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Legend of Shang - Episode III
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Author |
File Description |
Maria Ljung |
Posted on 12/11/99 @ 12:00 AM
File Details |
Version: |
Age of Kings 1.0 |
Style: |
Mix |
Number of scenarios: |
5 |
None provided. |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Dr. Faustus |
Posted on 09/29/00 @ 12:00 AM
If there was an additional category for "charm", this campaign would score higher in that category than any work I've seen so far. The love story between the heroine and the hero is simple, but pleasing, and one gets the feeling that the author really put her heart into this campaign. The map design is good and belongs to the strongest points of this work. If there had been some more eye-candy (a mix of different forest types, Gaia objects, trees on cliffs), the author would have got the full score for map design.
The creativity is fairly good as well. There are no custom Ai files, so the player gets those annoying "rework thy Ai script" messages at the beginning of the scenarios. But then this campaign was designed in the early days of AoK when there wasn't much info about Ais yet, and when there weren't many useful Ai downloads at the AoK Blacksmith.
As players have already said in the comments, the main problem is that this campaign is very easy. Now that's what the campaign is supposed to be, and it succeeds there. However, in a few scenarios I found it just too easy all the same. I beat the campaign on "hardest" without any major difficulties. I only ran into trouble with those "hardest" settings in the last scenario, when I had to invade the enemy island - however, I never got harrassed at my main build-up base, which would have been nice.
All in all, it was a good and entertaining campaign with some minor shortcomings. I enjoyed it and therefore gave it the full score in playability. If you're looking for a tough challenge, look elsewhere, but if you are new to AoK or if you just feel like having a relaxing game for a change, this is a nice campaign to download. |
Tanneur99
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 09/06/03 @ 12:00 AM
The campaign consists of five scenarios. The game style is a mix of RPG, RPS, B&D and FF. The story is fiction, the places real and all similarities with people living or dead intended. The events take place on two continents, during the hundred year war (1339 - 1453), around 1429/30.
A long time ago in another Dimension... Day 1 The Hero, Mark, Khan wakes up after sleeping for about 500 years in the Temple of Spirits, Eastern Europe, Macedonia. He will bring peace to the modern Shang civilisation, The Chinese Empire; misses Hannibal, wants to find the Ruling Lord of the Shang people and destroy the Romans, for razing Xi'an, the capital of the Lords.
PLAYABILITY: This was highly enjoyable, good dialogues and story, a love story, realistic, as after seeing the movie by Luc Besson, I guess Djenghis Khan would have been the right partner for Joan of Arc. Episode III is called Romance on the Battlefield and that's what it is. "You're very cute... You know that", says Khan meeting Joan, decides to team up with her fighting the British. The search for the ones responsible for the destruction of Xi'an, his home town where he lived until his departure together with Hannibal, has to wait. Still, not all scenarios were interesting to play, like "Lord Gawain", where you search the gate master in a lifeless town, riding from one building to another and invisible people give directions via area triggers; like "Battle of the Knights", with no challenge, where you miss enemies by following instructions and revealed map areas. 4-
BALANCE: The campaign was played on hard difficulty setting and scenario two and five were challenging. One scenario has no enemies and the purpose of them was to get the nice story going. We have to take the authors intend into account, rating the balance. Maria Ljung: "If you're going to download this campaign then read this carefully: This campaign is SUPPOSED to be EASY." The two scenario made up for the lack of challenge and in the fifth my first attack failed, surprised by the fierce resistance of the British in their outer walls. Even if a struggle for survival was not intended, some more effort would be good. One scenarios main part is a duel, which was simply not balanced at all. 4-
CREATIVITY: Certainly above average, game enhancing triggers, a good story, you play three different characters and two civilisations. 4
MAP DESIGN: The map is more than "slightly better than a random" but not a five yet. The cliffs, same forest type become repetitive, not enough terrain mix and more Gaia objects needed. 4
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS: A world map, showing the locations for each scenario, you play on two continents, as bmp; clear objectives, never lost and a good story developing in game with dialogues also between the scenarios. 5
OVERALL: An entertaining campaign with a challenging end.
OBSERVATIONS: The Legends of Shang series seem to be the blueprint for some other epic fantasy tale series, like the Swallowed Realms, The Underworld, and The Last Samurai, planned for many downloads with a good story but never finished.
IN CLOSING: A must have and play also the sequence, ID 195 Legend of Shang - Episode IV. |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.1 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.5 | Balance | 3.5 | Creativity | 4.0 | Map Design | 4.0 | Story/Instructions | 4.5 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 7,789 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 548.05 KB |
Added: | 12/11/99 |
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