: My thoughts on Chimera: Maps/Graphics: Great! Colormaps
: are of typical Badlands quality (excellent), and the
: scripting is good. A little slow-paced in most parts,
: however.
: Voices/Sounds: Eh... Recording quality is fine, and
: general audio effects are fine, but the voices all
: sound too similar (except for Kyrilla), have no
: emotion behind them, accent all the wrong words giving
: a poor conveyance of intention and meaning, and the
: pauses between speeches on the map seem two times too
: long, as if the characters were trying to think of
: what to say.
I think some of the voices were good. Kyrilla's was especially well done. However, Four Bear's was not, and he was a huge character. The Baron was alos pretty bad. The berserk guys could not fake Scottish aaccents.
: Plot & Story: Bleh! Puke all over the continent! BIG
: SPOILERS AHEAD! . . . Ok, here's my thoughs as I go
: through the game.
It didn't really bother me that it didn't add to the Myth story, but other things about the story did bug me severely.
: The Healer - "Cool, so these are the Untamed Lands.
: Wolves keep their distance, nice in-game plot element.
: Nifty, tiny spiders - but hey, their flavor text is
: unchanged! And... what are Changelings doing this far
: from the Ermine? There's Fenris and his wolf buddy
: Dream Runner. Lets get the adventure going"
That got me, too. Why would Fenris have Changelings guarding his house? This and the wolves had me thinking he had dealings with b'Y'laggo.
Scripting bug: If you slip past the Changeling blocking the path instead of taking the other path, he will follow Bear and kill him after you lose control. Fenris starts talking to your corpse, but doesn't get far before you see the loss screen.
: The Warrior - "Nice 'journal entry', very unique.
: Ok, the Wasps are acting up and bugging the wolves, so
: we're going hunting - with fir'Bolg? What are they
: doing in the Untamed Lands? Hrm, maybe this is their
: ancestral home, before they moved to the Ermine. New
: flavor texts, good. A Hive Mind behind the Wasps,
: that's nice. Wolves have names now, that's cool too -
: but their flavor is still unchanged!"
Also, there's a bug. When the fir'Bolg die, it doesn't say casualty. This and their tendency to shoot each other made it incredibly difficult to beat this without casualties.
: The Mage - "Alright, we're going to the tomb of
: Kyrand - I wonder if he's related to Kyrilla?
(snip)
What exactly did Fenris and Four Bear want with the amulet, anyway?
: The Archer - "Ok, so now we're going to find ne'Ric,
: who's got a thing with killing wasps. What's with the
: wasps anyway? Kyrilla's doing, I guess. Fetch? What,
: just hiring their services out to whatever sorceress
: asks? Huh. Swamp, Wights, wasps, and there's ne'Ric!
: Ok, so he has some past of missing a shot, but he did
: good this time. And Kyrilla's pissed again, or so she
: says."
Fetch are apparently pretty gullible. They serve anyone who says they'll send them home, even if there's no evidence they can do so.
: The Messenger - "Some Baron is requesting our aid -
: from who? We're in a graveyard - why? And we're going
: north to Fosgarch? Isn't that near the graveyard in
: Willow Creek? Hrm... did we start just south of Forest
: Heart, go through it, and wind up north of it? A map
: would be handy right about now. And these Ghosts -
: again, no new flavors! These aren't Cath Bruig
: ghosts!"
It was an evil place to make a stand, but Fosgarach Ruillick isn't? Wasn't it infested with undead ten years ago?
In the opening, Geoffrey says Kyrand was the most powerful sorceror in a generation? Wouldn't he have been the same generation as Alric? Possibly later, so I'll give them that one.
Why were the ghosts attacking us? Ghosts, unlike the undead shoulld retain their minds. These ones aren't guarding anything, or at least they shouldn't be. Why don't they attack the undead with us?
: The Baron - "Don't they know that name's taken? And
: how are we on a beach now - did we go south again? Or
: southwest? Oh, and we've been tricked, I'm really
: surprised. NOT. Kill the bad guys, and Kyrilla says
: she's gonna get us again. Stop threatening to kill me
: and kill me already!"
