Richard Ames |
Posted on 03/24/05 @ 02:23 AM
Well, this campaign isn’t platinum material, but having played some of Thijs’ earlier stuff I can see some improvement at least.
Playability: 2
Some missions are fun, with creativity and interesting objectives, but most of them are just conquest. The campaign drags on for quite a long time, as you haul yourself through Africa, killing everyone you can find along the way. The biggest problem is this. The author has put a reasonable effort into the campaign, in bitmaps, story, objectives, cities etc, but it hasn’t been tested. Not at all. Nothing. This is the basics of Scenario Design 101. Perhaps the author was looking at the hot lecturer when we were being explained this part of the syllabus, or perhaps a dog ate that page in the course book, but the end result is that none of the objectives seem to work. In one scenario they did, and in many it is just conquest, so it doesn’t matter, but to succeed in this you’ll be using a lot of reveal map/no fog/home run/diediedieing.
Balance: 2
Without any ability to finish most missions, balance is bound to take a knock. In many missions you have to kill your allies to win. In some you have to do conquest even when you have met the requirements. In one you can kill everyone (as you are supposed to) and still not win. In addition, from my experience playing this author’s campaigns, it seems to be made for easiest. I’ve found several missions that are, simply put, impossible on hardest, or even medium. I just played through on easiest so I could get through the campaign. It’s still fairly challenging on easiest though.
Creativity: 3
I’m going to be generous here, it was a creative idea. The story is more of a simple concept than a plot. You conquer Africa, bit by bit. Fairly original I guess. Also, there were some bitmaps, which was okay, and some varied victory conditions. The towns weren’t that bad after a while, sometimes there was even eye candy.
Map Design: 2
Well, the maps were varied, and basically made from scratch. There’s loads of grass, lots of terrain brush, and little Gaia. Some of the levels are fairly poorly designed, like one where you just run across a huge map, then have to make 500 food with a villager and a storage pit. I skipped this level. Some of the cities are designed well, and occasionally you see a pond or something. Reasonably accurate (of Africa) too.
Story: 2
For the bitmaps and the concept, not for the lack of any real story, I’ll award a 2
Overall: 2.2
I can’t really recommend this, but if you are about 13 or younger, and you want an easier level than most, and you don’t mind cheating a bit, you may like it. It’s an improvement for the author’s part, whose design seems to improve further in RoR Campaign Rise of the Phoenician Empire. |