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- Mar 2, 2014
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- 127
Hive Journey 3 - Curse of the Forsaken; Campaign by tomoraider
First off: It has to be mentioned that this Campaign is not as polished as the 2.0 version of Rise of the Bloodelves. Directly comparing the two is not fair even though my playthrough on this was directly subsequent. Therefore I have to point out that some of my critisism is highly subjective.
Anyway, let's move on.
Curse of the Forsaken is the sequel to Rise of the Bloodelves 2.0, a game that I loved for its depth in storyline and gameplay as well as its visuals.
Starting this Campaign I had high expectations.
First Impression
With the first Mission I felt like it doesn't matter too much how it is as there were 10 more chapters to go. But right of the bat the first Mission is not very involving. A simple destroy-enemy mission with no surprises. The sidequest gives some minor items. The mission gets longer as mission objectives update.
The main challange with this and quite some other maps in this campaign is holding out against forces of the Scourge (or Humans controlled by Dreadlord) while attempting to either fulfill a mission objective or build an army big enough to take the enemy base.
I noticed that with most bases you'll conquer it's possible to destroy something and it'll still be destroyed. However the enemyforces tend to replenish and eat up your gold and patience.
Especially when the enemy stops attacking you for no reason usually his attack force keeps inside the base and gives you a hard time. Especially in a later mission where you have to close Demon-Portals.
Story and Cutscenes
Beginning before and finishing after "Rise of the Blood Elves 2.0" the Story is quite good and gets better towards the end. The cutscenes are awesome as usual and only lack what no game has, voiceacting. Like last time it is attempted to fill some dialog probably with voices out of WoW. I wouldn't know as I never played it.
Nothing bad I can say about it except that there are occasional typos to be found (like "in is" that are supposed to be "is in").
Gameplay and Terrain
That is a hard one because I always have to consider that I compare it to a more polished game of the same uploader. But what I thought is that the missions got more repetetive than before, though that I can only say about the first half of the Campaign. Also there are only few surprises or secrets along the way and exploration isn't really rewarded other than finding the best way to attack enemy bases. The Mission that annoyed me was the one with closing the Demon-Portals. The Map itself is boring, flat filled with trees on hills. There are 5 Portals to be closed, 5 armies to crush. Because the enemy doesn't always come out it can get really hard to get a hold, even with maxed army, especially with the one in the bottom left corner.
Also this Map which was Chapter 7 I think just SCREAMS "convoy-hunt". The landscape is flat and boring and the multiple ways through the mountains are rendered useless. But for convoys taking different ways it would make sense. But even if we have to stick to the portalcleansing I think 3 would be enough sacrificing 2 for a more interesting landscape and some secrets and explorationrewards. That actually goes for some of the maps.
But this doesn't mean the Gameplay would suck. It doesn't. You still got interesting skills, new units, different heroes of different races. This Campaign is also heavy with letting you control 2 armies at once which I liked. Though I have to admit that the enemy got no chance. I even would've killed the Lich king inside his base if it wasn't for the fact that he was invulnerable. Some of the Scenarios would greatly benefit from increased Map size, increasing enemy-base size as well.
You'll end up using Dread-Guards most of the time for their Spell-Immunity. The last fight was over in seconds because of those. The Valk'yrs are awesome, sadly you just fight undead when you get them which tend to raise the dead before you. With their Foodcost of 7 it would allow for a combination with bone-producing Meat Wagons but lacking resistance of any kind to spells you'd still rather build a whole bunch of dread knights.
Speaking of which, in groups they're Hero killers. Just R-click 6 times (with 6 Dreadguards) and see any enemy crumble by the force of lifedrain. Lifedrain is also their means to defend against flying units, though you have to be clever about that, since you only can have mana to cast this spell once (Cost 75, max-mana 125)
The dungeon levels are awesome with multiple boss fights. The Last Chapter (11, 12 is story again) reminded me of "Books of Sorceria", which is hard to accomplish, since Sorceria did everything that's possible with the Map-Editor in a 72 Missions long RPG-Campaign spanning over 6 Campaigns (Chapters)
In conclusion the Gameplay is very good but it could be way better. Probably in the 2.0 version that will be made. I personally had more fun playing "Rise of the Bloodelves" as the battles there felt more alive and every mission seemed unique.
Music and Sounds
Rather nice with the last Chapter having the most involving (Boss-Fight-Music).
Graphics and Visuals
This again is almost perfect. Though the landscape can get boring in the first half, the Units still look beautiful. As beautiful as Undead get. Especially the Maps inside Northrend are also an eye-catcher. The design seems to be the biggest strength of the developer as I'm really stunned by the feel that these are in fact new units and this is in fact the Ice-Crown.
Bugs
Sadly there are a few. Nothing really important except one.
In Chapter 7 (the one with the Demon-Portals) when Thrall dies and comes back he can use the circle of power again. The first and easiest one that is. It also can happen by accident. I had my Black Citadel build there, so demons poured out out of nothing directly in front of my main building. I wasn't prepared. Also after "closing" the already closed portal the mission objective updated to (3 of 5). I didn't mean to break the game so I reloaded and avoided circle of powers with thrall that had no portal anymore.
Other than that there's nothing that comes to mind. Chapter 7 was the worst in Gameplay so I guess when there has to be a bug it's good it's here and nowhere else.
In conclusion I liked the Campaign and am looking forward to version 2.0. If it feels like I'm bashing a little on this Campaign I'm actually not and my review would've sounded nicer if I didn't come directly from the beautifully done, almost perfect "Rise of the Bloodelves 2.0". I highly recommend this campaign but please start with Rise of the Bloodelves. Storywise it wouldn't make sense otherwise anyway.
Krolan
The Twisted
Update due to the rightfully put suggestion by Hell Master to include a rating.
