SSA Who Will Die Episode 4 is live

Went live as of midnight tonight New contacts appear in Brickstown and St. Martial (So there's 2 there now).

Only played Heroside since I've been focusing on my Controller, so still waiting to get a villain to 30 for parts 3 and now 4.

Level Range is 30-40 just like Episode 3.

How was it? Mmm, in general I liked it. The story is pretty predictable. Malaise gets close to Sister Psyche and, oh no, bad stuff goes down! Though this episode probably has the most tongue in cheek meta references. Verging on being hamfisted (if not being full blown hamfisted, YMMV).

Mission 1 is pretty straight forward, though the Elite Boss is pretty early so make sure to bring Insps, I can see squisher ATs getting chump blocked. One nice touch, the interrogation actually diverges into 2 different conversations depending on your starting answer (had a crash *just* before the end, so I got to see both versions). Kinda well written, though again, getting a little too 'fourth wall bending' in some respects. I will also say, there's time to read everything even though things happen that might make you think otherwise, so don't feel rushed. (First Ward made me a lil edgy XD)

Mission 2 is standard. Run through, beat up people, talk, beat up, talk. The 'big twist'? (for heroes. Villains got this last ep) is revealed I guess, though several people have called it already. I'm kind of hoping the twist is that this *isn't* the 'big twist' and there's more to it. I will say it's kind of funny how a lot of the characters end up saying "... who?"

Mission 3 is kind of entertaining, but probably too many faux cutscenes. Over half of this mission is just standing and listening to the monologues, and the ambushes at all the different intervals are pretty annoying because they lead off with an immediate attack, so there's no real time to prep. Most of the mobs aren't bad, but I can see some people getting dropped by the bosses and getting kind of frustrated. The penultimate scene is kind of amusing and the climax is... actually really anti-climatic. The whole mission keeps building up to what you think is going to be a big fight and then it's all handled via faux scene. I did like the cut scene afterward though but it was just kind of jarring that it just *stops* suddenly and, hey, the reward table!

The writing is, largely, pretty predictable and fairly cliche, but the dialogue is at least well done and it finally feels like we're getting some of these characters fleshed out instead of being these cardboard cutouts. Unfortunately, it kind of comes at the expense of having to stand around and listen to all of this happen, Mission 3 is honestly one giant faux cut scene interspersed with mobs jumping you and then it just kind of stops. I didn't really mind it, but I can see people getting pretty annoyed with the drag. There's -no way- to speed any of it up except just killing things faster when they appear, but otherwise you're just standing around listening to Malaise go on and on.

I will say for concept and characters involved, this is probably my Fav Who Will Die episode yet since it didn't feel quite as half ***** and at least as a Hero I didn't feel totally helpless and left in the dark so much. In fact this episode really does go the extra mile and make *you* feel like an important part but without pidgeon holing you into any kind of specific mannerisms, your answers are vague enough I don't see too many people griping about 'my character wouldn't say/do that!' that we've seen cropping up lately.

all in all, I liked it. It's definitely worth playing through once, though, I think in terms of 'farming' for Rewards, I likely won't be repeating this one all that often.

Spoilers. Highlight to read.

I wasn't expecting Malaise to actually be killed off, and I am wondering what's going to happen with Manticore now that I had to politely kick his ***. While I am pretty sure that the previous episode (with the death of Alexis) was supposed to be the What Episode, this was the one that did it for me, with all the consequences piling on top of each other. I am still not terribly impressed with the arc, but at least now it's heading somewhere.

I just wish it didn't exemplar me to 40. I hope the last few episodes finally go to 50. It doesn't make much sense for (what's left of) the Phalanx to be fighting level 40 stuff.

Actually that was one thing I thought was particularly silly and 4th wall bending about Malaise's speech in the first mission. He basically says "We live in an amazing world, but she's DEAD. DEAD AS A DOORNAIL. And WHY? BECAUSE!".

Not really the greatest moment there, you should really avoid saying "yeah there's tons of stuff that could happen to change this, but it won't happen, just because it won't" in a setting like this.

They shut the game down for nightly maint right as I was about to try it on my main. I have a feeling I'm going to be utilizing my second screen to read articles if I wind up doing the mish a second time if it's one of those "seen it once seen it all" missions.

On a side note, did they nerf the rewards? I can only claim certain rewards ONCE through all the arcs in 7 days.
EX:
WWD 1: Took the astral merit
WWD 2: It was redded out so I took the extra merit tokens
WWD 3: That was also now redded out, so I took the threads

I can't take the hero merit yet because I just got back from my Hero -> Villain -> Hero run on my main so I couldn't check that one.

I am rather surprised they went 30-40 again. I actually expected the last 4 to advance in 5 level increments. This one being 35-40, #5 being 40-50, 6 being 45-50, and the finale being level 50.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

So you can't run the same episode, or even an episode from the same arc again in the same day to get another H merit?

AFAIK it´s one merit for the first time you run it; and after that one per day.
Could be wrong though...

@Redcap

This makes me a very unhappy camper.

Is this quickly becoming Who Won't Die?

I can appreciate a death as a catalysis, but is it really helping the story? I guess I'm a little jaded, as I have issues with comic book deaths. If they actually stayed dead, it might mean something. Just to name a few:

Uncle Ben = still dead
Green Goblin = currently on life #3 I believe
Gwen Stacy = still dead
Bucky = alive
Jason Todd / Robin = alive
Superman = alive
Bruce Wayne / Batman = alive
Steve Rogers / Captain America = alive
Nightcrawler = currently dead, awaiting rez
Thor = currently dead, awaiting rez

Yes, and I know they come up with explanations as to how they are not really dead; it seems cheesy to cause a death to move the story along, only to negate it by bringing them back.

Inb4 Nemesis plot and everyone killed was automaton

This episode was totally amazing - there were loads of little details to flesh out the signature characters, and references to earlier events and missions - and some interesting new maps.