Crane's Short Reviews

[cranebump]

1 minute ago, Zhym said:

Did I just see @cranebump complain about a mission timer?  Get back on your own side of the street—that's my turf! 

I learn ever so slowly, sensei.:-)

[Kyksie]

7 minutes ago, Zhym said:

I haven't played the arc in question, and given the author's hostile reaction to cranebump's review, I'm not likely to. 

 

Same deal. I was planning on a middle of the road review- some stuff I liked, some not- but judging from the author's response to the above review I'm not going to bother.

[Darmian]

On 1/5/2025 at 12:03 AM, cranebump said:

Blue Spectrum

Oh my stars and garters!  Someone ELSE used him?  Finally?

[cranebump]

3 hours ago, Kyksie said:

 

Same deal. I was planning on a middle of the road review- some stuff I liked, some not- but judging from the author's response to the above review I'm not going to bother.

To be fair the response was to a longer, harsher review. I edited and refined the longer one. But still…yeah.

Edited January 8 by cranebump

[Raikao]

11 hours ago, Kyksie said:

 

Same deal. I was planning on a middle of the road review- some stuff I liked, some not- but judging from the author's response to the above review I'm not going to bother.

 

Hey, I'm not sensing an ongoing desire to "bitch at the reviewers" from the author either and he is taking feedback. I ain't forcing anyone, but let's give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I mean EVEN  @cranebump  got that and he's a total piece of shi..ning example of this community.

 

And with that I'm out of here. :>

[cranebump]

A Light Within the Darkness (ID: 843) by @Steel Dancer

This L25-37 arc from 2019 has you working with the Midnighters to secure some of their valuables (the main worry being possible theft by the Circle of Thorns). You agree to help and, of course, run into CoT right off the bat. However, your in-mish contact tells you that most of the raid damage doesn’t appear to be done by the Thorns. Your own initial investigations back this up, so…shenanigans! By an as yet unrevealed somebody/something! Involving a scary, mystical (stolen) tome!

 

Actually “council bot” Montague (see below) is much more composed than that, but this is our basic setup. With your only real lead being the Thorny crew, you naturally pay them a visit. Here, you discover the 3rd party involved in the theft, which, in a nice little twist, leads you back to…Well, you’ll just have to see.:-)

 

VERDICT: A clean, clear, well-constructed arc, made with care and attention to detail. Strikes a nice balance between "stuff" and story. Antagonists are well-drawn. Customs are nicely done. Great map choices (esp for the finale). Overall, I give it a solid, raddy-green Seal of Approval (I ran this with my Atomic blaster):-). 

 

PLAY IF: You want a solidly constructed, well-balanced mish. It's listed as story-heavy, but it didn't feel that way. The arc moves along very nicely. FYI: Arc ID 844:An Exchange of Words is a companion piece to this one.

 

A few items of note: The contact model isn’t Montague, but rather the default council bot model the system uses, indicating the need for some updating. Also: There's no text on interact with some glowies in M1, nor do any clues drop from them. This only occurs in M1, and is the only noticeable error I found in the whole arc. There IS a timer on one of the mishes, but the map isn’t huge. I had plenty of time leftover (though I DID beeline to the objectives). 

 

 

 

Edited January 12 by cranebump

[cranebump]

To Dream of Nothing [ID:  ] by @Zaphir 

This L20-29 heroic arc has you helping out Mel Gibs-, I mean Detective Martins on a missing scientist case (because in the world of superheroing, only scientists count!). Kidding there, of course. Tracklash, my obligatory “Sure, I’ll try a regen scrapper [omg...what have I done?]" is all too happy to help (esp. Since Crane has sidelined him at L46 for, like, a gillion days).

 

We dive in to discover: BAD GUYS ARE INVOLVED! Who knew? (We did. We most certainly did. It’s like it was planned that way).:-) But, yes - bad guys. Who? I’ll give you one clue: FREEEEEEEM! Yup. THOSE guys. Oh, we ‘ve got some Family involvement here. But mainly, it’s everyone’s favorite fascists, embroiled in a complex little story that is well-paced, with great clues, nice details, a great deal of mandatory “Council-ing,” Nicti, a professor in over his head, an enigmatic something known as "the Voice," and...

 

And that’s all I’ll say on story, because you should check this one out without me spoilering anything (else).:-)

 

Overall: I really enjoyed this one. A great blend of story/design using familiar baddies, some strong NPCs, and excellent foreshadowing. A purplish Seal of Approval emitting an unavoidable gravitational pull (not that I’m hinting at anything there…noooooooo…):-) PLAY IF: your thing is a detailed story. There’s plenty here, and it’s very well-crafted. Worth your time!

 

Stay frosty everyone (like, for real if you’re in this vortex thing),

Crane

 

P.S. There are semicolons in character dialogue. People don’t speak in semicolons. They just don’t. And everyone knows semicolons suck. Or rather, I know that, and…

 

Okay, so my nonexistent staff is telling me this is a personal thing, and that I’m proselytizing. They’re also saying it’s annoying, overbearing, nitpicking, and…OKAY! I GET IT! 

 

Stepping aside right...NOW!:-)

 

Design Deets (for those interested)

Spoiler

The highlights: A pair of interesting, disparate NPCs (whose multiple mish deaths were due to me forgetting to run on default setting). Excellent detail and depth of story. Especially well done early clues, hinting at the reveal, but not giving it all away (not an easy thing to do). Leaves a great many objectives optional, allowing players the choice of delving deeper or sticking to the main storyline. Well-edited (just saw a couple of tiny errors), and very well-crafted, mechanically. Time and care taken to get the little things just right, and to work with what AE so stubbornly gives you. 

 

Minor fixes to consider: (1) There’s a bit of back-n-forth on the finale map, but this is folded into the narrative (i.e., “cleverly explained/justified”) using clues. I think I’d rather this be a more linear process, but it doesn’t always work that way thanks to AE fussiness. My guess it that this is more than likely about the map limits than anything else. So, maybe not fixable? If not, it’s a minor thing. (2) Some issues with clue order here and there, mainly as a consequence of optional clues. Nothing terrible, since clues are ID’ed by Mish #. But numbering clues within mishes might be helpful, since there are so many [EX: M1-1, M1-2, and so on]. I had to scroll back and forth more than once, so it's noticeable, but not terribly so.

 

All in all, a ton of strengths, very few (and minor) tweaks. Nicely crafted!

 

Edited 23 hours ago by cranebump