So, as with "Battle for Azeroth" I actually proceded with doing a video on this campaign demo as well, having apparently from what I read recieved latest version - which is good, as that probably helps you out on this project as well.
I will do this time some story critique as well, as it kinda interlinks with the gameplay and critique, I also had with Azshara in the "Battle for Azeroth"-campaign.
Gameplay - Mission 1 (as there is only one mission so far)
First the positive things, compared to Battle for Azeroth:
+ read out dialoque outside of cutscenes is partly shown with visible text by sides of the narrator - if this would be applied to ingame dialoque as well, this would improve quite a lot of the campaign's quality as well.
+ functional AI - although it is a simple one, this one worked out quite well and even rebuild structures, when they were destroyed. Huuuge improvement from BfA-campaign demo, as it was one of my major critique points
Bonus points: The AI pinging to which location the allied hero moves is briliant as fuck and I would love to see more campaigns doing it that way. Keep on going with this idea!
+ the hero choice in the beginning is neat - sadly you choose an NPC hero, but it's better than nothing.
+ terrain kinda reflects the Blasted Lands from WoW although it could need some improvement here and there
+ Naga techtree works out okay for the majority - better than the classic one.
+ Voice acting as usual
However that would be so far it from the positive points, which raised my interest. As much as the campaign did one entire mission more enjoyable than most of the 'BfA'-missions, there were some huge flaws, where I definitly recommend you to fix them, some being quite obvious.
- For the first mission and two main missions of which one is just a 'go to this position' quest, the map is way too large.
I get the idea, that the player should realize that he enters a complete re-map of the Blasted Lands-zone from WoW in Warcraft 3, but everything south of the Dark Portal serves no purpose to the actual mission.
It's just a vast map with the problem that you run from time to time into creeps and by chance enemy troops.
By accident I even found a Dreadmaul ogre camp, which served no real purpose despite the ogres being faction alligned. Given the size of this map, it would help to either reduce the size of it or to implement a zoom command, similiar to how maps like
Azeroth Wars and
Lordaeron the Aftermath handle it.
(by typing in -far you can zoom out + if the feature is implemented the camera should start zoomed out to show the player that there is a cam command most likely)
Other than that, making the area of active questing smaller will also make it easier to get the scouting and questing faster done than you would normally need. Which brings us to the second major problem of the first mission:
- There is barely any gold.
Naga are probably one of the most costworthy campaign races in Warcraft 3 and in this campaign that's the case as well. With a good economy though you can bypass this problem however.
Yet there is no chance in building up this kind of economy, as the campaign mission lacks goldmines in good spots by a lot.
Given the supposed duration of the campaign with all side missions, it's not doable unless you kill off both enemy camps, get the goldmines in the center and the enemy camp while just ignoring Medivh for the rest of the time afterwards - and at this point, there is no need to build up your base anymore, since the main purpose of having a base on your own is to destroy the enemy base.
Thus, if the map is supposed to stay this way, it definitly needs more goldmines and an increased ammount of gold within already existing ones.
Otherwise your ally ends up stealing your gold when his goldmine collapses while both the Alliance and the Horde goldmine have also dried out at this point already.
Adding more goldmines would also provide better strategical options than just defending one potential goldmine in the middle of the map, where the Horde AI is destined to rampage through. It would probably even give you a reason to destroy the bloody dreadmaul camp as by closer inspection there is no real reason why you should kill off all the ogres there.
- there is no lumbermill
Like in 'BfA' campaign, the Naga race has no lumbermill building, which serves as a cheap lumber dropoff point, other than the main building.
As with the gold this will result in major problems as the wood area around the main base will drain faster over the next hour than one might expect. Apart from buffing the trees in terms of health, it would be helpful to grant the Naga upgrade building the ability to drop off lumber as the orcish warmill in classic does.
That way you don't have to build overprized mainbuildings everywhere on the map, which aren't even worth upgrading, as going to Tier II solves most of your initial problems with Naga
-overprized items
a healing potion alone costs 400 gold, thus making items in TDB worse than in BfA - you should definitly copy the item system from your other campaign, as I didn't even bother looking into the shop once I realized that everything inside was overprized - I had a gold problem already and the item shop only increased it
- where are the side missions?
