Conflux II Reviews

Custom dungeons for CSBWin. Includes all Confux 2 and 3 discussions.

Moderator: Zyx

Forum rules
Please read the Forum rules and policies before posting.
Post Reply
User avatar
Kliber
Apprentice
Posts: 58
Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 2:33 am
Location: Venezuela
Contact:

Conflux II Reviews

Post by Kliber »

As a Dungeon Master fan, was great to play a Dungeon that Hooked me into my PC like in the good Old Times 8) , The people who have played this dungeon so far, have found it very enjoyable and its per se a Jewel among the Custom Dungeons, due all the hard Work Zyx and his colaborators have put on it.

I encourage to those who played it to write your own personal thougs in this thread, it will be fun to Read different Complete reviews of this Dungeon in a single thread :wink:

Here its my Review:
=======================
=======================
Conflux II:

Its a dungeon with a great story line, different paths to follow; different quests to accomplish and more that one dungeon, its several different dungeons melted togheter. Conflux II its Big, really big; I spend many hours-days walking thru it, I must say its not a beginer Dungeon, it was planed for the hardcore dungeon crawler, more that a lineal path to follow, you can choose among different paths and that wont affect the game congruency.

For the newcomer I must recommend to try to get more than one "Guide" for your exploration, this way you can get more juice from Conflux, this means that you really need to explore the dungeons the more you can with a shorter party, which adds a level of difficulty for those who enjoy challenges, read the documentation that came with the dungeon, it have short pieces of information that will make the story line more enjoyable.

This "Guides" feature among others features of Conflux II its a new point of view in DM dungeons, among these features the custom graphics are superb, giving a fresh and different look to the whole dungeon, new enemys to fight, new objects to collect will keep he expectation level high for the unexpected; also you will need to learn new spells, since almost all spells are casted in a different way (also there are new spells) Conflux II could be hard and disapointing in the begining, but, as soon your party get more experienced and you can interconnect the different dungeons, you will "go down" in search of more :wink:

Some areas deserve its own review, Lich Vecna lair was pretty scary, Moria give that deja-vu feeling if you enjoyed the LOTR, you could really hate the sewers since you will say: "damn, im here again!", The Emerald Forest for sure will stay in your memory and so on...

The "Ramdom Factor" its one of the thing I could critize about Conflux II, many areas (some of them Important) are reached just by luck, casualty plays a very important role when exploring this dungeon, making it harder to acces the same areas again (you just cannot remember how the F.... you got there) 8) Many secrets, Trick walls, Pits, "special moves" etc. could lead you to an ultimate "F... Off!" :D , Im pretty sure that there are some areas still unexplored and maybe one or two "easter
eggs" in Conflux II (but Im just guessing) :wink:

The end of the game: This Dungeon have different "endings" (Tip: there its no Chaos to Fuse, so, I was a bit confused when reached some of this Game Ends) I was be able reach 2 differents "endings", one of them very interesting and unexpected, so, the posiblitity of Replaying Conflux II its Open, since you can Choose diferent paths to follow (Spoiler: Based in the Party you Choose to do it) as I said the storyline was well developed, but this different endings could be somehow confusing and disapointing to some players, cuz as a dungeon crawler my ultimate mission its to finish it definitly, and not sit here wondering "did I finish it?", but in the other side, some Players will really like this feature since it gives you the chance to start over again to discover new secrets.

Conflux 2 gives some fresh air to DM, and was a good trip; the different puzzles were well planed, I was be able to see plenty "experimentation" with actuators that lead to some "never seen before" stuff; lot of interaction between the dungeon master and the player through carvings, scrolls, and text, very aprecciated. Also a good hardcore community to support your exploration throught these forums, very aprecciated too.

Conflux II: a Dungeon for the Hardcore Player.

My hat its Off to Zyx for the making this masterpiece for a game that just refuse to die.

==========================
==========================
User avatar
Zyx
DSA Master
Posts: 2592
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2000 1:53 pm
Location: in the mind
Contact:

Post by Zyx »

Thank you for your review. I'll add Quellar's review here too so we keep all the reviews in a single topic.
User avatar
Zyx
DSA Master
Posts: 2592
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2000 1:53 pm
Location: in the mind
Contact:

Post by Zyx »

Quellar wrote:
Hello there,
stumbled over this, when searching for DM and, well: wow! Necessary Map Making (huge!), the spells, the riddles and even the party creation - really astoundish. I completed one of the main quests (Crown), mainly by accident. (the quest seems to be over, but I thought you might be interested in the save game anyway -> sent).
So now I'll try a restart, should be easier this time, thanks to the maps. But there's so much left to acomplish (Emmy Forrest, two main quests, Future, Golems etc etc etc).

Review:
Gameplay - 9 - completely non-linear (only 9 because you *have to* draw maps, or you're lost. That's cool - enough spare time provided. Maybe you could send maps via E-mail to people with less time).

Originality - 9 - Quests, Subquests, this is a world! From scratch to the end, everything seems new and never seen before. This particular encounter from level 11-15 was unexpected, but nicely implemented, so it wasn't disturbing or something. Maybe one or two more hints why it was there could be a nice addition.

Difficulty - 8 - it is hard, but not too hard ( 8 means for me=wisely balanced, increasing) - maybe the starting characters are two levels too weak, so everybody (o.k.: me! ) needs some training first.

Puzzles - 9 - sometimes to hard to beat
Size - 10 - one word: Lost Dwarven City...
Replayability - 9 - due to party building and because it's SO big.

Craft - 10 - draw maps, then you'll see it! (one word: L.D.C.) - only sometimes it wasn't clear why you're in a tower or in a dungeon -> maybe putting the starting level in the middle could solve this (for Conflux III ). If this wasn't done because of game limitations (max. 17 levels, so the towers had to be where other levels were) then I'd give 12 points.

Game Ending - 8 - the one out of three I've seen is nice - but a bit unexpected. Never heard of this guy before I met him (Crown-Ending).

Atmosphere - 10 - I felt like I was inside the world of Conflux (comparable with the feeling in DM). Nearly everything seems right and makes sense. (only the Quest for the bottle shouldn't be labeled quest for the bottle inside the game I think).

Overall - 9 - If you miss this one, you'll miss something. For me personally it's better than DM. It's non-linear and has 3 (or more) stories.

Thanks a lot for this game!
Post Reply