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Incorruptible

Mac/Windows

 

Author: Tridash

Difficulty: Beginner

Version: 1.0

 

[composite=eyJ0aXRsZSI6IkluY29ycnVwdGlibGUiLCJ0aWQiOiIxMjIyMiIsInRhZ3MiOlsiYmVnaW5uZXIiLCJqdW5nbGUiLCJsaW5lYXIiLCJzaW5nbGV0b24iXSwiYmdhc3AiOnsiNSI6MCwiNCI6MTAsIjMiOjAsIjIiOjAsIjEiOjB9fQ==]

Composite Score: 4.0/5.0

 

Best: 0.00% (0/10)

Good: 100.00% (10/10)

Average: 0.00% (0/10)

Substandard: 0.00% (0/10)

Poor: 0.00% (0/10)

[encouragenecro]

 

[/composite]

 

Keywords: Beginner, Linear, Singleton, Jungle

Edited by SylaeBot
Automated Sybot edit; worker IPB::csrThread/vanadium
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INCORRUPTIBLE (Version 1.0)

 

SUMMARY - A very short, yet oh-so-satisfying scenario. Tridash clearly put a lot of work into this scenario, and it shows. It's a fun romp with an excellent backstory. I only wish that the story hadn't appeared as walls of text (two-and-a-third full introductory screen), but there wasn't much to be done about that. Combat was on the easy side, though it's certainly fun. And it's designed rather well. Downsides include how fast it cuts off, and how linear it felt at times, but these are relatively minor points.

 

NOTABLE POINTS

* Immense plot for the scenario's size

* Extremely heavy exposition

* Noticably tiny scenario

* Easy combat

* Well-designed

 

 

Enjoyment - Good

A highly-enjoyable scenario. Fire grenades were certainly fun to play with, the combat was fun, and the plot was interesting. However, it really does cut off too soon. Also, the tons of exposition does take away from the experience somewhat; you wind up getting bombarded with information regarding the world this takes place in and what not. Also, it feels... really linear. I don't mind linear, but at times, it felt more like a short cinematic than a scenario.

 

 

Plot - Good

A great plot, unfortunately compressed into a tiny scenario. This would have been even better if the scenario hadn't been so small, and all that exposition crammed into five minutes of gameplay (ten, if you read it). Still, it's a nice side-trip from the typical Avernum fare, and it makes sense. But the player doesn't really impact the scenario in any way. Heck, there's only one outcome of the final fight no matter how you play it.

 

 

Combat - Average

There's one big problem with this scenario's combat: Not enough. Not nearly enough. There's two fights total, and you can only lose one of them. The fight that you could actually lose was extremely easy; lob a few fire grenades, and you're done. Still, it's fun, and it gives a sense of your opposition's power. But there is definitely some room for improvement.

 

 

Design - Good

Not much to mention here. Town design is nearly flawless, though having a few things to explore would have been nice. My main complaint on this front lies on the Outdoor design; namely, it's just a bunch of trees, for the most part. A little variation would have been nice. A hill, a mountain... something. But other than that, it's just a maze of trees. Nothing jumped out at me from the Dialog/Dialogue front, which is good. It seems error-free as well.

 

 

Graphics - Good

Nice and pretty. There's the jungle trees, the new water, the tents... All quite nice. It captures the essence of the scenario nicely. However, heights weren't used to any great effect in this scenario. Also, the zigguraut looks sort of weird... The solid rectangles definitely stand out from the rest of the graphics. All-in-all, pretty good.

 

 

Scripting - Good

Nothing particularly fancy. It's got the fire grenades, and the asteroids are a nice trick. It also has an enemy that calls for help every turn you fight it. The cutscene is also nifty. Nothing much, but in a scenario this short, every bit counts.

 

 

FINAL VERDICT

----[rating]GOOD[/rating]----

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Rating: [rating]Good[/rating]

 

Surprisingly, despite the scenario's short size, I have a lot to say about it. There are some flaws, but you'd definitely be missing out if you haven't played it.

