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Author |
File Description |
Anthony Tompkins |
Posted on 04/08/04 @ 12:00 AM
File Details |
Number of Scenarios: |
8 |
Difficulty: |
Hard-Hardest |
A fantasy history of a small group of rebellious frontiersmen who take on a vast empire, becoming a movement along the way. |
Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Richard Ames |
Posted on 04/05/05 @ 02:58 AM
Finally I come to writing this review for this long, long campaign. And what can I say? Well it was…
…long!
Playability: 3.5
If you are looking for something that will last you a really long time, then this is for you. The scenarios follow a pattern of build and destroy missions, where you play by yourself against one or often a few enemies. You will be starting in the Stone Age and with very little in most missions. The maps are enormous, and you have some colossal bases to destroy.
Balance: 2.5
Despite the campaign providing a challenge and a lot of play time, it’s not very well balanced at all. The missions are too repetitive, relying too much on the basic B&D style, not exploring with new victory conditions or map sizes, and not involving any other challenges like defending. In a couple of missions there was a small fixed force element, but overall I didn’t find much enjoyment in playing through 8 levels of almost exactly the same thing.
Here’s a few specifics:
In almost all the missions, besides the last one, you have to take out bases that are far too strong. There is excessive use of mirror towers and Zenobia’s Towers, and often you are left without the ability to make siege weapons, and destroying the bases becomes tiresome. Although the massive fortifications look impressive, destroying a base of that type more than once becomes tiresome. A bit of strategy is needed when taking on the enemy base and their units, which is good, and sometimes there seems to be some control over the AI, but not of Personality.
The way you always start from almost nothing is annoying. You start most missions with a town centre and two villagers. It takes maybe half an hour just to start exploring, then a lot longer to finish the mission.
The maps are far too large. It makes it impossible to make them look good. Nobody will ever make an 8 scenario campaign on gigantic maps that looks good. Also, the maps are very difficult to get through, with many forests that block the enemy off from you. I’m telling you now: If you plan to play this, you’re going to have to rebuild your base every so often to make it closer to the enemy, so you can attack efficiently. This is also known as “Forward Building”.
The campaign went on for too long too; it didn’t seem to have any story for the most part, just relying on recycled missions to make it long. Too long.
Overall it is not hard because the enemy always is unable to attack you for forests, rivers etc clogging the map, but you need skill to finish the missions in an acceptable amount of time, and if you have that skill you’re probably already tired of this type of mission.
Creativity: 2.5
Mission objectives were highly uncreative and almost always relied on Global victory. This meant you had to track down every last unit in a massive map, which is pointless. When you have got most of the enemy killed, just type “DIEDIEDIE” rather than searching for them.
The maps were very big, and had little eye candy, but some unique use of many elevations, and a bit of effort has gone in considering their size.
Story is original but cliché and very shallow.
Map Design: 2.5
The problems with the maps have been pretty well described, since they affect gameplay a lot. They are mostly gigantic, and covered with extensive forests which makes path finding hard on you and too hard on your opponents.
My favourite map was the last one, which had you starting in Iron Age with a lot of resources, and you had allies. Just use legions and helepolis though, cats and scythes don’t go down well with your allies.
Just imagine a lot of gigantic random map games with low resources, and with a little eye candy, huge bases with arrays of towers everywhere and a lot of terrain brush cliffs, water and forests, and you’ll get the idea.
Story: 3.5
The story is written with some skill, but is too short, and doesn’t really have any depth. Instructions are unclear, assuming conquest often, but occasionally they don’t work. I don’t think these levels have been play tested, or else the sometimes high difficulty, bugs, and the excessive length would have been apparent. I can’t even remember who you are, but the Enemy had short and evil sounding names like “Ral Nor” and such, but there wasn’t any characters or events, just battle after battle. Some bitmaps would have brought the idea to life.
Overall: 2.9
A good campaign, but a bit overdone is some areas, and underdone in others. If it had had 20 more minutes in the oven I would recommend the download. |
Seamless |
Posted on 08/17/05 @ 02:07 AM
Hi Folks,
Long long ago, on a PC far away, I did actually work up this gigantic and wasteful campaign. I think I was more in love with the idea of making one than the work it goes in to getting one right, and Phil's review is right on the money. I had forgotten I put it out there, so I downloaded it myself..Ouch! It does miss some elements in all respects, and my apologies to the community for a half hearted effort. I've gone back to the drawing board, and hopefully come up with a scenario that isn't quite as painful to play.
Tony Tompkins |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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2.9 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 3.5 | Balance | 2.5 | Creativity | 2.5 | Map Design | 2.5 | Story/Instructions | 3.5 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 424 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 1.01 KB |
Added: | 04/08/04 |
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