Author: Tang Wen En (Fiery Phoenix)
Download link: http://heroesportal.net/maps/view/3870
An old, almost classic RPG map, on par with the "Prides" trilogy, which still looks "decent" among the best, and is one of the few from the early 2000s included in the Heroes Portal's collection of the best maps.
Very well-designed and well-developed.
Map description
You play as an evil Wizard who has finally escaped from the astral prison and is driven by the desire to punish his offenders. The map is very carefully made, both in terms of the design of battles and the captivating plot (with a very unexpected twist and sarcastic humor) and beautiful graphics (with really cleverly disguised "secret passages"). It requires knowledge of English, as you need to carefully read all the messages - they hold the key to the solution.
We are also given 20 author's hints, which really help in difficult moments.
Pros
1. Well-thought-out.
From beginning to end. Technically, it is excellently made for the 2000s.
2. Interesting plot.
Logical, captivating, well-presented.
3. Armies.
If the author, using events, gives the enemy an army every 14 days at the beginning, then later every 7 days, and at the end, every day. It's a pity that it doesn't affect the difficulty, as mentioned below.
But there are still cons:
1. Secret passages.
Perhaps the first map of this scale where secret and hidden passages were used. You can play for a long time, and then get stuck because you missed a passage and don't know what to do.
2. Again, the plot.
Without a good knowledge of English, the enjoyment of the map is immediately reduced by half, or even more. Not to mention the hints that are given to us during the plot.
3. Difficulty.
At the beginning, you can get stressed, but after finding the Scroll of Resurrection, you can win every battle without losses, and you have plenty of mana.
We also found the Scroll of Berserk, but I didn't use it, as it would be absolutely uninteresting.
4. Final battle.
We don't really have one. Yes, the events show that an army is given every day in the Conflux, and the Grail has been built. But there is no tavern there either. Therefore, with a hero with stats in the range of 80-99, we easily deal with an army of hundreds of thousands, which has no bonuses in attack, defense, or magic.
P.S. In my opinion, the most difficult battle is the siege of the Castle (when we got Forgetfulness in the spellbook) at the very beginning of the game, against 25,000 Goblins and a couple of thousand Archmages. And we can't release them, and we can't destroy the walls either, so the towers shoot at us every round.
Rating 7 / 10
Minus one point for the difficulty (which decreases towards the end), for the final battle (which is easier than simple due to the lack of a hero in the army), and for the plot (the second half is inferior to the first, I mean the presentation and the story)