 

 

Click to reveal..

 

 

 

Combat - Substandard - The combat can easily be summed up by: 1. Launch fire bomb 2. Drink healing potion 3. Launch another fire bomb 4. Press a number on your keypad to finish off the mage. The only reason the combat isn't miserable is because of the entertaining effect of the fire bombs. If there weren't fire bombs, I would rank the combat as "poor".

 

Outdoor design - Good - There is an aesthetic problem with the river: It just doesn't look right. Other than that, the design is excellent. The temple and surrounding buildings look authentic from the outdoor view, and the custom jungle graphics add a good touch to the story.

 

Indoor design - Best - It always annoys me to find out-in-the-open impassable doors in a scenario. tridash avoids this by making convincing, door-less huts with roofs. The design of the commander's office tells a whole story in itself. The other towns have a nicely done jungle atmosphere, but the best part is the temple. I'm not even sure how the asteroids were incorporated, because they don't move in jumps like I'd expect it to, but they move smoothly like a real asteroid. Basically, the visual aspect of the scenario is eye candy.

 

Writing - Good - Unlike a lot of short scenarios, the writing is thought-out and matches well with the scenery. It's also descriptive, and I like imagery in a scenario. There were more than a few typos, but they never obscured the meaning, which is why I don't mark it down so heavily.

 

Plot - Average - The story is a nice concept, but the distant motives for people's actions in the scenario aren't justified by its size. It'd work well if the scenario was substantially large, but as is, there's too little to work with. It's kind of confusing when all of these plot aspects involving the Republic are introduced when you never became aware of them beforehand. Plus, the whole rogue senator idea, and a large government called the The Republic reminds me too much of Star Wars. In other words, it could be more original.

 

Technical - Best - The aforementioned fire bombs and floating asteroids are amazing, in addition to the special effects in the battle with the senator (though it's not a player controlled battle).

 

Balance - Substandard - The fire bombs are simply too powerful. This makes the combat too easy, and a lot less enjoyable.

 

Replay Value - Average - There are a lot of redeeming qualities about this scenario; however, it suffers because of its length. I still remember most of the scenario clearly, so it will probably be a long time before I'd consider playing again. Then again, there aren't a whole lot of scenarios that let you bomb people, so...

 

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This is my review. I'll start with the story. [/Redundancy] The scenario is not set in the world created by Jeff Vogel. So, there is no Empire, but there is a Republic which, as far as I gathered, is pretty much the same thing. In this scenario, magic is not as abundant as in Vogel's world and the player is pretty much forced to play a non-spell-casting singleton. No wait! That is not true. The player is not forced to do anything. If the player loads up the scenario with an inappropriate party, the game kindly informs the player that this will make the story nonsensical and might possibly make the combat unbalanced. This is how these sorts of things should be handled, so bonus points for that.

 

Anyway, back to the story. My main problem with it is that since this is a 24-hour scenario, it is so very short. I had not enough time to get used to the idea of the Republic. I immediately sided with the enemy, because they are the underdogs, I suppose. There is no real time to focus on the drama which is why my reaction after the big reveal at the end was along the lines of "So what?" Maybe I was just being overly apathetic, but I was never really drawn into the story.

 

Now as for the overall design, it is very good. The jungle looks incredible, but it is a bit too maze-like. The towns are all very well designed. I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite scenarios in terms of purely visual quality. The only glitch I found was that the yellowish jungle river inconsistently runs into a bright blue sea. This is a minor complaint. Unfortunately for tridash, visual quality does not rank very high in my "Awesomest Scenario Evarr" checklist.

 

The combat in Incorruptible is easy. There is one mass fight and then the boss fight. Early on, the player receives a bunch of grenades (incidentally, I did not care for the modern grenade picture) which make short work of the enemies. The player also has a bunch of NPC soldiers helping his singleton and I would have liked to see more fights like that. You fight the boss fight solo, though it is not very hard either. (I did not care for the conveniently acquired uber item, either.)

