Venture's Reviews V: Critic's Choice

I don't like art-house cinema or foreign films...actually I got a big kick out of that beer commercial many years ago (Bud Dry I think) that showed two guys trying to make sense out of an incomprehensible scene of an Italian actress lamenting her failed romance on a wind-blown crag with a clown.

I think a fair and accurate vetting of my reviews and ratings will bear that out. I will also note that a significant number of the nominees in both the official and player-run MA awards received four or five-star reviews from me. The charge that my views are unrealistic or out of touch does bear close examination.

The rest will have to wait.

Arc #338380, "Talos Vice"
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: short, some technical flaws, weak theme

Reviewed on: 11/13/2009
Level Range: 12-20
Factions: Trolls, Family, Custom
Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Drama, Mystery
My Keywords:
Character used: Jessica Ballantine/Champion
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV

According to my files, this will be my 150th review. I gave it to Police Woman since she's the second best reviewer around here.

As a homage to Miami Vice, this arc is written in "screenplay format":




This means putting words in the PC's mouth but the PC's "lines" are pretty generic so this can be overlooked. The most serious offense here takes place at the very end and I think only the most die-hard roleplayers would even consider balking at it.

Detective Croquette, working in league with Back Alley Brawler, needs some hero backup for a major drug bust in Talos. Someone has vastly increased the amount of 'dyne being brought in and that's got to stop. Your first bust takes place at a Troll warehouse. (Croquette notes that Talos isn't usually Troll turf but this is where they're organizing to bring the stuff into Skyway.) As soon as you enter it's clear the bust has gone bad. There are Trolls everywhere and most of the cops on the scene are dead. One, a Sergeant Stevens (who looks familiar), tells you the Trolls were lying in wait and the cops never had a chance. Croquette's partner Basins is present as a hostage, as is a Detective Wexler. Croquette himself is a Boss-level Ally, Dual Pistols/Willpower (his release Clue, though, reads like the collection-complete Clue for the 'dyne crates). A mission-end Clue narrates the Troll leader giving up the location of the guy who tipped them off about the raid.

That location is "Sindicators", a seedy nightclub staffed with women in very skimpy superhero-ish spandex. The patrons go for their guns when you and Croquette arrive. The first, "Libby" (who looks like who you think she looks like) tells you she's seen the Troll meeting with Family wiseguys after you've dealt with her "admirers". There's another dancer named "Kitty" (ditto), whose release merely triggers an ambush, Croquette again as an ally, and the snitch who ratted out the raid to the Family...Wexler. The mission-end Clue narrates the two of you getting Wexler to roll on the Family, revealing where and when they're bringing in the next big shipment, along with Croquette getting a bit overenthusiastic.

Time for the Fight Scene: you and Croquette head to the scene, a "smuggler's cove" on Scylla Island (bring friends warning). The map is the Mercy dock instance, so it won't take long to find and destroy the drug shipment. That, however, brings out the drug lord Cavalleri, an Elite Boss, Thugs/Willpower (no RTTC or stat protection though, so not too bad). He calls one sizable ambush wave as he falls.


Since everyone has guns, Jess goes for her gat.

The ending Clues, pop-up and debriefing narrate Cavalleri and Wexler's fates.

This is an entertaining homage. It does have a few small gaffes. The Marcone mobs used in a number of places should probably be relabeled as generic Family, since the Marcones are pretty much a Rogue Isles bunch. There's the seemingly-misplaced clue in Act I, and in Act II both Libby and Wexler spawned well in front of Croquette and Kitty, making about half the map optional. While the arc does have a who-do-you-trust theme going on it doesn't do much with it, and it would probably benefit from another act or two. These are small complaints, though, and the arc is recommended for anyone looking for an early-level police arc.

Thanks for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed Talos Vice.

A few notes on your comments:

* The clue in mission 1 is linked to the Superadine; freeing Croquette shouldn't have a clue at all. Perhaps these happened in close succession though.

