I know I'm a bit late to the party, but... here's my early review
1. Terraining - 3/10.
Unfortunately, the terrain could really use some love. Most of the time the maps feel really empty as if we were playing a map located on some sort of barren wasteland surrounded by a ton of forest and cliffs. That said, the general use of tiles is fine, what I feel is really lacking are doodads. Another thing I'd like to see changed is widening some narrow choke points and ramps leading into enemy bases (which so far seems to be a recurring theme) - I totally get their strategic importance, but they could be a bit wider just to make attacking a bit more enjoyable. And finally, in each map I've seen so far, there's a ton of unused terrain - perhaps you should consider adding something to it
2. Story & writing - 9/10.
I will start off by the player choices - the concept is pretty amazing, but I'd like there to be some sort of clearer indication as to which choices affect the rest of the campaign. Other than that... Generally, the story is very enjoyable. The characters are well written and the plot is intruiging. No real issues here. What I do have a tiny issue with is the writing - particularly the "deal with" part. I don't think there was a cinematic where someone didn't deal with something at least once
It might be a minor thing, but I would recommend looking for some synonyms. Other than that, while some dialogues could be more interesting, the story and writing (a bit less so, but overall it's still good) are definetely a strong side of this campaign.
P.S. The mission where you are inside the mind of a human leader was one of the most amazing concepts I've ever seen
3. Cinematics - 2/10.
They are... quite boring. Most cinematics consist of just a couple of heroes standing somewhere and talking. The terrain really doesn't help here - quite ofen the cinematic area feels pretty empty and uninteresting. There's very little camera movement or jumping, not a lot of animations, unit actions, etc. Overall, there's not much going on in the cinematic and sadly, if you just displayed the dialogue on a black screen and waited a few minutes, it wouldn't make a considerable difference.
I fully understand that with the amount of dialogue you want to include, it's hard to have a ton of things going on at the screen as it would simply interfere with the player reading the text. However, I feel you should consider adding some "breaks", i.e. moments, where something happens and there is no dialogue, so that the player can take a breath and just watch something instead of reading. Adding some minor things going on in the background and/or more camera movements would be nice too. Oh, and music/sounds would be great to have as well
Some transmissions are also badly timed - either too short or too long. I also don't like the fact that if you skip a cutscene you can see camera moving quite a lot - I'd recommend using fading to hide the screen and instantly applying the camera during it. And finally... Often there's quite a lof of dialogue, quest pop-ups and other stuff happening immidiately after the cinematic ends. That's understandable, but I think you should consider spreading it out a bit (and maybe integrating some dialogues into the cinematic itself). I say so, because showing so many things at once creates information clutter and basically makes it unable to read without going to the log - which, in my opinion, the player shouldn't really be forced to do bar a few cases where he misses something or wants to revisit some old information.
4. AI & Difficulty - 10/10.
Not really much to say here. The AI you have (or wrote) for this campaign is simply amazing and the difficulty feels great - challenging, but not frustrating. Overall, well done.
5. Gameplay - 8/10.
So far I've encountered two types of maps - either micro or purely macro. I hope there's more types of maps included in this campaign - some hold-outs, timed maps, dota-style maps (i.e. you use only heroes and the armies are controlled by the AI) or some other unique concepts.
Micro maps are pretty straight-forward - just take your units and kill everything. I hope there are some suprises going forward, like having to run from something or being able to use some traps against enemies, being subjected to traps yourself, having some choices that affect gameplay, more tactical encounters (bosses, fights that require specific tactic, etc.) joining hostile factions fighting each other, etc.
Macro maps are... well, they're pretty fun because of the AI. I really like that you removed supply cost on workers and provided the player with a lot of resources (gold, wood), so that it's not only possible, but required to expand. Another thing that I liked is that in chapter I, while it was still a macro map, you slowly build up your forces and one of the enemy bases was pretty much a trap as without an extra mine/unit types, it was very hard if not impossible to take it. Other than that, they're your typical macro maps - just build up and survive until you kill your opponent.
6. Events & triggers - 3/10.
My main issue is that there's not a lot of them. Most triggered actions are simply comments about something or units just spawning. What I'd like to see is more stuff like some levers that open gates, preplaced enemies moving around the map or towards you as you come close (because they were ordered to before you even saw them), rescuable units (for example from cages), scripted events (for example, as you enter an area, the enemies don't just stand there - they are spawned, with some animations to make it more shiny), etc.
7. Custom units & imported content - 5/10
I like that there are some imported models. I also like that they are mixed with the good, old W3 stuff. However... While their models look great, the heroes and units feel pretty... well, not as awesome as I'd like. I wish there was more custom abilities for new units and heroes, not just mostly repeating or very slightly tweaking what's already there. And some new upgrades for the classic units (doesn't need to be anything major, but for example - an upgrade that makes Abominations spawn 2 Ghouls on death isn't that hard to make and it would still make the unit feel a tiny bit different).
8. Stability - 10/10
It's really hard for me to judge this after only having played through 3 maps, but it seems like the maps are pretty bug-free and everything seems to be working as intended. Well done
VERDICT - average score: 6,25/10, rating: 3/5.
In terms of story and overall gameplay, it's definetely a well made and enjoyable campaign, however it lacks quite a bit in terms of presentation (mainly terraining and cinematics). If you would add more shinies, this would certainly be one of the best campaigns I've ever played.
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I'm sorry if I sounded a bit too critical - I genuinely like your campaign, but as someone who tried working on a campaign, I feel that while approval and praise is definetely nice, some constructive criticism that I've tried to provide will be more beneficial to your project(s). Good luck
Approved
