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Author |
File Description |
TOAO_DaVe (id: Tonto_DaVe) |
Posted on 12/31/04 @ 12:00 AM (updated 11/29/06)
File Details |
Version: |
The Conquerors 1.0c |
Style: |
Mix |
Number of scenarios: |
3 |
Bouren
David Worsley AKA _AoC_DaVe or Tonto_DaVe.
Background Story
Living in a world already smelling of corruption and suffering, you will follow one young man's journey as he attempts to bring it to an end.
You will be challenged, not only by the gameplay, but you will be challenged to be able to understand, to be part of the choices of this young man.
Take part of a story as one person, who could've not even existed in the beginning, becomes a big part of history while he struggles to control his emotions and becomes the reason the region of Gripache is what it is.
The Game
Bouren is difficulty level dynamic. Even on standard, you shall need some experience with Age of Kings. If you are a familiar with micro-management of units and/or have fast hands put your skills to the test with Moderate is what you are looking for. If you believe you have it all, play on Hard for a good challenge of your Age of Kings skills and mind.
Bouren is a mix of many different types of gameplay. It contains a mix of cutscenes, fixed force, role playing, with build and destroy on the side - you will, at most, just train units from existing buildings.
Installing The Files
The content of the file Bouren.zip should be extracted to the "Campaign" subdirectory of your main Age of Kings directory using WinZip for Windows users. The sound/music packs must be extracted to the "sound/scenario" subdirectory of your main Age of Kings directory.
History
v1.5
- The hints section has been changed.
- A few small changes to the first northern route, which do not affect gameplay, have been made.
- A few small changes to the village where Dubari is, which do not affect gameplay, have been made.
v1.4
- A big bug that completely stops the game for the Southern route when coming from Trevoi has been fixed.
- For the Northern route when coming from Trevoi, the shallow area has been made easier to get to.
v1.3
- Stopped allowing player to access wrong areas of the map while searching for River Daub.
- Blocked any exits for the Blacksmith scene.
- Removed map reveal for River Daub and Dubari village scenes.
- Added Danthered to the credits.
- Removed river-route units if you went north route.
- Fixed trigger which deactivated another instead of activating it which caused a bug if you went the river-route.
v1.2
- Stopped allowing player to access people near impaled peasants at wrong times.
- People could retask Uran while he was a bleeding villager to something to stop him bleeding. This has been fixed.
- Tasks Commander Cartio to near King Daub while final battle goes on.
- If you killed 2 units more than the needed amount to trigger the guard-archers to move to the battlefield, the game didn't continue. This has been fixed.
v1.1
- Surviving men of first battle don't crowd around the cart.
- You can not leave the bridge area until the bridge is destroyed after the Easterner camp.
- Hints for destroying bridge given.
- At the village where Dubari is, if Bouren was behind the tower after you won, you now get him back as the house slowly burns down, and away.
- Dialogue while near the River Daub village has been changed.
Miscellaneous
Bouren has been playtested many times by many playtesters so hopefully must bugs have gone. However, if you have encountered a problem with the game, post a comment below this, or email me at DWorsley at gmail dot com.
The playtesters of Bouren, in alphabetical order are:
Adder, Aro, Berserker Jerker, Bleedteal, BrandNewCar, CropI2, Crystal Crown, Dark Blade, Devil Ranger, Dr. Lorenzo, Fede, Firebird, Grub, Gordon, KeLar, KnightConqueror, Kor, Mechstra, NightNecromancer, Ornlu, Recon, The Dark Wind, Tonto_Surgio (aka Lt_Surge), WildCardDoW, zyxomma100.
I apologise to anyone who I may have left out.
A big thank you to Anastasia for the rain-fish template.
Special thank you to AiScripters.com who have continued to help me with my Ai scripting for Age of Kings/Conquerors.
Thank you to Guderian for uploading his sound packs to the Blacksmith. |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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WildCardDoW |
Posted on 08/08/07 @ 01:16 PM
Bouren is a fictional campaign of an fixed force adventure style, you [largely] play as Bouren and Commander Cartio, two soldiers locked in the bitter struggle between the East and main Gorniu armies, Bouren is drafted into the villager army placed under Cartio's command, but things quickly go awry, outnumbered they are captured by the enemy Commander Uran, a desperate bid for freedom and they are on the run. There are two cut-scene scenarios before and after the main playable campaign, they offer the premise of the scenario and start the story off, as well as offering the conclusion.
PLAYABILITY: 4
The campaign has some great features and some truly memorable moments that leave the player waiting for more, DaVe manages to change the style constantly keeping the player interested the entire time, from fighting battles, to desperate escapes for freedom. The different playing styles really make this quite enjoyable to play from sneaking up on guards, to running from the enemy. But it unfortunately is not totally bug free, there were a few times when I would randomly lose and not understand why, or characters would be missing from certain scenes, or a scene would randomly start playing at the wrong time. These bugs did dampen the enjoyment a bit, not enough to make me want to stop playing. There is also a hint of re-playability, as there are certain moments where the player is offered a choice to choose a route.
BALANCE: 5
The balance is fine, certain sections are easier than others but I don’t think there was ever a point where I felt safe and certain, DaVe manages to create an atmosphere of unease. The campaign is broken up into [for me] a series of different sections, broken up by cut-scenes, and each section presents a new and interesting challenge, from defending your villagers from a raid, to small skirmishes with the enemy, I had to restart a few times and quickly learned that saving was a necessity in some sections. The Balance is great, and I played on Moderate, so the scenario can probably present an even greater challenge on Hard.
