COMMENTS BY GIZMO

Exodus

Overview:

As a whole, I'm not sure how to take this scenario.  As a piece of scripting
artwork, it's topnotch.  As a literary example, it shows fairly good flow.
As a story, however, it's somewhere between historical parody and downright
offensive.  It seemed like the author was trying to mock religion in general
while interspouting his own beliefs. (Yes, I made that word up.) Yet in the
midst of the, shall we say, heresy, the perspective put on certain events
were at least interesting if not thought provoking.

+As said before, scripting is topnotch.  Not entirely bug free but this
scenario is busy with technicality that puts it a notch above the regular
scenario.
+Spelling, grammar, and wording are all very good.  I only found two errors
in all of the multitude of dialogue. (recorded if author wants to fix them)
There was one minor aspect I will discuss later.
+The special spells used just for this scenario were great. The resurrection
of the lost BoE spells was welcomed by me. I still miss Major Blessing but
finally being able to haste everyone at the same time made the game more
enjoyable.  I also liked how the blessings helped all friendly characters
too.
+Combat was very difficult, and different strategies are required to defeat
different battles (until the end where Death Knell killed everyone).  I, for
one, while still appalled by the premise, didn't find the berekh hive that
difficult a battle.  After casting sanctuary on my party I slowly led my
party down to the middle and mostly let them kill each other while I hung
back.  I got through no problem first try.  Now the slimes... that was
harder.  It took me two restores to figure out Destroy was the way to go.
So the challenge really lies in figuring out the strategy before you get
killed or run out of invulnerability potions.

-It's probably because I just finished Bainn's scenario but I found the
'ancient' everything redundancy really annoying.  This language is more
ancient then the one you learned.   Now this one is the most ancient, and
this one is so ancient you can barely understand it. I get it, everything is
really, really, really, really, really old.  Now quit telling me.
-I ran across a handful of bugs in the scennario.  None were that major but
they seemed to pick up frequency as the game wore on like the author was
trying to hurry or something.  I felt the same about town design.  The
earlier towns seemed to be more thought out then the latter ones and a few
felt really empty.  It brings home the point that this scenario was finished
for the contest and some corners were cut to make that deadline.
-The most significant bug I found has to doo with the special spells.  For
everyone except my first character, they usually didn't use action points.
A bug that I abused mercilessly, usually killing all my foes before they had
time to cast their first spell.  I don't know whether to complain about it
or thank Kel fo it.  I probably wouldn't have liked combat as much without
this unfair advantage but unfair is unfair.
-Also for some reason, my first character, who has pretty much the same
level stats as everyone else, seemed to lose most of his action points.
Sometimes he wouldn't get any in a round even hasted.  If this was
intentional, like being a result of the demon's curse, it should have been
incorporated/explained/revealed better.  If it wasn't intentional, it was
pretty annoying.
-I already discussed some of my feelings abbout the storyline.  Here I just
want to state that 'family friendly' is a positive aspect for a game that's
geared towards kids and parts of this scenario fell well below 'family
friendly'.  There are some parts that even as an adult, I'd rather not have
experienced.  I know it's different strokes for different folks, but some
strokes you should really just keep to yourself.

Conclusion:
The scenario is well made and well told, but it's a story I wouldn't mind
never hearing again.  Replay value is very low.  It did make me want to play
its prequel, though.  My enjoyment of the game waxed and waned throughout.

Rating: 7.7


Embers of Rebellion


Positives:
+The storyline is nice and well executed.  It was shorter then I expected
and it left me wanting more.  It may have even been too short.
+I loved the rubble as containers concept and appreciated that not all the
rubble was searchable.  It added to the game without making it too tedious.
+Cut scenes were implemented well throughout the scenario.  None were
overtly long, which I’ve come to prefer.
+Grammar, spelling, and wording were very good.  I didn’t notice anything
out of place.
+The combat with a level 15 HLPM party (as suggested) is still challenging
yet not overtly so.
+Being forced (see negatives) to replay the game; I was able to appreciate
the random choosing of one of my characters to get mad at the mayor in the
cut scene.  That was neat.


