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Undead Valley


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Undead Valley

Mac/Windows

 

Author: Archmagus Micael

Rating: Everyone

Difficulty: 45-75

Version: 9.1

 

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Composite Score: 1.6/5.0

 

Best: 0.00% (0/11)

Good: 0.00% (0/11)

Average: 9.09% (1/11)

Substandard: 45.45% (5/11)

Poor: 45.45% (5/11)

[encouragenecro]

 

[/composite]

 

Keywords:

Edited by SylaeBot
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Heh. I had to dig a bit for my review of this scenario, and then I remembered just how fun it was. After all, I was a tester on the original beta, which was... interesting. Anyway.

 

The plot and the outdoors shared a commonality in that they were huge but confusingly empty when you took a good look at them. Also featured were overpowered traps that took ages to cycle through a single trigger, hordes of enemies where a few would've sufficed, confusing jaunts through different planes of existence, a handful of ridiculously overpowered items hidden away in an arbitrary maze, and giant purple dragons.

 

It could've been great, but instead, it merits a [rating]Poor[/rating]

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From TM on the CSR:

 

It's a ten-year-old's fantasy world, with over-powered weapons, over-powered (or sometimes massively-underpowered, but never balanced) enemies, logical problems up the wazoo, the worst use of terrain since section 1 of 9var, and Vahnatai to boot.

 

[rating]POOR[/rating]

 

It's sorta "cute," I s'pose. On the other hand, it's worse than doing nothing.

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From Burnt Toast on the CSR:

 

This scenario is quite bad. However, there are a few interesting and funny things throughout that are worth looking at.

 

1) I rather liked the use of the lightning pillars attached to the crystal column to do damage. This was kind of interesting.

 

2) The use of levers in a series to get various gates open is an interesting innovation.

 

3) I rather liked the Barney dragon. It was quite funny. I think the purple dragon may have been used again in Basshikava.

 

4) This is the first time I've seen a book which gives you several levels of different spells at once.

 

5) The undead gauntlet is an interesting innovation. Having cold skeletons with fields approach you then having ruby skeletons set up crossfire is kind of interesting. Very few scenarios have effectively used a combination of archer on the outside walls-- with fighters in the middle.

 

6) The bridge fight is also interesting because it uses a layered monster approach. Frontline-- fighters defender (null bugs) , Middle -- throwers-- casters (efreet) , back-- destroyers (altered basilisks). This could have been done better with a different set of monsters. For example-- frontline row of blade golems, middle-- ice and fire golems, back -- demon golems.

 

7) All of the items are ridiculously broken. However, destroying an item as you leave or having it taken from you is an interesting idea. The Masters Sword goes away in the latest version.

 

8) It is kind of interesting seeing the monsters being continuously upgraded. Ur Basilisk, Altered Basiliks, Avatar Basilisk. Ridiculous, but interesting.

 

9) There were some odd things in this scenario, the statues in the middle of nowhere, the strange place with rows of herbs.

 

10) You get to have your Monty Haul dreams fulfilled with the most powerful items readily available on the ground in quantity. I am sure some people love this. The retort was; they are not as powerful as the god items in the HLPM. Pretty close...

 

There are a few more powerful items in Canopy like the Miracle Boots, Miracle Bracelet, Miracle Shield, and Miracle Helm, and of course my favorite Morog's scepter. But no more powerful weapons.

 

The items are broken.

 

The monsters are kind of ridiculous-- super Vahnati guardians, purple dragons, Rentar - Ihrno.

 

The plot is very basic. The Vahnati are going to get us with their super world destroying stuff. It is kind of like having Rentar Ihrno become DR. DOOM.

 

But, you have to give him credit for trying 9 times to get it right. Blame me for inflating the score. Maybe

 

[rating]AVERAGE[/rating]

 

 

He did try real hard on this thing to make it work. We slogged through nine versions. It is almost playable now. Not great but almost playable...

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From Imban on the CSR:

 

Based on Testing Version 9.0, I'm going to have to give this scenario a [rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]rating. Rating might go up or down when the scenario is actually released.

 

It's... an effort. It's also really, really boring and really weird and stupid at points. Somehow, though, it's still one of the larger-seeming BoA scenarios out now. I guess the huge amount of pointless dungeons and the gigantic outdoors creates this feeling.

 

For the record, my party to complete this scenario in version 9.0 started at an average level of 19.

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From an unknown reviewer on the CSR:

 

I believe that I'm the one that insisted that the dragon zombies be purple. So I don't think it's fair to ridicule him for that. If you must complain to someone about them, complain to me. I actually like the purple dragons. They're nifty. I'm giving him .4 extra points for them.

