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AoMH SD Adventure contest 2020: WinterGod
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Author |
File Description |
WinterGod |
Posted on 07/30/20 @ 11:30 AM
File Details |
Version: |
AoM:Tale of the Dragon |
WinterGod's entry to the 2020 contest. The scenario is titled "Snowy norse village" and is for AoM:EE.
EDIT: You need the Eyecandy mod, from the Modpacks section for this scenario to work. |
Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Lewonas |
Posted on 08/14/20 @ 02:44 PM
This unofficial review was written for the Mini Adventure competition.
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Adventure (5/10)
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Wow, this was one incredibly quick adventure. It almost felt like you were speedrunning through the entire adventure. The intro cinematic introduced the story in a very, very quick pace where you only had like 2 seconds to read the dialogues. And after leaving the starting area you go on a very quick sea voyage towards the lands of the fire giants. Upon arrival you immediately face off against the Nidhogg boss which is the main objective of the scenario to kill. And finally you have a brief final battle against another mighty creature which brings the adventure to a close. All of this took me about 11 minutes to go through.
The scenario could have really used a slower pacing in order to give the player a chance to get immersed into the adventure.
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Immersive storyline and experience (4/10)
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The direction you took with the adventure surely had some potential to create a nice immersive storyline and experience around. It’s just that you needed to slow down the pace and go a little more in-depth with the story. It would have been nice if the intro cinematic gave you a bit more background story about the conflict between the frost and fire clan. You could have used the extra reserved space to visualize some important key points of that background story.
You could have also grabbed the opportunity to create a cinematic (and use the extra map space) once you board the ship to head off towards the lands of the fire giants. Perhaps show some of the perils of a long dangerous journey by sea, and/or show some of the destruction the fire giants have caused on the way to the destination. This could have made the storyline a lot more engaging and reinforce the feeling of being on an adventure.
I was also a bit confused by the very brief inclusion of the Greeks. Somewhere in the middle of the scenario they briefly appeared out of nowhere without any introduction and then disappeared even faster. It felt a bit out of place.
In the ending you also added a little twist to the story. It would have been great if you as the player would have been able to notice throughout the gameplay that something about this conflict felt off.
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Atmosphere (5/10)
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Man, I really loved everything about the atmosphere that hung around the Norse village. I generally dislike mods, but the combination of modded units you used in the village really helped out a lot to create the idea of a cosy warm village.
But it was a big mistake to not add any music to your scenario. At some point I just saved the game and loaded the saved game so that some standard music would start playing. I also think you could have done a bit more with the lighting rather than always leaving it on Night mode.
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Balance (3/10)
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I hate to say it, but I have to be a bit brutally honest here that there just was no challenging aspect in this scenario at all. You could just let the majority of the fights play out by themselves and you would always come out as the victor. It is part of the fun to have some challenging encounters that require some tactics in order to win them.
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Map design (5/10)
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I liked the idea you had for the overall layout of the map and how you cut off the various sections; it works really well. But it’s a little bit of a waste that the water is taking up such a large portion of the gameplay area. I think it would have been a better choice if you had moved the water just outside of the gameplay area into the extra non-gameplay area. Then you would have had some more real estate to work with to add more gameplay content. Plus, like I already said, you could have also really used the extra space for some more cinematics.
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Eyecandy (8/10)
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You did a phenomenal job with the eyecandy. The village is my personal favourite section that just oozes comfiness. The modded units such as the houses with the snowy rooftops and the various shrines and statues just work together beautifully here (and I just wish they would be included in the base game). I also loved the little extra details you put with the custom floating ice unit and the other various custom embellishment units. Overall, it’s a very visually pleasing map to look at where the concept of ‘less is more’ really shines through. Excellent job.
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Features (3/10)
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The scenario did not feature any stand-out features. You added a few cool effects in the final battle. However, the majority of the gameplay consisted of fighting with your army versus other armies. So all in all, you went for a classic and basic RTS approach here.
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Final score: 33/70
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Zenophobia |
Posted on 08/16/20 @ 04:45 PM
Playability: 4
For the most part, I had no issues playing the game. However some instructions appeared only once in a message box and then were never seen again. Furthermore, the objectives weren't updated, so a user couldn't go back to check on them later. This was only an issue for some of the instructions, as other objectives did appear, although they weren't updated properly as the storyline progressed.
Balance: 2
There was hardly any gameplay to speak of here. I just commanded my frost giants to freeze the fire giants and reginleif to attack nidhogg, and that was about the extent of the gameplay depth. Not only that, the user wasn't given much of a challenge at all. I could have easily beaten the scenario without a single use of restoration, but we were generously given plenty.
Even with basic AoM gameplay, there are plenty of ways to introduce more interesting balance and gameplay decisions, such as unit combat effectiveness against other unit types, or flanking attacks and such, but since all of the enemies were fire giants, there was little variety in the challenge at hand.
Creativity: 2
The gameplay was alright, but not at all engaging or unique. This felt more like a showcase of your modpack, which I can definitely say is very high quality and beautiful, but the scenario itself almost felt bland in a way.
Map Design: 5
I think the added eyecandy units were very splendid and you absolutely enhanced the AoM look and feel in this scenario. Pathways were clear and spacious, allowing for sufficient room for combat.
Story/Instructions: 1
I think this section could use quite a lot of improvement. The opening cinematic was confusing to say the least, but the text also flew by way too fast. I didn't even have a chance to glance at the camera angles and environment before the next line would flash before my eyes. The storyline left more questions than anything else. Every time the scenario progressed, it felt more like a set of commands being given to a computer than anything else, and I was left thinking, "Okay, I guess that's happening next?" In addition, as stated previously, the objectives were updated sporadically, without much rhyme or reason.
Additional Comments:
If this scenario were meant to be a showcase of all the cool features in your modpack, then it achieved that quite splendidly. But if we stripped away the fancy models and textures, we would be left with a scenario that left much to be desired. |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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2.8 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 3.5 | Balance | 2.0 | Creativity | 2.0 | Map Design | 4.5 | Story/Instructions | 2.0 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 135 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 130.01 KB |
Added: | 07/30/20 |
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