Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 63

Retro Review: Once Upon a Time, Season Two: Episodes 18-22

I have now come to the end of the incredibly inconsistent second season of Once Upon a Time. There are some good moments, but for the most part, things remain underwhelming.

“Selfless, Brave, and True”:

Still wracked with guilt over killing Cora, Snow retreats into the woods to clear her head. There, she chances upon someone else lost in their own guilt: August, animate but completely wooden. He is too ashamed over his failure to show his face in Storybrook.

Meanwhile, Baelfire’s fiance, Tamara, arrives in Storybrook. He tries to come clean to her about his magical origins, but it doesn’t really have the effect he hoped.

And our flashbacks this time around take place in the real world, showing August’s journeys before contacting Baelfire and going to Storybrook. He manages to track down a mage hiding in Hong Kong, but things are complicated when he meets a woman planning to uncover the sorcerer’s secrets: Tamara.

I found this an improvement over the mediocrity that has defined most of the last few episodes. I like August, and it was long overdue for us to learn what happened to him after the breaking of the curse. Plus Tamara looks like she could make a good villain — I already want to push her down a flight of stairs.

But there are still some hiccups. Tamara is mostly portrayed as a criminal mastermind, yet she was foolish enough to leave a sack of thousands of dollars right in front of August and expect nothing would happen? And how the Hell does a tazer kill both a powerful sorcerer and a man made entirely of wood? Those things are nonlethal for most normal people.

Overall rating:  7/10

 “Lacey”:

Okay, it needs to be asked: Why isn’t anyone doing anything about Regina? What is it with these people just letting incredibly dangerous supervillains just wander around freely? You couldn’t at least try to supervise them?

Ahem. Anyway. Moving on.

Most of this episode focuses on Rumpel and Belle, which is normally the very best of news, but this episode doesn’t quite have the heart such things usually do.

Rumpel finally seems to be making some progress in winning Belle back, but a spiteful Regina decides to reactivate Belle’s curse persona, Lacey. And it turns out her curse identity was less the forgetful but still heroic versions Grumpy and Red got and more the “perverse parody” that Charming got.

It just gets sad and weird from there.

The flashbacks are set in the era shortly after Belle began to live with Rumpel and serve mainly as a retelling of their initial story, which is nice but pretty unnecessary.

I do wonder if we’ll see Robin Hood again. Seems wasteful to have such an iconic character play just a bit role in one episode.

I should probably stop investing in Rumpelstiltskin so much as a character. It’s becoming increasingly clear he’s not going to change, and even if he does, he doesn’t really deserve any kind of forgiveness or redemption at this point.

Overall rating: 6.9/10

“The Evil Queen”:

We are now moving towards a climax to the season. Regina has finally gone off the deep end, planning to use the remnants of the curse to slaughter everyone in Storybrook while she and Henry escape to the Enchanted Forest.

But it’s not going to be quite that simple. Greg and Tamara have enlisted Hook’s aid, and they have their own nefarious scheme to enact.

Emma begins to suspect Tamara, but her concerns are brushed off as jealousy by all but Henry.

I think I’ve identified the main way in which this season has gone wrong. Once Upon a Time is a show with idealistic themes, and it’s always trying to send the message that there’s good in everyone, that everyone deserves a second chance.

And early on in the season, the plots jived with that message. Regina and Rumpelstiltskin were making a genuine effort to reform, and it added a lot of interesting nuance to their characters.

But the latter half of the season has spent all its time making those characters appear irredeemable, which wastes the development from the first half, goes against the themes of the show, and makes the protagonists look like idiots for continually giving them new chances.

I did enjoy the endlessly intricate double-crossings of this episode, though. More like triple and quadruple crossing after a while.

I’m also curious how Greg and Tamara were able to neutralize Regina. They made it sound like nanotechnology or something — are we about to move to science fantasy? Frankenstein is already in the mix, so it’s not much of a leap.

Overall rating: 6.9/10

“Second Star to the Right”:

After being on the back burner for nearly the entire season, Greg and Tamara finally take center stage as villains in this episode. And surprisingly, they’re proving pretty effective in the role.

It turns out they’re members of some sort of fanatical — possibly religious — anti-magic organization, and they’re out to destroy Storybrook at any cost. Greg is also still searching for the truth about his father, and he begins torturing Regina in an attempt to learn the truth.

Snow and Charming work to save Regina because… I don’t even know at this point. The only good reason I can see for trying to figure out what happened to Regina is morbid curiosity. And the magic beans, I guess.

The flashbacks in this episode take another odd turn. It seems when Baelfire came to Earth, he arrived in the nineteenth century. He meets a girl named Wendy Darling… and I think you can guess where this is heading.

It is interesting that this version of Peter Pan seems so much darker than the traditional depiction. Based on what little we’ve seen of it so far, Neverland seems like a pretty scary place.

I don’t have a lot of complaints about this episode specifically. Mostly it just suffers from the lingering effects of all the stumbles of this season. I just don’t care as much about the characters or the story as I otherwise would.

But it’s pretty effective at setting up the end of the season. Crisis, mortal peril, tragedy, and so forth.

Overall rating: 7.1/10

“And Straight on ‘Til Morning” (season finale):

The last episode have me high hopes for this to be a good season finale. But unfortunately it encapsulates everything that’s wrong with this season.

They’ve spent so much time and effort making Regina and Rumpel out to be irredeemable, but now out of the blue their inner goodness is winning out again. I even prefer seeing them as more nuanced characters, but it’s just so jarring with how they’ve been portrayed for the last ten or so episodes. It’s sloppy.

And once again, the characters are acting like complete morons. No one thought to check Hook’s bag to make sure the bean was in it? No one? Really? This is Hook we’re talking about. He’s sleazy even by pirate standards.

Which also begs the question of why Hook decided to do the right thing at the end. At least Regina and Rumpel have been shown as having some heart in the past. There has never been any indication of Hook having any redeeming qualities, and there’s no clear indication of why he’s spontaneously developed a conscience.

Again, it feels sloppy.

The only upside is this does lay the seeds for some interesting plots next season. Baelfire’s wound up in the Enchanted Forest, and it looks like we’ll be seeing more of Mulan, which is great. I’m also curious as to why Peter Pan is after Henry and apparently running an anti-magic crusade on Earth. That’s… unexpected.

Overall rating: 6/10

Filed under: Retro Reviews Tagged: fantasy, Once Upon a Time, review, TV

Reviews: Defiance, “My Name Is Datak Tarr and I Have Come to Kill You” + Dark Matter, Episode Seven

Defiance, “My Name Is Datak Tarr and I Have Come to Kill You”:

That’s easily the best episode title of the series to date, and really the only reason I’m not declaring it the best episode title in TV history is because Trailer Park Boys exist.

And for the most part, this episode does live up to the awesomeness of its title.

“My Name Is Datak Tarr and I Have Come to Kill You” sees the people of Defiance at their lowest end, and this season continuing make bleakness and tragedy the order of the day.

Rahm Tak’s men have succeeded in infiltrating Defiance, and they proceed to go on an indiscriminate killing spree. But as terrible as this is, it is but a cover to insert Rahm’s Indogene shapetaker, who plans to cripple Defiance’s defenses from the inside.

This is another moment where I was beginning to feel this season was laying the tragedy on a bit thick, but then things take a very interesting turn as Doc Yewll concocts a last ditch effort plan to save the town.

It’s a suicide mission, but Defiance just so happens to have someone whose life is already forfeit, and who is desperate to redeem themselves.

Datak Tarr.

