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==Lost Contact - Part 2==
__TOC__
==Ancestral Spirit - Prologue==


type:  Story (I would have marked it attack)
type:  Story
creatorTheBuzzard
authorDamnagoras
captain:  Wrothkar
captain:  Ape Rahim


summary:
summary:
A quick adventure suitable for captains equipped to fightCan jump in without having played the previous parts in the series.
The adventure title says prologue and that’s mostly all this isIt seems to be focused on giving you some background before you get into what is probably meant to be an adventure series.


story:
story:
Good, simple description hooks interest.  It ended abruptly though and didn’t feel resolvedIt’s part 2 of a series but didn’t rely on having played part 1 to know what was going on.  Simple and short.
It’s very Grox-focused and not very detailed or original.  It could have benefit from some more inspect text in the city to explain what the statues are, etcTalk-to objective text was split in the middle of a sentence with ... a couple times — I prefer to re-work the sentences so that doesn’t need to happen.


spelling/grammar:
spelling/grammar:
Not enough errors to significantly get in the way of enjoying the adventure. I noticed a [i]they’re[/i] that should have been [i]their[/i] and [i],ission[/i] instead of [i]mission[/i].
Just a couple errors: [i]wich[/i], and [i]erease[/i].


creations:
creations:
Buildings looked goodCreatures mostly looked good but some were strange and could have been better outfitted.
The Mysterious Kernavoris’ robes looked a little odd.  I liked the Dera Guards’ outfitsThe buildings in the city looked great!  The vehicles I didn’t see very closely but they looked good from a distance at least.


environment:
environment:
The camera started on the wrong side of the wall — should have started the captain a little further away from it so there was room for the cameraFalling down the elevator shaft was a bit disorienting (took a bit to figure out which way was out), but that seems reasonableConvincing ship interior.
The city environment was well designed — I liked the statues on pedestals and the way the lamps lined the roadwayThe war scenes didn’t seem to have much action — just some vehicles wandering around slowly while troops stood around.  The destroyed city had normal-looking roads except with some cracks, and no buildingsI would have thought the roads would have been more damaged since the buildings were completely decimated.


captain competence:
captain competence:
A number of creatures with 50 health had to be defeated, and some had missile launchers.  I had to be careful even though my captain had all warrior weapons.  There were a couple health and energy powerups but they didn’t seem to respawn and taking hits from 3 missile attacks at once would take out most of my captains.  There were grenades that took 1500 off buildings, but they could have been set to regenerate for captains without weapons.  I wouldn’t recommend this for a captain without ranged warrior weapons.
Any captain can complete this adventure.


puzzles:
puzzles:
Some objectives hidden, and you might sometimes miss inspecting something and then get stuck.  Other than that, what you need to do is obvious even if it is a hidden objective.  Nothing you need to figure out, and you probably don’t even need to read anything to complete the mission.
Most acts have you walk through a nearby portal and then talk to a character, so you should always know what to do.


overall:  average
overall:  average


==Occupation==


 
type:  Story
==Blowing up the warehouse==
authorHarlequin2
 
captain:  Automatt
type:  none
creatorDamnagoras
captain:  Andarius


summary:
summary:
a quick mission where you blow up a building.  that’s really all there is to it.
A quick adventure suitable for a captain with some combat abilities.


story:
story:
a guy in an alley wants you to blow up the warehouse, so you dothat is all.
A political struggle where you’re brought in to take down an official of the occupying force.  It feels like there’s more to the story but the good stuff is still in the author’s head, maybe to be revealed in later sequel adventures.  Lots of inspect text on characters, signs, etc.  I was surprised that the statue in the town square didn’t have any inspect text though.  Most of it gives you an idea of what people think of the occupationI like to read everything so I spent some more time looking around once I had reached the next objective.


spelling/grammar:
spelling/grammar:
didn’t notice any errors — hooray!
I only noticed one spelling error:  [i]alligence[/i].


creations:
creations:
city buildings were a little cartoony and the one creature could have looked better.
Some of the outfitting was interesting, but I wasn’t that into the creatures themselves.  I liked the pictures on the wall inside the building.  The buildings could have benefit from more details and the paint didn’t always make the most sense.  Vehicles were pretty good.


