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EVIL ideas
Posted By: General-RADIXDate: 10/25/17 2:39 a.m.

I've had some lately, born out of frustration with its haphazard plot (not quite Errand Boy Syndrome-levels of insubstantial, but still disjointed). Most of this will be directly copy-pasted from me blog because I'm too lazy to rephrase things.

Currently stuck at Code 42, so some plot details alluded to below may have been explained--not counting on it, though.
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* Firstly, I'd cut down the number of mission controls you work under to just two: Dire and Felix. The Devlins are dangerous, unpredictable creatures and having them constantly pick your guys off in the beginning does emphasize this, but it also makes things confusing for the player.

So, you follow Dire alone for the first half. He's competent, but also strangely unconcerned with the carnage taking place around him, and callous with the SO. Over time, he makes gradually more questionable decisions, until the SO finally questions him--at which point he strands the SO planet-side.

Dire doesn't get away with this act of betrayal and is forced to head down as well; after confronting him directly, the SO learns the truth: Dire was actually a simulacrum, controlled and planted by an unknown power to sabotage the mission. And it's not long before the SO encounters this unknown power...

* Felix, by contrast, doesn't have any sinister motives. She may have been studying the Devlins before all hell broke loose and may be able to impart more information, but is as much in the dark about the Mystics as the SO.

* In-between the stranding and partnering with Felix, the SO is completely alone. No other UESC peons to explain what happened immediately after you got dumped, or even an AI who only shows up for one terminal and is probably never mentioned again; the most the player gets is a single distress call by the SO that's not answered until after Dire's been put down (so that the player will have an idea of what the game expects them to do).

* No more decades-long time skips; maybe keep the SO in stasis for a few weeks at most. While time skips that long can be used decently in other stories, all they do in EVIL is disorient the player; they also don't seem to have much effect on the plot.

* What are the Devlins, exactly? Some sort of creation/slave race of the Mystics? A chapter screen and at least one level shows that they mill around ruins, but those ruins may have belonged to the Mystics. Whatever the canonical answer turns out to be, I'm thinking that the Devlins have what appears to be their own culture and society of sorts that's more advanced than a hive, but are still hyper-aggressive with few to no indications of sentience. This bizarre disconnect is why Felix was studying them in the first place.

Oh yeah, and the reason they're hanging out with the Mystics? The Mystics struck a bargain with them. Felix is very interested in learning how they managed such a feat.

* In general, I'd put more emphasis on the "studying two dangerous factions while trying not to get splattered" angle, and less "what random event can we fling at the SO next".

* The final screen, where the SO decides out of the blue to hunt down Durandal, Leela, and Tycho? Either the SO is Enzo Lynwood [aka the Dark One of my Inmortalitas 'verse] who's primarily interested in wrecking Durandal's shit (with maybe a "screw you too" at Leela for not condemning him), or that ending's just jettisoned entirely because what do those three have to do with anything in EVIL.

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Not copy-pasted: Perhaps the Devlins have a god that they would like the Mystics' assistance in summoning, and that god is the W'rkncacnter.

Thoughts?

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

EVIL ideasGeneral-RADIX 10/25/17 2:39 a.m.
     Re: EVIL ideasVikingBoyBilly 10/25/17 12:32 p.m.
           Re: EVIL ideasGeneral-RADIX 10/25/17 2:21 p.m.
                 Re: EVIL ideasVikingBoyBilly 10/25/17 2:23 p.m.

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