What follows is the greatest proof yet that Datak is the wiliest, toughest, and craziest son of a bitch you will ever see.

I don’t want to spoil the ending of this episode, but it will blow your mind, and it may just be Defiance’s greatest moment to date.

Something else I enjoyed about this arc is that it gives us our first glimpses (via flashbacks) of the Votanis System, which are spectacular if all too brief.

Even Yuke homes seem surprisingly opulent. I may have to slightly adjust my head canon for my character in the game, who is Yuke.

The one damper on this episode is the continued story surrounding Stahma and the Omec. It’s not even bad, really; it just doesn’t match up the rest of the episode, and the Omec still feel a little random and out of place.

The commander’s change of heart seems out of tune with what’s been established about the Omec so far, and I’m not thrilled by the implication that the Omec will be the focus of the rest of the season.

Still. That ending, though.

Overall rating: 8.7/10

Dark Matter, Episode Seven:

As I predicted, Five has realized she knows the code to access the Raza‘s vault. In addition to a wealth of guns and money, they find two individuals in cold storage.

The first is a terminally ill woman who is part of Three’s past, and the second is another android, an entertainment model with an actual name: Wendy.

So the episode is split between arcs following both of these new characters, and unfortunately, both fail to impress.

This episode serves as the “he’s really not so bad” arc for Three, but in his case, it just doesn’t ring true, despite a strong performance from the actor. The tender, caring man seen in this episode bears no resemblance to the ruthless bastard Three has been throughout the entire series to date.

It’s not even that I don’t believe he could care about someone, but the image of him as a selfless romantic just doesn’t fit.

Meanwhile, Wendy’s arc was mostly a giant monument to every fembot cliche ever. It’s a bit disappointing from a show that has for the most treated its women quite respectfully up until now, and perhaps more importantly, it’s just not that interesting.

Sally’s jealousy of the new android was kind of weird, too. I did like her scene with Five, but I also feel like this was perhaps a missed opportunity to flesh out Sally some more or make her a more meaningful member of the crew, as opposed to simply a source of comedy relief and technobabble. I was kind of expecting her to cannibalize some parts of Wendy’s programming to make her better able to interact with the crew.

Maybe that will come later? Anything’s possible, I guess.

The other major issue with episode seven is that it’s pretty much just filler. Neither new character is likely to play a role going forward, and the main plot has not been advanced in any major way.

Oh, and One and Two’s kind of sort of maybe romance continues. Not fun.

Overall rating: 5.8/10 Probably the weakest episode of the series to date.

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Dark Matter, Defiance, review, sci-fi, TV

SW:TOR: Thinking the Unthinkable

As you undoubtedly already know, Star Wars: The Old Republic is putting out a new expansion soon, Knights of the Fallen Empire. Normally this wouldn’t be huge news to those who aren’t die-hard fans of the game — SW:TOR has been cranking out expansions at a decent clip for a while now — but this one seems different.

I respect the steady pace of new expansions SW:TOR has managed, but part of their speed is due to their relatively small scale. Granted, I don’t play the game, but everything I’ve heard says that these expansions are really quite small, usually offering just one new feature or a handful of new zones (or such is my impression).

Knights of the Fallen Empire seems different. Bioware has found their ambition again, and while details on the exact content of the expansion are still scarce, it sounds like a massive shake-up to the game. Add to that a spectacular full cinematic trailer, and the hype train has left the station.

All this chatter has me considering something that until now had been unthinkable: Actually playing SW:TOR.

Where we stand:

Let’s start with why I’m not playing SW:TOR right now. Long-time readers of this blog will be familiar with my thoughts, but it’s been a while, so I’ll provide a refresher.

I don’t think SW:TOR is, at its core, a bad game. The mechanics are solid, if often uncreative, and it plays fine. Its most fundamental flaw is the God-awful graphics that make it look like Mr. Bumpy: The MMO.

That said, it’s not an especially memorable game, either. It suffers from the same problem so many MMOs had for so long: It’s basically WoW with a fresh coat of paint and one or two unique selling features.

In this case, the unique selling point was its commitment to story. The class stories were very high quality — as one would expect from Bioware — but copious voice acting wasn’t enough to make all the pointless “kill ten rats” side quests interesting.

Personally, I also quite liked the class design. The Imperial agent had a great combination of shooter and traditional MMO mechanics, and I swear I heard the Duel of the Fates start playing in my head during some fights on my Jedi.

But I didn’t find those things were enough to stop SW:TOR from feeling generic. As I’ve said before, when I want to play WoW, I’ll play WoW, and games that too closely ape its mechanics feel very tiresome to me.

And then there’s its oft-criticized free-to-play model. It’s some horrible Frankenstein creation where you still have to subscribe to enjoy the game properly, but the free option doesn’t even work as a trial because it makes the game so utterly miserable.

And then there’s my general ambivalence toward the Star Wars universe. Like most little boys, I loved Star Wars when I was a kid, but I outgrew it. Seen through an adult’s eyes, the movies are ridiculous cheesefests that are impossible to take seriously — yes, that includes the original trilogy; come at me, bro.

However, I do think it’s a great concept with enormous potential, and I’ve always felt the franchise could be magnificent if it was ever given over to someone who actually knew good-storytelling and cared about more than selling toys. I do not think JJ Abrams is that person.

This brings us to Knights of the Fallen Empire.

A new hope:

The thing being trumpeted from the rooftops about Knights is that it’s a return to Bioware’s roots, focusing on story above all other considerations. The meat of the expansion is a storyline making the player the hero of the galaxy in the face of a terrible new threat to Jedi and Sith alike, almost a new single-player RPG within the MMO. In fact, players will be literally unable to interact with their fellows through much of the storyline.

It’s hard not to see this as a tacit admission by Bioware that they should have stuck with what they do best — single-player RPGs. It does seem an attempt to excise the MMO from the RPG, and while I certainly sympathize with those who are upset by this, I think it’s a wise move. The consensus has long been that SW:TOR’s strength is its story and its weakness is all the parts where it tries to be an MMO, and my admittedly limited experience with the game aligns with this perception.

It’s not just the new content that’s different, though, and here’s where it gets really interesting. Bioware is also planning to revamp the entire game from top to bottom to focus on story-telling.

Unfortunately, the details on this are incredibly vague, and that does make me a bit suspicious. It could be as simple as retuning XP rewards so you can ignore side-quests.

It sounds like more, though. There’s a lot of talk of changing the game from the ground up to cut down on time wasted on travel and other pointless distractions — something the game badly needs.

One thing they have announced for sure is that leveling flashpoints (dungeons) will have the option to be played solo for the story, which is fantastic. Dungeons were one of the most obvious places in which Bioware’s attempts to marry single-player story to MMO mechanics fell flat on their face. You get outvoted, and your character ends up making a conversation choice you vehemently didn’t want while some bozo is constantly pestering everyone to just skip the cutscenes already.

All this talk of story first and solo-friendliness is music to my ears. I’ve always been someone who likes a little MMO in their RPG instead of a little RPG in their MMO, and it definitely does play to Bioware’s strengths. They’re good at story, and not much else.

It also seems like perhaps the best chance I’ll ever have to experience Star Wars as the smart and powerful story it should be but isn’t.

But I do wonder how much they can really change about the core game, and then there’s still that wretched business model to consider.

You know what holds me back more than anything else? Emotes.

In SW:TOR, many emotes are locked out to non-subscribers, and there’s no way to unlock them other than subbing. I’m not talking about fancy, extra emotes — just standard stuff like /salute.

