While nothing is perfect Resistance got a lot right. The storyline is very tight, the game play is not repetitive and the level of difficulty and thought required for this Adventure Pack really raises the bar. For those who have not played through it, I highly recommend it, even if you are a on a Free Account go ahead, it's worth it. This is what Champions Online should be.
Now for a more detailed review. From here, their be spoilers.
Spoiler:
Unlike almost every other mission in the game Resistance starts off with placing your character at ground zero when the trouble begins. From the onset you are drawn into the action without feeling like this might be busy work for other more well established heroes. Here, they need help and there's not much time. At the same time we're also reminded of one of the first puns in the game, Clayton Griswold. Ever on a bad trip this time he's stumbled into our wold searching for help.
While this does put the song Holiday Road in my head for the majority of the Adventure Pack, what they actually did with the character was impressive. Taking the running gag, Griz as he's known in his world is one of the Resistance's leaders, he's a fighter and comes off as both competent and concerned for his troops. Said differently they really establish him as a fully fleshed out character and not just part of an ongoing gag. That said, I do wish they had better voice work for this character, yes there is a morbid part of me that wished he sounded like Randy Quaid (Come on Cryptic, it's not like they guy's had much work lately.)
Once on the other side your first mission is turning on beacons inside a twisted version of Champions HQ. Yes there a little voice in the back of my head telling "we have to shut down all those beacons" except this time we're turning them on. The real highlight for me here was the command room and watching the images of Resistance fighters scrolling across the screen and pairing them to the main setting equivalents. The hall of statues was another nice moment.
This time, when you exit the building there is no heroes welcome, instead we're treated to a great panoramic of New Harmon. I'd like to pause here for just a moment and say that the cut scenes overall were a huge improvement. There were a lot more of them in this Adventure Pack than I'd seen in the past but they were, for the most part very quick and did a good part of driving the story forward.
At this point we are giving mission objectives to help facilitate the rescue of "The Old Man" an old hero who knows a lot about what's going on. Before we get there though you'll have to take out three different locations. The way this is explained sounds almost intentionally like a call back to the Serpent Lantern. The way this plays out is nothing like previous adventures.
The opening mission plays out like a lot of Champions Online missions, go forth and stomp bad thing. However starting with these new objectives that all changes. Stealth, threat management and general situational awareness all come into play. If you don't think so good luck with the Overseers, it's like fighting the Mega-Destroid, only they call for back up. There is a reason why Citizen Harmon is in control of this place. This is another high point for me, not only is the challenge level elevated but making a mistake really lets you know how things got so bad in this world.
Each of the three objectives are fast, or can be if you don't make too many mistakes. After completing these you are given a fourth objective to override the Overseers programming. This first part of Resistance culminates with you battling this worlds Kinetic and Sapphire, Oubilette and Lapiz Lazulli while uncontrolled Overseers attack everything. I should say that this is not our first time seeing Oubilette and Lapiz Lazulli, with the completion of each of the initial three objectives they've been tracking you down, getting closer each time.
From here it's into the sewers to make an escape, of course there's no time to rest as you are harried at each step of the way. Now, it occurs to me that we haven't talked about the enemies yet, other than the Overseers/Mega-Destroids. Resistance has the most diverse group of foes out of any of the Adventure Packs, Karkaradons (Shark Men), Destroids, Secret Police, with tanks, not to mention the villainous version of the Champions. The sewers gives you a mix a both and a mix of different mission objectives. Again, the pacing is great, giving you no real time to relax, there is always something happening. If I had one big complaint it actually comes from this leg of the Adventure Pack. While Champions Online has always been filled with puns the Adventure Packs have generally kept them to a minimum. Here though we have call backs to multiple movies just in case you hadn't picked up on some of the other characters names along the way, they made these references a little easier. That said, I'll admit I was extremely amused at one of the latter jokes.
So far between the first two legs of resistance we've gone through roughly 8 mission, none of them felt repetitive, ad this is a major selling point for me. Once you're in the prison mission objectives change again. Here things rely heavily on stealth and situational awareness. Not to give away too much I'll say even when running what is virtually the same mission twice they still manage to mix things up and keep the adventure moving without it feeling mired in filler.
I'm going to leave the prison details a bit sketchy as to nit give away all the plot. Once the Old Man is free the show down with Citizen Harmon is inevitable. Since these are really some of the best parts of the Adventure Pack I'm going to keep it short and sweet, Get ready for one of the best preludes to the last fight and be ready to deal with waves of secret police. Once the final battle has begun don't expect any kind of easy victory. There are multiple components to he battle and as the fight goes on it gets progressively harder.
Last night I had the help of cptpatriot. I'm wondering how anyone could solo this Adventure Pack on Elite. We had a hard enough time just on normal in the final battle. That said, a star refill later I may be giving that another shot, just to see if it can be done.