Final Verdict: 4/5
First off: It has to be mentioned that this Campaign is not as polished as the 2.0 version of Rise of the Bloodelves. Directly comparing the two is not fair even though my playthrough on this was directly subsequent. Therefore I have to point out that some of my critisism is highly subjective.
Anyway, let's move on.
Curse of the Forsaken is the sequel to Rise of the Bloodelves 2.0, a game that I loved for its depth in storyline and gameplay as well as its visuals.
Starting this Campaign I had high expectations.
First Impression
With the first Mission I felt like it doesn't matter too much how it is as there were 10 more chapters to go. But right of the bat the first Mission is not very involving. A simple destroy-enemy mission with no surprises. The sidequest gives some minor items. The mission gets longer as mission objectives update.
The main challange with this and quite some other maps in this campaign is holding out against forces of the Scourge (or Humans controlled by Dreadlord) while attempting to either fulfill a mission objective or build an army big enough to take the enemy base.
I noticed that with most bases you'll conquer it's possible to destroy something and it'll still be destroyed. However the enemyforces tend to replenish and eat up your gold and patience.
Especially when the enemy stops attacking you for no reason usually his attack force keeps inside the base and gives you a hard time. Especially in a later mission where you have to close Demon-Portals.
Story and Cutscenes
Beginning before and finishing after "Rise of the Blood Elves 2.0" the Story is quite good and gets better towards the end. The cutscenes are awesome as usual and only lack what no game has, voiceacting. Like last time it is attempted to fill some dialog probably with voices out of WoW. I wouldn't know as I never played it.
Nothing bad I can say about it except that there are occasional typos to be found (like "in is" that are supposed to be "is in").
Gameplay and Terrain
That is a hard one because I always have to consider that I compare it to a more polished game of the same uploader. But what I thought is that the missions got more repetetive than before, though that I can only say about the first half of the Campaign. Also there are only few surprises or secrets along the way and exploration isn't really rewarded other than finding the best way to attack enemy bases. The Mission that annoyed me was the one with closing the Demon-Portals. The Map itself is boring, flat filled with trees on hills. There are 5 Portals to be closed, 5 armies to crush. Because the enemy doesn't always come out it can get really hard to get a hold, even with maxed army, especially with the one in the bottom left corner.
Also this Map which was Chapter 7 I think just SCREAMS "convoy-hunt". The landscape is flat and boring and the multiple ways through the mountains are rendered useless. But for convoys taking different ways it would make sense. But even if we have to stick to the portalcleansing I think 3 would be enough sacrificing 2 for a more interesting landscape and some secrets and explorationrewards. That actually goes for some of the maps.
But this doesn't mean the Gameplay would suck. It doesn't. You still got interesting skills, new units, different heroes of different races. This Campaign is also heavy with letting you control 2 armies at once which I liked. Though I have to admit that the enemy got no chance. I even would've killed the Lich king inside his base if it wasn't for the fact that he was invulnerable. Some of the Scenarios would greatly benefit from increased Map size, increasing enemy-base size as well.
You'll end up using Dread-Guards most of the time for their Spell-Immunity. The last fight was over in seconds because of those. The Valk'yrs are awesome, sadly you just fight undead when you get them which tend to raise the dead before you. With their Foodcost of 7 it would allow for a combination with bone-producing Meat Wagons but lacking resistance of any kind to spells you'd still rather build a whole bunch of dread knights.
Speaking of which, in groups they're Hero killers. Just R-click 6 times (with 6 Dreadguards) and see any enemy crumble by the force of lifedrain. Lifedrain is also their means to defend against flying units, though you have to be clever about that, since you only can have mana to cast this spell once (Cost 75, max-mana 125)
The dungeon levels are awesome with multiple boss fights. The Last Chapter (11, 12 is story again) reminded me of "Books of Sorceria", which is hard to accomplish, since Sorceria did everything that's possible with the Map-Editor in a 72 Missions long RPG-Campaign spanning over 6 Campaigns (Chapters)
In conclusion the Gameplay is very good but it could be way better. Probably in the 2.0 version that will be made. I personally had more fun playing "Rise of the Bloodelves" as the battles there felt more alive and every mission seemed unique.
Music and Sounds
Rather nice with the last Chapter having the most involving (Boss-Fight-Music).
Graphics and Visuals
This again is almost perfect. Though the landscape can get boring in the first half, the Units still look beautiful. As beautiful as Undead get. Especially the Maps inside Northrend are also an eye-catcher. The design seems to be the biggest strength of the developer as I'm really stunned by the feel that these are in fact new units and this is in fact the Ice-Crown.
Bugs
Sadly there are a few. Nothing really important except one.
In Chapter 7 (the one with the Demon-Portals) when Thrall dies and comes back he can use the circle of power again. The first and easiest one that is. It also can happen by accident. I had my Black Citadel build there, so demons poured out out of nothing directly in front of my main building. I wasn't prepared. Also after "closing" the already closed portal the mission objective updated to (3 of 5). I didn't mean to break the game so I reloaded and avoided circle of powers with thrall that had no portal anymore.
Other than that there's nothing that comes to mind. Chapter 7 was the worst in Gameplay so I guess when there has to be a bug it's good it's here and nowhere else.
In conclusion I liked the Campaign and am looking forward to version 2.0. If it feels like I'm bashing a little on this Campaign I'm actually not and my review would've sounded nicer if I didn't come directly from the beautifully done, almost perfect "Rise of the Bloodelves 2.0". I highly recommend this campaign but please start with Rise of the Bloodelves. Storywise it wouldn't make sense otherwise anyway.
Krolan
The Twisted
Update due to the rightfully put suggestion by Hell Master to include a rating.
Final Verdict: 4/5
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