I’m not much of a role-player, and I don’t even use emotes that much, but it just seems like such a petty and asinine thing to do that it sours the whole game for me. I can live with greed, but that crosses the line from greed to spite.

Now, Knights is in some ways improving the business model. The expansion will have no box price. If you subscribe, you get access to it. Better yet, you’ll also get access to all past expansions, and you won’t lose access to any of that content even if your sub lapses.

All the other bad stuff about the business still applies, but that’s something. I have always felt that games should charge a box price or a sub price, but not both, so while SW:TOR has probably the worst F2P model, come Knights it will ironically have one of the best sub models.

I don’t like subscriptions, but I wouldn’t mind subscribing for the first few months while the new game smell is still strong. What happens after that worries me, though. I’m not willing to sub to any game indefinitely, least of all SW:TOR, and the free option is still a horror show.

In case it isn’t clear by now, I’m very much on the fence. On top of everything else, there is a huge glut of games I want to play right now, and with most of my time spent on looking for apartments lately, that backlog is only growing. On top of all the other things holding me back, Knights of the Fallen Empire has a lot of competition.

But still. The temptation won’t go away.

Filed under: Games Tagged: sci-fi, Star Wars

Reviews: Defiance, “The Beauty of Our Weapons” + Dark Matter, Episode Six

Defiance, “The Beauty of Our Weapons”:

Here’s a good, classic example of Defiance at its best: A simple story of flawed characters doing their best, ripe with strong emotion and excellent performances from the show’s cast.

A scion of the Von Bach family, Conrad, has arrived in Defiance. He supplied weapons to Rahm Tak, but VBI does’t take sides, so it’s not surprising he’d also supply wares to Defiance.

What is surprising is that he’s doing so free of charge. He’s an old flame of Berlin’s, and he’s eager to win her back. Somewhat surprisingly, she seems receptive to the idea, putting her on a collision course with Amanda.

I really liked Amanda’s performance in this episode, and I thoroughly agree with her assessment of Berlin’s character.

I also have a strong suspicion Conrad is planning a double cross at some point. They didn’t mention that voice control on the weapons for nothing. And my personal experience with the Von Bachs is that they’re a slimey bunch.

Amanda isn’t the only one having a bad day, though, as there are rough times all around.

The fire in Datak Tarr has finally burnt out. Sentenced to death, he has no more schemes, no more insults, no more bravado. He has made peace with his fate, and he has only one last request: to die on the shaming wrack in the hopes of redeeming himself in Rayetso’s eyes.

This was probably the standout plot of an excellent episode. Tony Curran once again puts on a stellar performance, and Alak’s words at the end have got to be one of the most emotional moments in Defiance to date.

I very highly doubt they’re really going to kill off Datak, but I will admit I have no idea how he’s going to get out of this. But either way we got some excellent story-telling out of it.

Meanwhile, Stahma is little better off than her husband, having gone out of the frying pan and into the fire by seeking the aid of the Omec.

And finally, Nolan is put in an impossible position when his recruits for defending Defiance insist that Irisa join them, despite her issues. The end result is Nolan at his very best.

I’ve always said the greatest strength of Defiance is its characters, and “The Beauty of Our Weapons” is a great illustration of that. Nearly the entire cast puts on stellar performances, and their strength and humanity is a brilliant contrast to the brutality of Rahm Tak.

Berlin and Stahma’s plots are the weak points of the episode, but even those aren’t bad. They just don’t stand up to the awesomeness of the other plots.

Random fun fact: Most of the weapons seen in this episode are taken directly from the game version of Defiance. Though I don’t use any of them myself — I prefer the VOT models myself, if only for the sake of patriotism.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Dark Matter, Episode Six:

It’s info-dump time!

With the aid of the android I have unilaterally decided is named Sally and a whole lot of hand-wavey technobabble, Five develops a means to dive into her own subconscious and uncover the lost memories of the Raza crew.

It’s dangerous, though. Five risks overloading her nervous system, or becoming lost in memories forever.

This is our first big glimpse into the crew’s lives before they lost their memories. It’s a very incomplete picture, with some characters’ memories not being explored at all, but the overall message seems to be that the crew wasn’t that bad after all.

Except Three. He really is that awful.

We now finally have an identity for Five, and to be honest, I’m a little disappointed. After all her weirdness, I was thinking Five would turn out to be the product of some freaky genetic engineering, or a prodigy, or a mastermind of some sort. The revelation that she’s really quite ordinary is a bit underwhelming.

For all that this is the most Five-heavy episode to date, I think the real hero of episode six is, uh, Six. Won’t spoil the reasons why, but he definitely comes out of this episode looking the best of the Raza gang.

It further cements what I’ve felt for a while: While One is eager to paint himself the white knight at every opportunity, Six is actually the most trustworthy and honourable member of the crew. He just doesn’t need to boast about it.

Something else interesting to come out of this is that Five may have learned how to access the vault without realizing it. How long before something jogs her memory?

Also, I’d like to point out that Two was strongly opposed to Five’s journey into their memories, and Five didn’t uncover any of her memories. I don’t know; still seems suspicious.

I’m a little on the fence with this episode. This kind of insight is something I’ve wanted for a while, but… There are still lots of unanswered questions. Really all of the memories Five unearthed only flesh out character backstories. We still have no answers to the mysteries of the crew’s current state. Which in and of itself might be significant.

At least we finally know who Five is/was, I guess.

Overall rating: 7/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Dark Matter, Defiance, review, sci-fi, TV

Review: Ascension

The sci-fi mini-series Ascension intrigued from the moment I heard about it. A new show about deep space exploration, and it has Tricia Helfer? Sign me up.

I wanted to see it as soon as it released, but CBC’s online video player sucks, so it’s only now that it’s on Netflix that I’ve gotten a chance to watch. In the interim, I’d heard that it was not picked up as a full series, and the buzz on the whole was lukewarm, so my expectations were fairly low. As a result, I was not disappointed.

I didn’t sign up for this:

Ascension follows the crew of the titular starship, a generational vessel secretly launched in the 1960s and now halfway through its century-long voyage to colonize Proxima Centauri. No one on the ship now remembers Earth — they were born on the ship, and they know they’ll die on the ship. The confinement and the inhuman conditions the crew must endure are taking their toll, and when the ship has its first murder, the tiny community begins to come apart at the seams.

There’s also a plot back on Earth following a washed-up spy who is investigating the Ascension program.

Also there’s a lot of sex. A lot.

I was hoping for a story about the perils of deep space exploration, but ultimately it’s more a story about the people on the ship and their complex web of often dysfunctional relationships. The appeal is further undermined by the fact that most of the characters are fairly unlikable or uninteresting, and the acting tends to be uninspiring. Tricia Helfer is good, of course, but her role isn’t major, and she doesn’t really get to show off how awesome she can be until the very end.

But that’s not the only reason Ascension is less sci-fi than I was led to believe. There is a big twist early on that sucked away a lot of the appeal for me, and while I normally try to avoid major plot points in my reviews, I can’t avoid talking about this one.

If you haven’t seen Ascension yet and want to avoid spoilers, leave now.

…

…

So they’re not really in space. It’s all some ridiculously elaborate ruse to make them think they’re in space, but the “ship” never left Earth — it’s just an underground bunker, and the real purpose of the project is to run some freaky eugenics program.

I can’t help but feel a little cheated. A lot of hype around Ascension was based on the fact there’s a lack of space-based sci-fi at the moment. I love Continuum and Defiance, but they’re very much Earth-bound. I wanted a show about exploring the stars again.

