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Map name: Paragon Ultimate Edition
Author: Rince
Version: 3.0
Hooray, the first review of the new Paragon in this thread =) Disclaimer - I played the second Paragon a very long time ago, so some of my comparisons with it might be off.
Also, I played the map with long breaks, so some emotions from the first acts have already settled/faded.
First, I'll describe my impressions of the non-gameplay elements (artwork, story), and then move on to the gameplay.
Map Artwork
The very first emotion from nwctheone was... utter disappointment. After the second version, which was the most beautiful map of all I've ever played, I saw
the fifth map of the season: a feeling of empty space, a feeling that "it's kind of pretty, but somehow there's no soul in it." This impression was especially strong during
the first act, because the Sylvan Empire looks somewhat ridiculous (especially after the second version) - one Stonehelm, one tower by a puddle and the capital; that's it, this is an empire =)
However, after spending a very long time on the map (I was starting to think that the third Paragon could do what Metataxer did to me - it took me more real-time than in-game time to complete the real-time Taxer; but that fortunately didn't happen, but be prepared that the third Paragon requires a ton of time.)
I changed my opinion to the opposite - the map is very, very beautiful (and definitely takes the title of the most beautiful map from the second Paragon), everything is harmonious and your eyes don't get irritated from constantly examining the map during analysis.
Incredibly cool! (but the empire still looks weak =)))
Story
Heavily changed compared to the second part. It hooks you, it's interesting, excellent environment storytelling (azure dragons with Undead in the Master's Limit, azure dragons with Albadon),
however, it fades against the backdrop of the gameplay - after many hours of grinding in acts 3-4, you somehow forget who you are, where you are, and why you're even fighting =)
But this works both ways - sometimes the story is very organically woven into the gameplay (Mogreyn's wedding, for example).
However, the transition to act 7 is somewhat abrupt - for 6 acts we're building a giant empire and killing Ashwing, and then literally in two messages the mood changes to AAAA GRAVE CEMETERY NEED TO KILL NATHANIEL OR IT'S TOO LATE
Still, some things seemed strange to me (of course, most of them are explained by game conventions and the need to justify certain things in the gameplay and my inattentiveness, but that doesn't make them any less strange):
- Olwyn, for some reason, is persistently considered a hardened villain in all the texts, although in Paragon 3 Olwyn does exactly zero bad things.
- Haas's storyline is very strange - the guy drank for over 10 years, thinking his mother had died. Couldn't he have heard even a single rumor in 10 years that she was sitting in prison?
- The Archmage went from being a maximally pleasant rival in Paragon 2 (killing whom was a sin) to an incredibly egotistical, insufferable bore (not killing whom is a sin). In Paragon 3, there are too few pleasant characters; they could have kept the Archmage as a sweetheart.
- For some reason, Nyrel survives after the optional rebellion (while Olwyn, who is the main character's wife's brother, is killed for a similar action).
- The Archmage just up and fired his brilliant protégé (Geliard), simply because some Fafnir told him to?) The Archmage seems to be free from corporate thinking.
- Why didn't anyone care about the movement at Seroskal for centuries?
- Who is the Other, why did he create the Cursed People, and why is Geliard in such shock from this fact?
- How exactly did Nathaniel get to the Gardens of the One?
- Why is the Age of Dragons coming to an end if they don't die and can resurrect, like Vael?
- Why is Mogreyn called Stonehelm the First if Rialon Stonehelm existed?
- Why do some opponents (specifically, Seliana) have Archangels?
Gameplay
We've reached the good part. Rince divides the map into 7 parts/acts (the division is more story-based than gameplay-based):
Act 1: mostly fighting neutrals, Resurrection is only obtained after breaking through Fordragon
Act 2: Mogreyn goes to Ghashrishran, Haas fights in Ghashrishran, Aelvin plays coloring book on the map with arriving undead; Town Portal unavailable
Act 3: Get all key heroes and the Town Portal spell. After the two corridor-like acts, maximally free. Objective: kill 4 grinding bosses and collect the artifacts of the ancestors.
Act 4: Need to deal with the Archmage
Act 5: Need to deal with Ashwing
Act 6: Finish dealing with the remnants of enemies
Act 7: Deal with Nathaniel
A bit more detail on each act:
Act 1
Corridor-like, for some reason considered tedious, but overall - everything is great (except for Clancy. Now THAT is tedious.) On day 243, my main hero broke through Fordragon.
Act 2
Incredibly cool and unconventional battles for Haas (the siege of Rglef is one of the toughest on the map, imho) are compensated for by the easiness of Mogreyn's branch - with resurrection, the march to Ashwing becomes a walk in the park.
On day 346, Vael gets Town Portal.
Act 3
This one is hard to rate. For about the first quarter of the act (act 3 is incredibly huge), despite having all the main heroes, they literally have nothing to do on the map:
- Haas can only fight neutrals (his best use is sending him to break through the underground to Lorelei) and in convenient setups due to low magic stats
- Oculina (hereinafter: Grandma) is not very combat-ready either until she visits all the grind spots
- Geliard (hereinafter: Gelik, Gelendvagen) appears only in the middle of the act and is also a semi-finished product
Result: Basically all gameplay for about the first quarter of the act turns into "Mogreyn kills everyone he can reach, Grandma and Gelik run around grind spots, and the support group plays coloring book."
