Tanneur99
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 06/25/04 @ 12:00 AM
The campaign contains two scenarios, the game style is a mix of RPG and FF for the first, the second is plain FF. History, story, places and people are fiction; the events took place long ago in a distant land, where a great warrior defeated the Dark Lords using the divine powers which were known as 'The Ultimate Knowledge'. The Great Warrior divided the powers into three, closed them into two sacred relics and his baby grandson. Recently the sorcerers of Taraksura, the most powerful of the Dark Lords, got possession of one of the relics. You play Ksetra, grandson of the Great Warrior, in search of the second relic and his fight against Taraksura and his evil army.
PLAYABILITY: The first scenario is great entertainment, you fight gladiators, sneak into a camp to kill a sorcerer, accompany and protect a wandering soul, defeat a king in a magical battle, defend a city, free a princess and confront the Dark Lord in the final battle. However, there are some playability-issues, which will not spoil the game play if you know how to avoid them. On the way to free the princess is a short cut, do not use that short cut, it will upset a trigger and spoil the game. You have to pass the beast and save a monk before you get to the city. In that city, when you have a choice, click the tower, NOT the siege workshop. For the last battle, keep all troops under your control. To prepare the battle, just click the small green tent and then the blue one. The second scenario lags on my computer, which reduces the fun and the units produced in game are helpless due to false looping task triggers, they do not attack. Still it is worth a look and the first scenario is fantastic. 4-
BALANCE: The balance for the RPG and FF parts, exception for the final battle, of the first scenario was perfect. To kill the sorcerer, with a well-timed attack at the camp, challenging to protect the wandering soul, every part was top notch. However, even on hard, the final battle and the second scenario were too easy; player 1 has too many siege weapons and paladins. 4+
CREATIVITY: "Every aspect of a scenario factors into creativity", especially to mention, the objectives and side quests, the map design, the story development and the good puzzle to escape the city. You find new ideas like the fire to chase wild beasts and older tricks like Ingo van Thiel's advanced rain trick based on The Pyromaniac and The Rasher, which was nice to see again and very well executed in both scenarios. Very creative also the cheat engine at the blacksmith of your starting city, in case some parts prove too difficult for the player. The use of classical cheats and one to leave the city with the princess will disable a message before the final victory. 5
MAP DESIGN: The first map has a good realistic approach, with lots of special details like the area of the waterfall and the rainy region above. It shows a good design of towns and landscape, terrain mix, elevations and blending. The second map was very special, it was raining all over with good sounds of rain and thunder, and the ground looked muddy. A lot of effort went into both maps. 5
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS: The campaign comes with a fictitious history section, a good in game developing story, creative objectives and extensive hints, serving almost as a walkthrough, to use when stuck. The bitmap lacked in quality, not needed for a perfect rating and still better than no bmp at all. 5
OVERALL: The Ultimate Knowledge is a fantastic campaign with a few trigger problems.
OBSERVATIONS: I spotted a trigger with the effects in the following sequence, four, three, two, zero, one, and five. Effects fire in the sequence you create them, meaning zero, one, two, three, four, five, and not in the sequence you place them in a trigger.
SUGGESTIONS: First scenario, there is a short cut along the cliffs to the bandit camp, place more trees to the right of the camp. The outlaws (ram/horse) do not defend; they freeze with a looping trigger. Delete trigger "freeze horse thieves". Player 6 will not move until you change ownership to player 7. After clicking the siege workshop, the player sails back and the story continues. Make the transport player 6 instead of player 1. In addition, there is no horse quest, but the player needs the ram. Remove the horse, the TK asks Ksetra to find outlaws that plan an attempt upon the town centre. In the final battle, the paladins do not fight; player 2 is ally to player 8. Trigger "322" has the starting state to 'off', do not just change to 'on', the player will not click the big blue middle tent, effect 2 is already in trigger "prepare siege 3" and effect 3 would deactivate trigger "generator activator". Better to add two new effects to trigger "prepare siege 1", change diplomacy player 2 to 8 and 8 to 2 to enemy. Second scenario, the task triggers send all of the created units repeatedly to their set location. To fix, set also the area in the effect, above the spawn point of the unit creation. To reduce lag, try less dirt paths and shore fish, especially in areas the player does not see and give less trebuchets and paladins to player 1, which will improve the balance too. Edit your campaign and I will edit my review.
IN CLOSING: "The past is history, the future is mystery."
Download this creative, entertaining campaign of a talented designer. |