Andrew Dunn (id: Mechstra) |
Posted on 05/10/03 @ 12:00 AM
This scenario, They are angry, is about four Byzantine towns at war. You as the blue town, must defeat the three other towns, called, originally, red, green, and yellow. The only distinguishing feature of your town is that it is led by a Furious the Monkey Boy, who must stay in the one place for the whole game, and not move, or you lose.
Playability:
This map is a standard build and destroy, with an uneven distribution of teams. However, this distribution is hardly unfair. Within 5 minutes, your starting force can eliminate the green town, and fight off any attackers from the red town. The author seems to have provided his own AI script for the Red town, but forgot to include the AI script 'put this in your AI folder'. This would have got a 3, but the fact that an error message concerning AI comes up marks it down. Also, the green and yellow towns do not take much part in the proceedings, apart from spreading out their military units. 2+
Balance:
The balance of the scenario is leaning too far towards being easy, when I played the scenario on moderate. Your starting force can easily destroy one town within minutes, and still fight off attacks by the only other active player, the red town. The survivors are also more than enough to defend against any attacks on your heavily fortified town itself, of which there were none. 2-
Creativity:
This is a bog-standard B&D, with no outstanding features save for the fact that your leader is a monkey, creatively named 'you', and must stay inside a palisade for the duration of the scenario. Your enemies are all of the same civilization as you, and are named for their colours: 'red', 'green', and 'yellow'. Your town is also simply called 'you'. 2-
Map Design:
The best feature of this scenario. The map is a desolate plain of dirt 1, dirt 3, and desert, with some broken road thrown in for good measure, as well as a few small rivers and shallows. There is nothing outstanding here, but nothing bad either, although the towns are unimaginatively positioned, and the map could benefit from more Gaia objects. There are a few Dire Wolves and deer around, but otherwise, not a hint. I did see a fairly nice market square in your own town, which merits a mention. 3
Story/Instructions:
By far the worst area. The instructions to start with are non-existent, there is a very basic history, no hints, and the scouts simply say: 'red - NW, green - SW, yellow - NE'. The one dialogue throughout the scenario - concerning your monkey's escape - features no capitalization and very little punctuation. This is of very low standard. 1-
Overall Score - 2.0
Suggestions to author:
Provide the missing AI scripts,
Liven up the main objective with some side missions or perhaps occasional raids by wild animals (be creative!),
Decrease starting force,
Vary the map design more,
Add more Gaia objects, and
Work a story into the scenario and for the love of the wee man give the towns proper names! ;-)
Overall:
The author shows promise, but maybe should spend more time on the fields I pointed out. With work, this scenario could be very enjoyable. As it is, however, it's sub-standard, but you may enjoy it as an alternative to random maps. |