There is an opinion that managing heroes in the third and fourth acts is very difficult; however, this is not the case. A casual, non-speedrun playthrough doesn't require any miracles,
lost moves/days are not critical for completion. In the conditional Metamorphosis by Lex, the logistics requirements are much stricter.
After a quarter of the act, Grandma gets leveled enough to become a full-fledged carry and is capable of making beautiful breakthroughs (freeing Eriana on day 434, Dusk Peak, Master's Limit) together
with ranged Mogreyn. (Haas gets nice breakthroughs against demons on the cursed land with harpies).
On day 435, I freed Geliard and he also starts running around grind spots.
You get really tired of the number of spawning heroes (many of which are samey), I don't know why there are so many of them.
I especially want to mention the situation with Seliana - it needs to be fixed so that Toga doesn't give her the Cloak of Denial; rolling back (the only significant rollback on the map) was unpleasant.
Also annoying is the task "figure out where to get enough experience for Aelvin", especially in the context that combat heroes also need to be leveled. (In the fourth act, this is even more of a hassle, experience has to be split 50/50 with the armor specialist)
From the battles in the act, I really want to highlight the siege of Nordrogon (top-2 siege in the game after Albadon), the Piraena branch (cool!), the branch with Inferno towns (cool!).
But the number of samey battles is off the charts, the management is tiresome. I finished the act on day 547. I left Grandma alive, of course; some of her breakthroughs touched my heart =)
Act 4
Here it's even worse - again samey spawning heroes, again sieges. At some point, the roach-hunting became so annoying that I skipped 2 weeks just like that, until Dandy and Alisana sat in their castles.
Geliard, having gained experience, turns into a Gelendvagen that we use to roll over 90% of the enemies in the act; the rest are basically relaxing. No particularly interesting battles, except for the first Archmage.
Edward, holed up in his castle, caused more problems than the nominal act bosses.
In this act, we have to make the main story choice. I chose sweetheart Olwyn purely for story reasons (I was especially won over by the argument "you can find money in many places, but me - I'm one of a kind (c)").
From a gameplay perspective, I think Hartstein is under-buffed (I was actually surprised that Rince plans to remove the bonuses from Hartstein, lol) - there's already tons of money, and a stack of Snipers is much stronger than the rabble we get in the Pandora's Box.
Especially considering that the AI evaluates the power of ranged stacks without accounting for possible Frenzy. The typical situation is bringing Efreets and Snipers to a siege with Geliard; the enemy shoots the Archangels and Snipers; we're left with a stack of Efreets, which gets Frenzy cast on it and rips apart an enemy stack.
Also, "Olwyn in act 7" >>> "useless Sphere of Vulnerability that can only be obtained in the last acts". In short, the dwarf should be buffed instead =)
The act ended on day 713. I didn't like it - it was just the overly dragged-out third act all over again.
Act 5
Here we finally get a breather without spawning roaches. Instead, we're suffocated by logistics and logistical puzzles in the vicinity of the Diamond Gates =).
I really liked the puzzle for the Legion Head. I liked the fight with Sigdriv (at least Haas got some use there))).
I didn't like the fight with Ashwing - my armor specialist didn't stack enough Perfection (because Geliard was running the show for the previous act and a half) and a fair line-up battle didn't work out; I had to abuse burns with Ghost Dragons.
I didn't like the confusing logistics around the Diamond Gates with the requirement to solve all puzzles before storming the spire - it just adds tedium.
Act 6
Excellent fight with Albadon and cool puzzles in the Rift (why there are 100500 Swan Lakes by the tower there is unclear).
But the spawning Maleveon perfectly illustrates all the problems of this map with one example:
- I'm sure he ended up on the map with the thought "oh, we can also show a high-level Resurrection specialist here!!! Damn, but he doesn't really fit anywhere, okay, let him be a wandering bum"
- he's yet another roach among thousands with no history
- no thought is needed for him
- just why is he needed here? To overload the map with even more content?
Act 7
Hooray, now we're being suffocated by logistics AND roaches at the same time =)
Instead of the key characters we killed in Paragon 2, no-names come to Tenegor for your head, 2 of whom are killed by Haas on imbalanced cells, and all the rest by turtling behind Force Field
(optionally - swept away by gigachad Olwyn).
The fight against Eranicus and the fight for Eranicus - cool!
The finale - cool!!! (Nahelik with ballistae is stronger than her master =))
The fights against the spawning bums (or fights with them in the Gardens) - not cool.
I finally finished on day 912.
Summary
In terms of difficulty - it turned out harder than any Season map, sometimes similar in difficulty to Taxer in some places.
Perhaps if I had played Paragon 3 first, it would have seemed harder to me than Metamorphosis; in both you have to sweat it out to the fullest.
Wanting to put everything, or almost everything, that heroes are capable of onto the map, Rince clearly overdid it - the map is overloaded with content,
and its diversity prevents focusing on any particular parts; in many places you feel the mapmaker's redundancy of what's happening.
Why is Last Crusade a brilliant map? Because Khazar was focused on logistical puzzles. (and it was also the first of its kind)
Why is Lord of Rings a brilliant map? Because Season was focused on battles. (and it was also the first of its kind)
Why is the second Paragon a brilliant map? Because Rince was focused on the story, not on creating a difficult map. (and it was also the first of its kind)
Is the third Paragon the most meticulously crafted map in existence? - definitely yes.
Did I like the third Paragon? - definitely yes, I will definitely replay it in a year with the opposite choices.
Is it the best map I've ever played? - definitely not.
9.5 perfect out of 10