It’s also a premise that completely falls apart under any kind of scrutiny. You’re telling me that in fifty years, no one had to do an EVA, no noticed that all the ship’s systems are connected to exterior equipment, no one noticed that the entire ship is wired with hidden cameras?

Still, these are things I would be willing to overlook if the rest of the show was entertaining. On this front, it doesn’t excel, but it doesn’t entirely fail, either.

The good, the bad, and the pretty:

With the sci-fi elements taking a back seat, the focus in Ascension is on intrigue and character drama. While the characters are fairly weak (as previously noted), it is good at keeping you interested through mystery and suspense.

Ascension is a show that’s genuinely hard to predict, and that’s something of a rarity. I generally didn’t know what was going to happen next, and the murder mystery, in particular, kept my constantly guessing.

The pacing is also quite strong, and it never feels too slow or bogged down in useless side-stories. Ascension didn’t quite have me on the edge of my seat, but I was always eager to see what was coming next.

That said, I struggle to see where the plot could have gone from here even if the series had been picked up. It doesn’t seem like a concept with a lot of legs.

Furthermore, the one and only character in the series I really liked ended up getting killed off, so I finished the mini-series feeling rather soured.

Ascension is a very visually interesting show. The special effects are few, but well done, and the design of sets, props, and costumes is excellent. It hits a very interesting balance of being both futuristic and retro. I kept having flashbacks to Bioshock throughout the series.

A lot of thought clearly went into making the ship look like something out of the 60s, but unfortunately, the same attention to detail wasn’t given to the rest of the show.

Speech patterns, for example, seem suspiciously modern. Mind you, the 60s were several decades before I was born, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t talk exactly like we do now, nor does it make sense for the speech patterns on the ship to evolve exactly like those on Earth in the same period of time.

The show is also selective in its adoption of cultural norms of the time. Ascension makes a big deal of how the ship is essentially a cultural time capsule of the time before the civil rights movement, but while that era’s attitude towards women seems largely intact — likely an excuse to have the female cast members disrobe at every possible opportunity — the first officer is a black man, and since the ship launched before civil rights, this is a bit hard to believe.

I have mixed feelings because I’m not exactly eager to see a show steeped in the darker parts of our history, and from a certain perspective, this could seem an admirable decision. But again, it seems oddly selective, considering the women of Ascension are largely treated as a commodity.

* * *

In the end, Ascension isn’t a bad show, but it is largely mediocre. I won’t be shedding any tears over the fact it didn’t become a full series.

Overall rating: 6.7/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Ascension, review, sci-fi, TV

Rage of the Old Gods, Chapter Eighteen: Downward Spiral

We have now reached the first chapter of the fifth and final section of Rage of the Old Gods, the first book of my epic science fantasy trilogy the World Spectrum. In the coming weeks, I will be posting the entire book for free on this blog. If you’re just joining us, you can get caught up with the previous chapters now.

Humanity and the Gods have thrown everything they have into battle. There can be no turning back, and now only one outcome is possible: extinction. All that remains is to determine which race shall be extinguished.

The downward spiral has begun.

———————

Part five: Race to Extinction

Fifty-four hours later,

the Clan forests…

Chapter eighteen: Downward Spiral

From a hastily erected tent in an anonymous copse of evergreens, Leha led her people. Leaning over a map table, she studied the ever-changing pattern of tokens representing machine and human forces with eyes aching from exhaustion. She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept.

Cool rain drummed on the canvas roof and dripped onto her back from weak points in the ragged fabric.

Leha’s head pounded with the voices of the soldiers linked to her. She had not shut down the telepathic link since her forces’ arrival in the north. She tried to keep the link as sparse as possible – she had given over most of the ground level command responsibility to others – but she was still needed to channel the energies of Sy’om and Tyzu to the dozens of skirmishes being fought for miles around.

It had been like this for days now – she could no longer remember how many. The attack by the Automaton Lord and its army had plunged the entire northern front into chaos. Thousands of humans had died in the assault, but hundreds of Automatons had also fallen. The machines had come with great numbers and great strength, but they had spread themselves thin, attacking all parts of the human line simultaneously. When Leha had brought in her reinforcements, the Automaton army had been caught in the middle and shattered by the pressure.

To further weaken them, Leha had sent raiding parties to strike at the ziggurats, the camps from which they had run their campaign against the north, and any other machine settlements the wizards could find through Breena’s barrier spell. Her forces were too weak to pull off something as daring as the attack on Tallatzan, but they could keep the Automatons off balance.

Now, both sides had no choice but to fight. Both stood on the brink of defeat, and neither could abandon the battle without opening themselves up to destruction. If Leha’s army pulled back, the lands of the Northern Clans would be left unguarded. If the Automatons retreated, Leha would gain the opportunity to launch a counterstrike into Tor Som. And so they were locked together, each faction racing to destroy the other before it was too late.

Leha blinked, realizing she had begun to nod off. She pointed drunkenly to a pebble on the map. The stone represented a squad of Clanspeople. “Have we heard anything from them?” she asked. “They should have arrived at the ambush point by now.”

Drogin thought for a moment, standing across the table from her. He shook his head. “Nothing.” He frowned. “They’re more than an hour late.”

Leha grimaced and removed the pebble from the board. If the Clanspeople had not reported in that amount of time, they likely wouldn’t be heard from again. Many detachments had simply vanished over the past few days.

A deep boom shook the earth, and green-white light briefly shone through the walls of the tent, silhouetting the trees against the canvas. A nearby squad had just destroyed a Wizard-Automaton, the last of a group of Automatons. Leha removed a tarnished coin from the map and gratefully disconnected from the soldiers of the squad.

The tent’s flap moved aside, and Doga strode in from the dank night, water dripping off his bony face. “The crystal has moved. We’re setting up for the next ambush,” the Lost One said, brushing water from his cloak.

Leha nodded numbly and moved a small scrap of blue fabric from one part of the map to the other. After her success with the Machine King, her people had begun to regularly move the crystal via jumping points from one section of the front to the other. Once activated, it would draw the nearby machines, and her people would be able to ambush them – the thought of humanity having access to the knowledge of the creator race seemed to greatly unnerve the machines. Leha felt sure that they would cease to fall for the trick at some point. But so far, they had yet to catch on.

She ran a hand through her matted hair and swayed on her feet. Her eyes stung.

Doga glanced at Drogin, crossed to her side of the table, and leaned in close. “Let me take over for an hour or two. I can handle things. You need your rest.”

She shook her head. “I need to channel the energies. You can’t do that.”

“I can still take over the command. It would be easier on you.”

She frowned. “It wouldn’t make a difference.”

Doga gave her a concerned look and stepped back. He folded his arms and blinked bloodshot eyes. He needed rest as much as she did.

Leha loosened the collar of her armor. The stale stink of her unwashed body wafted into her nose. She felt another squad of soldiers vanish from the link, and she removed a piece from the map.

A flash of magic burst somewhere close by. Leha jumped and moved into a low, defensive crouch.

Doga looked between her and the source of the flash. He held up a hand. “It’s all right. We’re just bringing in more supplies.”

Leha relaxed. She returned to her position at the table, flushing slightly.

Squinting, she refocused on the map. One of her squads had shifted position; she moved its marker accordingly.

She rolled her shoulders, hoping to release some tension from the muscles. Her body ached with fatigue, her head throbbed, and pain stabbed through her left knee with every shift of her weight. She glanced down at her left hand. Only a small discoloration remained to mark the place where she had been burned. She still had trouble believing that Yarnig had been the one to Heal it. Her knee had been injured afterward; she regretted that she had not had the chance to see him and get it fixed.