environment:
environments:
buildings should have been sunken into the ground a bit so they don’t look to be floating. believable city environment.
I liked the starting area, town square, checkpoints, and the tower building interior.  Coming out onto the roof and seeing the town square down below made for a nice view! The buildings of the city felt more like walls than buildings though.


captain competence:
captain competence:
any captain should be able to complete this mission without issue.
You’ll need either sneak or some basic fighting skills to get past the checkpoints, then you’ll definitely need some fighting skills for later objectives that require you to take out some guards.  There are powerups around but no grenades and you’re up against three enemies at once.


puzzles:
puzzles:
simple, unhidden objectives only.
There’s one hidden objective where you have to find something, but the area to search isn’t that large and I pretty much went straight to it.


overall:  below average.
overall:  average
 
 
 
==Dark Labyrinth==
 
type:  Puzzle
author:  Arisilde
captain:  Ape Rahim
 
summary:
A very difficult maze in a dark setting.
 
story:
Not much of a story — you get stuck in the labyrinth and figure that if you get to the center you can probably get out.
 
spelling/grammar:
I didn’t notice anything, but there wasn’t much text either.
 
creations:
A handful of creepy things haunt the maze.  I couldn’t see them all that well but they did a good of looking creepy and crawly.  The maze walls actually look like really good boulder walls.
 
environment:
It’s definitely dark!  The darkness, the music, and the sound of creatures stirring while you frantically try to find your way to the center of the labyrinth give it an anxious feel.
 
captain competence:
There are respawning creatures in the labyrinth so you’ll probably need a captain attack, health regeneration, or sneak to survive them.
 
puzzles:
The point of the adventure is that it’s a maze, which is a form of puzzle.  I have not yet been able to actually complete the maze without looking at a map I traced the route on after pulling off the ceiling and taking a screenshot.
 
overall:  above average
 
==◄Live or Die►==
 
type:  Explore
author:  pelicanthor
captain:  Ape Rahim
 
summary:
Explore a beautiful island to find the supplies you need to survive until help arrives.  Most acts can be completed in multiple different ways, so you may even find yourself wanting to try it again a few times until you’ve experienced them all.
 
story:
A basic story of being stranded on an island and needing to survive until you are rescued.  There are multiple ways of completing each act, giving this adventure a unique replay value.
 
spelling/grammar:
I only noticed one typo:  [i]becuase[/i].
 
creations:
The turtles face animated in a strange and disturbing way, but only the first time I talked to him.  The leaves kept disappearing and reappearing throughout the whole time I played.  I think both of these were just flukes but I don’t normally see that sort of thing.  The few creations in this adventure looked pretty good, and I had a laugh over the rescue boat at the end.
 
environment:
Excellent use of scenery pieces and effects to create a beautiful island.  I’m still not quite sure which part of the island was the beach, which was somewhat frustrating when it told me I needed to find supplies there.  I only played once so far, so didn’t experience the random start position that it sounded like it has.
 
captain competence:
Any captain can complete this mission as no captain skills are required.
 
puzzles:
Most acts have an exploration-based puzzle, where you need to find the appropriate supplies to complete the goal.  You tend to have a few choices as to how exacly you want to complete it.  The turtle who follows you around tends to give pretty specific hints, and talking to him is one of the goals just about every act.
 
overall:  above average
 
==Super-Gravitonga!==
 
type:  Quest
author:  Parkaboy
captain:  Ape Rahim
 
summary:
A quick adventure where you need to safely bring a criminal to justice.
 
story:
It’s actually not a Gravitonga adventure — the stadium is closed due to thievery!  The thief was named Kleptlug, and kleptomaniac is someone who has a strong urge to steal everything, so I liked the naming there.
 
spelling/grammar:
The only error I noticed was in the failure message:  [i]escape/escaped[/i].


creations:
==Moneygrubber(TM)==
This adventure has the usual high quality level of Parkaboy’s creations.


environment:
type:  Collect
I liked how the edges of the roads were lined.  The city was very simple but that made sense since it was pretty much just an arena and a hotel.
 