It showed 4 side missions and I found none of them despite having explored 50% of the map for over half an hour before I decided to just give a fuck about them and destroyed the main objectives, as I was already running out of gold ^^
From what I can read they were presumingly south of the Naga base, so probably it would have been smarter to place the side missions closer to the Naga base.
If the side missions are even necessary! By going with the main quest, I had no problem to level up Azshara to Level 4 which was for this mission the max level - once I reached that level, there was no need for me to bother more about potential expierience I missed.
- The Dark Portal indicator shows the wrong location
Once you complete the main mission, the second mission kicks in and pings a supposed position of the Dark Portal - if you actually go to the area of the ping, there is nothing - the real location of the Dark Portal is far more south east.
I know, if I would have memorized the Blasted Lands map from WoW more, I probably would have known or whatever, but I searched roughly 15 minutes until I found it. For a search quest, which even supposedly reveals you the location, that's pretty much unnecessary.
So far the most major flaws I found, where I hope that they get fixed as otherwise they ruin the gameplay of the mission completely. This is also the main reason why I voted "Gameplay" on your poll, as it's the biggest problem Mission 1 of 'The Dark Below'-campaign features.
Future missions should definitly feature smaller maps, which are easier filled with actual content.
Lore issues and advices
With the biggest problems being listed up, let's delve deeper into the actual portrayal of the campaign and it's story line.
Proloque shows so far the best piece of Story line, as it directly references "War of the Ancients" and went partially a similiar approach as the most recent
Warbringer Episode featuring Azshara and N'Zoth.
Thus better making the critique section here quite fast:
- I think the dominant speech of N'Zoth is so far more or less okay (although some dialoque lines + sequences could be improved like for example the transformation sequence, which looks a bit underwhelming), but Azshara seems way too much out of character, compared to how she was portrayed in the actual lore.
In my opinion she gave in too fast to N'Zoth in terms of dialoque as she's all like "Oh no, my empire is gone and I have no choice but to submit to N'Zoth" - "Yes I swear allegiance to N'Zoth"
which seems for me too sudden and unfitting for her.
After all she just made a bad deal with the Legion, so even if she had no choice in resisting N'Zoth's transformation powers, she shouldn't give up that easily and at least stand up in some way to him.
Sylvanas after all showed Arthas nontheless her hatred despite being enslaved by the Lichking - it would be similiar with Azshara.
Other than that though the ending of the proloque was okay when the Naga rose to the surface. Reminded me a lot of how the Naga were introduced in the official TFT campaign, thus appreciating the reference.
As for Mission 1:
- Azshara being a hero leads already to a big problem from a lore point of perspective.
Even before she was transformed, she was known as a master of the Arcane while even the commanders of the Burning Legion could hardly rival her. Mannoroth alone realized that Azshara was probably more powerful than him - and that's not easily said, since Mannoroth is basically fourth in line of the Burning Legion's main command, being sworn to only Archimonde, Kil'jaeden and Sargeras by technical means!
Thus, having an Azshara campaign could only work out in two ways, if you want to do it right:
° The player plays one of her commanders, while Azshara either appears in cutscenes or is displayed ingame as a pretty much unkillable NPC hero, who does just her thing while you are slithering along the lines. Here would be some wonderful candidates as alternatve hero choices, while still keeping the hero's skill set:
Athissa
Lady Naz'jar
Mistress Sassz'ine
Those three are next to Lady Vashj her most memorable high-ranked commanders, whom she trusted with important tasks like capturing Neptulon or obtaining the Tidestone of Golganeth.
Seeing quests from their perspective can work out as well.
°The player gets to play Azshara, but she's featured as an insanely strong hero, who can hardly be killed by any means - thus her abilities might be over the top and kill regular stuff faster than you might actually think.
In that case you would feature her in probably only 1-2 missions, just to show off how strong she actually is, before changing perspective to other heroes, either on the Naga side or even on the Naga-opposing side.
The custom campaign 'Rise of the Lich King' pulled off a similiar thing, where you get to play as Arthas Menethil himself after he became the Lichking, while you slaughter pretty much everything within your path, getting a brief idea of what abilities he wields.