The night progressed, and the battle continued to shift back and forth, the markers representing machine and human forces scurrying across the map. Lives were swallowed up by conflict or vanished without a trace. Detachments of machines were crushed in ambushes or overwhelmed by mobs empowered by Tyzuan energy. At times, Leha heard screams from distant battles or saw the night lit by bursts of magic. People came and went from the tent, though she barely noticed. What little focus she had left was devoted entirely to the battle.

Hour followed bloody hour, as it had for days, and as she grew ever closer to collapse, one thought managed to arise outside of the attention she focused on guiding her people, pounding through her head with each new wave of pain: this couldn’t go on forever.

* * *

The Automaton Lord stood upon the plains, its massive shadow carving a hole in the moonlight. Faintly, it heard the wind wash over its armor and whistle through its joints.

It had outrun the rain an hour ago, but it could still feel the dampness sloshing in its body. It was reminded of the time it had spent on Tyzu. It remembered the centuries it had spent in that dank cave, the feeling of decay that had invaded every part of its body as that world had slowly destroyed it.

Soon, the rain and the elements would begin to take their toll on its body. It needed maintenance and repairs, but it did not have time. Even now, it heard the voices of its people as they battled with the armies of humanity. Things had not gone as the Machine King had desired. It had believed its people could crush the humans while their leaders celebrated the destruction of the ziggurat.

It had been wrong.

The Automatons had inflicted great harm, but they had lost as much as they had gained. And now the humans destroyed more of them at every moment.

It flexed its fingers almost imperceptibly. When it had been created, the humans had been a young race. They had seemed so harmless. Perhaps those memories had caused it to underestimate the humans. They had been able to drive it away from the battle. They even claimed to have unlocked the secrets of the First Ones. The Automaton Lord thought that may have been a lie or an exaggeration on the part of the human girl, but it couldn’t take that chance. The humans had proven themselves very powerful; with the knowledge of the creator race at their disposal, a human victory could become a real possibility.

The war had to end now, before humanity could make further gains, before they could bring the weapons of the First Ones to bear.

The Automaton Lord mulled its options. It had quit the battle out of a need to survive, but as it had fled north, it had realized that its position here granted it many new options. It thought for a long moment. It felt the currents of magic flow through it, fueling it and giving it its life. And as it felt those currents rise and fade in rhythm, an idea came to it.

It was a dangerous idea, a risky one, one that it never would have considered before. The Automatons could lose much, perhaps everything, if it failed. But as the humans sometimes said, “desperate times call for desperate measures.” It considered for another few seconds, and decided. The potential rewards outweighed the risks. Humanity had to be put down now.

It reached out with its artificial mind and gave the orders to its people.

* * *

Yarnig sat against the rough trunk of a pine, pulling his cloak about himself and leaning against Erik for warmth, as rain dripped down onto his drenched and mud-stained clothing. Next to them, a Clan lantern had been planted in the mulch and provided a faint, otherworldly light. The sounds of rain and booted feet walking in mud moved through the forest.

Farther up the hill, a flash of green-white light blinked to life and died – the crystal was on its way to the next ambush site.

Yarnig, Erik, and the rest of their squad sat on the lower slopes of a round, steep hill rising in the forest. A long ago landslide had carved a notch out of its southern side, and Natoma had arranged her people in a crescent around it. When the Automatons came, drawn by the crystal’s burst of energy, they would be caught in the gap. One of the few weaknesses of Automatons was their difficulty with steep slopes and similarly rough terrain. If all went according to plan, they would be defeated easily.

Yarnig leaned his head against the trunk and closed his eyes, feeling cold water drip onto his face. He had been fighting almost without pause since the battle at Tallatzan. He hadn’t slept in nearly a day, and his body welcomed the chance to rest. His blistered feet ached within his filthy boots. He could have Healed them, but Erik had little strength left, and he needed it for the coming battle.

Since the discovery of his talents, Yarnig had spent much of his time intimately linked with Erik’s mind. He had never kept secrets from Erik, and he did not mind sharing his thoughts with the wizard, but he was grateful for moments like this, when he could enjoy the privacy of his mind.

Images of the past few days blinked through his mind: burning Automatons, dying soldiers, smoke-shrouded trees, the destruction of Tallatzan Ziggurat, wounds disappearing beneath his ministrations. In spite of all his exhaustion and all the violence of the past hours, a smile touched his face. In those hours, he had been useful. He had Healed the injured. He had destroyed machines with his mind. No longer was he a mere figurehead leader. When people looked at him now, he saw respect in their eyes.

“Won’t be long now,” Erik said.

Yarnig leaned his head forward and blinked, trying to fight back sleep. “Huh?”

Erik faced him. A few strands of blonde hair, stained with blood and dirt, hung down from under his helmet to shade his forehead. He had dark circles under his eyes. “The machines’ll be here soon.”

Yarnig nodded. He shivered in his dripping cloak. “How are you holding up?” he asked, after a moment.

Erik gave him a wry look. “Doesn’t the mind link tell you enough about that?”

“We’re in the middle of combat when we’re linked. There’s not much time to think about anything besides the next spell.”

Erik stirred the soil with his grime-covered silver staff. “I suppose.” He sighed. “I’m as good as I could be, I guess. This isn’t my idea of a party.” He planted his staff in the damp muck and said quietly, “I never expected my best achievements as a wizard would come from someone else casting the spells.”

Yarnig’s lips tightened, and he leaned forward slightly. “I’m sorry. I never – ”

Erik held up a hand. “No, don’t be sorry. Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad you’ve found a way to contribute.” He glanced at the ground and looked up again. “It’s probably wrong of me to feel this way. I just – I need time to adjust, I guess.” He started to say something else, but he stopped himself.

He clapped Yarnig on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about me.”

Yarnig relaxed somewhat and patted Erik’s hand awkwardly.

Ahead of them, Natoma passed by, making a final check of her forces before the battle. Blood, dirt, and evergreen needles caked her normally immaculate armor, and rain dripped from her ponytail. Though he doubted she could see him well enough to notice, he smiled at her.

“You still don’t know how you feel, do you?” Erik said, amusement in his voice.

Something fluttered in Yarnig’s gut. “What?” he said, suddenly sweating for reasons he didn’t understand.

Erik had the grace to look guilty. “Well, you know, I’ve been in your head.” He shifted. “You’re in love with her – Natoma.”

Yarnig’s mouth went dry. A dozen thoughts bubbled up through his consciousness. Parts of his mind cried out in denial, saying that he had long ago ceased to be moved by pretty faces. She is just a friend, they said. Others thought that this could explain why he had so enjoyed spending time with her. He remembered the horror he had felt when she been wounded in the battle for Tallatzan.

He cleared his throat and prepared to speak, but stopped himself. As the chaos in his mind quieted, the reality became clear to him. It was true.

He wrung part of his cloak with his hands. He had thought himself self-aware. He had thought himself in control.

Erik shook his head. “I thought you would have figured it out by now.”

Yarnig tried to calm himself. “Have I been that obvious?”

Erik waved off the suggestion. “Don’t worry; I know how to read you.”

Yarnig shook his head, wishing it would clear.

A low rumbling filtered up from the south.

“They’re coming!” someone shouted.

Yarnig shut off the lantern and came to his feet, surprised his legs didn’t shake. He shuffled up the slick slope, Erik following. The mental link began to spread between the squad, and Erik and Yarnig’s minds meshed together until they felt all of each other’s aches and tiny injuries. They took a position near the head of the notch, and Yarnig tried to focus on the task at hand.