captain competence:
A captain attack or two is definitely helpful as there are creatures who will kill your objective if you don’t keep them at bay.  With some planning ahead you should be able to take care of them beforehand if you have weaker attacks.  I didn’t see any powerups or grenades to help.
 
puzzles:
There’s a sort of a puzzle in luring the thief without the animals killing him and without getting caught in his trap.  My first attempt the animals killed the thief, and my second I wasn’t far enough ahead of him and got caught in the trap with him.
 
overall:  above average
 
==Before the Light==
 
type:  Puzzle
author:  Slyth33
captain:  Ape Rahim
 
summary:
 
 
story:
The story is optional since there isn’t much of it in the normal flow of the adventure.  I liked the way the altars spoke in rhyme and the inspect text telling the stories of those who had come through in the past.
 
spelling/grammar:
In reading through everything I found a couple errors:  [i]Fithful[/i], [i]ahaed[/i], and [i]replenised[/i]
 
creations:
There are no creations in this adventure, so nothing to say here . . .
 
environment:
Excellent use of scenery pieces throughout the adventure, which of course it would need to do since there aren’t any creations.  The effects also added a lot, often by obscuring your objective.  I enjoyed jumping into the unknown, discovering invisible bridges, peeking under smoke and fog to see where to go next, and just taking in all the sights!
 
captain competence:
You don’t need any specific abilities, but you might be able to cheat some of the puzzles with enough jump / glide skills.  My captain was able to climb back up a cliff using level 1 jump after falling off an invisible bridge.
 
puzzles:
Most of 5 altars you must reach have some sort of puzzle you have to solve in order to reach the altar.  I think exactly one of them gave a hint about solving the puzzle, but they’re not overly difficult.
 
overall:  above average
 
==Snowed In==
 
type:  collect
author:  Xenopologist
author:  Xenopologist
captain:  Ape Rahim
captain:  Automatt
 
summary:
A fun bounce adventure with nice-looking creations.
 
story:
More story than you might expect for a bouncing / collection adventure, which makes it more fun.  The Andurith on the shuttle says the solar trees are behind him but they’re actually off to his left.
 
spelling/grammar:
I didn’t notice any errors, though there were more quotation marks than I would have used.
 
creations:
I really liked the Andurith creatures.  The solar trees, shuttle, and cannon also looked great.
 
environment:
I’m not sure why exactly, but I thought it would have made more sense for the shuttle to actually be over the area where the solar trees were.  Still it was a nice winter-wonderland setting.
 
captain competence:
It would definitely be helpful to have glide here, but I got through it with just level 1 jump.  It might be difficult to make it from the shuttle to the first solar tree with just running (though sprint probably helps too).
 
puzzles:
Straightforward objectives, but some strategy is required in order to reach some of the higher / further away snow piles.  Thankfully you don’t need to collect ALL of them.
 
overall:  above average
 
==a Tale to Tell==
 
type:  story
author:  emperormiguel
captain:  (locked)


summary:
summary:
I was only able to get as far as act VI because the character I had to give an item to would not take it.  In order to complete it, I played it from the editor and once I had tried to give the item to complete act VI, I skipped to the next act.  One person completed it though but another had the same percentage as me, so I’m calling this one impossible (red face).
A minigame that just wasn’t fun or interesting to me, maybe because I was bad at it.


story:
story:
It’s framed as a legend told to youngsters, but you’re actually playing the legend to tell the story.  The story was set up well in the beginning, but then didn’t develop as I progressed through the acts and then ended abruptly (apparently it’s the first in a series).  In act IV the objective is to talk to Thunder strike, who is still in the village, but you need to talk to the version of him outside of the village so the one in the village really shouldn’t have been there anymore.  It looks like both are in the game for every act.
It’s a minigame, so the story is that you’re going to play the game.


spelling/grammar:
spelling/grammar:
The title starts with a lower case letter.  There are rarely spaces after the punctuation (commas, periods, or colons).  [i]what is the latest reports[/i], [i]thier[/i]/[i]they’re[/i], [i]your[/i]/[i]you’re[/i], [i]do you both have plan[/i], [i]honnor[/i], [i]prescence[/i], [i]valuebal[/i], [i]will[/i]/[i]we’ll[/i], [i]alot[/i], and [i]their[/i]/[i]there[/i].
No errors!