* I'll try and rearrange objectives in mission 2 to make the key objectives more likely to spawn in the back. (They are supposed to, but I think the order I defined them in doesn't always allow for it. Reshuffling the key ones to be first might help though.)

* I'll relabel the Marcone mobs to be classic "Family". I do think that makes more sense.

* Love the screenshot of the final shootout! With everyone holding guns and pointing them at each other, it's a very cinematic final showdown.


Thanks again!

Arc #352820, "The Destroyer of Worlds"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: Did Not Do The Research, underdeveloped, assumes too much about the player, not evil enough for the goal


Reviewed on: 12/16/2009
Level Range: 15-25/15-25/15-25/50-50
Factions: 5th Column, Custom, Shivans
Architect's Keywords: Drama
My Keywords:
Character used: Fleetblade/Guardian
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV


There had better be a really good reason for that level jump....


This arc, written for Dr. Aeon's recent challenge to write an arc in which a heroic PC must do evil for the greater good, is set between May and August of 1945. General Groves needs a "mystery man" (or woman in this case) to stop a 5th Column takeover of a sub base. The 5th hasn't acknowledged the German surrender and is trying to seize U-Boats whose crews have turned themselves in. One in particular was carrying advanced weapons to Japan, which can't be allowed to fall into the 5th's hands. You're sent to the underground sub base map (of course) to recover 3 secret weapons and defeat the raid leader. One of the patrols gives up a little info: "Do you really think those weapons will turn the war around?" "SHE thinks so. That's all that matters." The weapons turned out to be a box of "yellow dirt" labeled U-235 (which confuses you because the sub it came from was U-234), a disassembled Me-262 jet (the arc says it would have changed history if it had been deployed; in real life the 262s racked up hundreds of kills but went into service too late to matter), and a Hs 293 guided missile (again, the text implies it was never used, but it was). The jet and missile are really too low-tech for a universe that really did have Stupid Jetpack Hitler, but moving on.... "She" turns out to be Schadenfreude, a Prussian noblewoman who used her social connections to get into the States before the war and the Golden Age predecessor of the modern villain of that name.






She was Assault Rifle/DiedTooFast, Boss rank. Groves re-iterates the notion that the jet and guided missile were major advances (Did Not Do The Research) and swears you to secrecy about the yellowcake. He has that shipped off to "Site Y" for research.


...and, promptly loses contact with Site Y. Thanks to your efforts you now have a high enough security clearance to be told that Site Y is the Los Alamos research facility, and you're needed to find out what "got out of control" over there. When you arrive (5th/Council map), the place is overrun by Shivans. You have to recognize Oppenheimer and Teller (if you don't recognize the names, shame on you), who tell you that they were experimenting with a meteorite brought over from Roswell when it spit out green goo that absorbed soldiers and turned them into monsters. You have to shut down the experiment and destroy the meteorite. Groves is waiting for you with reinforcements to mop up when you get out, and lets you in on what's going down at Site Y: the Manhattan Project.


Which needs your help again after Little Boy is built. 5th Column saboteurs take over the airfield as the bomb is being loaded. You're called in to take it back. The map used is the Arachnos airfield from Burke's newbie arc; I suppose we have to grant some creative license on that. However, one of the bosses in the mission is Wolfgang Ubelmann, and this is another case of Did Not Do The Research -- Ubelmann does not know how Rommel died in "Ubelmann the Unknown", and Rommel died in October of 1944. Schadenfreude is back for seconds as well (and didn't do any better). As she faceplants she tells you they've disabled all the bombers, a fact you confirm when the dust settles. You also find that Colonel Tibbets, who was slated to fly the mission, is injured. Groves says they have to consider other options now.


That option is: you. There isn't time to train another bomber squadron for atomic warfare. Groves wants you to set them up the bomb, saying that only your $origin abilities can do it in time.






