LordWai
Auto-translated
I just finished Paragon 2.0, and while the impressions are still fresh, I want to share them.
Why won't it go under the spoiler tag? No matter how hard I try..
Anyway, spoilers follow, just in case there is someone in the world even more of a slowpoke than me who hasn't played this masterpiece yet.
The beginning is very cool, atmospheric, the text, the stories, the fairly simple battles.. But unfortunately (though more likely fortunately), I had no idea what awaited me further or how to build my hero (Of course, I read no FAQs, watched no Walkthroughs—who even needs those instructions??), so I chose my standard gentleman's set:
logistics, tactics, wisdom, intelligence, air and earth magic. I had 2 slots left, what to take in them? Basically, I thought for a long time whether to take magic, but I chose the shittiest option—attack and archery. At first, it was a pretty decent set, allowing for great utilization of Castle creatures. Towards the middle of the game, I realized that I had deprived myself of huge tactical potential: I had neither forgetfulness, nor a proper clone (and consequently, archangels were used very limitedly), nor berserker.. As a result, the battles were very tough, and I really suffered against the elemental creatures; I had to replay battles, remembering a strictly defined order of moves/skips so that luck and morale would trigger at the right moments, and the wizard would cast what was needed..
Well, fortunately, if you make a strategic blunder, it can be fixed with strategic tricks—from the middle of the game, I began actively using artillery preparation against strong heroes (Arianna with single-unit fast squads spammed berserkers for 2-3 turns and then stomped them), the last one I had to use this tactic on was Tempestus; the others had to be taken down "fairly". Almost all the battles of the final stage consisted of searching for solutions on how to kill enemy creatures most effectively—firstly, how to protect at least one squad of shooters afterward, and secondly and most importantly, how to loop the enemies to get unlimited time for resurrection (4000 mana before the battle is mandatory). For example, in the battle with Eranicus and Eternia, the key creatures were the enemy storm elementals with the cart, about a dozen of which I left alive, which gave me time for a couple hundred rounds to resurrect the fallen =). In Castle battles, the obvious solution was to lock the melee unit in the Castle by breaking my own catapult at the right time.. Basically, I created a challenge for myself.
But forget the battles; that is, of course, the main thing we have to do, but damn! I have never seen maps like this! Hidden gates, inconspicuous passages, tucked-away artifacts and money. Finally, global moves also turned into a kind of attentiveness challenge, and in some places, puzzles on how to get over there and over here, and all of this is stunningly designed visually! It feels like every bush was placed with love. The plot forks—my compliments, I didn't think something like that could be implemented in Heroes at all! When I saw how the fork with the summoning of the ancient hydra was implemented, I was in total shock! How cool it is implemented and, most importantly, it works like clockwork! I used saves to go both paths, and despite the fact that killing the hydra looked more profitable in terms of artifacts/experience and preserving archangels, for the sake of "roleplay" I chose the option with the sacrifice of troops (it later turned out that killing the hydra gives a disproportionately huge bonus in the form of an angel dwelling, which I personally had to buy using the legion statue).
During the walkthrough, I messed things up:
1. I took the capital in the final days, because I spent a very long time wandering around, wondering how to even get to it.. (using water walking was the first "puzzle" of its kind; not being used to it, I struggled until the end)
2. Out of ignorance of the future, I didn't take water magic, severely cutting my tactical arsenal, which took a toll from the middle of the game. And fire as well (although I couldn't have taken fire magic anyway; by the way, this is another super cool idea to tie game difficulty to skills! Want to play on King—play without fire magic!)
3. I messed up with the legion statue (for some reason I forgot that it gives growth not in one city, but in all of them) and collected it right at the end.. Just to trade it for skills immediately =) In the end, it hardly worked for me..
4. I got lost regarding time: "where am I even supposed to go now? Where am I? Who am I and what have I forgotten here?"
5. Olvin in the tavern appeared to me later than Arianna, although I had several times done a mass buyout of heroes with all my money (and toward the end of the map walkthrough, I discovered the "invite hero" button for myself. Idiot.)
6. I also squandered the sphere of vulnerability toward the end of the map on something or other. This came back to haunt me in the last battle =). Undead couldn't be berserked, the dragon couldn't be slowed.. So I decided.
But here is what I want to note, and what really surprises me: despite the fact that the author doesn't lead you by the hand and there are places where you can mess up, the map is actually beatable, i.e., my very first attempt didn't end in a dead end, like "go restart 8 months of gameplay" =), but was quite beatable if you use your brain a bit, both tactically and strategically. This means the map is PERFECTLY balanced. Such a huge map, with such a huge set of internal features, and I didn't manage to break it once!! Well, almost. The finale is so sad that as a sign of protest, I led Aelwynn through the disguised blue gates to the portal on Grey-scale, and then to Mogrein. Just so the map would end when this couple is on adjacent tiles, even if it doesn't fit the plot.
I finished the map in 10 months. Yes, that's a lot, and experienced players will say "pff.. slowpoke". But I didn't just play through this map, I explored it, fought my own mistakes, I practically lived in it.
A soulful, detailed, stylish, insanely beautiful, moderately difficult, very interesting and long map.