Within the mission itself, there's a twist though, as you change the character while Arthas serves from this point on as the antagonist of the entire campaign.
Or you choose to pick both of these solutions while toying around with it. It could eventually lead to a more believable story line as well, since there aren't many challenges from lore perspective, where Azshara has difficulties in overcoming them - her underlings though might have these problems and they might act somewhere, where Azshara isn't currently available while she wants to see a mission achieved by her minions nontheless.
- For a massive Naga invasion in which Azshara participates, the first mission is quite underwhelming, as it's just the clash of 4 bases, which send out few units for attacks, while having decent defences.
The mission might feel more important, if there would be more Horde and Alliance camps on the way to destroy, while also giving the conflict more magnitude. The mission might probably even work out if the Naga camps are completely under NPC controll, while the player only controlls Azshara with her nearly godlike arcane powers, which she utilizes to crush the massive armies, which approach her position.
That way Azshara can be introduced in a fast-paced first mission, showing off her power, while it gives us roughly an idea into what direction the campaign might be heading, once the camps are destroyed and the Naga do, whatever they attempted to do in the first place (probably building up Azshara's empire on the surface, I guess).
- Medivh's intervention is... questionable.
Apart from myself asking, why Medivh is always the plot device in each campaign I so far played instead of Khadgar, who pretty much is the confirmed guardian of Azeroth since Warlords of Draenor (while before the position was more or less vacant due to Medivh being nothing more than a ghost within the timeways currently),
I also rather question why he would even attempt to help Azshara,
the one individual who nearly destroyed the entirety of Azeroth in her greed, just because she made a pact with the Legion in order to summon none other than Sargeras himself to Azeroth.
And by what methods anyways?
Keep in mind that we're talking about the Old Gods, unnatural beings which are described as cthuloid parasites, whom even the Titans feared as they couldn't be killed off permanently without destroying a good portion of Azeroth itself. The Well of Eternity is for example such a wound, as it was the place where Y'Shaaraj was destroyed for good (while even then few remnants of him had survived).
And due to the Infinite Dragonflight + several Old God encounters we know as well, that each of the Old Gods had a good understanding for the future of Azeroth, especially N'zoth whose thousand-year old shemes are build up to the point that they are still ongoing in actual WoW.
Thus it means, that N'Zoth would be prepared for a betrayal from sides of Azshara.
The scenario itself might not be unlikely, but keep in mind that we're talking about a manipulative Old God, who even tricked Deathwing into becoming his faithful slave without the Earthwarden even realizing it.
And although Azshara is higher ranked than Deathwing on the potential power table, she's neither free of the Old Gods corruption. Not even the Titan Keepers, created by the Pantheon were spared from their corruption.
Thus, even if Azshara would even get the idea of working against N'Zoth, it would seem like she came up with it, but it would be still an event, which N'Zoth would have forseen as Azshara is one of his key minions. Therefore even if she thinks of betraying him, he probably will bend it without her knowledge that she would still work for the grand sheme he wishes to achieve, while he would sacrifice her, if he has to.
Thus, how is Medivh even supposed to 'cure' this? Being a former Guardian of Azeroth doesn't make him almighty - he's powerful, but only to a certain limit like all the Guardians were.
Wheras the Old Gods are outside the circle and are still pretty much alive, even with C'Thun and Yogg-Saron being seemingly slayed.
So yeah, as you can see - I feel like the direction the campaign is taking with the end of the First Mission kinda is a problem in itself, given that it goes into an unlikely direction from a regular lore point of view.
If it's all custom lore - fine.
I guess then it is okay-ish, I guess - yet it might make the project less atmospheric as people would expect it to be, especially when they know the Warcraft lore quite well.
In the end you must know whether you can live with that or if you go on a different approach with the project after reading the feedback. A custom story with only slight references to the main universe can also have its charme. Custom Campaigns often tend to go into this direction, some more successful than others, so who knows. ^^
tl;dr
- First mission is way too large in terms of the map size and rescources should get increased/item prizes decreased, rest so far ok, story line might need some improvement.
Other than that, I will also link this time the recording of the playthrough, which might help as well to emphasize the problems of the first campaign mission, other than that - my job is done so far. ^-^