...which I did. (She's one of two characters I've decided to just use Ninja Run on.) Anyway...Groves tells you the target, Hiroshima, and that you'll have to strike the bomb to force the uranium into a supercritical mass, and they think your $origin abilities will protect you from the blast but they're not sure. (They won't, she's DB/Willpower....) The last map is an instanced piece of St. Martial with a few level 37 Civilians (grey cons) and the bomb (a Rikti Bomb, of course). Destroying the bomb spawns a bunch of Storm Elementals as "Radiation" and ends the mission. The exit clue gives the sound-bite version of the historical event, and Groves tells you they've got another bomber wing ready to hit Nagasaki if the Japanese don't surrender.


The arc has a number of issues, mainly addressed above. Additionally, I'd have to say that the arc isn't nearly evil enough for Aeon's challenge, or (and this will torque off someone I'm sure) really evil at all. It was an act of war. The game play is good enough, but the arc does have a lot of problems that detract from it.

Er, isn't "act of war" the very definition of commiting an evil act for a greater purpose?

-shrugs-

Depends on how you define it. From what I've heard over the last 10 years, what differentiates terrorists from soldiers is the focus on civilian targets or potential use of weapons of mass destruction that won't differentiate between a civilian or military target.

Heya! Thanks for trying The Destroyer of Worlds.

Quote:

a disassembled Me-262 jet (the arc says it would have changed history if it had been deployed; in real life the 262s racked up hundreds of kills but went into service too late to matter), and a Hs 293 guided missile (again, the text implies it was never used, but it was).

This is a valid point; I actually knew these were used in WW2 but in small numbers, but I got excited about the idea that people of this era would consider these "science fiction" weapons and ended up writing the clues as if they had never been used (which is, I confess, factually incorrect). I'll try and rephrase these clues to be more historically accurate.

Quote:

However, one of the bosses in the mission is Wolfgang Ubelmann, and this is another case of Did Not Do The Research -- Ubelmann does not know how Rommel died in "Ubelmann the Unknown", and Rommel died in October of 1944.

Afraid I have to disagree with you here. Rommel was a huge war hero and the German public was told a very different story of how Rommel died, because of the backlash that would've resulted if people knew that Hitler ordered his death. So although Rommel's death was in Oct 1944, "how Rommel died" was not generally known until the Nuremberg trials when Gen. Keitel revealed the true story of Rommel's death (don't have the exact date but certainly no earlier than Nov 1945). [So, Did Not Do the Research right back at you ]

I see that you have "underdeveloped" and "assumes too much about the player" flagged as "Offenses" ... I imagine the "assumes too much about the player" is that I assume the player can deliver a nuclear weapon and survive. And while a Superman-level or Wonder Woman-level character certainly could do this, I'd agree that a Batman-level character probably couldn't. Ideally I'd have a natural origin character fly the $name-plane over Hiroshima to drop the bomb, but there's not a good way to represent this.

Regarding "underdeveloped", I'm not quite sure what you meant here; which plot elements do you think could use more development?

Quote:

Additionally, I'd have to say that the arc isn't nearly evil enough for Aeon's challenge, or (and this will torque off someone I'm sure) really evil at all. It was an act of war.

This is an interesting point. The morality of dropping the atom bomb on Japan has been a subject for debate for years, really. Each person will probably have their own opinion on this. For sake of discussion, here is mine:

* Killing 100,000 noncombatants is unquestionably evil in my book.

* However, ending WW2 without requiring a costly invasion of Japan by ground troops is a "greater good".

* The fact that it was "an act of war" is justification. This is the main reason why I feel a hero could reasonably perform this act while still remaining a "hero". (This perhaps is why you don't feel it is "evil enough".) I do not think "it was war!" removes the fact that it was evil, however.

Anyway, thanks again for the play through! I will look into addressing some of the issues you raised.