creations:
creations:
The main adventure screenshot is interesting (though I didn’t see it in the actual adventure), and the others would be too except that they are clearly from within the editor since you can see all the highlighting and respawn numbers that the editor puts in.  The villagers were well outfitted but could have looked better with more color.  Something like Zar village is green and another village is purple, etc.  There are some great scenery creations like the shipwreck, the bridge, the dock, the boat, the ruins, etc.
There’s a round-walled building you start in but the rest is built-in props.  The one creation isn’t all that interesting but does its job just fine.


environment:
environment:
The captain starts out with his back right up against a building, which put the camera actually inside the building so I saw a close-up of the captain's back through the crossbars of the windowThe hostiles in the “level 1” area seemed to respawn too quickly — I’d have just walked by and then as I walked back there they were again.  Also many enemies had charge and / or freeze blast, and it is not fun to stand there stunned and / or frozen unable to do anything.  Everything seemed unreasonably close together, with the exception of the imperial scout camp.
The planet appears to be completely flatThere’s a starting area and then the pile of coins, both of which were very simple.


captain competence:
captain competence:
N/A:  locked captain.
There’s a pile of coins on top of some mines and you need to collect them, so a skinnier captain will probably have an easier time moving around the mines.


puzzles:
puzzles:
Everything I got to seemed pretty straightforwardIf you were able to find enough coins you could buy access to a map which would help you to know where to go in case you had trouble with that.
There’s a time limit, so you’ll need a strategy for getting close but not too close to those mines so you can grab all the coinsMaybe there’s a trick to it I didn’t get, but I didn’t stand much of a chance!


overall:  impossible
overall:  bad


==Flaxius - The Staff (V2 quikfix)==


type:  Puzzle
==A W☯rld Devoid==
author:  Bluhman
type:  quest
author:  doozerdude
captain:  Ape Rahim
captain:  Ape Rahim


summary:
summary:
Some very difficult puzzles make completing this great-looking adventure feel like an accomplishmentIt has four puzzles to solve which can be done in any order.
A nice balance between story and small battles.  I really got into the conflict going on here, but there are still a couple little things that could get in the way of having a truly amazing adventure experience.  This is version 2 of an adventure I’d played before, so I knew what to doI liked the previous version, and when doozerdude told me he‘d made a version 2 I actually installed Spore to check it out.


story:
story:
It seemed to fit into a larger story — I’m fairly certain it’s part of a seriesEach of the four puzzles aligns with one of the four elements:  earth, air, fire, and waterThe air and fire puzzles had some interesting reading and there was some non-puzzle-related inspect text to give a little more of an idea what was going on.
The story really drew me in — the history behind each of the factions was interesting.  It felt like there may have been a larger story (a matter of days / weeks / months elsewhere lasted 200 years on this planet) that was only just hinted atWhile there was room for more story, there was enough of it to satisfy.  There were a few minor inconsistencies such as the mechanic saying the explosives are C4 but you they’re labelled grenade, and the mafia / thug guy saying you can take 2 weapons even though you have 3 crew slots (I think there’s only enough money around for 2)Mezior said he would escort me to the door but he was already at the door since he gets to the captain and then takes off for the door right away.


spelling/grammar:
spelling/grammar:
I didn’t notice any errors.
Elite is spelled with £ instead of an E, but £ is actually a stylized L.  Only had two spelling/grammar errors of [i]anyways[/i]/[i]anyway[/i], [i]passed[/i]/[i]past[/i].  Hunes Jr. sometimes has the dot and sometimes doesn’t.


creations:
creations:
Everything looked greatMost of the creations in this adventure are buildings, including a lot of great-looking archways.
Creatures and buildings look awesomeI like the steampunk style of the city, the godfather’s mansion, the scientist’s cavern, and the bikers . . . which is almost all the creations in the adventure.  Basically that means you see lots of great-looking stuff when you play this.  