 

So how to make this scenario better? Make it longer, pure and simple. What's in here is good, but it is not enough. Still, that is all right, since this is but a glimpse of tridash's designing competence and I really want him to make more scenarios. Here's hoping the designer's next scenario will be longer and of equal, if not, better quality. It might just turn out to be one of my favorites.

 

Rating: [rating]Good[/rating]

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is a slightly revised version of the review I posted at SV:

 

A beautifully done small scenario with a strong story.

 

Visually very appealing, and well scripted (as far as a non-designer can tell).

 

No major bugs, although interesting (but not game-breaking) things can happen if you save some firebombs and use them pre-emptively later. I was disappointed that I couldn't take these out of the scenario, but I suppose it's just as well. Too tempting.

 

The first set of combat requires some basic strategy, the second is straightforward and somewhat anticlimactic. Clearly combat is not the main point of the scenario.

 

The story is consistent and compelling, drawing you into this alternate world with its unique history. Remarkable in such a short work. It's true that the "twist" was a little ho-hum, but the denouement was as well-written as the rest of the text and quite satisfying.

 

There is nothing to buy and no significant loot or XP to be gained, so this is not a good party-building scenario, but again, I don't think that's the intention. It really wouldn't make sense to take a character from this world into a typical BoA scenario. Still, I expect loot. grin.gif

 

I also prefer a little more freedom if I'm going to play a scenario more than once, though I recognize the limitations of such a short format. Having said that, Incorruptible is definitely worth playing once, and even twice just in case you missed appreciating some of the graphics the first time through (it doesn't take long).

 

It's really hard to see how it could have been done better, except to make it longer. And give the player more freedom. And loot. I'm very much looking forward to Tridash's next release.

 

Rating: [rating]Good[/rating]

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Incorruptible is a very short but very enjoyable scenario. The custom graphics were very good and the setting fit the plot really well. The combat (that is to say, 'the one fight') was a bit hard but with the Fire Grenades (bonus points for those) was manageable. I've played the scenario three times, two for the beta and one for this review. It's still fun. The first time I came in with an over-leveled party and didn't realize what the Fire Grenades did. It didn't matter very much, because the plot is definitely the main attraction.

 

Rank: [rating]Good[/rating]

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It's short... it was made in 24 hours. It looks very good. There's no real combat, but that's not the point of it. I'm going to rate it [rating]Good[/rating], because even though it's not of a very high level of quality because of its length--I can't think of a great scenario that only takes 10 minutes to play--it's still quite good for its length, and therefore worth other people's time to play.

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This was a good play. I fretted over my fresh singleton's stats, only to find that it didn't matter very much. In the end, the greatsword I picked up in the jungle meant a whole lot more.

 

All in all, solid. The towns were well-made, though I tend to prefer buildings you can enter (these were cool at least). The outdoors was interesting, though I had some trouble discerning what shrubs I could and could not walk on.

 

The fights... well, the first one killed me on my first try, but I was to some extent being stupid. Really, the only other fight was kind of a letdown.

 

The story was just what you'd expect from a 24-hour scenario. A snippet. A tiny chunk. Like, hardly anything to go on here. I'm intrigued, but to some extent I feel like the scenario tried to do too much in too short a time-frame.

 

Overall, I enjoyed it. Not nearly as good as initial reviews on SV suggested, but it's above average.

 

Rating: [rating]Good[/rating].

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  • 6 months later...

(Just porting over from SV)

 

Short, but expertly written and scripted. It's like the last piece of delicious chocolate - you want more, but there is none. I really hope to see a larger work from tridash.

 

I'm not sure what to say about the features of the scenario, since everything was just a vessel to tell a story. A lot of attention was put into minor details which helped bring this short piece to life. Plus, you used some of my custom graphics and that totally earns super bonus points.

 

I want more.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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  • 1 year later...

From Ackrovan on SV:

 

This scenario is a 24 hour scenario, which for a new desginer, I find pretty impressive.

