This is a challenging, fictional campaign, very loosely based on the Roman/Germanic conflict. It follows Icus, an ambitious young Imperial prince sent as a hostage to the barbarians to insure peace. The story shows how he gradually gains power among the tribes. It is my first campaign,so tell me what you think. This is only part oneof the Icus story.
“Rise of Icus 1” is a campaign based around Prince Icus, the fifth son of the Tharaz Emperor. His exploits begin when pirate activity has taken a sudden increase.
Playability: The playability of Rise of Icus 1 could do with a little improvement. Most of the objectives involve a lot of travelling and fighting, the first scenario you must travel a lot with few things of interest to occupy you. The other two scenarios involve big fights with a lot of latency problems as a result of the huge numbers of units you control and the enemy has.
Balance: The balance of this campaign was a little too easy for the most part and very hard in one place. The first scenario was very easily accomplished, and didn’t take long to complete. The next scenario was a big battle and as long as you used the right counter units it was very easy to win. The final scenario was a nightmare, and my computer crashed several times playing it. The huge number of units the enemy has makes it nigh impossible to kill without huge latency issues.
Creativity: The creativity didn’t play too much of a part in the campaign. You could possibly build upon the idea of captured soldiers who regain their enthusiasm to fight under the Tharaz’s banner when you help fight the bandits. To improve the creativity more interesting and diverse ideas need to be added.
Map Design: The map design of this campaign was weak, it looked like much of the terrain had been placed with huge brush sizes which was both boring to look at lacking diversity. To improve the map design the author could use smaller brush sizes on his scenarios and use many of the gaia features of the units section to spice the map up a little and make it look better.
Story/Instructions: The story was a little strange, I say this because the introduction screens were packed full of information and text, but in game there was very little. The instructions were very few and far between in game, and displayed in “send chat” effects, which were hard to see. The instructions of what few there were they didn’t go by too quickly which was a plus. To improve the story you could add more dialogue into the campaign in game as well as changing the “send chat” effects to “Display Instructions” so the player can read the dialogue easier.
Overall: This campaign could do with an improved map design and more dialogue in game to help the player know what he is doing and why he is doing it. Shows potential with the story at the introduction screens but falls a little short in game. I’m sure the author has potential, especially story writing and intend to download the next two installments of his work if he finishes these. At the moment, I wouldn’t recommend his work but I would point him out as it may be worth downloading his work in the near future.