MS Shadow |
Posted on 08/15/01 @ 12:00 AM
Cortez is a good scenario. After the start, however, you can't help but feel a little bit mixed, as if some things could be improved a lot.
Playability- This IS a fun scenario to play, however, once you start there's nothing to keep you to want to play it. Primarily: You start out with 3 Conquistadors, Paladin Cortez, and a Town Center with 4 villagers. In essence, after the inital start, you basically realize that all the author did was have a Yucatan random map, and add 3 Conquistadors and a Paladin to the mix. Yes, random map games are fun, but I want active things to do, not just sit there, build, destroy, repeat. Also a matter is the abundence of Relics-too many. Too many relics were scattered around my enemies bases, so they snapped up the relics and started a war machine powered by 8 relics in a monastary. Hard to Counter.
Balance- I would say I'm an intermediate player, and the balance here is good. Which is to say here the AI is at a moderate level, not to easy and not too difficult.
Creativity- The AI that the author uses sends out messages whenever it advances an age, begging you to defeat it for a minor challenge because it is so bored. The only problem here is that when you start off, the 4 other players send taunts to you, which disorients. There's another issue here, but it's better suited for Map Design
Map Design- It's a Yucatan random map. It's fun, it's functional, it has a jungle atmosphere, but your taking Tenochitlan! There's no city, just a civilization named "Montezuma". That other issue I mentioned is the relics scattered around. My second time around I counted all the relics scattered around, and it's somewhere around 15 to 20. Around 5 is the golden number, anything more is too many.
Story/Instructions- There's one player named Montezuma in the Jungle somewhere, and three other stereotypical Mayan and Aztec names. The only story, so to speak, is that Cortez is taking Tenochitlan. Once you start the scenario, it's exactly like a random map until the end.
****
If the random map had been altered somewhat, I.E a moat around Montezuma, representing the Aztec captial, it wasn't so eerily familiar to a random map, and if there were singular names for the other Aztecs/Mayans, this would be a much more polished and professional scenario. As it is right now, however, it's flawed, and not worth a download if you want the Cortez experience. |