I’m sorry. I should’ve picked a better time, Erik thought.

Yarnig shook his head. It had to be said sooner or later, he replied.

The rumbling grew stronger, and lights flashed on the horizon as the machines tore and burned their way through the trees. Natoma’s squad scurried over the hill, taking their final positions around the notch. All lights were extinguished, and inky darkness covered everything. The Automatons drew closer.

Erik lowered his staff, and Yarnig planted his feet in the mud. The trees at the base of the hill were thrown aside, and the Automatons hurled themselves up the notch, a trio of Wizard-Automatons leading the way. At that moment, they slowed unnaturally, and Yarnig felt Tyzuan energy flood through his squad, enhancing the magic wielded by he and Erik.

The Wizard-Automatons attacked with spears of energy. Shields rose up to block some. One blazed toward Yarnig; he raised his hand, and imagined a net of energy between him and it. The spear of energy shattered and spread out, dissipating mere inches from his face. He felt the spell’s heat wash over him.

Yarnig pulled more energy through Erik, feeling the wizard’s exhaustion grow, and took the offensive. A thin serpent of energy snaked out from Erik’s staff and coiled behind the foremost Automaton to pierce the back of its knee joint. The magic burrowed and dug through the metal, eating through all but the lead, and with a screeching of torn machinery, the leg collapsed.

Leha flooded the Automaton and those flanking it with Tyzu’s power. The legless one slammed into those behind it, triggering an avalanche of tumbling Automatons that bent limbs, dented armor, and left a heap of machines at the bottom of the notch.

The human squad seized on the opportunity. Crossbow bolts and bright spells glided into the machines’ disorder, and Clanspeople leapt onto the fallen ones to attack with their narviks.

Some of the machines in the forward ranks managed to right themselves. Most were Wizard-Automatons, and they lashed out with a spray of magic. Yarnig, Erik, and the other wizards deflected their assaults.

When the light dimmed, Yarnig saw the machines break off the attack. He and Erik stared in confusion. The Automatons spun about and went back the way they had come with as much speed as they could muster. One paused to tear the head off an Automaton too damaged to follow – an attempt to save the artificial mind, Yarnig realized – but then it joined the others. Natoma called off her soldiers, and the squad watched, perplexed, as their enemies ran for the south.

Through the link, Yarnig sensed Natoma confer with the other leaders. He could only hear her voice, but he had the impression the Automatons’ retreat was not limited to this section of the front.

His heart fluttered at the sound of her mental voice. He tried not to think about his feelings for her – Erik helped by thinking of the machines and other unrelated matters. He wondered if the link had already betrayed him, but she gave no indication of noticing anything. Perhaps she wasn’t paying attention to him; in the psychic connection, he was just one voice among many. Or perhaps she already knew.

He thought about probing deeper into her mind to learn the truth, but decided against it. He felt a note of approval from Erik.

Natoma broke off her conversation with the other leaders and sent her orders to the squad: they were to follow the Automatons from a safe distance and discover their destination and, if possible, their purpose in falling back.

And so they did. They followed the Automatons through their roadway of broken trees and burnt glades for hours, staying close enough to observe but not close enough to provoke the machines. Early on, Leha returned the machines to Barrian energy level, and Natoma’s squad struggled to keep up, pushing their already tired bodies to the limit. Occasionally, the Wizard-Automatons would fire spells at their pursuers, but the attacks seemed to be intended as warnings, and little damage was done.

Sometime past midnight, the rain stopped, but the forest remained damp and muddy, and Yarnig didn’t feel any drier. He thought back to nights spent in his country home. He remembered the warm fireplace and the fine whiskey, and he remembered leisurely drawing sketches on his couch. For the moment, he chose to forget the feeling of emptiness that had dogged him in those days.

Part of him wanted to turn his thoughts to Natoma, to try and find some way to deal with Erik’s revelation, but he told himself this was not the time. He gave thanks that the ice creatures were too tired to maintain the link during the chase. He enjoyed the opportunity to keep his thoughts to himself.

It occurred to him to wonder how many of his companions had sensed his feelings during the ambush. He flushed.

About two hours before dawn, as the sky began to clear, the Automatons reached their destination: a staging area in an Automaton-controlled section of the forest. A huge swathe of trees had been cleared, and a few broad paths – used in previous attacks – led off it. Yarnig and his group had dropped farther back from the machines once they had come out into the open, and the Automatons were dim shapes in the distance.

A bright flash lit the ruined field. More flashes followed it, winking in it and out of existence in quick succession. After a few seconds, Yarnig noticed that the Automatons’ numbers were decreasing. He sucked in a breath; they were using a jumping point.

He said as much to Erik. Erik nodded and extended his staff. “They’re going to Sy’om,” he said. He furrowed his brow and lowered the staff. “Why would they do that?”

Yarnig considered quickly. “They are probably doing the same thing we do. They’re using it to go somewhere else,” he said, speaking in hushed tones.

“If that’s their goal, why not use the jumping point on the hill?”

“They would have had to fight their way through us to use it,” Yarnig replied.

Erik nodded slowly, his youthful face illuminated by the bursts of light from the south.

“I wonder where they’re going,” Erik said.

* * *

“It doesn’t make sense,” Leha said, sweeping another fistful of markers off the map.

The reports continued to come in; all across the front, the Automatons were retreating and taking jumping points to Sy’om.

“Could they be launching an assault on the other worlds?” Doga asked. Leha knew him well enough to detect the note of apprehension in his voice.

She shook her head. “They’d never succeed. They’re too smart to try something like that.”

She continued to make adjustments to the map as more reports came in. Confusion momentarily replaced her exhaustion as the machines abandoned the battle. Eventually, every one of the tokens representing Automatons had been removed.

Leha conferred with the other leaders through a combination of speech and telepathy for several minutes. They debated pursuing the machines, but Sy’om was a big world, and they had no way of knowing where the Automatons had gone. Finally, she leaned back from the table and said, “For now, at least, they’ve left us alone. We should take the opportunity to regroup. We could all use the rest.”

No one argued.

Soon after, Leha gratefully dissolved the psychic link – feeling both the relief of the ice creatures that had maintained it and her own – and left the map tent. All around her, soldiers were beginning to set up camp, building tents and lighting cooking fires as the eastern horizon began to brighten. She found two Eastenholders who were more than eager to build a tent for her. Before long, they finished, and after undressing and shrinking her claws, she dragged herself into her sleeping roll, pitying those who would have to stay up and keep watch.

Despite the pain in her head and knee, she fell asleep almost instantly.

———————

Enjoying the story so far? The next chapter will be posted soon, but if you can’t wait, you also have the opportunity buy the full ebook now!

Filed under: My writing, World Spectrum Tagged: books, fantasy, Rage of the Old Gods free chapters, sci-fi, steampunk, The World Spectrum, writing

Reviews: Defiance, “Where the Apples Fall” + Dark Matter, Episode Five

Defiance, “Where the Apples Fall”:

Ah, the subtle intricacies of Castithan family politics.

Datak and Stahma sold out to the VC to save Alak, but Christie’s death has left him uninclined toward gratitude. As soon as he returns to Defiance, he informs the authorities of their betrayal, spurring a town-wide manhunt.

I very much enjoyed watching the Tarr family self-destruct — Datak and Stahma both have such excellent acting that any episode with this much of the both of them is bound to be great — and I once again find myself impressed with how much Alak has evolved as a character. He’s actually kind of badass all of a sudden, and some of his deadpan comments really had me cracking up.

