in not only its execution but its very premise in order to achieve this distinction.
0 stars - I have yet to encounter an arc that would warrant this, but if I do the mysterious author in question should probably feel very bad.

Edit: For half scores, consider them to be rounded up for the purpose of ratings in-game.
Edit 2: Times are tougher than they once was in MA when it comes to getting your arcs in played. In recognition to the current climate, I will be bumping up the score I give in-game. Anything that I liked (so a 3.5 stars or higher) will get a 5 stars in-game, anything that I think needs more work (2.5-3 stars) will get a 4, and anything lower than that I won't rate in-game.

Not A Good Sign

We all have our personal distastes, most of mine are already covered in the generally agreed upon no-nos such as defeat all on large maps, objective hunting on large maps, ridiculously powerful enemies without warning, timed missions without warning, and more controversially proper level range editing. Yes it matters, having your character fluctuate in power between missions without reason just smells of lazy craftsmanship, and 99% of all missions labelled as 1-54 will brutally traumatise lvl 1s. Now that said, I won't be knocking off stars the moment I see these, but they are generally Not A Good Sign to the overall quality of an arc.

Next For Review
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Reviewed
The Audition
Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids!
The Most Important Thing
Splintered Shields
The Consequences of War
Blood, Sweat, Toil and Tears
Whack A Mole
The Power From Out Of Space
The Coldest Of Wars
In Pursuit Of Liberty
End Game - Final Moves
BE Prologue: Gangs United
The Fall of Rapture
Glory of Moment

The Tangled Weave
Assault on Aru Prime
The Long Road Back
Glory Days
Hobo Rising
The Descender
Dragonslayers (scroll down)

Id appreciate a review of The Audition. The arc IDs in my Sig. It's got 2 quite hard missions, mission 3 (which contains 2 Praetorians) and mission 6 (It's one arc of 6 missions, split into 2 slots), and I STRONGLY recommend playing it on difficulty level 1.

I had a lot of fun writing it. I hope you enjoy it.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

How about:


Name: Death to Disco!
Arc ID: 84420
Creator Global Name: @Wrong Number
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: It's 2009; Dr. Disco Fever has somehow altered the timeline so that Disco never died. The Star Spangled Banner is played to a Disco beat! Sporting events start with people standing up and "getting down" for our national anthem. Restore the timeline or be stuck Boogie Oggie-ing forever!
Number of EB/AVS – 0
Story Type - Humor
Mission Count: 2
Estimated Time to Play: about 30 minutes

or

Name: Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids!
Arc ID: 2019
Creator Global Name: @Wrong Number
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: Beloved kids TV show host Blappy is missing and the police are assuming the worse. Should anything happen to Blappy the kids of Paragon City will be heartbroken. You need to find her as quickly as possible before words leaks out that she is missing.
Number of EB/AVS – 1 EB
Story Type - Humor
Mission Count: 4
Estimated Time to Play: 45-60 minutes


Which ever seems more appealing to you. Thanks


WN

Arc Name: "Splintered Shields"
Arc ID: 253991
Length: Long (5 missions)
First Published: 7/7/2009 04:35 PM
Morality: Heroic
Level Range: 45-54
Description: An Arachnos agent makes a daring raid on Paragon City...business as usual, one might think. Or is it?

I'd be honored if you'd consider reviewing my "Consequences of War" arcs as noted in my signature. In the mean time, consider yourself added to my "to do" list for the weekend.

Sure, why not. Trying to get this one-shot a little loving:

Whack A Mole #2711

A quick game of Whack-A-Mole, open to all level ranges, but if you're looking for the high score, I'd bring a higher level character. 2 timed missions, with a total of 9 bosses and 1 EB.

If you can add my The Power From Out of Space arc to the list, I'd appreciate it.

ID: 64800
Morality: Heroic
Level Range: 32-37 (odd, I know, but that's what fit the foes)
Length: Long (4 missions)
Factions: Crey, CoT, Custom Group, Freakshow
Description:
Strange energy is coming from somewhere and is transforming people. Is it dangerous, or can it be harnassed? Light-hearted, soloable. AV/EB in last mission, but you have help. The Custom Group is made entirely out of standard foes.

If you have the time, I'd appreciate your comments on either of the arcs in my signature. Both would be OMG super awesome.

I expect I will be playing Mercytown, having seen a good review of it on another thread.

'Ey there,

I remember playing Mercytown! It was one of the first arcs I played (after a recommendation in one of the 'what arcs to play' threads), actually, and it made a good first impression of MA.
If you want to see some campy 60's spy movie action, give "The Coldest of Wars" a whirl (arc id #299972, thread in my sig). It's my first [and so far only] arc, and doesn't have too many plays -- I can always use more feedback.


thanks in advance,

-- Z.