environment:
environment:
Great use of visual and sound effects to suit the elements.  I really liked how the dirt roads looked on the black planetGreat placement of scenery pieces as well.
The music fit well with what was going on and added to the mood.  My captain was shorter than the tables in the bar, but he was able to take an object off the table without any trouble.  Same with the book on the scientist’s table.  I had a little trouble getting up the stairs in the godfather’s mansion, but managed it without jumpIt seemed odd that the guy running the town would have a set of stairs boarded off in his mansion ― shouldn’t he be able to get it fixed?  It was hard to see during the battle if you have a low camera angle, probably because of the thick atmosphere.  There’s a teleporter still intact after the building it’s for has been blown up.


captain competence:
captain competence:
No special abilities are required so any captain can complete this adventure.
There are weapon creatures you can ally with in case you don’t have much firepower of your own.  I tried three of the four (in two plays, since I can only find enough cash for two) and they all did level 1 sing so any captain should be able to handle that.  You have to socialize with them twice to ally though ― would have been nice if they had started out friendly.  There’s a biker fight which your side tells you they would appreciate your help, and even with a little help from my captain only one of my side survived. You need to finish off the enemy. Everyone has a lot of health (especially you) and there are respawning powerups on the battlefield, so you could probably make it without warrior/shaman weapons, especially if you allied a couple weapon creatures.


puzzles:
puzzles:
There are four separate puzzles in this adventure that you can complete in any order.  They are more difficult than most puzzles you tend to see in adventures, but (with the possible exception of one) can be solved via means other than guess-and-check or peeking in the editorI found the earth puzzle to be the easiest and still don’t understand what was going on with the water puzzle (solved that one by guess-and-check)For the fire puzzle it makes a big difference if you know how to play chess.  The air puzzle took me a lot longer than it should have to figure out, and each time you choose wrong you have to quit the mission and start over.  Messing up the fire puzzle gets you killed.  The earth and water puzzles you can keep trying the wrong thing as long as you like (so long as you don’t fall in the water.
The first objectives are hidden, which means you need to explore the well-designed cityMost of it is pretty straightforward, though there is a bit of a puzzle in Act VII with some strong hintsIn Act VIII you go through a portal but it’s unclear that after you take care of business there you need to go back through the portal behind you, not into the city.


overall:  amazing
overall:  good

Latest revision as of 22:11, 1 June 2011

Ancestral Spirit - Prologue

type: Story author: Damnagoras captain: Ape Rahim

summary: The adventure title says prologue and that’s mostly all this is. It seems to be focused on giving you some background before you get into what is probably meant to be an adventure series.

story: It’s very Grox-focused and not very detailed or original. It could have benefit from some more inspect text in the city to explain what the statues are, etc. Talk-to objective text was split in the middle of a sentence with ... a couple times — I prefer to re-work the sentences so that doesn’t need to happen.

spelling/grammar: Just a couple errors: [i]wich[/i], and [i]erease[/i].

creations: The Mysterious Kernavoris’ robes looked a little odd. I liked the Dera Guards’ outfits. The buildings in the city looked great! The vehicles I didn’t see very closely but they looked good from a distance at least.

environment: The city environment was well designed — I liked the statues on pedestals and the way the lamps lined the roadway. The war scenes didn’t seem to have much action — just some vehicles wandering around slowly while troops stood around. The destroyed city had normal-looking roads except with some cracks, and no buildings. I would have thought the roads would have been more damaged since the buildings were completely decimated.

captain competence: Any captain can complete this adventure.

puzzles: Most acts have you walk through a nearby portal and then talk to a character, so you should always know what to do.

overall: average

Occupation

type: Story author: Harlequin2 captain: Automatt

summary: A quick adventure suitable for a captain with some combat abilities.

story: A political struggle where you’re brought in to take down an official of the occupying force. It feels like there’s more to the story but the good stuff is still in the author’s head, maybe to be revealed in later sequel adventures. Lots of inspect text on characters, signs, etc. I was surprised that the statue in the town square didn’t have any inspect text though. Most of it gives you an idea of what people think of the occupation. I like to read everything so I spent some more time looking around once I had reached the next objective.

spelling/grammar: I only noticed one spelling error: [i]alligence[/i].

creations: Some of the outfitting was interesting, but I wasn’t that into the creatures themselves. I liked the pictures on the wall inside the building. The buildings could have benefit from more details and the paint didn’t always make the most sense. Vehicles were pretty good.

