[SPOILERS AHEAD]
I had a very unpleasant experience with my first character on this mission. So much so that it tainted the feeling I had for PS for the rest of the game. I decided to carefully analyse the issues I had with it on my second character.
Watch Commander Talon This character is weak. He is a ‘general’ but shows no sign of experience or leadership. He skulks underneath an archway for the entire mission disregarding the advice that has come directly from his sub-commanders on the front until he finally and quite randomly dies. Should we feel sympathy when he says his final ‘heroic’ line?
Why is this character here? I was wondering if it were for comedy. ‘You are just a scholar not a general what do you know about warfare?’ he spouts to Trahearne just moments before a cut-scene of a ship appearing out of the water. If it weren’t for the serious tone of the rest of the mission I would say it was trying to be funny.
You are also forced throughout the whole mission to run back and forth between the latest objective and his hiding place under the arch. This messes with the pacing. Instead of reacting to a battle field we are turning in the latest quest and picking up the next one.
Finally and most importantly for me, he demeans the threat of the undead. By this I mean, I feel the battle of claw island was lost not because the undead are a menacing threat to be reckoned with but due to the incompetence of Claw Islands commander. By this same note, the loss of your mentor also feels utterly wasted and without meaning. It’s not the undead’s fault Sieran died, it’s Talon’s. This really really jars with me.
Bad Mission Pacing I have touched on Talon’s contribution to dodgy pacing but there are many things in this mission that cause this:
- Lot’s of cutscenes: These pull control from the character and add very little atmosphere.
- Trebuchet mission: – I have all the time in the world to complete this. I missed for 5 minutes and then eventually got a hit in. There was no urgency or risk. It broke up the flow of the mission yet again.
- Back and forth: Going back and forth between Talon and the frontline throughout the whole mission felt like a very artificial way of moving the story on.
- Courtyard Fight: Throughout the mission so far there have been a mixture of re-spawning enemies and fixed ones. It feels very unclear at any one point whether an enemy is dead for good or will come back. This makes the courtyard battle feel very strange. There is no timer and there is no bar (like in dynamic events) showing ‘Enemy strength’. There are very little lionguard to actually help and there are many undead just standing still in the courtyard. I am unsure whether the mission wants me to kill enough undead to move the mission on or just survive a hidden timer.
- The final exit and cutscene: So your friend pointlessly kills herself/himself and now you are faced with a dock full of static mobs you need to clear out to finish the mission. The pacing has changed once again from a frantic battle to a leisurely exit. The mission ends with a music-less cut scene of a flat looking boat leaving a calm looking scene. No destruction, no haste, no emotion.
Bad Gameplay The mobs seem to have far more hitpoints that normal world mobs. They don’t drop any loot and they don’t provide any experience. This generally makes the fighting a very negative experience and makes me want to run passed every mob I can. This is exactly what I did in my second more ‘savvy’ play through.
Considering how much fun even just soloing in the actual world is, I find it surprising that a completely tailored experience for a solo player is so utterly poor in gameplay.
Conclusion I put the failure of this mission to entertain down to poor characters, poor pacing and poor gameplay. I find it unlikely that Anet will go back and fix this but I really wanted to provide my feedback to perhaps help steer and future PS missions created.
Thanks for reading.