rwilde |
Posted on 08/17/05 @ 05:12 AM
This campaign caught my eye some time ago when it was new to the campaigns section. Today I gave thought to playing the best game ever (Final Fantasy VII) again, and while on that subject my memory came back to this. In my noobish curiosity I just had to check it out.
Playability: 1
I didn't really get any enjoyment out of playing this at all. Final Fantasy VII was a very enjoyable game for its diversity, creativity, interesting levelling system, gripping story etc. This scenario was very boring because you simply walk around the map collecting your party (which wasn't all there actually), and then go and kill the bad guys.
Balance: 1
Since finding your party was done by exploration, there was no difficulty there. It was rather boring at first. You see, the units that represent the characters, like Tifa, Aeris etc are Gaia units. After I found Barrett (I think) he told me Tifa was near a mill. Problem is, I don't know where the mill is, and when I do see it, I've already found her. As you get more characters exploration becomes no less boring, but a little faster.
Next is the fighting part. Don't worry about finding every single person, you'll only need about 3-4 to do this. You must actually become enemy with Midgar to get inside the complex - No, there are no gates. Once you have destroyed the wall enough to get in, you simply walk around killing everything, including Sephy, who is an overpowered unit like yourself.
When I say overpowered, I mean 2500 HP and 50 attack overpowered - not to worry - each of your units are just as strong, so he is really underpowered, and against the normal units the level of overpowerment is ridiculous. The AI for Sephiroth actually resigns as well, so killing him would be pointless if the goal were to defeat his player. I assumed it was to defeat his unit. I then proceeded to kill him and all the Shinra. At the end nothing happened, it seems there are no real victory conditions, so I exited the game.
Creativity: 1
I'd like to award a point here, I really would. The gameplay, map, story, tricks, objectives, and story were all uncreative.
Map Design: 1
The map is a large area of grass. It has some houses on it. It has a double layer thick wall around the center, which belongs to Midgar. You must destroy some of it to get into the center, which could perhaps be compared to entering the Shinra building.
Story/Instructions: 2
This was a very poor attempt at recreating the story. There was none really. A couple of lines in history and a chat message each time you get a new character and at the end. If you haven't played Final Fantasy VII you won't have any idea what is going on, and if you have you will struggle to relate it to this scenario. Let's just say it's about the equivalent of compressing LOTR into "We must destroy the ring. The ring is destroyed. We win".
Overall: 1.2
I tried to avoid giving this a 1, and succeeded. I tried to think of something positive to say, but failed. I guess I just don't like to see such a great game portrayed like this. |