Review of Warriors Vengeance by m.0.n.3.y
General Info.
3 Player
192X192
Jungle
Story - The story was unmemorable to say the very least; monsters ravage the town and crystals are stolen. Though the story in the map is almost non-existent, the fact that it does not try to force cut-scenes or plot down one's throat is good sometimes. The story does not try to take itself too seriously and so the fact that it might be a bit cliche is fine by me. Warriors Vengeance simply uses a story to give a basic premise of what it takes to beat the map. Many will simply ignore the story and play to their heart's content.
Gameplay - The gameplay is what I'm usually most interested in RPGs. Though Warriors Vengeance is somewhat of a "hack n' slash" rpg where the player fights through masses of monsters, m.0.n.3.y manages to make a bit more interesting than that. The use of a spell system that varies with each character breathes life into the tired genre and nulls the experience of simply fighting wave after wave of monsters. An item system is in place to allow easy access to instant heal and teleport is a helpful addition especially when the player is halfway across the map near no heal spots. He also includes a level-up system that allows you to somewhat customize how your character grows. He also includes "monster shrines" that allow easy grinding for those characters who just LOVE leveling up. However, there is some things that detract from the experience. Multiple points in the map have entrances that lead to nowhere which is a bit disheartening, why add these doodads if they don't lead anywhere! The mage was much too slow for my liking and really made it hard to continue sometimes, but that's just me personally. The map was very ambiguous in terms of helping you along, the only way to find crystals was to kill your way through everything and eventually finding your way to the boss. The bosses also lacked a little flare besides one or two spells they used. There was also a lot of walking, especially if you died. Overall, the features helped give the map life compared to typical hack n' slash RPGs but could still use a little tweaking.
Professionalism - Though I did enjoy the gameplay of the map, there is still some flaws that still prevent me from being fully immersed. The generic names of enemies really didn't really motivate me to do anything. Neither did the leader of the town, Commander. The terrain was cool in some areas, but most of the set pieces felt like they were just there to look cool and didn't really add any distinct character to the area. The spell effects really did make the spells though, it made most of the spells enjoyable to use because some of them looked pretty cool. The buildings didn't really do anything, but they were only there to make the town actually feel like a town. Hero names were also a bit boring, but they got the job done. Overall, it was a fairly polished map and I have no real big complains besides the names.
Replay value - Besides playing as all the characters once, there's no real reason to go back and play the map. The custom level up system allows you to build different characters but usually you will find one set of traits on a hero that will allow you to easily progress through the game. (Mine was mass mana + spells on the mage). If you really like killing things then that would also be another reason to come back and play this map.
Overall: 7.2/10
It's better than most of the maps currently on battle.net. So if you like RPGs and don't mind some hack n' slash action and lots of walking, try it out and bring a friend along.
I have updated the version, you should probably download this one and play with this version because in v1, there was a bug that did not allow you to win. (special thanks to Ultimoo)
EDIT:
Alright, thanks for your wonderful review Ultimoo, I really appreciate it. I do however, think you have have scored it a little too low, not by much, but a little low. Now let me adress some of the things you said, but let me first say that with limited time comes limited quality.
Story - Well, to be honest, I think you're spot on with the story. I mean, it's not worth remembering and who really cares about it? But I did put some effort into it. I mean, my main goal was to create a storyline where you didn't need to be completley immersed in it, but could get the general idea and then just pick up and play. And with what I did, I believe I accomplished just that, more or less. About the cutscenes, I actually did have a few of them. One of which was at the begining and showed the battle that took place at the town, and actually showed the town being destroyed and the crystals being taken by the Evil Heros. This was good, but it didn't feel like it fit well with the game. Since I only spent a limited amount of time on it, it was just weird to have a lackadaisical storyline and high quality cut scenes. So, I took them out.
Gameplay - I agree with you on this one, in terms of it is the thing that I look for most in an RPG. And that is what I tried to do, make a fun rpg that wasn't too complicated or immersive where you could just pick up and play and have some good ol' fun. Kind of going back to the story, I had a couple of quests in the game (And this is why the cool terrain/doodads are in the game, beacuase those places are where quests took place) but then I decided to take them out because of they didn't add too much fun, and lazyness. But I have a question. Does it really ruin your experience that much if there is cool terrain that goes no where? I mean, at least it's there and it's something good to look at. In terms of the map being ambiguous, I just thought that that's how an rpg should be like. Just letting you explore the land and find things kind of at your own pace. Correct me if I'm wrong, and also help me understand what I could of done to add more direction, and if it would have made it a better expereince
Also with the bosses, I now see how they lacked flare, and how I could have made entrances for them and stuff to make it more of an event, but to tell you the truth, I just didn't think of it
Professionalism - Well, I did the best I could for not spending so much time on this map. And I agree that the names were meh, I was just lazy
Replay Value - Yeah I mean the replay value isn't incredably high, save for wanting to try out all the heros. I think though that that's the reason I added in the chests, so it would be different everytime. I mean, I used like 200 triggers or something to make them damn treasure chests lol.
Overall - Your overall score makes me sad
I mean, even though its not of the best quality out there, I still think it's a damn good map and better than a lot of the shit and rpgs out on b.net right now. So I guess then, can you give me an example of a map that's say a 8 or 9 or 9.5? Personally, the map COULD be better. But it was just kind of a lil thing i was working on, but that doesn't mean i didn't put A Lot of time into it. I'd say
somewhere in the high 7's or low 8's would be better for this maps score but I thank you for your review.
The way you described it in the review made me not want to play it... and you gave it a 7.2... to me this was just like any other rpg out there, not really anyhting special...
Noooo lol. Don't get turned off by his score. Personally, and from what other people have told me, it is a very high rate rpg and is very fun and enjoyable. I'd say, try it out for yourself and then let me know what you think. But really, this isn't jsut some lame ass map...It's a high quality map and deserves to be tried atleast once. If it wasn't of good quality and didn't deserve to even be played or talked about, I wouldn't post it.
Anyways thanks guys, and I hope you try it out ;p
-$
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 6 2009, 11:25 pm by m.0.n.3.y.
None.
) sunken colony. I found the first one but never got any others because I died D= I stopped being catious and just ran into a tank D= who spawned a lot of Guardians... it was very unexpected haha.. fun Rpg though dude, especially for the limited time you put into making it! 
