ulyssess
Map Title: Metamorphosis
Author: Lex
Version: ? (received it slightly earlier than the release on the portal in a private message as a tester; however, the final version is not much different from mine)
It's strange that there are no reviews on the portal for Dragon Slayer and, in fact, Metamorphosis (although I seem to be the second person to complete it =)) - in the last 1.5 years, these are the best maps in the CIS segment - each is made with a certain idea, beautifully drawn, and with an author's style. If DS was inspired by Way Home, then here Lex was clearly inspired by the maps of wlkhy and Darkman in particular: the map is very dynamic, you are constantly chased by computers with a large army, and you need to move forward, look for safe spots, and develop.
Branches
We start with 4 branches in different corners of the map - Christian, Orrin, Kreg/Zubin, Zidar/Elshar/Rashka.
Christian
Christian needs to take his two tents, give his army to Orrin, and... that's it?? I honestly don't understand why this branch even exists on the map and why it's done by Christian, and not, say, Elshar, who is very cramped in his branch. In principle, it's the simplest branch of all.
Orrin
Orrin has the most important tasks throughout the map - Orrin also needs to visit his tents, get a town portal, and then give everyone bass. Due to his own mistakes, the branch has become very tedious - I didn't break through the fort, I didn't upgrade the titans; because of this, I couldn't kill the hero from the first castle before he left, and I also experienced pain and suffering in the battle with Turis. And in general, it turned out that at the beginning of the game, my Orrin was somehow sluggish, which caused me serious problems in battles with barbarians and swamp creatures.
Kreg
The most interesting and fast-paced branch. You need to free Kreg as quickly as possible, get him the chests, manage to kill the opponents before they leave, and then rush to open the pillar leading to Ufretin.
Demonic Trio
We start with Rashka, and in the first month, you have to choose one main hero - Zidar or Elshar. I took Zidar and recommend it to everyone. After that, you need to run away from Gunnar, while killing two swamp creatures and looting Armageddon for Zidar.
Beginning of the Map
The first month on the map is VERY intense - you need to run forward with all your might to open important pillars; but at the same time, you can often find yourself in a situation where you are about to break through an enemy (Zidar and Tiva, Orrin and Saurug, Kreg and Alrak) and everything will be fine - but no, the current army is not enough, you need to run forward, loot bonuses, and return back, while running away from the mutants that are rushing out.
Mid-Game
After getting the town portal, the game turns into a coloring book - your heroes, in a chain, capture enemy cities/mines through the TP, and Orrin runs around the training grounds and kills those who can be killed. As you probably understood from the messages above, we have four "daddies" - Kreg, Orrin, Zidar, and Elshar. The usefulness of each depends on the upgrade (for example, my Zidar turned into a specialist in perverse battles because he was the only one who got tactics) and the style of play, but subjectively, Elshar is the most useless of all the heroes, and Kreg is in second to last place. Orrin is obviously the strongest because we will mainly fight with snipers.
There are no particularly interesting battles - almost all battles are heroes of morale and resistance, performed by Orrin with snipers and archangels behind a force field. Occasionally, you will be lucky enough to participate in classic Chinese sieges through elementals. There is no point in describing personal details, the map is too dynamic, and I think that there will simply be no two identical playthroughs.
End Game
In essence, it is no different from the mid-game, only the number of enemies with the icon, azure dragons, resistance, and a resistance set is starting to sincerely annoy.
Timings
Again, the map is very dynamic, so I will only describe the main points.
122-124 - Kreg opens his pillar (day in, day out), Zidar kills Tiva and gets Armageddon,
126-127 - Orrin breaks through Korback and Merist, Kreg kills Arlak, Helo is freed
145-147 - Orrin gets the TP, Kirr opens his pillar
212 - Orrin beats Gunnar, the lower right corner of the map is cleared.
216. Orrin beats Mutaru and gets Glaydis, the Book of Water, and AotD at the same time
221. The last timed pillar to Vokial is opened.
334. The last enemies were defeated 7 days after losing the city, victory.
Bugs
1) Some computers have secondary skills generated randomly (I don't know if this is a bug or a feature), which makes some battles difficult if the computer gets ballistics.
2) Dessa does not always take the red tent at the respawn. In my case, he didn't do it, which means Yog and Deirmif don't leave their places. It's not critical, the map doesn't softlock, but because of this, you can loot 600 free snipers and avoid two battles (to be fair, they are not unique, and you will have about 10 such battles on the map).
3) In the city (20,32,0) there is a tavern, which the computer actively uses when capturing the city (it seems that this has already been fixed).
4) It seems that the battle with Stig should take place on cursed ground.
5) A strange structure around the ring of the diplomat - to get it, you need to give a lot of snipers or break through a powerful anti-magic garrison. Or kill the computer, which will calmly go through this garrison and get its ring.
Balance
For the second map in a row, Lex is having difficulty balancing the variety of battles - almost all enemies have similar armies, the same set of spells, the same set of artifacts (hello, Zanch and the resistance set), and you are sitting behind a force field. Also, I don't understand why the author persistently puts wizards in huts - there still won't be enough of them for a full stack. It is also unknown why Intey and Stig exist on the map.
There is also the standard problem with the balance of dynamic maps - the mixing of armies and artifacts, which means that some enemies turn into uber mutants (hello, Pepelin), and some into weaklings.
Rating
I would give it a 7/10 - a very interesting and exciting first month (the Kreg branch is 10/10 in general), but then the monotony of enemies (and the annoyance in the form of azure dragons and resistance) quickly gets boring; there are no special revelations in the combat part, there is no plot, but it is beautifully drawn, and it is really interesting to play, especially if you haven't tried playing dynamic maps before.