[Lazarus]

Incorruptible is the first scenario by tridash.

Download it for Mac or for Windows.

[Master Ackrovan]

Master Ackrovan's Review of Incorruptible

This scenario is a 24 hour scenario, which for a new desginer, I find pretty impressive.

The Plot: The plot is a simple, straight forward combat-kill-em'-all. It isn't innovative or thrilling in any way, but it isn't mediocore and repetivie either. It's got a nice, general feel for it. It isn't farfetched at all, and remained pretty simple as the scenario went on. The twist at the end:

Spoiler

The part with the traitoris senator

....caught me by surprise. I didn't honestly expect it. Fortunatly, it was a good twist that merits extra points.

The Graphics: The graphics are solid and pretty. Coming from a Geneforge-addict like myself, I was happy to see the Geneforge floor graphics. The terrain itself was well presented and focused with the plot. The NPC graphics were pretty standered, although I loved the Eagle Warrior graphic. Warning, spoiler

Spoiler

The Egpytian pyramid was pretty cool, plus it looked good.

The Characters: There aren't many characters in this scenario, which is kind of a bad point in this scenario, altough it won't affect the score since it was only done in 24hrs. There's only one guy you can actually talk to, and he's pretty bland with no interesting personality or interesting traits with him, aside from his cold.

The Dialog: Solid. Nothing fancy, but it does the job good-like. The author was pretty descriptive and let me paint a good picture of the scenario in my head.

The Game Play: Probably the best part of the scenario for its sheer awesomness.

Spoiler

Fire grenades were sweet and cool and fun and all that yummy stuff. They were a tad bit overpowered, however. I would recomend shrinking the blast radias a bit, so it doesn't take out an entire group of enemies in one shot. If you intend to use them again, that is, which I sincerly implore you to do.

Spoiler

One of the coolist things I loved, however, was being able to get soldiers to follow you. It gave me a real feeling of strength and pleasure. One thing, however, that bugged me was how they would occasionally get in my way and stop me from moving. They tended to box me in a few times.

There aren't any shops or traders in this, but again, 24hrs.

Sorry to players that I can't talk about it that much.

The Combat: Combat was pretty good. Theres only two or so fights, save the boss fight, so its kinda on the laging side. Still, it was fun.

The Buildup/Climax: The scenario didn't have much strength in the beginning, but the ending was most then enough to compensate.

Spoiler

Getting to fight in that weird space-world thing was pretty good

Overall: A short, fun combat scenario with some cool features and a solid story to boot. Recomended for pretty much anyone who wants to kill a few minutes.

8.0

EDIT: I'm shrinking the font size. A scenario's review should not take longer to read than the scenario took to play, nor should it stretch beyond one page on a widescreen monitor. --TM

[Enraged Slith]

Short, but expertly written and scripted. It's like the last piece of delicious chocolate - you want more, but there is none. I really hope to see a larger work from tridash.

I'm not sure what to say about the features of the scenario, since everything was just a vessel to tell a story. A lot of attention was put into minor details which helped bring this short piece to life. Plus, you used some of my custom graphics and that totally earns super bonus points.

I want more.

8.2

EDIT: Needed the super bonus points.

[Turtle]

A beautifully done small scenario.

Visually very appealing, and well scripted (as far as a non-designer can tell).

No major bugs, although interesting (but not game-breaking) things can happen if you depart from the intended sequence of events.

Very cool custom item, which you really need if you are actually starting at the recommended level. I was disappointed that I couldn't take these out of the scenario, but I suppose it's just as well.

The first set of combat requires some basic strategy, the second is straightforward and somewhat anticlimactic. I don't think that combat is the main point of the scenario.

The story is consistent and compelling, drawing you into this alternate world with its unique history. Remarkable in such a short work.

There is nothing to buy and no significant loot or XP to be gained, so this is not a good party-building scenario, but again, I don't think that's the intention. It really wouldn't make sense to take a character from this world into a typical BoA scenario. Still, I expect loot.

Besides rewards, I also prefer a little more freedom, if I'm going to play a scenario repeatedly, though I recognize the limitations of such a short format. Having said that, Incorruptible is definitely worth playing once, and even twice just in case you missed appreciating some of the graphics the first time through (it doesn't take long).

It's really hard to see how it could have been done better, so the only deductions are a result of my personal preferences.

Overall, a completely subjective 8.5

And keep'em coming, Tridash!

[N-methyl D-aspartic acid]

Aw. The premise was so cool: Take a few scattered soldiers, and trek through the jungle! I wanted a few more close-calls after the... only combat of the scenario. (I don't count for-show fights as actual combat.) ...you know, the first combat's probably too easy too, once you know you won't need your grenades/soldiers anymore.

It used custom graphics well, except there were some graphical glitches. For instance, I could see the world's edge. (This was especially confusing, since tridash used a custom, non-blue water set.) Also, the temple was totally bare outside of the area of interest. That said, if you're not going out of your way to explore, the graphical work is excellent.

