Reviewer: PicturesInTheDark
Custom dungeon reviewed: Surgical Strike v2.2
Link:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsBu7boYHQokbYK3rjKY0b5_ra8
For what it’s worth these days I still feel that after playing a custom dungeon (at least one that I finished) I owe the producer at least a review in terms of gratitude and for their efforts. While I’m pretty certain I was one of the first to post reviews here and at least helped develop the rating system used, I will deviate a little at times to acknowledge a specific aspects that I feel should be recognized. To that end I will sacrifice the “size” category which is ambivalent at best anyway (what do I rate here? Are larger dungeons better by definition?). Since I’m not sure who will be reading this anyway besides Sophia, I’ll just warn of spoilers once (done) and try to use huge spoilers sparsely instead of hiding various text parts. Here we go…
Gameplay: 9
One of the great strengths of both of the author’s dungeons I’ve played so far (Reactor and Surgical Strike) – it was immense fun to journey through both at nearly all times because of the balance of the games. To pick just a few examples: there may be more original dungeons, there certainly are larger ones (see above) and I have also seen serious re-invention of graphics on a larger scale than here, but the little things that define the atmosphere and your emotional well-being as a player (good distribution of food and water, proper use of various monster strengths, balance of fights as well as exploration and riddles, good scale of difficulty of secrets and riddles and finally satisfactory development of the progress of the story and the party) are in superb balance throughout and have caused me to immediately revisit after the initial playthrough, yearning to find the things I missed previously.
Originality: 9
There are loads of functional experiments in here (e.g. Ejector seat, restricted use of magic area, Corbamite Energizing Facility, quickly alternating keyholes at the same wall tile, Open your mind, new spells, Gigagiggler, Chocolate Screamers, Tower Security system, The Lost Corridor and Dungeon Dance Revolution to name just some of them) - not all of them feel “complete” but each added to enhancing the atmosphere, enjoyment and replayability of the dungeon. So in short: great value for zero price even for veteran players.
Difficulty: 8
Quite a good balance. There is plenty of time to develop your party and you can go in using both resurrected as well as reincarnated characters. While there may be stronger and weaker heroes, none of them cripple your party or make them invincible. There certainly are challenging parts, but depending more on your brains than the quickness of your fingers or the levels of your party members, which I always feel is a good sign – I could never understand the point in constantly having to slaughter hordes of monsters and to this day feel sort of robbed of my pleasure when this is all (or most) of what is expected of my heroes. Some areas could do with a little polishing, for example the endlessly respawning rock piles in the Corbamite Mines / Nightmare were getting a little tedious after a while. The whole game can certainly be played through with the first party and without prior knowledge if you are careful (and sometimes lucky) enough – again, a good sign from my point of view.
Puzzles: 8
Another definite strength of the author, maybe even the main distinguishing feature. I debated with myself over the rating here and decided for an 8 because I feel that although there are a large number of fascinating and varied puzzles of all shapes and sizes, some of them could have been a little more polished or laid out a little differently with even more effect (e.g. the certainly amazingly crafted Corbamite Energizing Facility: I was missing any kind of hint that the Amalgams need to be activated at the same time – “Missing spaces” was also a little too much for my taste especially since the reward was comparatively miniscule). I deeply enjoyed (in no particular order) the Alchemy Academy, the (second) Cross key riddle in the Corbamite Mines, The Nightmare, Corridor of Venom, Altar of Sar area, No fear, the four riddles leading to the Altar of pain, Ore storage, Do something stupid and (I’m sure) others I have not mentioned here.
Wits/Humor: 10
As stated above, I have sacrificed the “size” category for this. Several puzzles, items and texts used decidedly made me chuckle and sometimes even laugh outright, which warrants a standalone mention in my books. Some of the more memorable ones were: Mophus’ 3rd skill (for which I never found a “use” but enjoyed it anyway), the (very useful) magic boulder, the “alternate” solution for the “Club members only” riddle, the Gigagiggler, the comment when trying to create a Ven potion, “Supplies for the slow” and the simple “As you were” in the “Magic use restricted” area. However, there are 2 that deserve specific mention in my book: The Lost corridor and Dungeon dance revolution and despite my initial statement I’ll warn again of spoilers here since I need to go into more detail for explaining my reasoning. TLC is simply a beauty – discovering it is already quite a challenge and you may simply leave it there and never go beyond this stage – something that most certainly would have happened to me since I never owned the Amiga original and would have stood no chance on solving this very clever and beautiful riddle. But discovering the full extent after a nudge by the author this left me open-mouthed. DDR on the other hand was probably the most surprising, funny and original “puzzle” I have ever come across in my 30+ years of playing DM and its various clones and custom successors – while certainly not in a league with e.g. the multi-layered cleverness of TLC or the difficulty of various puzzles here and in other dungeons, it was so unexpected and hilarious that this alone warrants a 10 in this category for me.