Negatives:
-I was a bit disappointed to find no one too sell my excess goods to.  I
thought if anyone, one of the merchants by the bridge should have been
buying.  So tons of earned (ok, so some of it was stolen) loot got lost to
the abyss and I don’t like to waste anything.
-I found two minor bugs in the game that taake away from its pristine charm.
Iracos comes back to the fire upon my departure and reentry of town after he
’s said he’s going to leave and not come back.  And oddly, the terrain of
the destroyed city showed up in the outdoor combat with the Arenai
surrounded by grass.
-I found one fatal bug.  When given thhe choice to row West or East, I chose
to get out of the boat and save my game so I could experience both ways.
The script to row West or East was not called again when I stepped on the
boat the second (or third, fourth,…nth) time. Since I had gotten out to save
my game there was no going back.  On the bright side, I have a save of the
game right where the bug occurs if the author wants to look at it.

Overall:
It was a fun play.  I enjoyed myself even when I had to start over.  There
were a couple of other choices that I got to change along the way, too.

Rating: 8.2


The Final Spire



Overview: Having played the scenario before, making suggestions, and being
promised improvement, I
replayed this scenario with highest hopes.  Unfortunately, going through it
all again seemed more of a
chore then a reprieve, and the bug workaround I anticipated so greatly was
not implemented to it's full
potential leaving me a bit disappointed.  I'm going to rate it based on this
playing experience without
reminding myself of my previous rating at the CSR.

Positives:
+Noding is top notch.  There are many 'special effects' that add to the
scenario and all are
implemented rather well.
+Special spells for special times and you have to decide which to use.  The
sheer number of spells
seems overwhelming at first sight, but it's a great tie-in for the story and
adds to the game play.
+Spelling is great and grammar is good as far as sentence structure goes.
+Combat is hard (for me) but not too hard.  You can't just plow through with
what you're given, you
have to be on top of your game if you don't want to die.  It's balanced
well.
+The overall storyline was believable and interesting in itself.
+Nice Easter Egg for blades enthusiasts.


Negatives: (The list looks long but it's really not.  I just explained them
more thoroughly)
-I was really distracted by the redundancy in the wording.  The dialogue did
not flow very well and a
Thesaurus could have been utilized better.  For example, in the opening
information you are told that
you are 'shocked' about your father's death, Alfred is 'totally shocked' and
looks on 'in absolute shock',
Alfred is 'horrified', the townspeople are 'horrified', the townspeople are
in 'shock' and are 'revolted, just
as they are shocked'.  When you come back to blow up the gates, the woman at
the food stand is
'shocked' and Alfred is 'shocked' again.  At the end of the opening you are
told twice how you
distracted the mage to escape him.  And in the ending dialogue in adjacent
paragraphs the 'lawlessness
and corruption' are mentioned, and it seemed like the fourth and fifth time
the phrase was used(I didn't actually
count).  So while storyline has improved greatly for this author,
storytelling is still one aspect he needs
to work on.
-I was really frustrated with how much I coould carry.  Many times throughout
the scenario, I had to
choose between picking up the gems that I was told I would need, collecting
the cameo books, or
keeping my power geodes.  I think I remember tweaking the party in the
character editor the first time
I played it.  I resisted the urge this go around.  This time I opted to drop
my geodes since 70
(annoyingly) "long wait"s could fill my tank anyway.  imho, When the cameo
books were included in
the scenario, the amount of weight that could be carried should have been
increased by 50lb.
-Even though the scenario is rather short, I don't like how the author set
it up that the player could 'get
stuck' and have to start over.  When this is done inadvertently it is called
a fatal bug and I frown on
using it purposefully.  The instance that most stands out is the making of
the potion to fix the
medallion.  If you pick up the ember flowers or the purple berries before
you know what you need
them for and then drop them because you have to choose between it or a gem,
then you change floors
(of which there are many), you're plumb out of luck.  You can't move forward
without the medallion
intact, even to lose against your foe.
-I came across one small bug.  The Meddium Healing Potions can't be 'used'.
I was quite distraught
when I realized it in the final fight with only 23 hp left and no sp to heal
myself.  Lucky enough for me
it only took one more special spell to win. (It also made me mad because I
had dropped a power geode
to pick the last med. healing potion up.)
-Finally, my gripe about the bug workaroundd.  I had hoped that the custom
party would have been
altered more to better fit the description of what the player is told
happened.  Change Name is a rather
simple edit that could have made all the other players 'Ulrike' or 'Ghost of
Ulrike'.  Change Icon could
have easily changed all their pictures to be the same has hers and instead a
rather unattractive black
square is used to represent her 'ghosts'.  And if changing the pre-fab party
was not something the
author wanted to do, then the explanation would have been better to say
something to the effect of
'ghosts of other people that the mage has killed appear to cheer you on'.
Whatever is used though, I do
expect the two to go together, and it didn't.