CREATIVITY: 5
This surely is the strongest point in this fantastic scenario, there are simply some amazing moments that will cause you to sit back and think: ‘How did he do that?!’ What made this scenario so interesting to play was its creativity, it really leaves the player waiting for more, theirs is also a great use of sound and music to create an atmosphere and bring some scenes to life, such as a man thrown through a window. The intro cut-scene has a lovely lightning technique which really set the high standard that is presented throughout the campaign.
MAP DESIGN: 5
The map is wonderfully designed, from small military camps, to villages the designer has managed to create a believable landscape, it blends into one beautiful landscape with great use of terrain and elevation. DaVe ignores what is considered by many to be “eye-candy” and instead creates one amazing map with no over use of one particular object. Everything pleases the eye and nothing stands out, but it all works together. The intro cut-scene is also wonderfully designed, with rain pelting down onto the city.
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS: 4
This is one of my main gripes sadly, the story at times is wonderful, but takes a while to unfold and I believe it has more potential than is shown here, especially the ending which left me slightly confused, we don't get any significant conclusion in Bouren's life.
We also don’t learn why the two armies are fighting until the end, and this seems to draw the attention away from the previously primary characters to a totally different event. Ultimately the story is interesting, one of revenge but the player doesn’t get much closure in regards to Bouren and his life, or to any of the characters and this rather annoyed me.
In the end the story is good, and is certainly interesting, but never really gets going. The atmosphere and the potential of the story is outstanding, a final dramatic battle caps off a wonderful campaign. Included is a wonderful bitmap and some well written scenes before and after the scenarios.
The instructions are fine, and there enough hints to help the player when they are unsure without ever making things obvious. Each task is presented well with clear concise instructions and telling the player where they should go.
OVERALL:
A great scenario, one deserving of the highest praise, but one that could have had so much more in terms of story.
[Edited on 01/21/13 @ 04:20 PM]
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Possidon
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 03/19/17 @ 06:42 PM
Bouren by Tonto_Dave is a campaign featuring one long playable scenario sandwiched between two shorts cutscenes which serve as a prologue and an epilogue. The campaign follows the story of Bouren, a young boy of 17 who is recruited into the army of Gorniu to fight in a civil war against the more powerful East Gorniu.
Playability: 5
The campaign was an excellent example of what a talented designer can do with the simple editor of AOK. Dave has worked hard to create an enjoyable and creative adventure with a gripping story and unique gameplay. The scenario composed of a mixture of gameplay styles, mostly fixed force, and allowed the player to chose multiple paths in the story, creating a different experience every time you play. The replay value of the campaign is high! The campaign is bug-free, challenging, creative, and very very enjoyable.
Balance: 4
The balance is probably the weakest point of this scenario. While the scenario has different styles of gameplay, allow accessibility for many different types of players, there are many areas where it will take you a lot of attempts to move on to the next section of the scenario. The campaign is very challenging and takes multiple restarts. Alot of the challenge comes from special tactics being needed to complete the one-on-one duels and the small skirmishes, but another reason for the difficulty is the lack of hints and instructions in some areas of the scenario. I found some of the challenges difficult to complete because I didn't always understand what I exactly needed to do, and therefore lost and had to retry a couple of times. There were a few parts that I only got through due to trial and error.
Creativity: 5
This is probably the strongest point of the campaign. Bouren is full of creative ideas, that shows just how much can be achieved in the two dimensional editor of AOK. The opening cutscene is set during a heavy storm in the middle of the night. Tonto_Dave creates an atmspheric scene here using the classic shore fish on land trick to mimic rainfall and adds to the atmosphere with fitting sound effects that really help the player to fall into the story and setting. Another creative touch is the lightening that flashes by adding LOS to the edges of the scene and then removing them back to black, to show places. This trick along with appropriate sound effects creates great ambience in the scene. Other creative aspects include the gameplay styles; some of which need special tactics in order to complete, as well as some clever trigger tricks and an engrossing storyline.
Map Design: 5
Bouren is set in a fictional world that covers a lush green country, filled with mountains and forests, as well as a long river stretching down from the north through to the south. The map design is beautiful and wonderfully designed. The country is filled with lush open landscapes which you walk through and see the beautiful nature of the country, as well as small villages belonging to the people of Main Gorniu and the small military camps of East Gorniu. There is also a small town/city belonging to East Gorniu located near the centre of the map. Tonto_Dave is truly talented at his map design and shows experience in the editor. There is much terrain mixing and use of eye-candy, as well as a good use of GAIA objects and TWAL walls in the city. The mountains and cliffs blend in well with the rest of the design. Overall a beautiful piece of design that is worth seeing.
Story/Instructions: 5
The story of Bouren is an adventurous journey of a 17 year old lad who joins the army of Main Gorniu in their last attempt to push back the forces of East Gorniu. From the start Bouren's journey takes a turn for the worst as his regiment is almost wiped out and his father is killed before him. As Bouren teams up with his surviving commander the two journey through Gorniu in an attempt to find his father killer. It is a coming of age story of war, and revenge. Very engrossing and thrilling, the story sucks you into the game and is complete with serious and dramatic storytelling as well and a suitable and appropriate amount of humour to keep you entertained. The characters were relatable as well. I think there were a few times when the story dragged and I would have liked to of seen a bit more back story too. The instructions were good and helpful hints were provided, but as I have previously mentioned there were times when they were not always sufficient enough to help you complete the challenges straight away. Overall though I think this is a great game with good instructions and a great story.
Additional Comments:
Overall Bouren is a thrilling tale with aesthetically pleasing visuals and creative gameplay that is sure to keep you entertained. A highly recommended download.
Well Done
Possidon |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.7 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.5 | Balance | 4.5 | Creativity | 5.0 | Map Design | 5.0 | Story/Instructions | 4.5 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 3,866 |
Favorites: [] | 2 |
Size: | 9.79 MB |
Added: | 12/31/04 |
Updated: | 11/29/06 |
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