Replayability: 8
I have mentioned above that I was compelled to restart the dungeon right after the initial (successful) playthrough and I have done so several more times to experiment with different characters and/or to explore missing secrets and other areas. Once you have done this to your satisfaction, you may need to take a break for a while, as of course the fun is reduced once you are aware of all or most of the secrets, monsters, puzzles and so on – after all, DM never was an open world game which by definition has many more possibilities in this regard. However, since I was not satisfied until having found at least all of the secrets and revisited various neglected areas, this leaves me feeling the designer did a very good job in hooking me in.
Craft: 8
I am aware of Tower of Chaos (since a few weeks) and obviously of Conflux (although in an older version than) and there is no point comparing the immense efforts undertaken to create both to “regular” custom dungeons; however: I feel this should by no means diminish what other designers including Sophia have achieved without (probably) giving up the rest of their lives for a couple of years. I’ll keep this brief and simply point to other areas (Gameplay, Originality, Puzzles) already describing the riches that have been newly created for this dungeon. From what I can say from an amateur standpoint, several of the mechanics used here (Corbamite Energizing Facility, Open your mind, Ejector seat) more than warrant the rating given. Also as a player I decidedly enjoy the complete lack of dead ends (as far as I can tell), at least in the main storyline (there are a couple of secrets you cannot reach after a certain point).
Game Ending: 7
I liked the “regular” ending – on the one hand the fight may be over pretty soon
if you are well-prepared beforehand and quick enough to execute. On the other hand,
if you are not you’ll pay the price and do so several times most likely. I also found it quite a nice touch that the Slime monsters did not simply vanish once Chaos was dead but still had to be dealt with. The “Elements” ending was a bit obvious, but the fights beforehand I quite enjoyed (with a pretty senior party admittedly), and it
did fit into the theme of the game overall. The third (Hellion) ending I never experienced unfortunately; either due to a bug or some actions I did not do correctly; but as I have a pretty good idea of what it would be like, I’ll also rate this as sound within the game setting. There was nothing extremely special about the endings, but they were thought out well, so that’s the main reasoning for my rating.
Atmosphere: 7
This may be one of the few areas where completely overhauled dungeons shine more than others as more-or-less totally new graphics, sounds and abilities obviously are fascinating and anything unknown tends to keep you on your toes. So while plenty of the general dungeon layout and mechanics is “known” in this case, I still felt quite challenged or even felt forced to be extremely cautious at times (best example: the simple change of the color of some of the scorpions led me to avoid any infight with them at all times – in several playthroughs I never even got hit by one of them. Why this was triggered by a palette change I will probably never know) and I also definitely enjoyed the balance between exploration, tension, fun and good ol’ fights.
Overall: 7.4
If I had to give a single rating, I would more likely have chosen an 8 here, but all in all I am quite happy with the average of the values above. This dungeon has a great design, is enjoyable (for multiple times), has been thought-out very thoroughly and includes several different demands and challenges for every kind of player. Moreover it has certain very individual properties like great humor (see above), elegant puzzles that in a few cases even are of exceptional beauty and a rare overall balance through all layers of the game experience.
Best part: Probably Dungeon Dance Revolution, as explained above in more detail. I can’t remember being so shell-shocked and amused at the same time in any dungeon before. The Lost Corridor for its overall concept and beauty.
Worst part: The joy of the artful Corbamite Energizing Facility was severely diminished in my eyes for providing no clue that I know of about the imperative synchronicity of events. I already mentioned the pestilent rock piles that did not stop spawning so I simply reduced my visits of this area as much as possible.
As a summary, I would say that Surgical Strike was one of the most enjoyable and well-designed custom dungeons I have ever played. While improvements are certainly conceivable (polishing of the story, enrichment of graphics, enhancement/broadening of the dungeon itself to prolong and intensify the experience, add more explorative elements/layers), I felt well at home and certainly entertained most of the time. While sometimes having to chase up and down to find a certain key, you could always be sure that there would be a way to go on if you kept digging. You also have all options to choose the playing style you prefer (direct vs. cautious approach; goal-driven vs. leveling your heroes before tackling certain areas) which I quite prefer to being harassed all the time by having to look for the next snack for my party leader or searching for that damn Ir rune to be finally able to produce a fireball. Well done indeed and thank you very much Sophia for kindly giving me a nudge or two when I was out of ideas for some of your better-hidden secrets and advice was quite needed.