I found the plot uninspiring. It's not that I'm opposed to the premise--I am--but the scenario was too short. I mean, major kudos to tridash for making hir first scenario in 24 hours, but that didn't really allow the suspense to build up. (And the bad guy was literally named "truth.")

Eh. It's worth playing, and it's very good for a first effort. But it is in no way worth the 8.0 scores it's been receiving--that's just ridiculous. 5.0

[Excalibur]

Combat - 4: Meh. Launch a fire bomb, drink a healing potion, launch another fire bomb, then make easy work of the mage. Not much to say here.

Indoor Design - 9: The custom graphics add a really nice touch. I like how some of the building are ornamental, but don't have that annoying "You can't open this door" feature. It's nice to see something other than the traditional grass/hills/cave/etc.

Outdoor Design - 8: Again, nice custom graphics. It's neat to see an Aztec-looking encampment in a BoA scenario; however, I think the river needs to be touched up.

Writing - 8: There were a number of typos, but they didn't obscure the meaning behind the dialog. I like how the writing is well suited to the environment, and how the visual aspects of the scenario are described.

Plot - 6: It's a nice concept, but the scenario is much too short to justify the global domination the Republic seems to seek. Also, am I the only one who though the story had some minor similarities to Star Wars?

Technical - 9: I'm not even sure how in the heck he made the asteroids seem so realistic, or how to make the fire bombs work. I'd imagine if I looked at the scripts, I'd find a lot more concepts that I've never seen in terms of technicalities.

Balance - 6: My singleton was overpowered. It didn't have to fight much because the fire bombs were so effective.

Creativity/Innovation - 10: Fire bombs, Jungle terrain, ancient civilizations, asteroids in space, etc. How many scenarios can boast so many new ideas?

Replay value - 7: As said previously, this scenario has a lot of nice concepts; however, it's short, so I'd likely remember everything about it, so I wouldn't find too much reason to play again...of course, there aren't a whole lot of scenarios that let you bomb people, so...

Other - Usually I have something to say here, but I already covered everything so I'll leave this blank.

Overall - 7.7

[Smoo]

Not to be a party pooper (that would be TM's job, I guess), but I really do not understand why Incorruptible is getting 8+ scores. Sure, it's a decent scenario; it's even a pretty good scenario, but an eight scenario? No, that it ain't.

Let's start with the story. The scenario is not set in the world created by Jeff Vogel. So, there is no Empire, but there is a Republic which, as far as I gathered, is pretty much the same thing. In this scenario, magic is not as abundant as in Vogel's world and the player is pretty much forced to play a non-spell-casting singleton. No wait! That is not true. The player is not forced to do anything. If the player loads up the scenario with an inappropriate party, the game kindly informs the player that this will make the story nonsensical and might possibly make the combat unbalanced. This is how these sorts of things should be handled, so bonus points for that.

Anyway, back to the story. My main problem with it is that since this is a 24-hour scenario, it is so very short. I had not enough time to get used to the idea of the Republic. I immediately sided with the enemy, because they are the underdogs, I suppose. There is no real time to focus on the drama which is why my reaction after the big reveal at the end was along the lines of "So what?" Maybe I was just being overly apathetic, but I was never really drawn into the story.

Now as for the overall design, it is very good. The jungle looks incredible, but it is a bit too maze-like. The towns are all very well designed. I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite scenarios in terms of purely visual quality. The only glitch I found was that the yellowish jungle river inconsistently runs into a bright blue sea. This is a minor complaint. Unfortunately for tridash, visual quality does not rank very high in my "Awesomest Scenario Evarr" checklist.

The combat in Incorruptible is easy. There is one mass fight and then the boss fight. Early on, the player receives a bunch of grenades (incidentally, I did not care for the modern grenade picture) which make short work of the enemies. The player also has a bunch of NPC soldiers helping his singleton and I would have liked to see more fights like that. You fight the boss fight solo, though it is not very hard either. (I did not care for the conveniently acquired uber item, either.)

So how to make this scenario better? Make it longer, pure and simple. What's in here is good, but it is not enough. Still, that is all right, since this is but a glimpse of tridash's designing competence and I really want him to make more scenarios. Here's hoping the designer's next scenario will be longer and of equal, if not, better quality. It might just turn out to be one of my favorites.

6.4 However, I will award Incorruptible +0.5 points for all the small things that I really liked. So, 6.9 it is.

[Ephesos]

This was a good play. I fretted over my fresh singleton's stats, only to find that it didn't matter very much. In the end, the greatsword I picked up in the jungle meant a whole lot more.

All in all, solid. The towns were well-made, though I tend to prefer buildings you can enter (these were cool at least). The outdoors was interesting, though I had some trouble discerning what shrubs I could and could not walk on.

The fights... well, the first one killed me on my first try, but I was to some extent being stupid. Really, the only other fight was kind of a letdown.

The story was just what you'd expect from a 24-hour scenario. A snippet. A tiny chunk. Like, hardly anything to go on here. I'm intrigued, but to some extent I feel like the scenario tried to do too much in too short a time-frame.

Overall, I enjoyed it. So it gets a 6.5. I have to join the chorus saying that it's not deserving of an 8, but it's better than average.