General Information:
- Name of Scenario: Underdark
- Final Score: 27.5/30
(Breakdown: 0-10 terrible /11-15 Average/ 16-20 Good/ 21-25 Excellent/ 26+Best possible) - Type of Scenario:Fantasy
- Name of Author: Mr. Temba
- Name of Reviewer: Kobayashi
Summary of Scenario:
| A part of a kingdom in the middle ages falls into the dark netherworld in an earthquake. You play the role of the leader of the human folk appointed by the princess of the town. You have to battle it out with the other races living underground – the ILLITHIDS(mind flayers), the DROW(dark elves), the GHOULS(undead), the GOBLINS(raiders of the surface), the KUA-TOA(fishmen)and the MONSTERS(a mysterious race). |
Playability – Section Sub-total: 4/5
Did the scenario avoid being tedious or repetitive? (Score: 0 )
| There are two very tedious parts. One is when dozens of airial creatures like the summonned attack you and you have to click ok when the missile message comes up – or twice when they attack a city with a SAM site. Also, irritating undeaded creatures continually appear near your home cities and you have to keep killing them. |
Did the scenario capture the essence of what it was suppose to portray? (Score: 1 )
|
Very good atmosphere all round. The style and choice of words adds to the feel of the scenario nicely. example – "The "It is with some regret that we enter the slave trade. But it is instrumental in the underdark." |
Were you impressed with the overall sound effects? (Score: 1 )
| Excellent sounds for all units and city improvements. |
Was the choice of and interaction between races appropriate? (Score: 1 )
| Yes you fight increasingly powerful races as the weaker races are closer to you. Different races also have their own identities as defined by the government and the types of units they can build. |
Did you enjoy playing the scenario? (Score: 1 )
| Without a doubt this is my all time choice for a fantasy scenario. Even though it was made quite sometime ago, I have yet to come across another which matches the overall quality and appeal of this scenario. |
Units – Section Sub-total: 5/5
Were the majority of units changed from the default Civ2 units? (Score: 1 )
| Yes – all units were completely changed. |
Were all of the sounds appropriate for the units in the scenario? (Score: 1 )
| Very good sounds all round and mostly unconventional I might add. I especially like the roar of the attacking goblins and mummering of the undead units. Plus the aleilouyah of the priest is the best unit sound. There was just one inappropriate sound – the rat swarm says "I warned you!" just like your hero unit. |
Was the scenario free of ‘unbalanced’ units? (Score: 1 )
| The enemy units are very powerful and the game is not easy but with some careful strategies, you can get by. Units are clearly segmented into different roles – like attacking, anti-air, defending, diplomacy by their abilities and other attributes. |
Were there innovative combinations of special unit abilities? (Score: 1 )
| One type of the goblin settlers are helicopters which can transform sea back into land so you can join your islands into a single land mass. Great combination. |
Any other unit related problems (like shield placement)? (Score: 1 )
| No problems. |
Research – – Section Sub-total: 4.5/5
Was the progression of advance to advance done properly? (Score: 1 )
| Very nicely done tech tree with different units and wonders for each race. The ideas and names used for the advances were very well thought out. |
Were advances properly related to new units and obsolescence? (Score: 1 )
| There wasn’t much in the way of obsolescence but you didn’t get new units frequently so the build list didn’t stretch down too far. I was quite happy with the mix of buildable units at any given time. |
Were non-event messages amended to suit the scenario ? (Score: 1 )
| Everything was amended properly. When you try to contact the Kua Tao leader he replies "Za zoom? lagone fatong? YA LAKEAR! Sirb a listo, tu coche! Nada puto!!" What originality. |
Was the civilpedia properly updated? (Score: 0.5 )
| Words were changed where needed but there were no passages added to describe what the wonders were – etc. |
Were there disfunctional improvements or useless technologies? (Score: 1 )
| Everything was working fine as far as I could tell. |
Map & Terrain – Section Sub-total: 4.5/5
Were you impressed by the Map in general? (Score: 1 )
| Great island warfare map of good size stretching up instead of sideways for a change. You have a good idea of your progress by seeing how far up you’ve conquered as you start right at the bottom. |
Was terrain properly adjusted to fit the scenario? (Score: 1 )
| Beautifully done – the sea was changed to black and the rest of the terrain was changed to red, orange and yellow to keep the impression of an underground world. |
Were you happy with the city, fortress, terrain improvement graphics? (Score: 1 )
| Everything was well done especially the implematation of the irrigation, farmland and roads. |
Were city names and the placement of cities correct? (Score: .5 )
| Nice appropriate city names – no history or geographical references applicable. |
Were there innovations used in relation to Terrain? (Score: 1 )
| Different islands have different terrain features and you have rather poor terrain which you must work to improve just to keep up. If you use the sea squares for production, you actually lose trade and the AI actually figures out that an entertainer is the better option. |
Care & Details – Section Sub-total: 4.5/5
Did you find the documentation adequate? (Score: 1 )
| The readme is well done with sections on what to do first, characteristics of different races. Credits are listed seperately and done with good detail – you know exactly who made whic unit. You rarely see this nowadays (even in my own scenarios). |
Was the events file sufficient for the needs of the scenario? (Score: 1 )
| There was a good deal of events – many of them recurring. There is also a storyline well carried by messages at different stages. This is an exampe of a message you can expect "Noble leader, the magics of the underdark are much greater than our normal world. With our new knowledge of Magiocrachy we can form a government that puts the magic users in charge, under yourself of course. (you may now become a Communism)." |
Were you happy with the improvement and wonder icons? (Score: 0.5 )
| Although some icons were crudely done at least they were not the default icons. |
Did you find any very apparent errors in any category of the scenario? (Score: 1 )
| No. |
Do you think a lot of effort was put into doing this scenario? (Score: 1 )
| I would consider this scenario a masterpiece – almost everything has been revamped. The events file is very long and filled with all kinds of messages to deal with different situations and stages. Obviously took a long time to piece everything together. |
Originality and Technical Proficiency – Section Sub-total: 5/5
Were the sounds unique and different in the scenario? (Score: 1 )
| Definitely a yes. For instance, the civil disorder sound is a ‘I’m singing in the rain’ rendition. The sound for founding a new city is ‘uhga uhga chaga chaga’. |
Did you discover many unit GRAPHICS not used in any other scenarios? (Score: 1 )
| About half the units were new and the rest taken from other scenarios and the micropose library. I think there are enough unique units to give a one here. |
Is the theme of the scenario completely novel? (Score: 1 )
| I haven’t seen another underground island scenario (not counting dungenon type scenarios) yet. |
Were complex events used to carry the story line or enhance the AI? (Score: 1 )
| There were lots of AI creatures that had to be generated randomly from the hordes that I encountered. Also, there are unique units that appear and a story about …ah I should not reveal too much. |
Did the author deal with all areas which could be modified? (Score: 1 )
| Nothing seemed leftover from the defualt civ so I should give full marks here as well. |
Other Points of Interest:
| The concept of pollution is completley novel and deserves mention. Production mutipliers are ‘slave’ type improvements while pollution control units control slaves. So if there is not enough control – you get slave rebel meetings (pollution) and thus reduced output. |
Overall Assesment
| This is my favourite scenario – need I say more. |
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