Quarhag Pass

[*i]

Quarhag Pass

Mac/Windows

 

Author: Smoo

Difficulty: 10-18

Version: 1.0.0

 

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Composite Score: 3.5/5.0

 

Best: 0.00% (0/4)

Good: 50.00% (2/4)

Average: 50.00% (2/4)

Substandard: 0.00% (0/4)

Poor: 0.00% (0/4)

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Keywords: Avernum Universe, Multiple Endings

Edited August 5, 2014 by SylaeBot
Automated Sybot edit; worker IPB::csrThread/vanadium

[Ephesos]

So! I was sad to realize I hadn't ever played this. Naturally, it was time for me to send the Never Say Die party in, where they... died. A lot.

 

A lot of the deaths were just annoying, either owing to multiple casts of hugely-damaging multi-target spells, or big bruisers who got a lucky hit in (and they get to hit twice). Designers everywhere beware! Multiple casters with Lightning Spray is cruel to low-level parties!

 

 

Click to reveal.. (A boss-fight bug)

 

 

I also uncovered at least one instance of a seriously broken boss fight... the Lord of Wargs can continue casting one of his special abilities even after the party has died, and generally casts it in an infinite loop until the party dies. My recommendation is to buff and haste and just do your best to take him down in one round... I did not find another way around it.

 

 

On the other hand, the story was well-written (I did not play the original April Fool’s version). And gear was well-portioned, as well as the spells available. And forking plots are fun.

 

So hey, it could be a whole lot worse, but I’ve generally expected better from Smoo. Still worth a play-through no matter what. [rating]Average[/rating]

[Enraged Slith]

I really wish I had reviewed this earlier. I avoided it because I was burned out from testing the scenario. I know how frustrating it is to not get feedback or compliments, so I'm sorry for reviewing this so late.

 

I'm kind of mixed on the whole forking plot thing. The choices are arbitrary enough that I can't figure out what I would have to change in a subsequent playthrough in order to get a more satisfying ending. I suppose this is a good thing, but I feel like I've missed out on a good portion of the story.

 

The combat was well balanced for the recommended level, though I think the mages and bosses had just a little too much dexterity. Non-dedicated fighters/archers are going to have a hard time hitting the more dangerous enemies, which can be a pain at times.

 

Smoo's english isn't flawless, but the story is engrossing, and the Ogres actually talk like Ogres. This, and other small details really brought this scenario to life. It's pretty charming, really.

 

[rating]Good[/rating]

[BJ Back From the Beyond]

Story:

QP's story is interesting. It starts out as just your typical monster plague, and it stays that way. There is no mystery about what you are fighting. It's ogres to the very end. However, there were a few points where I found that I didn't want to fight the ogres, and that made things a little more interesting. Add in the extra details and the way the ending ties into something from the beginning of the scenario and you've got yourself a pretty neat story. My one complaint is

 

Click to reveal.. ((has to do with the ending))

 

 

that the Witch could have been fleshed out better than she was. The way it is, she just feels like an extra character that was tacked onto the end at the last minute, and I suspect that's what happened.

 

 

There is more than one ending to QP, and I found that the way to get the best ending is to

 

Click to reveal..

 

 

be aggressive. Anything more, you'll have to figure out yourself.

 

 

Combat:

The fighting in QP can be difficult. For this reason, I would recommend entering at the high end of the level recommendations. There are some fights I found interesting, especially the fight against the Lord of Flies. The one fight I really did not like was the first boss battle, the one against the Lord of Wargs. The idea behind the fight was good, but the way it plays out is just frustrating. To beat him, I eventually

 

Click to reveal..

 

 

started the fight, then withdrew to the small room east of the adjoining hallway. The enemies would come to me there, and when the Lord of Wargs goes for the south room I'm not standing in his way.

 

 

Design:

I never felt like I was in desperate need of anything. There are shops in the scenario that sell just about anything you will need.

I would criticize the level of power some of the loot had, though. I found that a few of the items were slightly over power for what was needed to earn them, especially the crossbow in the trading post and the Rabbit Sling.

 

Script:

Aside from the first boss battle, I really didn't see any scripting tricks that were worthy of note, but I also didn't find any bugs.

 

Overall, I liked Quarhag Pass. I felt it had a fun story and some sufficiently challenging combat. Its final score comes out as [rating]GOOD[/rating].

[Dintiradan]

Content: A large-ish scenario with branching content. Which is nice, because you don't see that often lately. There's a bunch of dungeons and other fights, and a fair bit of dialogue, so you won't be disappointed.

 

Story: The main overarcing plot didn't seem all that relevant to the scenario; that might have been because the branch I was on hid information from me. The characters you interact with all fit simple stereotypes, but they're still fun to interact with. As for the villains, their motive are simple, but what did you expect from ogres?

 

Pacing: I found the pacing suffered due to the branching nature of the scenario. With the options I chose in this scenario, I wasn't given any real climax. I was also given a downer ending, but I probably shouldn't complain about that without doing a few replays or reading the code. My ending might have been triggered by a choice I made late in the scenario, which would be fine by me. But there was another significant choice made early on. I would be upset if my choice then determined the ending: is it fair to give the player an underinformed choice, when one option leads to a clearly subpar result?

 

Combat: This is effectively a plague scenario, and there is a lot of combat here. Unlike many other plague scenarios, the fights in this one are pretty varied, and kept interesting. One of the main strengths of this scenario. The "Lord" fights in particular have some interesting challenges, with one major problem detailed in the next section. Again, one issue with some fights is that difficulty can vary quite a bit depending on your choices. There's one particular fight in a dungeon which is either very deadly or pretty easy, depending on which path you take at the beginning.

 

Scripting: The first "Lord" fight can be virtually impossible, depending on things outside of your control. It's a scripted encounter, with the boss running from one room to another partway through. The boss nails you with beam attacks if you try to block him. However, sometimes he'll hit you over and over again even if your party isn't blocking him (one attempt had him killing my party after they had retreated dozens of squares). Since false positives for blocking happen much more when you have NPCs on your side, I recommend you saying no to any NPCs who offer to assist you for this section of the scenario. Other than that, one thing I liked in this scenario is how you can bypass certain bottleneck towns after you're done with them.

 

Aesthetics: I found that the outdoors design was lacking, and ugly in a few places. There were some custom graphics. I wish that there were animated steam vents in one of the dungeons, would have really added to the atmosphere.

 

Overall: Fun to play with a few rough places. So long as you play the English version. Or know Finnish. [rating]AVERAGE[/rating]