User:Misterhaan/HUAR

Lost Contact - Part 2

type: Story (I would have marked it attack) creator: TheBuzzard captain: Wrothkar

summary: A quick adventure suitable for captains equipped to fight. Can jump in without having played the previous parts in the series.

story: Good, simple description hooks interest. It ended abruptly though and didn’t feel resolved. It’s part 2 of a series but didn’t rely on having played part 1 to know what was going on. Simple and short.

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].

creations: Buildings looked good. Creatures mostly looked good but some were strange and could have been better outfitted.

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 camera. Falling down the elevator shaft was a bit disorienting (took a bit to figure out which way was out), but that seems reasonable. Convincing ship interior.

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.

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.

overall: average

Lost Contact - Part 3

type: story creator: TheBuzzard captain: Wrothkar

summary: a quick adventure suited to any captain. can jump in without having played the previous parts in the series.

story: ended abruptly. part 3 but didn’t require knowledge of the first 2 parts. the original mission wasn’t accomplished due to getting sidetracked by what was found, but that part was actually interesting. i didn’t appreciate ending with my captain in danger though.

spelling/grammar: i noticed enough problems to take away from my enjoyment of this adventure: its instead of it’s, accessable instead of accessible, projecter instead of projector, suddnely instead of suddenly, and here instead of hear.

creations: buildings and creatures both looked good. nothing impressive but nothing awful either.

environment: camera started on the wrong side of the wall, so move the captain further away from the wall so there’s room for the camera. the carrier ship interior seemed more like a cargo bay than a ship. props used in objectives were named the default “space silo” and “colony bio protector.” similary, a disguised teleporter is named “teleporter” even though the story called it a cctv console. the cctv effect was pretty cool, but telling me not to worry that i can’t move when it’s already been explained that we’re watching the video from the camera reminded me that i was playing a game.

captain competence: plenty of allies during combat, so you have the option to sit back and watch. should be completable by any captain.

puzzles: some objectives hidden, but what you need to do is always obvious.

overall: average

Lost Contact - Part 4

type: story (i would have marked it attack) creator: TheBuzzard captain: Wrothkar

summary: a quick escape combat mission with lighter combat probably doable without captain weapons. watch out for a hidden objective you may not notice (look around if you get stuck). stands on its own pretty well even though it’s part 4 of a series.

story: part 4, but makes enough sense without knowing parts 1-3. ending feels like a reasonable place to end, unlike some series adventures which just end abruptly. not much to the story; more of a combat mission where you’re fighting your way out.

spelling/grammar: didn’t notice any mistakes — hooray!

creations: the hives could have looked better. everything else was good.

environment: convincing spaceship interior. i had some trouble with grenades exploding me as soon as i threw them, but that could be due to my captain having long arms with hands down near his feet. the light effect near the end was a bit blinding making it hard to see the rest of the room.

captain competence: combat-heavy mission, but enemies have reasonable amount of health and don’t pack too much punch. you’ll want a captain with warrior parts but i don’t think you would need them.

puzzles: some hidden objectives, including talking to a creature who is hiding and difficult to notice. other than the hiding creature it’s obvious what to do next. some of the text even gives unneccessary hints.

overall: average

Malakati - Galactic Hero

type: story creator: LeeMortis captain: Wrothkar

summary: a unique adventure where you help out from the sidelines. very nice to look at but some technical difficulties can make it frustrating.

story: the story is simple but adequate; mostly a framework for why you’re helping the other guy through tests. it said a recorder bot would come to the valley at the end but none did.

spelling/grammar: not enough problems to detract from the story, but i did notice a few: it’s/its, comma splices, and captain’s/captains.

creations: creatures looked great — especially the bots and the malakati. buildings were pretty good as well.

environment: it looks like there’s a dirt path that has a hut right on top of it, which doesn’t seem natural. i think it’s a dirt clearing and not a path, but doesn’t look quite right. after leaving the spaceship the path to the village is too far away to see, so you start out disoriented. the first time i reached the last act i failed because i followed the wrong character and then the right one died since i wasn’t there to help him. would have been nice if he would have only walked if i was nearby. it was slightly annoying having to walk to and from the spaceship throughout the mission as well — couldn’t we have communicated through the test station desk?

