The Price of Love

I recently finished playing your scenario (and by the time of this review, I've also completed Dark Prophecies) and I was satisfied. I would like to express some criticism and give ratings for certain aspects of the project that I always pay attention to. I'll start with the plot. To be honest, it's not amazing, but it's quite decent. It's roughly on par with the original game. However, while playing, I often had questions about the heroes from the original. For example, Godric's attack at the very beginning. He supposedly died 200 years ago, but here he is, in perfect health. When the name Arantir (the Living One!) appeared in the dialogues, I was a little disappointed. Yes, the next scenario will explain Arantir's appearance in the plot, but there is indeed a small problem with the appearance of characters from the original. Another minor problem is the speed of the dialogue lines. In this scenario, they are the fastest, and it was rarely possible to read them to the end. This is something that should be fixed. But some of the plot's problems are compensated for by the different endings. I definitely didn't expect that. And I was pleasantly surprised (even though I got the bad ending :D). Therefore, I'll give the scenario's plot a 5 out of 10. The second important aspect that I never overlook is the map design. At first, everything was pretty good; the territory of the dwarves was well done. But when I entered the territory of the humans, I was a little taken aback. The landscape there seemed uneven (in places) and crooked. It felt a bit rushed, especially with the slopes. Sometimes, the landscape tiles are placed in a completely inappropriate way (for example, the greenery at the edge of the map is very noticeable). But overall, it's relatively acceptable. I'll give the landscape a 6 out of 10. Now let's move on to the good stuff – the gameplay. And no, I'm not talking about how the heroes play, but about how the author created quests to entertain the players. I'll say right away – I played with great enjoyment. The quests are really not bad. And the coolest thing the author did was the choice of priorities. For example, players are given the choice to clear the city of undead corruption or leave it for those who are interested. And indeed, after completing the first main quest, the player is given a new hero, and even a necromancer with runes (my eyes immediately became worth 5 rubles :D). I really like these kinds of decisions. I give the author a separate shout-out for that. But! Unfortunately, there are also some drawbacks. Specifically, I want to talk about two quests that I couldn't complete. One was to find Silanna's cloak, and the other was to find Markel's skull. I couldn't find the cloak anywhere (I don't know, it's possible that it was hidden somewhere in the bushes, but I didn't see it), and I couldn't even give the skull. Like... Here's your skull, take it. Okay. And he doesn't take it. I clicked on that hut, but I couldn't succeed, and I gave up. Maybe I had to give the skull to Lorik, I didn't check, but there was no warning about that anywhere. So I can't even say if it's a bug or not. I hope the author will respond. Overall, I was satisfied with the quests; they were very cool. I'll give them a solid 7 out of 10 (I would have given them a higher rating if it weren't for the author's next scenarios. Those are several levels above "Payment for Love"). And finally, the last aspect is the difficulty. But here, I won't give a rating. The thing is, before your scenario, I was playing multiplayer maps against the AI. And I was bored on the Veteran difficulty. The hero on Veteran doesn't differ much from the hero on lower difficulties, except for the starting resources, so you only get a thrill from the game for two or three battles with the AI heroes. And then he will just run away from you on the map and avoid a fight. But even with all this, I still consider myself a noob. Although this didn't stop me from setting the difficulty to Veteran in your scenario. And everything would have been fine, the hero levels up, the army grows, 70% of the dwarves' territory is cleared, and I'm planning to take the second dwarves' city. And then a green hero flies in and pins me in a corner. And I can't get out of there. And I haven't even taken magic from the guild yet. And what should I do? In short, I wasted about three hours. There were no saves, and I couldn't fight back. I gave up and decided to play on Recruit the next day. It's too early for me to play on Veteran. It became much easier. I only lost once, and that was in the final battle. But on the second try, I managed to defeat Kirdan easily. I think the Recruit difficulty is quite good. Maybe in the future, I will still complete your scenario on Veteran. A huge thank you to the author for this project; it was engaging and interesting to play. I'll leave reviews for the next two scenarios from this series later, because they are no less cool and engaging! (But "The Necromancer's Path" really gave me a hard time, GG)