 

I'll give it a 4.1 because it was a good try, it made me finally get around to fixing that Dexterity problem, kept my eyeballs from falling out for a few hours, and it gave my level 68 party a challenge(there was stuff that I couldn't kill in one hit), depite the fact that I couldn't complete two of the quests. I really can't bring myself to take the score any higher. (Micael, next time you start beta-testing for a new scenario, make sure it's in the middle of winter. If I recall correctly, you ran beta-testing in the summer when the second story of my apartment complex becomes very hot, humid, and overall an unpleasant enviroment)

 

Although it was VEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYY EEEEEEEVVVVVVVVIIIIILLLLLLL of him to make the Ruby Skeletons in the first tower heal each other. In fact, I don't think I'd have survived it without the Protection Charm I got from.... I can't remember where. Interesting ending, too.

 

[rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]

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From an unknown reviewer on the CSR:

 

The seemingly endless empty terrain could have easily fit into three or four outdoor sections, which would have been far more pleasant.

 

The monsters varying between one-hit kills and having thousands of hit points caused the combat to be unbalanced.

 

The Ruby Skeletons were just awful in every way. They were too strong and they would heal each other.

 

I'll give a slightly higher score for this being a first attempt, but this scenario really needed an in-depth story, or interesting combat.

 

[rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]

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From an unknown reviewer on the CSR:

 

This scenario is pretty darn bad.

 

For a scenario with this much substance, I expect at least one important character. But no, the antagonist (who is totally undeveloped, and relies on your previous impressions) is randomly thrown in. You could switch her out for any supervillain.

 

The towns and outdoors were nasty. Completely random placement of such things as beam power sources almost brought me to tears. Especially when Micael constructed a reason to make them explode. The floors, as well, were not exactly logical.

 

Monster combinations are doubtful; why would random legions of undead be created by the villain? Why would there be hordes of basilisks and efreet guarding bridges? Not to mention that they're all completely uncreative; nothing is new.

 

There is no theme or plot. In fact, there's barely any interaction with characters, other than killing them. I might have completed the side quest I recieved, except by the time I found what I was looking for I only wanted to steamroll through it and make it end. There was nothing driving me through the scenario, and I suspect the writer had no motivation other than to grant the player phat lewt.

 

Finally, most motives and logic were flimsy. What was with that deus ex machina ending? Why are there all these assorted monsters in the starting town? Why does the random organization *[super-spoiler]* need adventurers who can deal with a situation they themselves created?*[/super-spoiler]*

 

I can think of no redeeming features of this scenario, either. Just because there are masses of undead and valley after valley of emptiness does not mean it is a good scenario. All that filler could have been compressed into several reasonable fights and, at the most, three outdoor sections.

 

[rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]

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From an unknown reviewer on the CSR:

 

 

Almost all of my complaints have already been said. It just seemed pointless and not well thought out. I simply wish people would stop using the monsters we've all seem a million times (undead, nephils, and all those other trashy base monsters). It felt like the only way he could make it harder was to pull an Atari and see how many tough hordes he could throw at the PC's instead of just using a new, differently strong monster (instead of just upping its level and hp)

 

[rating]POOR[/rating]. Not worth your time unless you have ADHD and a strong party.

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From Lazarus on the CSR:

 

It isn't the worst scenario for BoA, but it comes close. I'll give it the nod over PG, simply because it seemed like Archmagus Michael at least tried to include a plot and some sidequests. Unfortunately tried doesn't mean succeeded, but at least the effort was there. Tons of combat simply for the sake of tons of combat, high level monsters simply for the sake of uber-cool badass monster plagues, big swords for the sake of big cool swords, ring of trees with tons of bread for the sake of.... well I don't know what he was thinking here. If you chopped out all the extra dungeons and compressed this into 2 or 3 outdoor sections, it might be bearable...... might be......

 

[rating]POOR[/rating]

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From Nioca on the CSR:

 

This scenario is pretty bad, as mentioned above. My enjoyment of it was massively cut by the massive battles you were constantly shoved in to. That alone is bad for pretty much any BoA player, but especially so for me, since I have a slower computer that runs such massive fights incredibly slowly.

 

On the other hand, it at least tried. It made attempts at a plot, and it wasn't completely incomprehensible. So I do have to give some credit there.

 

[rating]SUBSTANDARD[/rating]

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From Iffy on SV:

 

I will rate this scenario on different things then I will average it.

 

Outdoor Design - Substandard

Interesting at points, but all those secret passages? The part in the middle was probably the worst of it.

 

Town Design - Substandard

The first town tempted me into just quitting the scenario right there. Some other towns were pretty bad too. A few, though, were sort of interesting. The maze, however, dropped this rating. Badly.

 

Combat - Poor

While a few looked interesting, the rest was horribly overpowered. I gave up halfway because of this. I eventually just cheated to the end.

 

Plot - Poor

Almost completely unoriginal. Plus, it is bad.

 

Scripting - Poor

While he did manage it, he used it in ways I really didn't like. The traps slaughtered my party. The ruby skeletons, well, they were bad.

 

Final Score - [rating]POOR[/rating]

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