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Author |
File Description |
WillNotAllow (id: GeorgeROR) |
Posted on 12/12/07 @ 10:40 AM
File Details |
Number of Scenarios: |
3 |
Difficulty: |
Mod-Hard |
Another intersting puzzle campaign, the story is kinda rushed so try to be imaginative LOL. Enjoy :D |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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skald |
Posted on 09/22/08 @ 09:58 PM
Playability: 4
Most of my review will concern the first scenario because it occupied the vast majority of my time and it had a fairly satisfying ending. I will detail each scenario separately below, and give overall impressions here for the combined ratings. The scenarios were for the most part more than playable, they were actually addictive. I couldn’t stop trying new ways to solve the puzzles or get past physical and enemy obstacles, and I thought about the solutions constantly even at work. There were some glitches in the play, some caused by mysterious physical boundaries, and some by inexplicable happenings and defeats that seemed to come out of nowhere, for no reason.
Balance: 3.5
Most of the scenarios were well balanced except for Scen 3 which I found a bit overwhelming. I had to restart all three scens many times, which is one of the measures of balance; I couldn’t just breeze through in one straight play.
Creativity: 5
GeorgeRoR's creativity here is, simply put, off the scale. If 5 is the top, then so be it. Everywhere I went over the territory I found setups that I not only had never seen before, they were situations that I couldn't even imagine designing myself, I wouldn't be able to conceive of them.
Map Design: 4.5
GeorgeRoR has described his own map style as obnoxious at times. Others have said it was a little over the top and had too much eye candy. I would never use the word candy to describe this designer’s scenery. The proper word might be eye-minestrone or eye-mulligatawny. But most appropriate, I think, would be a favorite Italian sea-food stew called Cioppino. Perhaps you have had it. It comes in a big bowl and it’s full of all kinds of wonderful sea food. It looks and smells wonderful. You can’t wait to eat it. And then suddenly you stick your spoon into it and discover it’s full of hard sharp things. Everything is still in the shell and you are going to have to break your way through it all to get a bite. It’s going to be a long, hard slog. But still delicious in the end!
Story/Instructions: 3
Some of the designer’s instructions are quite helpful and straightforward, and occasionally he adds useful hints. But several of the Victory Conditions did not seem to be implemented as they were listed.
Additional Comments:
Scen 1:
Major puzzle after major puzzle. Every 15 minutes I got stopped dead and felt like throwing my mouse through the screen. Then I would think of something different to try and it would work! I started out with only a few units and had to make many decisions, any one of which could have stopped me from completing the scen. Fortunately, as I have noted in extensive comments in the forum with Nacht Jager (thanks for the hints!) this can be played many different ways, which is one of the factors in Playability.
Very fortunate, since I was totally unable to play it the way the designer intended. The map is full of invisible barriers or else skinny trees and cliffs that nevertheless have enormous overlapping footprints that keep you from traveling freely more than a few tiles at a time. Worse, any little harmless thing could get you Defeated. Move a priest into the left area? Defeated! Move a cat into the left area? Defeated! Click on a palm tree? Defeated! Several restarts had the priests in the gold enclosure disappearing and reappearing. Some restarts had me exceeding my pop limit and then after converting more units, another restart had me not exceeding my pop limit, and then suddenly exceeding it again.
The map is a real over-achiever. I could have finished in half the time (I took 8 hours) if I had stuck to the bare instructions. But I went all over the map and saw crazy things you would never see if you just played for a quick win. Ships stuck on cliffs are not as unrealistic as you might think. The Imperial Japanese Navy sent one of their dreadnoughts on a suicide mission late in WW II intending the captain to beach her on shore to serve as a shore battery. And there is a long history of naval artillery turrets being hauled ashore for army service.
My so-called allies stood around while I got attacked, guess they were neutralists. Sometimes they bunched up around me so I couldn’t even move my troops anywhere.
The map distances are nicely calibrated so you can just see the next unit if you are in exactly the right spot. Good map design and lots of work and testing must have gone into this.
After about 8 hours and several hundred kills, razings and conversions, I was suddenly Victorious! Without actually destroying the enemy Wonder as instructed. Maybe I just killed too many of them?
Scen 2:
A nice bit map which proved quite helpful in finding my way around. Actual map had lots of invisible barriers which stopped me from moving my troops through what looked like natural passageways.
Victory Condition is get George back to his home village. My allies were quite helpful at first, wiping out most of my nearest enemies to help me get a nice start. I spent a long time working out puzzles and finally got George and his faithful companion EleArch freed up. Started taking over the map with my priest and other troops.
I was consolidating my position on the West side, my troops took over a small area overlooking a dock. There were ruins there and I got the message “All ruins have been captured. Hold them 2000 years to win.” OK, I kept working both ends of the map (GeorgeRoR scens are usually like a 3-ring circus) and as I was concentrating on the East side, trying to choose the exact right moment to turn enemies with Player 5 so I could destroy his building blocking my access to a raft, I was suddenly Victorious! OK, whatever. I never did get George back North to his home village.
I tried replaying in test mode to see how I could have finished it. Sure enough there was a raft available if I just got past one allied building. But in the replay my “allies” took up a position in the cramped interior of my initial starting compound and blocked George in! I couldn’t move him out, they just wouldn’t budge. This would have lost me the game.
Scen 3:
Victory Conditions: Destroy the Wonder. Capture 4 artifacts. No hints, nothing. Nice bitmap which says, “George of the Jungle by Don Jorge De Leon, Head of Content @ Tribulation Designs” The countdown timer starts at 13,000 years. Disclaimer: I hate Race for Life scenarios. I hate countdown timers. This scen is a Race for Life with a countdown timer. OK, anyway, I ran George through the enemy troops, elephants and lions to a nice little mesa where he was safe and he could collect a few resources. It’s easy for me to type this but it actually took me hours of restarts to get him to safety and keep him safe. Anyway, we collected resources while I took my cav exploring. Time after time it seemed like it was impossible to go on because I couldn’t get my troops anywhere and I couldn’t see anything I could use. But after solving more puzzles I finally got my cav to discover some Gaia help. I managed to discover some transports to make a beach head assault and I was gathering my Gaia troops and generating hoplites with my limited resources which my Northen villies were mining for me, when suddenly I was Victorious! The timer had run out (at about 1 hour 48 minutes) and instead of my losing, all my enemies were defeated and I won. OK, whatever. I ran it again in test mode to check it out. If I had actually managed to put together a beach head landing with my one hele, two ele arch, two cav arch, one cav and some hoplites, I would have been met by an enemy with at least 17 towers on the beach, and if I got my few troops past those, I would have had to take down a Wonder surrounded by one layer of about 12 towers with that layer protected by a layer of houses. And I never found a catapult.
Overall:
Most highly recommended for download for Scen 1. Thanks for a marvelous play-through, GeorgeRoR!
Recommended for download for Scen 2 if you can avoid finding the Ruins.
Recommended for download for Scen 3 if you are a fast, strong player who doesn’t mind playing against the clock and uphill against the odds.
Hints available on request.
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.0 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.0 | Balance | 3.5 | Creativity | 5.0 | Map Design | 4.5 | Story/Instructions | 3.0 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 2,426 |
Favorites: [] | 1 |
Size: | 369.33 KB |
Added: | 12/12/07 |
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