captain competence: for the second test, the captain seems to require pulse blast or missile attack. also some sort of shaman / warrior weapons for taking out the spiders in the last act. i used a lot of missile attack in this adventure. there could have been more grenades in the last act for clearing spiders, and the way the tests were supposed to work you shouldn’t need weapons for them.

puzzles: helping bikli doesn’t seem to work quite right, which is this adventure’s biggest drawback. on the first test, i multiple times experienced him take a wrong card, and when i threw the stop stick he dropped it but then kept trying to pick it up again until the stop stick wore out. he’d then pick it up and get killed before the stop stick regenerated. i got past it based on luck of him picking up the right one first. the second test i couldn’t throw the fruit far enough for the spiders to pick it up, but i managed to kill them myself from the platform using my missile attack. the third test was also easier with missile attack than with throwing grenades, though i think it would have worked with the grenades. if what you were supposed to do for the tests worked better the overall rating would have been amazing, but the problems with the first and second test were frustrating enough that i don’t think i’ll try this one with my other captains.

overall: above average

A World Devoid

type: quest creator: doozerdude captain: Andarius

summary: a nice balance between story and small battles. i really got into the conflict going on here, but there were a couple little things that could get in the way of having a truly amazing adventure experience.

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 some problems with continuity though, which are easy to fix: hunes jr seemed to talk like he had defeated all the herex, but there were 3 standing behind him doing nothing with half health. for my second attempt i went straight to the camp instead of following the herex so they were still standing around outside. there were multiple issues like that where things that should have been out of the adventure by the current act were still there (like a teleporter to a building that had been blown up), which is one of two things keeping this from the highest possible overall rating.

spelling/grammar: i noticed enough spelling errors to affect the overall rating: equippment, ecconomy, conpiring, haning, thats, anyways, unwated, and morcels. also i think one of the units names intended to spell “elite” with the £ symbol, which is a bit strange since it’s a stylized L, not a stylized E.

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 had trouble grabbing the bag of money off the table in the bar, but did manage to reach it. same issue with the book on the scientist’s table. it was really dark in the scientist’s place, to the point where i could barely see the walls. when going back to the godfather’s mansion in the last act. sometimes there were gates to keep you out of an area, but they didn’t surround the whole thing so if you didn’t give up immediately you got where you weren’t supposed to go.

captain competence: there’s a biker fight which your side tells you they would appreciate your help, and even with a little help from my shaman captain most of my side didn’t survive. 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. if you have decent social skills (or pick the right box) you can ally with some “weapons.” there are 4 of them but i only found enough cash for 1. the one i got the second time through (couldn’t sing well enough for the one in the biggest box the first time) had infinite health and made combat go a lot faster. if you can ally 2 or 3 weapons you shouldn’t need captain attacks of your own.

puzzles: 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 finding the scientist’s secret stash. it was unclear what to do in the last act — not sure if i missed something i should have read or if it didn’t explain what to do after going through the portal.

overall: above average

A Day At The Zoo

type: exploration creator: GrandPeep captain: Andarius

summary: a nice looking zoo, but i expected more depth. since there’s nothing to read about the animals in the zoo i didn’t see much reason to keep looking at them.

story: it’s a zoo, so there are animals in cages. i expected there to be signs near the cages with some information on the animals, but there wasn’t.

spelling/grammar: the description has a comma splice and [i]lets/let’s[/i]. opening text has both [i]let[/i] and [i]lets[/i] instead of [i]let’s[/i]. there wasn’t much text beyond that so pretty high spelling error density here.

creations: a ticket collector, a bunch of animals, and some cages. the cages were simple but accurate to what you would expect a real zoo to have.

environment: i liked how the chain link fence was used with the cage props. the birds also flew around inside their cage pretty well — too bad you can hear and see the effects of the jump pads.

captain competence: my captain is pretty tall and i thought he wouldn’t be able to fit in the covered bridge to get into the zoo, but he did. if your captain is even taller and doesn’t have jump, you might not be able to see the zoo up close. of course you don’t need to do that to complete the mission.

puzzles: two simple objectives.

overall: below average

Blowing up the warehouse

type: none creator: Damnagoras captain: Andarius

summary: a quick mission where you blow up a building. that’s really all there is to it.

story: a guy in an alley wants you to blow up the warehouse, so you do. that is all.

spelling/grammar: didn’t notice any errors — hooray!

creations: city buildings were a little cartoony and the one creature could have looked better.

environment: buildings should have been sunken into the ground a bit so they don’t look to be floating. believable city environment.

captain competence: any captain should be able to complete this mission without issue.

puzzles: simple, unhidden objectives only.

overall: below average.