 

The Plot: The plot is a simple, straight forward combat-kill-em'-all. It isn't innovative or thrilling in any way, but it isn't mediocore and repetivie either. It's got a nice, general feel for it. It isn't farfetched at all, and remained pretty simple as the scenario went on. The twist at the end,

 

Click to reveal..

 

 

the part with the traitors senator

 

caught me by surprise. I didn't honestly expect it. Fortunatly, it was a good twist that merits extra points.

 

The Graphics: The graphics are solid and pretty. Coming from a Geneforge-addict like myself, I was happy to see the Geneforge floor graphics. The terrain itself was well presented and focused with the plot. The NPC graphics were pretty standered, although I loved the Eagle Warrior graphic.

 

Click to reveal..

 

 

The Egpytian pyramid was pretty cool, plus it looked good.

 

 

The Characters: There aren't many characters in this scenario, which is kind of a bad point in this scenario, altough it won't affect the score since it was only done in 24hrs. There's only one guy you can actually talk to, and he's pretty bland with no interesting personality or interesting traits with him, aside from his cold.

 

The Dialogue: Solid. Nothing fancy, but it does the job good-like. The author was pretty descriptive and let me paint a good picture of the scenario in my head.

 

The Game Play: Probably the best part of the scenario for its sheer awesomeness.

 

Click to reveal..

 

 

Fire grenades were sweet and cool and fun and all that yummy stuff. They were a tad bit overpowered, however. I would recomend shrinking the blast radias a bit, so it doesn't take out an entire group of enemies in one shot. If you intend to use them again, that is, which I sincerly implore you to do. One of the coolest things I loved, however, was being able to get soldiers to follow you. It gave me a real feeling of strength and pleasure. One thing, however, that bugged me was how they would occasionally get in my way and stop me from moving. They tended to box me in a few times.

There aren't any shops or traders in this, but again, 24hrs. Sorry to players that I can't talk about it that much.

 

 

The Combat: Combat was pretty good. Theres only two or so fights, save the boss fight, so its kinda on the laging side. Still, it was fun.

 

The Buildup/Climax: The scenario didn't have much strength in the beginning, but the ending was most then enough to compensate.

 

Click to reveal..

 

 

Getting to fight in that weird space-world thing was pretty good.

 

 

Overall: A short, fun combat scenario with some cool features and a solid story to boot. Recomended for pretty much anyone who wants to kill a few minutes.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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  • 9 months later...

Content: This scenario is short; the area is small, and there are only a couple combat sequences to worry about. There's a decent amount of good reading involved, but still, don't expect to be playing this one for long.

 

Story: Despite your actual mission in this scenario being short, there's a large chunk of interesting exposition attached to this scenario. You get a tantalizing glimpse at the world it's set in, and it leaves you wanting to know more. I don't remember there much dialogue with NPCs, but the scenario wasn't lacking because of this. The only part I found a bit lacking was NPC motivation, and even then, it's not a deal-breaker.

 

Pacing: Like most small scenarios, pacing really isn't an issue with this scenario. With just one task for your singleton to do, the tension is always kept high.

 

Combat: This scenario recommends you play with a no-magic singleton. I played as pure archer, and I think I had it easier than a pure fighter would have. A limited arrow supply was an issue, however. With only a couple fights, there's not much to say. I did think that the first combat was a tad too difficult, but as long as you use your resources wisely, you should be able to deal with it.

 

Scripting: The scenario allows you the option of backing out without putting a loss on your record if you bring in a party that doesn't fit the flavour of the scenario. Nice. Other than that, you receive some custom items for combat, but that's all I remember.

 

Aesthetics: This scenario is stunning to look at. It uses its jungle tileset to great effect, and the buildings also look great. There's a big difference when you compare it with the base graphics. The setting of the last fight also looks neat, even though I'm not 100% on the why.

 

Overall: A short scenario that's great to look at and great to read. [rating]GOOD[/rating]

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