I do wonder where they go from here, though. Datak and Stahma seem to be up a creek without a paddle, and I struggle to see what the writers’ options are at this point.

I can’t see them being killed off — maybe one, but even that’s a stretch, and definitely not both. I also can’t see the people of Defiance being willing to forgive them after their betrayal, on top of all their previous shenanigans — they were powerful, but never popular. Maybe they might be transplanted to the game, but I don’t think the game has the resources to do that justice.

We’ll see.

While all of Defiance searches for the Tarrs, Rahm Tak’s wife arrives at his camp with surprising news from Brazil, and we learn far more about the Omec than anyone wanted to know.

Defiance is not pulling any punches when it comes to making their villains unlikable this season, that’s for sure. On one side we’ve got Rahm Tak with his virulent racism, his endless sadism, and his corpse desecration fetish, and on the other, we’ve got the incestuous, carnivorous Omec.

Fun times.

It is interesting  to learn Rahm Tak has gone rogue from the Votanis Collective. Helps to preserve the murky morality of the series by showing that the Collective has not sanctioned his atrocities, and it does explain why his army — while a danger to Defiance — isn’t that big. This isn’t some grand campaign by the Votanis Collective; it’s a madman’s deranged quest for bloodshed.

It does make this season eerily reminiscent of the plot of the game, though. If Rahm Tak starts trying to get a hold on some terraforming tech, it’ll really start to feel weird.

Overall rating: 7.7/10

Dark Matter, episode five:

Hard up for cash, the crew of the Raza is contacted by a man (played by Stargate: Atlantis veteran David Hewlett) who is apparently their agent, and he has a new job for them: Recover a damaged freighter. Sounds simple.

Do I even need to say it’s not simple?

No, it doesn’t take long for the crew to encounter a serious problem. A problem that rhymes with “lace rombies.” Apparently the freighter had recently visited the Umbrella Corporation homeworld.

As One and Three get lost in the labyrinthine halls of the ship, Two is attacked and infected, and Five discovers an exotic piece of technology aboard the Raza with the android’s* help.

*(Seriously, can she get a name already? People name their cars, and those don’t even talk back. Someone ought to have given her a nickname by now. Call her Sally — she looks like a Sally.)

For the most part, this episode wasn’t terribly impressive. As with last episode, the premise was fairly cliche, and it was easy to predict most of what happened. Also, a love triangle between One, Two, Three is not something I ever wanted to see.

That said, it struck me during this episode that Dark Matter is very good at two things.

One is giving everyone on the cast something to do every episode. Seven characters isn’t exactly an enormous cast, but it’s not nothing, either, and yet every episode manages to include a good sub-plot and/or at least one or two strong scenes for every single character. Nobody ever feels superfluous or unused.

The other is that every episode manages to advance the plot in some way. Episode five was mostly what I would classify as filler, yet we still have some major revelations. We’ve gotten yet more evidence that the Raza crew aren’t your garden variety homo sapiens, and there’s the mystery of whatever Five dug up.

I think these two strengths are a large part of why I’m enjoying Dark Matter so much, even though it’s often quite generic in a lot of ways.

You can really tell this show is the work of writers with a great deal of experience and mastery over the craft.

Overall rating: 7.1/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Dark Matter, Defiance, review, sci-fi, TV

Heroes of the Storm: The Best Is Yet to Come

This is a post I’ve meant to do since Heroes of the Storm launched back in June, but between how hectic life has been and my surplus of topics to blog on, I just haven’t had the chance.

It is often the case in the gaming community that one only hears about a game when there’s something wrong. And that’s perfectly understandable; it’s just human nature that the contended tend to stay quiet.

But today I’d like to talk about how very happy with the state of this game I am.

Coming into its own:

Now the funny thing is that in the weeks leading up to launch I was actually feeling pretty unhappy with Heroes of the Storm. After a nearly year of alpha and then beta testing, I was feeling pretty burnt out, and some of the game’s flaws had really started to get to me.

By far the biggest of these was the community, which I have complained about before. Even way back in closed alpha, the community was rampantly toxic, and it was only getting worse. Almost every game would devolve into pointless bickering, name-calling, and general ass-hattery. I could only imagine how bad things would get once the doors were opened to the public.

The other major issue was how often the game would match woefully imbalanced teams against each other. If your team has no support and the enemy team has Rehgar and Malfurion… well, you might still win, in the same sense you might win the lottery.

I exaggerate somewhat. I did win more than a few “no support versus supports” games, but the fact remains at that point you were at a major disadvantage, and it was mostly down to hoping the enemy team screws up — it was their game to lose.

And of course the two-issues feed each other. Go up against a much more powerful team, and you know your team is going to get frustrated and start slinging around blame, snark, and insults.

It got to the point where I was thinking I would probably have to give up on the game, as I always do with competitive gaming.

But then a few simple tweaks changed everything.

One was a change to the matchmaking logic. Under most circumstances, teams with no supports will no longer get matched against teams with one or more support character. You still get imbalanced match-ups, but it’s not nearly as common or as stark as it used to be.

The other, far more important change, is the option to disable in-game chat.

This has made such an enormous difference in my enjoyment of the game. It’s taken so much stress away and allowed me to focus on how fun Heroes of the Storm actually is. Nothing’s enjoyable while you’re bombarded by the spittle-flecked ravings of a maladjusted man-child.

I think it’s even making me play better. Just after I disabled in-game chat, I went on a massive win streak, and even now, I still think I’m playing more effectively. I think the lack of extra stress and distractions is helping me focus on the game. Now I’m only fighting the enemy team, not my allies as well.

It is perhaps a bit sad that an ostensibly social game is best enjoyed by shutting off all communication with your fellow players, but such is the state of the gaming community. Since map pings are all you need as far as tactical communication goes, the truth is chat was almost never used for anything but trash talk anyway. Good riddance.

Of course, you can still play with chat turned on if you want.

You know. If you’re a masochist.

It’s amazing how much of a difference these two simple changes made. It totally refreshed my interest in Heroes, and I’m loving the game again.

The Eternal Conflict:

Heroes has certainly not rested on its laurels. Shortly after launch, Blizzard embarked a huge, multi-week event with new maps, new skins, and new heroes (and treasure goblins): the Diablo-themed Eternal Conflict.

The star of this update is the new Eternal Battlegrounds map, which pits the forces of the High Heavens and the Burning Hells against each other.

I’m mostly happy with this map. It’s easily the most visually impressive map to date, and the eye for detail is impressive — even many sound-effects have been replaced with their Diablo equivalent.

It is a very intense map, and I do agree with the consensus that comebacks are very difficult, but overall I think it’s a strong addition. Certainly renews my faith after the blandness that is Tomb of the Spider Queen.

Also, it makes me glad to be a Jaina main. So many team fights in tight spaces, so many enemy teams bombed back to the Stone Age with blizzard…

There will be another Diablo-themed map before the Eternal Conflict event ends, but we don’t know anything about it yet.

As for heroes, Johanna (the Diablo III crusader) and the Butcher have already been released, Leoric the Skeleton King should be coming very soon, and the D3 monk is in production. Blizzard has said they’ll take a break from new Diablo characters after this, which is a bit disappointing because I want to see the wizard.

The Butcher hasn’t come up on the free rotation yet, so I haven’t tried him, but he seems to be in a good place where he’s very powerful, but he does have counters. I wouldn’t be shocked if he gets a small nerf or two at some point, but I don’t think he’s terribly overpowered.