Deepest bows to the creator! You are a true Master!
Why won't it go under the spoiler tag? No matter how hard I try..
Anyway, spoilers follow, just in case there is someone in the world even more of a slowpoke than me who hasn't played this masterpiece yet.
The beginning is very cool, atmospheric, the text, the stories, the fairly simple battles.. But unfortunately (though more likely fortunately), I had no idea what awaited me further or how to build my hero (Of course, I read no FAQs, watched no Walkthroughs—who even needs those instructions??), so I chose my standard gentleman's set:
logistics, tactics, wisdom, intelligence, air and earth magic. I had 2 slots left, what to take in them? Basically, I thought for a long time whether to take magic, but I chose the shittiest option—attack and archery. At first, it was a pretty decent set, allowing for great utilization of Castle creatures. Towards the middle of the game, I realized that I had deprived myself of huge tactical potential: I had neither forgetfulness, nor a proper clone (and consequently, archangels were used very limitedly), nor berserker.. As a result, the battles were very tough, and I really suffered against the elemental creatures; I had to replay battles, remembering a strictly defined order of moves/skips so that luck and morale would trigger at the right moments, and the wizard would cast what was needed..
Well, fortunately, if you make a strategic blunder, it can be fixed with strategic tricks—from the middle of the game, I began actively using artillery preparation against strong heroes (Arianna with single-unit fast squads spammed berserkers for 2-3 turns and then stomped them), the last one I had to use this tactic on was Tempestus; the others had to be taken down "fairly". Almost all the battles of the final stage consisted of searching for solutions on how to kill enemy creatures most effectively—firstly, how to protect at least one squad of shooters afterward, and secondly and most importantly, how to loop the enemies to get unlimited time for resurrection (4000 mana before the battle is mandatory). For example, in the battle with Eranicus and Eternia, the key creatures were the enemy storm elementals with the cart, about a dozen of which I left alive, which gave me time for a couple hundred rounds to resurrect the fallen =). In Castle battles, the obvious solution was to lock the melee unit in the Castle by breaking my own catapult at the right time.. Basically, I created a challenge for myself.
But forget the battles; that is, of course, the main thing we have to do, but damn! I have never seen maps like this! Hidden gates, inconspicuous passages, tucked-away artifacts and money. Finally, global moves also turned into a kind of attentiveness challenge, and in some places, puzzles on how to get over there and over here, and all of this is stunningly designed visually! It feels like every bush was placed with love. The plot forks—my compliments, I didn't think something like that could be implemented in Heroes at all! When I saw how the fork with the summoning of the ancient hydra was implemented, I was in total shock! How cool it is implemented and, most importantly, it works like clockwork! I used saves to go both paths, and despite the fact that killing the hydra looked more profitable in terms of artifacts/experience and preserving archangels, for the sake of "roleplay" I chose the option with the sacrifice of troops (it later turned out that killing the hydra gives a disproportionately huge bonus in the form of an angel dwelling, which I personally had to buy using the legion statue).
During the walkthrough, I messed things up:
1. I took the capital in the final days, because I spent a very long time wandering around, wondering how to even get to it.. (using water walking was the first "puzzle" of its kind; not being used to it, I struggled until the end)
2. Out of ignorance of the future, I didn't take water magic, severely cutting my tactical arsenal, which took a toll from the middle of the game. And fire as well (although I couldn't have taken fire magic anyway; by the way, this is another super cool idea to tie game difficulty to skills! Want to play on King—play without fire magic!)
3. I messed up with the legion statue (for some reason I forgot that it gives growth not in one city, but in all of them) and collected it right at the end.. Just to trade it for skills immediately =) In the end, it hardly worked for me..
4. I got lost regarding time: "where am I even supposed to go now? Where am I? Who am I and what have I forgotten here?"
5. Olvin in the tavern appeared to me later than Arianna, although I had several times done a mass buyout of heroes with all my money (and toward the end of the map walkthrough, I discovered the "invite hero" button for myself. Idiot.)
6. I also squandered the sphere of vulnerability toward the end of the map on something or other. This came back to haunt me in the last battle =). Undead couldn't be berserked, the dragon couldn't be slowed.. So I decided.
But here is what I want to note, and what really surprises me: despite the fact that the author doesn't lead you by the hand and there are places where you can mess up, the map is actually beatable, i.e., my very first attempt didn't end in a dead end, like "go restart 8 months of gameplay" =), but was quite beatable if you use your brain a bit, both tactically and strategically. This means the map is PERFECTLY balanced. Such a huge map, with such a huge set of internal features, and I didn't manage to break it once!! Well, almost. The finale is so sad that as a sign of protest, I led Aelwynn through the disguised blue gates to the portal on Grey-scale, and then to Mogrein. Just so the map would end when this couple is on adjacent tiles, even if it doesn't fit the plot.
I finished the map in 10 months. Yes, that's a lot, and experienced players will say "pff.. slowpoke". But I didn't just play through this map, I explored it, fought my own mistakes, I practically lived in it.
A soulful, detailed, stylish, insanely beautiful, moderately difficult, very interesting and long map.
Deepest bows to the creator! You are a true Master!