Arc #266877, "The Most Important Thing"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: Timey Wimey Ball, Woobie Contact, plot issues

Reviewed on: 12/28/09
Level Range: 46-54
Factions: Custom
Architect's Keywords: Challenging, Drama, Mystery
My Keywords: same
Character used: Agent Cerulean/Justice
Difficulty: +1x2+B-AV

Amy "Slipstream" Callahan, a mutant with temporal control powers, needs your help. Someone named Dr. Albright is pressuring her to help him by threatening her family. He's already blocked her attempt to call on her superhero friends (if he's able to outmaneuver her, her powers must be pretty limited, but moving on....). She's already committed thefts for him, and now he's asking her to kill someone. She wants you to hit the site (a tech map, no real explanation as to what it is or where you are) at the same time and make it look like a coincidental hero action. You'll have to fight her, and Albright, and his mercenaries. Amy spawned frontloaded as an EB with Energy Blast/Kinetics...she stayed at range, which suited me just fine (24% melee Defense, 34% ranged....) The mercenaries had War Mace and Archery attacks, no visible secondary (so probably Regen). They all had the same /info, which was a bit of a letdown. Albright was a Robotics EB, likewise with no visible secondary. Unfortunately, you find that he's already killed Amy's mother and sister. Albright's defeat Clue, a voice recorder dropped when he mediported, makes it clear that a) he's right up Recluse's alley on the "survival of the fittest" issue, and b) he's a super-genius level idiot. Amy, understandably, has an emotional collapse when given the news.

The next day, Amy asks you to check out the lab she was working out of with Albright, hopefully before he has a chance to cover his tracks (which means we're probably about 23 hours too late, but whatever...) She feels sick and is afraid Albright has done something to her, but she gives you a "Communications Link Uploading Equipment" (/em rolleyes) to help you stay in touch with her and hack into any computers. This is used to have Amy continue a dialog with you during the mission, which is clever but might make some players feel micromanaged or de-emphasized. You're sent to another tech map to find a few Clues and run through a largely gratuitous course of triggered objectives. You get two triggered Boss level mercs, one with Assault Rifle and the other a Mercenaries Mastermind. Eventually you find that Albright had a small shard of an Aspect of the Pillar and computer files showing that Amy's powers are the result of experiment's he carried out on Amy's mother while she was in utero. Amy goes emo again on your return and says she feels like her powers are fading.

Another day later (Albright is clearly the slowest supervillain on record) Amy's health continues to degrade but she now knows why, thanks to Albright's files: he planted a device inside her that's siphoning her powers into another Aspect shard. If the device is removed she'll die (leaving it in doesn't seem like much of a bargain, either). She now knows Albright is planning to go back in time and change history. She's already using what's left of her powers to protect the two of you from any changes and wants to use the shard you recovered to send you back after him. You're sent to the university tutorial map in 1998 (with a pop-up saying you appear "in a wash of cerulean light"...convenient...). Amy can still use the CLUE to reach you thanks to her powers. You get another list of triggered objectives to navigate, starting with defeating Albright again, then clicking glowies, then fighting a younger version of Albright (Radiation Blast/Electric Blast), then finding another glowie. Amy evidently gets nabbed while this is going on, but when you get back you find she was attacked by a hero because somehow she's being blamed for the murders of her mother and sister. This was, frankly, a completely pointless plot development seemingly intended just to kick Amy while she's down. Anyway, she sends you back again to a run-down hospital (yes, the Mother Mayhem map...sigh) in 1990. You get to fight Young Albright (again) along with a map full of his "test subjects" (retasked Praetorian crazed), free some hostages (including Amy's mother) and find some Clues, which tell how Albright invented a nerve gas for Arachnos but accidentally killed the operative in charge of the tests, leading them to kill his family with the gas, which left him a few cards short of a full deck and led to the creation of this time-travel plot.

Amy, who is now near death, figures out that Albright is creating a causality loop. He's going to cause the death of his family while trying to prevent it. She has enough strength to send you back, and protect you from changes in history, but not enough to retrieve you. For that you'll need to defeat the uptime version of Albright and take his crystal. You get sent to the burning Arachnos lab map to save Even Younger Albright and his wife (the kids haven't been brought in yet) and defeat Albright, thus breaking the loop. When you get back Amy is gone, having allowed herself to be erased to prevent a potential paradox.