Dark Journey

type: puzzle creator: jschwegman captain: Mantesch IV

summary: a deep thought-provoking puzzle adventure with a roomful of hints to help you through the puzzles if you need it.

story: there’s a whole lot of story in this adventure. i don’t want to say too much about it because a lot of the fun is seeing the story unfold. there’s a twist at the end that made me want to play it again and pay more attention to the story knowing about the twist.

spelling/grammar: i couldn’t find a single spelling or grammar error. there's a lot of text too so that's saying something!

creations: creatures, buildings, and props look great! i especially liked the outfits of the gizmeck people and their wooden village and airships.

environment: believable villages and eventually caverns and ruins. i thought the smoke and fire was thicker than it needed to be since it was difficult to see through, but that very well could have been on purpose.

captain competence: i had a different captain get stuck in the ground when walking through the ruins halfway through. captains with jump should be able to free themselves if this happens. toward the end you need to destroy a building with 40 health while a mostly indestructable enemy attacks you, so you’ll want either a reasonable attack to get through it quickly or some stamina to survive while you bite it one or two health at a time.

puzzles: almost each act is a puzzle which is interesting and challenging but still reasonable. if you pay attention to what the characters tell you, they give you a pretty good idea of what you need to do. if that’s not enough for you, there’s a room full of hint scrolls at the beginning so if you get stuck and need to restart you can read up to the part where you got stuck.

overall: amazing!

Cyclops needs help

type: none (combat) creator: Himmelslaub captain: Mantesch IV

summary: a simple uninteresting combat adventure that feels unfinished.

story: i don’t think there actually is a story. there’s no description. start message doesn’t make any sense. no victory message.

spelling/grammar: “Puppetiers,” and a creature is named Cylops but the name of the adventure says Cyclops. i expect there would have been more but there was very little text whatsoever.

creations: Everything’s very colorful. Nothing really stands out as good or bad here.

environment: screenshot is taken from the editor with a creature higlighted, and there’s only one screenshot. there isn’t much of an environment, it’s an island with some crystals and buildings scattered about.

captain competence: you need to kill 15 creatures who have over 100 health each so it would be helpful to have some strong attacks. if you don’t you may need health regeneration or some zealot armor since there aren’t any powerups either.

puzzles: it’s a little difficult to track down the last few creatures you need to kill. they tend to trap the creatures you need to protect in the water against one of the crystals.

overall: below average

Hardware Failure v2-Hotfix

type: puzzle creator: Ryuujin captain: Mantesch IV

summary: a stealth mission that uses advanced behavior and goals to actually force you to stay away from the guards, followed by a puzzle to disable a large machine.

story: pretty similar to the scientist mission from maxis — you need to sneak into the enemy base and disable the mech they’ve been working on. the specifics are plenty original though! the story isn’t especially strong but is certainly adequate.

spelling/grammar: “rendevous” was the only spelling error i noticed.

creations: i especially like the squidlike enemies and the motorcycles, but really everything looks great!

environment: feels like a mostly wild planet which happens to house a military base. it does a good job of starting you out in the wild while making it clear that there's something nearby. the stationary vehicles are a nice touch, and good use of effects to look like a fuel spill and to have craters appear.

captain competence: any captain should be able to do this, though you probably want a 4 or 5 speed rating. it feels like having sneak might help -- i used it but i'm not sure if i needed to. it kept the wild animals from attacking at least.

puzzles: it's unclear which way you need to go through the ravines, and since there are sentries running around who might spot you, it would be nice to have some sort of hint whether that way where the guy always catches you is even the right way. i believe when i first played it i got frustrated enough with possibly going the wrong way that i looked around in the editor and figured out a path that way -- turned out i WAS going the wrong way! for the first puzzle not counting finding your way in, you pretty much have to stumble upon while being chased by an invincible enemy. some sort of hint here would be nice -- i first tried to use what you actually end up using to attack the enemy in the following act, since i knew that was there.

overall: amazing!