For the why did Cryptic change things crowd I saw, above all this Adventure Pack is for you. The story is honestly compelling and the details really geared for bigger and better things. With that I think we're at the end of the review. With luck, this is a sign of things to come and really a great addition to the Champions Online world.
"A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every
action."--Samurai Maxim.
While nothing is perfect Resistance got a lot right. The storyline is very tight, the game play is not repetitive and the level of difficulty and thought required for this Adventure Pack really raises the bar. For those who have not played through it, I highly recommend it, even if you are a on a Free Account go ahead, it's worth it. This is what Champions Online should be.
Now for a more detailed review. From here, their be spoilers.
Originally Posted by the Spoiler
Last night I had the help of cptpatriot. I'm wondering how anyone could solo this Adventure Pack on Elite. We had a hard enough time just on normal in the final battle. That said, a star refill later I may be giving that another shot, just to see if it can be done.
For the why did Cryptic change things crowd I saw, above all this Adventure Pack is for you. The story is honestly compelling and the details really geared for bigger and better things. With that I think we're at the end of the review. With luck, this is a sign of things to come and really a great addition to the Champions Online world.
That was a nice review. As the person who @certified played with, I can tell you he was accurate. I had hoped to have some video of our run, but FRAPS was interacting weirdly with some of my binds and I had to stop it, but I'll give a full sided screenshot of the portal itself, powered down.
Spoiler:
Lord Arcangel "Archie" Ortiz, Jr., Imperial Viceroy
Originally Posted by Jason W. in Kickstarter
By the powers vested in my me by the mighty Hexman I pronounce you: Lord Arcangel Ortiz, Jr!
[Sounds of thunder and swords clashing]
....or did you mean something else? Jason W.
I find it interesting that we generated no comments at all.
Lord Arcangel "Archie" Ortiz, Jr., Imperial Viceroy
Originally Posted by Jason W. in Kickstarter
By the powers vested in my me by the mighty Hexman I pronounce you: Lord Arcangel Ortiz, Jr!
[Sounds of thunder and swords clashing]
....or did you mean something else? Jason W.
Actually as this Adventure Pack almost feels like fan service for the pen and paper crowd I'm kind of surprised also. I'm used to this part of the forum being fairly quiet until someone comes along with some new CO hate then the in defense of crowd (myself included typically step up to the plate.) However, I thought there might be something here.
On a side note, apparently they decided that last fight needed to be harder.
"A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every
action."--Samurai Maxim.
I can see here that I won't be playing this, at least until I can get a new computer -- the difficulty will be simply too great with the laggy, awkward netbook I've been using. Once that happens I'll probably be jumping into it with both feet, especially if I can find teammates.
Visit the worlds of the Realm Hunter -- my novels!
I can see here that I won't be playing this, at least until I can get a new computer -- the difficulty will be simply too great with the laggy, awkward netbook I've been using. Once that happens I'll probably be jumping into it with both feet, especially if I can find teammates.
If I have the time I think it's safe to saw I'd be willing to take another run at it. The difficulty here is really boosted compared to Serpent Lantern or Demon Flame, although the Left Hand comes close to the challenge of the last fight.That said I think I've found a way to make the final battle much easier, if you have the right powers, namely healing, so if there are any Celestial Build characters running around make sure to give us a ring.
"A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every
action."--Samurai Maxim.
I've really been enjoying this thread. It's good to hear that Cryptic is improving. It does a world of good for me. See, I used to believe in this mythical thing called "learning" before politics and business beat it out of me. Maybe it does exist after all!
Unfortunately (fortunately?), I could see at least one of the big Reveals coming. But that means that I get to enjoy the screenshots!
I've really been enjoying this thread. It's good to hear that Cryptic is improving. It does a world of good for me. See, I used to believe in this mythical thing called "learning" before politics and business beat it out of me. Maybe it does exist after all!
Unfortunately (fortunately?), I could see at least one of the big Reveals coming. But that means that I get to enjoy the screenshots!
Well, we have the good fortune of knowing a little about the background. I for one wasn't paying attention to that and was pleasantly surprised (though a few expletives came out).
Lord Arcangel "Archie" Ortiz, Jr., Imperial Viceroy
Originally Posted by Jason W. in Kickstarter
By the powers vested in my me by the mighty Hexman I pronounce you: Lord Arcangel Ortiz, Jr!
[Sounds of thunder and swords clashing]
....or did you mean something else? Jason W.
I just wanted to say that, for those considering getting Resistance, this is a great review. In particular, I agree with that this is a fan service to the traditional tabletop crowd. There's a whole section that is not focused on grinding that's very much like a typical pencil & paper adventure.
I'm wondering how anyone could solo this Adventure Pack on Elite.
I'm sure you already done this, but yeah, I solo'd on Elite with a level 40 Glacier Archetype, dying twice. It was my 1st run last night (finally found time where I could sit down and enjoy Resistance).
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Originally Posted by Certified
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