The level name bugged me too, as it forced me to change how I organize my films. The Baron uses the same mumblings as the previous Baron, but they don't make sense in this context. "I hate this old drafty place." Also, they don't match his voice. His camp was a single standing-room-only tent? When we meet the Baron, not only did his acting not carry any feeling of betrayal, the dialogue didn't make sense. He wouldn't ask why Fenris was fighting to delay his own trap, because the concept is ludicrous. He would have either known Fenris hadn't betrayed him, or not really thought in terms of him fighting his own trap.
Why was Kyrilla trying to kill the Baron? She had no reason to think he had done anything to Kyrand. Why didn't the Baron know Kyrilla was his sister? The monologue for the Fiend seems to suggest that Kyrilla was with her family early on, and she's apparently younger than the Baron.
: The Chimera - "Oh, so Kyrilla is using some dark
: lord for power. That's a little more interesting. And
: I was right, Kyrand's her daddy. So THAT's what this
: is all about? Some little girl upset that we couldn't
: save her daddy? Oh, how weak of a plot can you get!
: Now, what river exactly is this fortress on? The Wild
: River? Did we go north again? I could really use a
: map. So lets go kill poor little crazy Kyrilla.
: There's the Skeletons - really feature players, aren't
: they? Yeah right. Kill kill, hack hack, boom boom.
: There's Kyrilla with some Brigands (with unchanged
: flavors, again!). And Four Bear gives her the amulet.
: Why didn't he just do that four levels ago!? Now what,
: we're going to kill the demon guy, Cartuke? Why? Oh!
: So THAT's the real plot. (I'm not gonna spoil this
: part, even for those who read this far). Ok, that
: makes more sense. But they completely misused the word
: 'chimera' - it means 'hybrid', not 'illusion'!
: Idiots."
Four Bear didn't give Kyrilla the amulet before, because he didn't realize who she was. Why he took it is another matter. Why was Kyrilla serving Cartuke anyway. She had to know he was her father's enemy. Fenris isn't that tough. She could have just marched those brigands in and killed him.
And another bug. While Kyrilla was talking to Fenris, the other Kyrilla re-appeared on the wall. Why couldn't I get on the wall? There seemed to be a ramp.
: The Fiend - "Alright, nifty little Kyrilla with here
: magic teleporting. This is fun, I've always wanted a
: teleporting unit. I wonder how they did it? Anyway,
: lets find Cartuke's portal. Run around, kill stuff...
: there it is! Kill stuff. Kill more stuff. And more
: stuff. Hello!? I'm standing in the portal, when's
: Cartuke coming? Ack! There he is kill! Kill kill kill
: kill! Wait a sec, read the flavor text... ooh, waiting
: between the stars? Now why does that sound familiar?
: Could this have anything to do with Fenris
: "toting a grenade launcher and killing
: aliens"? I wonder. Ok, resume playing. Cartuke's
: almost dead. Almost dead. Almost. Damn. Dwarves, kill
: him! Quickly! Ack! Damn lighning! Ok, here comes
: Fenris, hack hack hack hack hack... get him Kyrilla!
: Die! Die! WHAT!? Stoning lightning!? No!!! There's
: still ne'Ric, I hope he can do it... BOOM! YEAH!!
: WOOHOO!!! Ok Four Bear go heal Fenris and Kyrilla. No?
: No can heal? Well damn, that bites. And "it is
: over". Really climactic ending - NOT!"
Kyrilla got a lot weaker when she joined your side, didn't she?
Bugs: I teleported Krilla in behind the forces waiting at the portal and was able to stand there zapping them without them noticing. Kyrilla kept teleporting back to the beginning of the level for no apparent reason.
: Overall, I'd give it a 3-something out of 5, maybe almost
: four. But I don't think it's worthy of of the Bungie
: name.
So what was the deal with the wasps? Kyrilla was making them attack, but how? This was brought up, but answered or even hinted at. The story wasn't horrible, but it was full of holes and not nearly as compelling as either Myth.
This was supposed to be hard? I beat the whole thing on Normal with one casualty. I couldn't figure out how to escape the magic lightning in the fiend.