The Audition
ID: 221240
Author: MrCaptainMan
Tags: Hero, Humour, Non-Canon, Challenging

There’s a certain charm and sympathy to be drawn from beleaguered assistants like Kif Kroker, the otherwise competent worker brought down by their highly incompetent and often obnoxious boss, which is the overarching premise that the player will find themselves in this two part arc. However while we may root for the little guy often seeing ourselves in an all too familiar situation, there is also the danger of producing resentment from the audience, as the assistant’s own actions and attitude lets the abuse happen. This is unfortunately, the overarching problem that the arc finds itself in.


Guest artist Matt Groening's rendition of your hero.

The arc starts off finding your hero being scouted by Synapse to join the prestigious Freedom Phalanx. Synapse’s intro and his… illuminating contact description immediately establish that the player is in for a very non-canon ride. Still, I found Synapse’s voice to be very off, as well as him suddenly fancying himself to be an expert in MacGyvering fantastical devices of super-science into even more fantastical devices. Synapse has hijacked the AE systems to tell your hero that before he can join their ranks, he must first pass 6 trials that all heroes must face at some point in their career, and with the magic of technobabble he rigs the AE portal to act as a teleporter to send you to your first and next consecutive trials. Why Synapse didn’t just super-speed up to the player to scout him, instead of camping the AE systems in the hopes that you may use one, or why Positron who is smart enough to override and change the very core of the AE system, isn’t the one doing the scouting is never explained.

Moving on, your first trial is to defeat a hundred villains that are rampaging all over Skyway, and you jump into the teleporter to get your initiation rolling. Something goes terribly wrong however, and your hero finds himself on a far off planet somewhere.



The choice of map and scarcity of enemies was a good choice for portraying a distant alien world, though the map size was far too big. What inhabitants this world does have however are a collection of blue skinned creatures called ‘Destiny’ that all speak as one hive-mind. The choice of them all being Empaths was a good choice on reinforcing the idea of a hive-mind I thought both thematically and combat-wise, though having them all being Gravity was just a killer for chars with no mez protection and just made fights annoying for those that do have. The Destinies all eerily speak of you as if they know you and as their lover which reminded me fond memories of Deionarra. Unfortunately nothing ever develops from this subplot, and after going through some tedious chained objectives that really shouldn’t be chained (how on the blue-bottomed blazes does my hero miss THOSE objects), followed by a rather epic and satisfying fight (squishies need not apply, though the arc does warn this from the very beginning) out you come to be berated by Synapse for not showing up at Skyway.

The first mission is pretty representative of what to expect from the entire arc. Synapse will teleport you to your next trial, you’ll find yourself in completely the wrong place that invariably gives you the opportunity to complete your trial anyway, you’ll have to run through a series of bafflingly chained objectives across a longer than necessary map, and before any interesting plot can be developed you’re pulled straight out to be berated by Synapse. It’s like being handed a novel, and just when you get to the point where things are picking up someone yanks the book out of your hands and tosses it into a fire, at which point Synapse super-speeds up to you to remind you how incompetent you are and that he needs you to do his laundry and by-gods-man you better add more starch this time. All this time, you’re banging your head screaming at your hero that this time, use the freakin’ trams to go wherever Synapse wants you to go instead of passively resigning to their fate.

On the plus side, heroes will encounter a true abomination of a custom enemy group in mission 3, and the fights can indeed get pretty darn badass:


Our hero proves to have some intimacy issues.


Restraint... to not reference Highlander... waning...


Ha! Let's see if you can beat-


all my-


is it too late to repent?

A Special Note: The Director’s Commentry

This arc is accompanied by a director’s commentary. As a player, it is interesting to see the thought process that goes behind a creative work and to fully appreciate the nuances of a piece. However as a critic, it also doubles as a yardstick to gauge how well the author is able to convey those very ideas into the work itself. There were too many cases that the author felt were ‘obvious’ that I thought went by too fast in actual play and required re-reading (I still have no idea why casual-dress in Praetorian Earth means Matador outfits and jammies).


Why??

Final Verdict: Confusing, underdeveloped, and not all that funny. Missions are just loosely connected at best, and would have been better served as complete arcs themselves.

2.5/5 Stars

Edit: In retrospective, I have bumped this arc by half a star from its original 2/5 rating. While all my qualms with this arc still stand, I nonetheless cannot deny the obvious effort put into this arc, even if the execution falls short.

Ouch.

You can't please everyone, I guess!

Thanks for your time, nonetheless, and thanks for linking to my thread on The Audition, which answers your points better than any detailed response I can make here. I will explain one thing which you seemed to miss; the PJs and matador outfits that some of the mobs are wearing in Mission 3 are doing so because they have accidentally been delivered the costumes meant for the costume party that's being held at the villains other base, which fact is mentioned numerous times by various mobs that you encounter.

Eco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

I just played and rated Might Makes Right: The One With Tin Hats.

My thoughts on the arc in general are in your comments. I liked it.

