“The magic pyramid” tells of a group called the Dragons who are fighting against a group called the Toot Rebute. You must raise an army to fight against the Toot Rebute.
Playability: It started off okay, I started with a few villagers a lot of resources and had to fight and destroy a pyramid. Soon though I became bored and the fun factor just seemed to be gone. Both were build and destroy type missions. Now the first scenario has more bombard towers than I think I have ever witnessed which meant taking a lot of time to build up trebuchet upon trebuchet, in a sense the second scenario was the same as the first but instead of trebuchets you needed villagers. You had to mind through a lot of stone and gold and cut through trees as well, this took a long time and made the campaign less fun having to mix a lot of villagers in with standard troops travelling through a very small almost invisible trail!
Balance: The campaign’s balance was what I would call “The two extremes” in the sense that some parts were very easy and others were very hard. Building up is easy enough but I soon lost many a troop when my standing army was annihilated by what seemed like hundreds upon hundreds of bombard cannons. The second scenario was equally frustrating in that it took a very long time to mine through a huge stone field and cut a path through a forest. The balance could do with being overall easier and harder in places.
Creativity: The creativity did not seem too high, it had a few interested things such as killing a pyramid and killing a Archbishop which brought a religious element into the campaign, but otherwise it was very limited in many aspects. Adding other interesting aspects can make it a lot more fun such as optional objectives and using different gaia things to keep the player interested throughout your campaign.
Map Design: The map design could do with more work, most of the different things used were all clumped together in a small patch and so there is quite a few patch’s of open space throughout your campaign. The water was great in the first scenario and seemed very beautiful I can not really give you much help with the water aspects of a map other than to add a few shallows and gaia sea rocks. Terrain wise, possibly use more gaia elements to make the environment seem more natural.
Story/Instructions: The story was lacking which did not really help to the overall score. The pyramid in amongst Persian architecture real did not look right which, as the main goal seemed a little too strange. The main story line was of destroying the Toot Rebute in battle and then finishing off their leader which was simple but the way it was made leaved quite a lot to be desired. Instructions wise it was very limited from one line comments to nothing so for most of the campaign if not all you were by yourself and this lowered also the playability’s score.
Overall: If you fancy facing Persia with a pyramid you’ve come to the right place, if you want to know why or have further instructions you will be ill-advised to download this campaign.