I really wanted to like this but it just had too many problems. It has all the usual baggage found in time-travel stories. There are plot issues unrelated to time travel as well, such as why Albright conveniently moves so slowly. The custom mercenary faction is uninspired at best. My biggest issue, though, is the Woobification of Amy. This is yet another case of an author going too far to avoid writing "just a bunch of stuff that happened". The abuse heaped on this character could be cut considerably without negating the story's impact. I hate to say it but this one is a great try that falls short.

Please take the dead-horse beating elsewhere....

Arc #259920, "In Poor Taste"
tl;dr: 3 stars. Offenses: disjointed level range, lowbrow humor


Reviewed on: 2/12/2010
Level Range: 30-40/30-40/35-40
Factions: Generic, Tsoo, Freakshow
Architect's Keywords: Ideal for Teams, Solo Friendly, Comedy
My Keywords: Comedy
Character used: Venture/Virtue
Difficulty: +2x5+B-AV


I decided to try to get back into reviewing arcs today (I'm mostly playing CO and STO these days). The first arc in my now-private queue was #8925, "Forget the Rose, Send Me the Thorns". Aside from the fact that I can't remember why I thought I should review this in the first place, the briefing says it's "part 6" and doesn't even give any indication where parts 1-5 are. So that went straight to /dev/null.


So, moving on...Ms. Manners wants your help in locating certain villains with "questionable" names. It seems that every time one of these guys makes the news the press gets bombarded with calls and letters from parents and school officials, so she wants them taken in for good. Presumably this means they won't be sent to the Zig. The first of these is Manhandle, a Freak Tank who makes some single entendres (sic) as you beat him up. He gives up an address book of more villains with dubious names.


Next on the list is Terrible Wind, a Tsoo running a racket in Faultline. This one is set on the dam map for some reason. You're to take him in, and optionally destroy his wares, three crates of Pont-l'Évêque cheese, said to be the world's smelliest. (Wiki doesn't say anything about the cheese being particularly smelly but does say it's one of the most popular cheeses in France. The smelliest cheese I've ever heard of is Limberger.) Needless to say this time you get bombarded with fart jokes, with the added pleasure of fighting an entire map full of the most annoying mobs in the Tsoo lineup. Wind's cell phone turns out to have a text message on it saying the foul-named villains are on to you and are planning a meeting.


So, the two of you team up to take out the last of the lot. The showdown takes place on the newbie Council warehouse map, with more anatomical one-liners. This one also offered the displeasure of Tsoo patrols stuck in the rafters, which inconveniently fell on me and Ms. Manners when we already had a large fight going. She was more or less insta-ganked. Anyway, you beat up a few more mobs with suggestive names, the end.


If you think Judd Apatow movies are funny, you might like this. I don't, so I didn't.

Thanks for playing/reviewing it. I do have to comment (of course...lol).

You listed the arcs offenses as disjointed level range and lowbrow humor.

1) The level range was M1: 30-40, M2: 30-40 and M3: 35-40. The arc was published before you could set the level range so I got it as close as I could. I never thought or noticed the difference until you pointed it out and it took a grand total of 30 seconds to fix and republish.

2) Lowbrow humor as an offense on an arc designed solely to be about lowbrow humor seems, well, unfair. It is clear from the description that the arc is all about lowbrow humor
so I am not sure why of all my arcs you picked it.

For me personally, this is exactly why I no longer request reviews. Having 2 stars deducted from an arcs rating because of something that takes 30 seconds to change and because the arc aptly meets the criteria it sets for itself seems to pointlessly damage the arc's rating to me.


WN

I don't deduct one star per "offense". If I did a lot of arcs would run into the negatives.

The arc got three stars because it wasn't funny. There wasn't anything really wrong with it, but there wasn't anything right with it either. So it got an average grade. I realise there is a movement afoot to redefine the rating scale along the "no child left behind" principle so that just spelling all the words correctly is enough to get five stars, but I don't subscribe to that point of view. If the scale is one to five, then a work of average quality should get a three. The shortcomings of the browser or HoF systems are just not a factor.