I would like you to play and review The Most Important Thing (266877).

Also if you would like a full review in my thread (yay I'm invisible), let me know.

Sweet Yeah, I will put one together

I would love a look at mine. It has been updated a bit to try and work out some of the problems.


17006 - End Game.

I posted a review of yours over in my thread Tangler. I look forward to a review of mine

Oh and just to clarify, I don't dislike chained objectives, I just thought there were too many instances in your arc that didn't warrant it or made me think 'oh, now what?' In the ship for example, I know why you made it chained, but as a player I could see no reason why my hero can't just make a beeline towards the boss and bop him if I just wanted to.

I just spent the last 15 minutes trying to search for an old arc I remember playing that did chained objectives in a very neat way, but I suspect the author may have taken it down now (it was about aiding a spirit in a warehouse full of Family iirc).

I had a choice between reviewing this or Death to Disco. Both had a pretty interesting premise, but I went with this arc because it had the lowest plays.

Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids!
ID: 2019
Author: Wrong Number
Tags: Hero, Humour, Origin Story

Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids! Is an origin story that covers several of what are presumably the author’s alts within a single storyline. It starts off with your hero turning on the TV in the middle of breaking news coverage that the titular Blappy, beloved children’s TV presenter has gone missing in the most suspect of circumstances. It is at this point that the news anchor addresses you directly and- wait, what? So yeah, apparently Television has managed to leak its way out of the Rogue Isles airwaves and into Paragon’s. It’s not really clear how Television came to Paragon, or why it cares if Blappy went missing, though I’m more worried about how my hero is so easily ready to listen to the infernal tube. Back to the story, Television tips you off that you could squeeze some information about Blappy’s disappearance from some shady TV executive, and so off you go on your quest to save Blappy. On the advice of a news anchor… that spoke to you… directly… from the TV… But hey, I guess your hero wouldn’t’ bat an eyelash if he happens to be Malkavian.

In your adventures you’ll meet Bright Angel, a former major children’s TV star herself who now resentfully plays second fiddle as Blappy’s sidekick, and is at tipping point from doing a Sideshow Bob, the Nemesis group, who only play a bit part though the author lampshades the dreaded possibly of yet another Nemesis Plot, The Injustice Legion, who are the real major villains that drives the story along by kicking Blappy into another castle, and finally the elusive and children’s nightmare fuel inducing Blappy herself, who may or may not be the lovable children's TV presenter everyone thought she was.


Ruh-roh...


Yeah you're absolutely right. I can't see what could possibly-

'Danger! Danger!'


I'm not sure if her appearance is part of her descent into villainy, or if she always sang songs about sunshine and rainbows through blood-drenched fangs. I really hope it's the latter.

As an origin arc it works out pretty well, as it doesn’t fall into the trap of making your hero second to the author’s characters, and the author’s villains are distinct and varied enough so it feel like you are fighting an actual super villain team, something that the vanilla game so desperately needs instead of all the grunt bashing we end up doing. Though I do think the author should have made completely new bios for her villains instead of just copy-pasting her normal ones, as I found it jarring having examined a villain only to get their complete life story.


Damn.

There are a few problems I found with the arc though, notably some of the minions possessed mez protection, and some of the bosses had additional mez protection on top of their boss level protection, which proved to be tricky for my Dom even under domination, though thankfully I had Hotfeet to fallback on.


Yeah that's right! Run like the dog you erm... are.

There were a few inconsistencies in the writing, such as one point in the arc where Television informs your hero that their next task is in a warehouse located in the Rogue Isles, and then in the debriefing it reports that you raided a warehouse in Paragon, or at another point where your hero recalls Bright Angel mentioning something that she never did. Things that were once relevant to the arc are later never mentioned again. Nemesis who were the driving force at the beginning roll over halfway through and just fade away, the initial urgency of saving Blappy in time for her next show proves to be completely pointless and is not even mentioned in the debriefing even if you succeeded, and even Television doesn’t seem all that bothered about Blappy by the end.

Ultimately, this arc is an origin story and doesn’t try too hard to be anything but, which makes it somewhat tricky to rate. It serves its purpose as to explain the origin of the author’s characters, but unless you were really, really into the author’s characters (you creepy stalker you) there’s no strong hook to play this arc.


Aww yeah, so you were in the bubble bath and then wha- uh, erm... >.>

Final Verdict: Serves its purpose. Nothing less, but nothing more either.

2.5/5 Stars

Edited to resize one of the images.

Wow, you were a bit harsh on Blappy with the rating there, I thought I can't wait to see what you consider a five-starrer

I like your 'brief, with screenies' style, but I think you could perhaps work on your screenshotting a little. The pic of WNs bio, for example, would have been a lot nicer if poor old WN wasn't hidden behind a pillar. Although I know it's hard to grab good pics sometimes during combat.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."