Prison Planet

type: quest (collect) author: Parkaboy captain: Mantesch IV

summary: another one of those missions where you go do what the guy asked, then go back to see what else he wants you to do. at the end it turns into a combat mission, which could be frustrating if you're not equipped for it. its saving grace is the great-looking creatures Parkaboy is known for.

story: many of the acts had a description but no title. i enjoyed the jokes about which professions are useless. would have been nice to add one more act to chat with the fluff leader and close out the story more smoothly. the first 2 acts could probably be combined to support this. it's also a little odd that the text once you beam down asks if it's a good idea to answer the distress signal.

spelling/grammar: nead/need, a herb, wothout. SOS is used to mean distress signal, but since it means "save our ship" that doesn't fit as well as it should.

creations: creatures look great and very parkaboy-esque. buildings are pretty simple but that fits the story. the leader's belt isn't all that easy to notice so it sometimes take a while to figure out which fluff to talk to.

environment: it's fun to see the fluffs build their encampment as you deliver the goods they ask for. the planet appears lush and full of life, but the fluff seem to think it doesn't support life (they probably just mean it's not safe for them, but it's still a little strange). on the 6th act the disappearing held object quirk could have been avoided by having a tree at the top of the hill you give the item to, which could even show the object in the tree for the next act.

captain competence: the first few acts have some angry animals who might cause you some trouble -- i used sneak and they left me alone. you could probably run away from them otherwise. in the last act, the enemy ranor beat me to a pulp in a very short time the first time playing, and my captain is protected by all 4 zealot parts and has the first 2 shaman attacks! while there are health powerups (nicely disguised as plants), they don't appear to respawn and the enemies have 250 health each so you'll enjoy this part much more if you can decimate them with some more powerful warrior attacks.

puzzles: everything is straightforward, though you may need some strategy to help you defeat the enemies in the last act.

overall: average

Bubbles

type: none author: Creepers79 captain: Mantesch IV

summary: this adventure appears to be more about the way the planet looks than the actual adventure, but for some reason it has objectives anyway. you can get all the enjoyment there is to be had by simply looking at the png for this one.

story: there is no story. no opening text and no winning text either. i didn't lose, but i suspect there's no losing text.

spelling/grammar: there's no text so this category doesn't even apply.

creations: only two screenshots, and both are the planet (i think). the planet looks very unique and the one creature in it looks decent.

environment: doesn't work at all as a playable adventure. it's very blue, and there's an overuse of visual effects near the objectives such that my high end machine stopped displaying a lot of them.

captain competence: since there's a battle with an epic at the end for some reason, you probably want some powerful attacks so it doesn't take too long. there are health and energy powerups that look like they respawn quick enough, but the creature has over 3000 health so it's going to take some time.

puzzles: it's maybe sort of a puzzle how to get to the first objective, but since there's an undisguised teleporter it's pretty easy to figure out.

overall: below average

The Fog

type: Defend (explore / combat) author: Luminar captain: Mantesch IV

summary: If there was a horror category for adventures this one would surely qualify! You get drawn into a struggle with an unseen evil force. The style smoothly alternates between exploration and combat a couple times. It has a big feel even though it takes place in a small area.

story: You can click on the buildings to investigate them, which really adds a lot to the story. The writing style is very descriptive and goes a long way to set a dire mood. I like the way it starts you off on your own but as the situation gets worse more friends show up.

spelling/grammar: There are missing apostrophes in the journal when its writer starts rambling, but you can’t really expect mad ravings to have perfect grammar. There were a couple minor things like inconsistent capitalization and punctuation order, but they easily get lost amongst all the well-written text.

creations: The adventure screenshots probably could have showcased this one a little better. The creatures look excellent — I especially like the mayor. The buildings are pretty good as well though didn’t stand out to me as much.

environment: The abundance of trees, the rain effect everywhere, and then the fog at the “ends” of the river gave this adventure a very ominous feel right from the start. The only sound at the beginning is the rain and the rolling thunder, which adds to the mood. The trees are sometimes troublesome though as they tend to get in the way of clicking on things, so you might need to move the camera more than usual to get around that.

captain competence: You will probably enjoy this more if you have some decent attack skills, though should be able to get by without. Though it’s marked a defend mission, the character you need to defend seems to do a fine job of defending himself.

puzzles: The first acts are hidden objectives, so you have to look around a while and figure out what happened. Both have an effect that should easily draw your attention though, and the area to explore is reasonably limited in size. Later on you need to figure out how to summon the evil creature which takes a bit more thought.

overall: amazing!

