SSA #2 Episode 2

Liked it.

Keep it up.

I loved the writing, and the people who showed up in my missions gave me a couple laugh-out-loud moments. Witty and sometimes quite clever - well done!

I would add I didn't care for all the running around (heroside). Zoning at least once, and often twice between missions, then going to the furthest place in the zone at the end, that bogs down the pacing terribly and lessens the excitement of the chase.

Otherwise, great fun!

redside it was pretty enjoyable, and enjoyed the amount of lore/info that it shared

Haven't done redside, but blueside was, in the words of everybody's favorite tiger-blooded warlock Martian rock star, WINNING.

Havent done this yet!
Im doing part 1 again, on another toon. I MUCH prefer the story, and writing to SSA mk1. Even just the way the dialogue choices actually change stuff..like with teh Clockwork King

It was an interesting run on red side. Apparently we meet Imperious after Rommie betrays him but before the Imperious Task Force.

When we talk to Imperious after we do this, he should remember me as the mysterious warrior from the Chamber of Pandora.

I haven't run the blue-side version yet, but had a blast taking Kestrel through the red... In particular I loved the Arachnos "boss fight". (Though Kes is going to be in a little hot water with her boss over beating the snot out of GW, I suspect. "Aw, come on Im... She started it!" ) Castillo continues to make me grin pretty much every time he shows up.

Blueside was pretty decent. It wasn't anything stellar but just solid, which I enjoyed. In fact my biggest thing with these is that I'm actually getting NPCs that I can talk to that -aren't- mission holders/objectives. That's so weird! And delightful.

So there's something kinda spoilery involved in what I want to say ....


Spoilers to follow ....





































Um, anyone else suddenly very afraid that the Power of Zeus may have found a most unlikely new host ... >.>

It's called Took A Level In BadPANCAKE. I think's it's a good thing. At least now her Leeroy Jenkins Syndrome can be put to good use, considering that she'll have Statesman's powers on top of her own.





And GG,

Squick. Funny, but squick.

Doing this now. Minor Spoilers..

















Just did the mission where your rescue James (blueside). Seeing the three arachnos was scary..and fun. Then it was just flat out perfect to have penny and syn (are they always teh same, or random 2?) come charging in. To me..THAT is that the Freedom Phalanx should be about..them busting in to 'save the day', even if I didnt actually need it. This was just so much cooler that the utter pack of nubs the first SSA made them all out to be.
Good stuff.

Oh, changed my mind. A huge black mark for giving us a mission WAAAAY out in talos. Given how many other missions in the game have you taking a truck from the 'city' area and heading out to a location..why oh why?

Oh..gold star again. Fighting Lilitu is awesome! So many people dont even know she is around. A cute succubus, and she wants to play with me!

The blueside arc is pretty good. I'll second (third? twelfth?) what others have said about all the running around - doing this arc, I was flashing back to some of the first arcs and TFs, which is not necessarily a good thing.

Redside, on the other hand, I can't say. As opposed to every other SSA to date, Vigilantes can't do the 2.2 villain arc (I have no villains at the moment). Not sure if that's intentional or a bug...

Prometheus, Silos (both in full-on Smug Snake mode), time travel, forced rescue by Penny Sue^H^H^HYin...now they're just trying to torque people off.

I felt this one was... It kind of felt a bit mediocore. I mean it's a decent arc that does seem to forward the plot... A little. This is how I saw the Heroside one.

I did actually enjoy the FP backup, in my own mind I imagined my hero seeing the three Arachnos villains, sigh, and just think: "Goddammit I hate you people all so much." And I could have taken all three, it would have been long, dragged out, and annoying, but still could have taken them. The backup was nice, and it was good to see the Freedom Phalanx not getting jobbed like they've been since... Redside launch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

Surprised how similar the two were on both sides. I'm prefering the villain story over the hero one by quite a bit so far. Redside you feel like you're actually amassing a force, and the reactions of other people are satisfying and play to you being an established villain and a considerable threat. Heroside doesn't feel nearly as genuine. Positron seems like a wuss when he sends your off to fight for him, or an incompetent idiot when he gets his butt handed to him and needs to be rescued like in the previous episode. Neither presentation really feels satisfying or fun to interact with. The "mirror" character redside, Lastri, doesn't have superpowers, so it at least makes sense when you're the one going off to solve problems.

And Penny Yin is just... eh. I'd feel better about the character if she wasn't elevated to annoying godling status purely to replace Psyche.

In general though, liking them so far. I'm interested to see where it goes - the Prometheus and Silos involvement almost tripped a few "abort abort oh god abort" alarms for me, but it wasn't anywhere as awful as I expected.

Some minor spoilers ahead, as a warning.



















It was good, though in the fight against Ghost Widow, Sands and Nocturne, I would've preferred a choice to fight them alone. I mean, a couple of my characters, after fighting off two entire armies in Cimerora and Dark Astoria, are the kind to want to make Ghost widow eat her words about being no match against the three of them, even if it means telling the Phalanx to back off. This is just a minor complaint though, as I've also got several characters who are more than happy to take the assist, even if they would have no problem handling it alone, just the choice to either accept the assistance or tell the Phalanx to back off would've been nice.

Haven't run villain side, yet, but...

Episode 2 was longer (more missions) than I expected--which is both a good and bad thing. Overall, I liked it...hrm... More than episode 2 of SSA 1.

Random stuff: (spoilers)

I'm always happy to see Synapse...doubly so since he's there in a hero capacity rather than in peril, as per usual. Too bad he brought Penny Sue with him.

Didn't mind the back up. Just wish it was Synapse and Positron. You know, buds helping out another buds.

I was a bit disappointed that Prometheus didn't acknowledge the that my character was an incarnate. This seems especially odd since Npcs have acknowledge various badges/accomplishments in the past.

Yes, Papa Smurf. I dare speak to a god. In fact, I've been back sassing you since oh,...issue 19?

On that note...Prometheus needs a personal story mission.

I want the key as a base item...or a vanity pet. Dunno. For some reason, I thought it was really cool.

I played on both sides and found SSA#2 episode 2 very enjoyable..Only issue I had with it was I was expecting new maps for at least a few of the missions, instead of the same one's over and over...On that note, kudos for no Council maps.

...I really don't see why people have so many problems with Penny. I mean, she had been foreshadowed as an unusually powerful psychic way back in the Faultline arcs. (She was the only one they knew who was powerful enough to disable the PCM, she subconsciously hijacks clockwork...) If people didn't expect Penny to be more important later on, that's on them.