Conclusion:
It might be my disappointment in the workaround (my own brainchild) has made
me biased against this scenario.  I expected more but was given less.  I
don't plan to play this scenario again and now feel 'meh' about recommending
it to anyone.  I am willing to hear arguments to change my score, but
ultimately I did not have fun playing this scenario again.

Rating: 6.7


Magus of Cattalon


Negatives:
 - Grammar came up a handful of times and I noticed a few spelling errors
with it.  Most errors were either missing connecting words like 'of' and
'in' or words like 'the' for 'then' or a missing 's'.  Not that bad,
especially considering English is a second language for the author, but
still noticable.
 - There were a few minor bugs that were forgettable aside from the fact
that they happened. One that comes to mind is coming out of combat mode next
to a square that I shouldn't have been able to stand on without making a
choice and being placed on that square, thus being able to bypass the
decision.  I've run into this bug enough times in other scenarios to wonder
if there is no fix for it.
 - There was one major bug where coming into the first town in the past,
(starts with an 'F') if you explore the outside of the town before the
middle (at least coming from the north), you fight the giants without help
before you hear the report that the giants are coming.
 - There was one fatal bug in the rogues' tower where if you are in combat
mode when you step on the pressure plates, you can end up trapped by the
laser beams if you keep walking forward before the next turn.  Since there
wasn't 'enough room to place' my party, I couldn't get out of combat mode to
restore to an earlier save.  I had to use Ctl+Alt+Del to get out.  I didn't
think about trying to use the wand while I was in combat mode so I don't
know if it works to free you, but the possibility remains that someone might
not pick up the wand and get trapped so the fatal bug remains an issue.

Positives:
+ I absolutely loved the time-traveling adventurer part of the storyline.
Even though talking about the statue in the middle of town felt out of place
at first, I laughed hard when I realized that my party was going to be the
adventurers talked about.  imho The story about the adventurers should have
been incorporated better.  If you skip talking to the guy next to the
statue, you miss how the first half of the scenario ties into the second
half.  More people should mention the statue and the heroes of old so that
it would be almost impossible to go back in time without knowledge of them.
+ Lovely cutscenes.
+ Good attention to little details like sun setting, sun rising, shops being
closed at night(even though I found it annoying at times).  The storyteller
only being out at night was another good detail moment.
+ I felt the combat and loot were well balanced though I was getting worried
about finding someone to sell to in the past.  In retrospect, it was a good
reward for a sidequest, though knowing that it was going to be the reward
would have gotten the quest done sooner.
+ Special scripting for the giants was cool, especially when someone got
whalloped.  It wasn't cool when I used arcane summon and got four acidic
giants that hurt my party though.  That kinda sucked.


Unknown:
 There were two times that I wondered if the author was taking in account,
whether or not the player would be using a ready-made four player party, or
a self made custom party. One was in the first half where during scrying of
the rogues' tower.  The mage who is with you calls your mage by the name of
'Mycroft'.  The other is at the end where your party tells Barough that
'there are four of us'.  These two things were true with my party because I
hadn't bothered to change from what was given to me, but it's always
possible that players can change the names and the # of players they have.
Not knowing how to read script yet, I can't tell.  If no thought was given
to the possibility these are negatives, if thought was given and the
scripting changes the wording (and the # of statues shown at the end)
accordingly then they are positives.

As it stands, I had much fun playing this scenario, which is what really
counts, so...  8.4.

Would be higher without the major and fatal bug found.

Rating: 8.4