environments: I liked the starting area, town square, checkpoints, and the tower building interior. Coming out onto the roof and seeing the town square down below made for a nice view! The buildings of the city felt more like walls than buildings though.

captain competence: You’ll need either sneak or some basic fighting skills to get past the checkpoints, then you’ll definitely need some fighting skills for later objectives that require you to take out some guards. There are powerups around but no grenades and you’re up against three enemies at once.

puzzles: There’s one hidden objective where you have to find something, but the area to search isn’t that large and I pretty much went straight to it.

overall: average

Moneygrubber(TM)

type: Collect author: Xenopologist captain: Automatt

summary: A minigame that just wasn’t fun or interesting to me, maybe because I was bad at it.

story: It’s a minigame, so the story is that you’re going to play the game.

spelling/grammar: No errors!

creations: There’s a round-walled building you start in but the rest is built-in props. The one creation isn’t all that interesting but does its job just fine.

environment: The planet appears to be completely flat. There’s a starting area and then the pile of coins, both of which were very simple.

captain competence: There’s a pile of coins on top of some mines and you need to collect them, so a skinnier captain will probably have an easier time moving around the mines.

puzzles: There’s a time limit, so you’ll need a strategy for getting close but not too close to those mines so you can grab all the coins. Maybe there’s a trick to it I didn’t get, but I didn’t stand much of a chance!

overall: bad


A W☯rld Devoid

type: quest author: doozerdude captain: Ape Rahim

summary: A nice balance between story and small battles. I really got into the conflict going on here, but there are still a couple little things that could get in the way of having a truly amazing adventure experience. This is version 2 of an adventure I’d played before, so I knew what to do. I liked the previous version, and when doozerdude told me he‘d made a version 2 I actually installed Spore to check it out.

story: The story really drew me in — the history behind each of the factions was interesting. It felt like there may have been a larger story (a matter of days / weeks / months elsewhere lasted 200 years on this planet) that was only just hinted at. While there was room for more story, there was enough of it to satisfy. There were a few minor inconsistencies such as the mechanic saying the explosives are C4 but you they’re labelled grenade, and the mafia / thug guy saying you can take 2 weapons even though you have 3 crew slots (I think there’s only enough money around for 2). Mezior said he would escort me to the door but he was already at the door since he gets to the captain and then takes off for the door right away.

spelling/grammar: Elite is spelled with £ instead of an E, but £ is actually a stylized L. Only had two spelling/grammar errors of [i]anyways[/i]/[i]anyway[/i], [i]passed[/i]/[i]past[/i]. Hunes Jr. sometimes has the dot and sometimes doesn’t.

creations: Creatures and buildings look awesome! I like the steampunk style of the city, the godfather’s mansion, the scientist’s cavern, and the bikers . . . which is almost all the creations in the adventure. Basically that means you see lots of great-looking stuff when you play this.

environment: The music fit well with what was going on and added to the mood. My captain was shorter than the tables in the bar, but he was able to take an object off the table without any trouble. Same with the book on the scientist’s table. I had a little trouble getting up the stairs in the godfather’s mansion, but managed it without jump. It seemed odd that the guy running the town would have a set of stairs boarded off in his mansion ― shouldn’t he be able to get it fixed? It was hard to see during the battle if you have a low camera angle, probably because of the thick atmosphere. There’s a teleporter still intact after the building it’s for has been blown up.

captain competence: There are weapon creatures you can ally with in case you don’t have much firepower of your own. I tried three of the four (in two plays, since I can only find enough cash for two) and they all did level 1 sing so any captain should be able to handle that. You have to socialize with them twice to ally though ― would have been nice if they had started out friendly. There’s a biker fight which your side tells you they would appreciate your help, and even with a little help from my captain only one of my side survived. You need to finish off the enemy. Everyone has a lot of health (especially you) and there are respawning powerups on the battlefield, so you could probably make it without warrior/shaman weapons, especially if you allied a couple weapon creatures.

puzzles: The first objectives are hidden, which means you need to explore the well-designed city. Most of it is pretty straightforward, though there is a bit of a puzzle in Act VII with some strong hints. In Act VIII you go through a portal but it’s unclear that after you take care of business there you need to go back through the portal behind you, not into the city.

overall: good