I’ve just started playing Johanna this week. I was curious about her because I love playing a crusader in D3 (much as I love badass ladies in armour, I’m still a little disappointed they chose Johanna instead of the Gideon Emery version), but I didn’t think I’d enjoy her much, because she’s very much the archetypical tank. She’s very slow and clumsy, and her damage is minimal, but she has a lot of crowd control and is possibly the hardest hero in the game to kill.

However, despite my dislike for the standard tank archetype, I find I’m loving playing Johanna. I think it’s just hard to resist a character that almost never dies. So many times over the past week, I’ve found myself in a situation that would be fatal to any other character, but Johanna just walks away unscathed. It makes the game very low stress.

With so little fear of death, you can really get into the thick of things and impose your will on enemies in a way you can’t as any other hero. Johanna might not be able to blow people up like Valla or Zeratul, but she can wear them down through sheer attrition, and nobody contests map objectives better.*

*(Well, except maybe Murky, depending on egg placement and whether or not it’s one of those “Durr, I’m a specialist; I don’t need to leave lane” players.)

The other day, I managed to almost single-handedly prevent an enemy team from capturing a tribute on Cursed Hollow for nearly five minutes, which is an eternity in a game like Heroes of the Storm.

And she does look very cool.

The future looks bright:

I remember the beta for Mists of Pandaria was very discouraging. Huge swathes of player feedback were ignored, and the expansion suffered badly from problems many of us had seen coming months before release.

Playing Heroes of the Storm from alpha to release has been a starkly different experience. Almost every major complaint fans have had has been at least partially addressed, and the game has launched in a very strong state. It’s full of content, it’s easy to learn but still has depth, and it’s just plain fun.

Heroes still has problems, of course. I’m still not fond of having to unlock heroes, there are more than a few imbalanced characters, and I still loathe Dragonshire.

But right the game’s strengths far outweigh its weaknesses. It’s a fast-paced, exciting game where epic comebacks and stunning reversals are always possible. It has a great sense of humour and a charming attention to detail, and it oozes nostalgia for us Blizzard fans.

As disaffected as I am with the state of World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm proves Blizzard is still capable of greatness, and I have tremendous optimism for the future of this game.

And this is all coming from someone who hates PvP and thinks MOBAs are boring.

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, Heroes of the Storm, sci-fi

The Secret World Is Getting an Automated Dungeon Finder

Here’s a surefire sign I need to get a life: The moment I read on Massively Overpowered that The Secret World was finally getting a real group finder, I literally leapt out of my chair and shouted, “Yes! YES! YES!”

My neighbours probably think I just won the lottery.

Yes, in addition to new dungeons and various other improvements, issue twelve will be adding an automated grouping tool to TSW.

Thank you, merciful God.

I’ve been losing a lot of faith in TSW lately due to losing what feels like its entire development team, the underwhelming ending to issue eleven, the lack of new content in the anniversary event, and the questionable handling of the “Enhanced Player Experience.” And there are aspects of issue twelve I’m none too happy about, like increased vertical progression beyond 10.5 gear and Flappy returning but only as another uber hardcore raid most people will never do.

The dungeon finder makes up for all of that.

I love running dungeons, but I hate finding groups. TSW has great dungeons, but I always found them a wasted opportunity since they’re such a chore to do.

No longer. Now dungeons can form a major part of my endgame in TSW, and I don’t need to rely on WoW for my group content fix.

I’m so happy right now.

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, The Secret World

Reviews: Defiance, “History Rhymes” + Dark Matter, Episode Four

Defiance, “History Rhymes”:

I was right — Nolan and Irisa cannot be separated. The Kaziri‘s stasis pod implanted ark tech in their brains that’s keeping them connected, and their separation wreaked havoc on their nervous systems.

As Doc Yewll struggles to save them, Nolan and Irisa are treated to a joint tour of Nolan’s memories, focusing on the horrors of the Pale Wars and his failures as a father.

It’s a good example of what makes Nolan — and his relationship with Irisa — interesting. It’s clear that Nolan genuinely loves Irisa and would do anything to keep her safe, and one cannot doubt that if he hadn’t chosen to rescue and protect her, she would have had a very short and very unpleasant life.

But the fact remains Nolan is a pretty bad parent, to put it mildly. He’s never let go of his resentment towards the Votans for what happened in the Pale Wars — and “History Rhymes” effectively illustrates why — and this colours his relationship with Irisa. Plus he’s just kind of an irresponsible screw-up in general.

On the downside, this story doesn’t have a lot in the way of strong resolution, and while it adds some extra details, it doesn’t really tell us anything the viewer didn’t already know or was likely to have surmised.

But there is plenty of Doc Yewll to be had, and thus plenty of laughs and general awesomeness.

The side plots offer the continuation of Stahma’s affair with the Omec commander — which doesn’t really go anywhere — and Alec proving himself surprisingly badass as he bucks against the brutality of Rahm Tak.

There were also a few subtle nods to the game, such as the mention of Cooper and the Votan mechs that greatly resemble the mechs used by Dark Matter* in the game. To some extent I kind of enjoy these more subtle connections than the larger tie-ins. The big ones often feel a bit forced, while the small details reinforce the idea that this is a single world.

*(No relation to the show I’m also reviewing in this post.)

Speaking of the game, this season has been making me glad I’ve played it, because if not for Ara Shondu, I’d probably think all Castithans were just violent psychopaths at this point.

But I digress.

Mostly I’d classify “History Rhymes” as a filler episode — though an enjoyable and largely well-executed one — but the final scene was quite a shocker and promises good things to come.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Dark Matter, episode four:

It’s shore-leave time, and as anyone who has ever watched a sci-fi show knows, that’s when things really go to Hell.

The Raza has arrives at the space station to repair and refuel, and the crew splits up. Two and Five try to make some money, Six puts in a visit to the doctor, Three and One try to offload the Raza‘s weapon stash, and Four looks for clues as to his past.

Naturally, almost all of them end meeting with misadventure. One and Three, in addition to sparring with each other, run afoul of a familiar face. Very familiar, in One’s case. Two and Five attract entirely the wrong kind of attention for their gambling skills, and Six learns the dangers of getting your DNA tested when you’re a wanted murderer.

Because it’s apparently Opposite Day, only Four manages to avoid meeting with violence.

I found this episode to be both quite cliche and quite predictable. There isn’t much here that you haven’t seen before on any other sci-fi show.

That said, it’s still fairly entertaining, and the fast pace and myriad of plots kept me engaged.

Episode four also continued to provide a satisfying trickle of new clues to Dark Matter’s various mysteries.

The writers clearly want us to suspect that One is responsible for wiping the crew’s memories, but I think this is a red herring. It’s too obvious and too sudden.

If any of the crew is responsible, I’m still betting it’s Two. She has the odd combination of being very confident and take-charge, as if she has a goal in mind, but also determined not to “waste” any time uncovering the truth.

That said, at this point I’m starting to wonder if any of the current crew is responsible. It’s possible something altogether more strange is going on — that ad Six saw in the waiting room was not just some random background flavour.

It does seem clear that at least some of the crew are clones, if not all of them. That then raises new questions: Who cloned them, why did they do it, and why haven’t they broken down as clones apparently do after a few days?

And in either case, Five remains a total mystery. Is she a clone as well? Is she the one who cloned them? Was she a hostage? A bystander or passenger who got caught up in all this by accident?

Overall rating: 7.1/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Dark Matter, Defiance, review, sci-fi, TV