Ardok Trang

type: Puzzle author: Nethellus captain: Mantesch IV

summary: A still-life puzzle adventure offering a gloomy look into an ancient civilization — that is, if you can find your way in.

story: The writing is very descriptive and helps set the mood. It weaves a complex story of grand past events. There’s a lot that happened here and all you see directly are the results, but you can easily fill in the rest yourself from reading everything.

spelling/grammar: I only noticed one thing: [i]knifes[/i] instead of [/i]knife’s[/i].

creations: Two of the adventure screenshots show a captain, but it’s open captain. There are no creatures but plenty of stone and machine.

environment: The style filter in effect here adds to the gloom and hopelessness of this adventure. I really liked how nearly everything was made of hexagon shapes. The ruins also looked very believable, especially one of the towers that had partially toppled. Everything was very grey except for the important pieces which were green or light blue — the contrast there was valuable in highligting for the player what is important.

captain competence: Any captain should be able to complete this adventure.

puzzles: All objectives are hidden so you definitely need to think in order to complete this mission. The first two puzzles are the exploration kind where you need to find certain objects and put them in their correct place. The next one then gives a strong hint but as it required me to have been paying attention to a specific part of the sequence of events leading up to that puzzle, I did was a little unhappy about needing to retrace my steps to figure it out.

overall: amazing!

The Eye of Ragnoroth

type: Quest (puzzle) author: jschwegman captain: Mantesch IV

summary: This dark adventure mixes exploration with sabotage, a rich story, and intelligent puzzles. Its major flaw is that placement of objects for the 7th act changed with a patch and they are now inaccessible leaving you trapped the first time since you didn’t know to plan ahead for it.

story: The name Ragnoroth in the title makes me think of Ragnarök from Norse Mythology. The two stories aren’t that far off. The introductory text straight-up tells you what to expect from the adventure in terms of game mechanics which is helpful but doesn’t introduce the story. If you don’t read the text for the monument at the beginning, you can read it in the temple later on but it doesn’t make sense there. I enjoyed the journals of the previous victim, which gave the story a lot more depth and gave the impression there was someone else on your side. The ending shows that your work has only just begun, but is still a perfectly fine way to end the adventure.

spelling/grammar: I couldn’t spot a single error, and there’s a lot to read in this mission!

creations: I wasn’t that into the bird creatures but they certainly weren’t ugly either. The mysterious figures were definitely foreboding but I thought the bottom of them was a little too softly rounded. The vehicles and buildings looked great, though I was surprised by some of the bright colors on the buildings of the nihilists — shouldn’t they have been black or grey? I really liked the eye design and how that theme carried through.

environment: There is a pretty clear path at the start but it ends in a dead end if you follow it all the way. Your objective is just off the bend, and it would have helped if there was some indication visible from the canyon that you should head off that way, but you will find it eventually. I like that there’s no music until the action starts. Underneath the temple the stone block floor is too bumpy for a captain to walk on smoothly. Also it wasn’t clear to me that it was possible to get back up. When going through the pipe on the end with the terminal you need to jump to get back in, which seemed unnecessary. There’s a glitch in the 7th act where pieces you need have fallen through the floor and are inaccessible, probably due to changes in patch 5. If you happened to bring some grenades with you though you can toss them at the enemy and then stand back and complete the objective a different, less interesting way.

captain competence: Any captain should be able to complete this mission, though you may find jump helpful while underneath the temple in case you get stuck in the floor. You also want either jump or sneak so you don't have to run past turrets which are shooting at you later on.

puzzles: The description says hints are available in the comments, but I didn’t look at them. There are 4 puzzles, each of which gives you just enough information to know what you need to do without actually telling you specifically. The first puzzle gives you a hint in the first act that you might miss, but you will probably figure out what to do even without it. The last puzzle (which happens to be impossible after the patch) shows you something you need to recognize from the second puzzle.

overall: above average