| The Fog | |
| by Ben Frank | |
| Lew Titterton’s Review | |
The Fog is, at least to my knowledge, the fourth and most recent scenario by Ben Frank. Quite honestly (dare I say “frankly”), his first three scenarios, The Caverns of Stylbore Mountains, Trouble in Mendor, and Slavers of Pardes Valley, didn’t impress me much. Not so The Fog, however, which has much to recommend.
In a lot of ways, I see this scenario as the successor to Alcritas’ On a Ship to Algiers. Both rely on small outdoor areas (just 1x1, in fact). Of course, so did Treacherous Waters, and my own To the Quick, however there’s far more of a “foggy” connection with Algiers than either of those two. Both also feature heavy use of variable town entry (although to Frank’s credit, he doesn’t overdo it to the ridiculous extent Alcritas did). Both also open with a “you’re stuck in a nasty place” plotline, and both are very dark scenarios where winning still requires lots and lots of innocent people getting axed (or fireballed, or impaled, or...well, you get the idea).
The Fog scores points by being a more sophisticated scenario than Algiers. A large, well-done custom graphic file is used quite nicely, and there is some simply remarkable use of specials in the Outdoors. Frank deserves credit for turning his limited outdoors into an integral part of the game, as opposed to merely a conveyance from one town or dungeon to another with a few specials and encounters here and there. Granted, the Blades Editor is severely biased towards towns in terms of design capability and sophistication, so other designers shouldn’t be blamed for having humdrum outdoors — several great scenarios are “guilty” of this, which isn’t a sin at all so long as outdoors are minimal and other aspects are very good. Which is all the more reason I give Frank kudos for his outdoor accomplishments. After Slavers of Pardes Valley — almost definitely the worst high-rated scenario in terms of outdoor design — Ben got his act together and then some in designing The Fog’s outside swamps and forests.
Indoors are quite good too. There’s a good balance of caves relevant to the main plot (which, appropriate to the title, is nebulous to the very end) and side quests useful for building experience and atmosphere. Every cave has a distinctly professional feel, with extremely well-balanced risks and rewards, and mystery and challenge that requires skill and effort without ever transcending into frustration.
Writing is similarly well done. I noticed no errors, and the text, in both dialogue and narrative, had its bits of well-scripted artsiness here and there.
Pity that a scenario that builds up so nicely ends disappointingly, though not collosally so. The final castle is a pain, with a spell point drain that not only pissed me off to no end, it brought up a big plot hole. If Raven, the bad guy, is so powerful that his home can drain the life from his enemies, why can he be slain without much difficulty by a low-level party? Not only that, a teleporter “puzzle” proved infuriating — hardly a puzzle at all, for it was without any logical solution and totally counterintuitive. This is the kind of thing that says nothing about the player’s skill, knowledge, or intellect — it simply demands we think on the designer’s wavelength. Not a fault unique to The Fog, but a pain in the rear just the same. Worse yet, the teleporters are one-time only specials, meaning if you enter in combat mode, you don’t get teleported, and you can’t do it again! As I was playing with a 1PC party, I stayed in combat mode nearly all the time, and this fatal bug caused me to have to email Frank wondering what the hell I was doing wrong, and then restore an old saved game. Such headaches, when a simple combat block followed by a message telling me to enter in normal mode would’ve solved everything! Further castle headaches include the fact that of the five levels of the place, fully two are wild goose chases. This would be fine for exploration, experience, treasure collection and development of the dark plot and ambiance — if you weren’t loosing spell points the whole time. Ah, but you are, and at a level that, despite Ben’s claims, is not equal to the rate of SP regeneration — it exceeds that rate. Very aggravating indeed. If you know where you’re going, you can rush to the end and not be very affected by the drain. But the whole idea — and a big part of the fun, in theory — is that you don’t know where you’re going or what’s going on. As such, wandering on these two extraneous levels leaves you, to quote Mr. Burns, “as impotent as a Nevada state boxing commissioner.” With only a handful of weak energy potions to be found here and there, even a very good player may be forced to give him or herself some strong EPs via the character editor.
Besides this very unsatisfying concluding castle, there is a major flaw to the nature of the scenario itself: the townspeople cursed by “The Fog” are slowly dying, yet when you first meet them there is a very capable priest, mage, and several warriors — all stronger than your level 1 party. Yet they’ve all been sitting on their duffs — they even admit they’ve made no contact with Raven and very limited contact with the Tokal, his people. They know time is of the essence, yet they wait for you to show up to solve the mystery. They trust you with a bag of gold to give to the Tokal. Not only does this beg the question, “Why didn’t they do all this themselves as soon as the curse set in?” a far bigger query arises: “What if I’d never shown up?” Are we to believe the whole town is full of cowards who’d rather wait for certain death than venture into the fog, with nothing to lose? Were they sitting around saying, “Gee, I hope a band of novice adventures far less capable than us shows up and saves the day”?
It’s a shame that The Fog’s start and finish are as weak as they are. The meaty middle of the scenario, with its spooky tale of reincarnation and superb programming, is about as good as any you’ll play. As such, I’m left with the question of where to rank this in terms of Algiers, which I gave an 8.0. Technically, The Fog is much better (and it should be, given it was its designer’s fourth effort while Algiers was a first-timer for the now-very-accomplished Alcritas). Yet, the engine in my Mazda is more technically sophisticated than a Corvette’s, but I’d still rather have the ‘Vette. Indeed, advanced design can’t always make up for lack of visceral thrills, or a beginning and an end that don’t quite work. Algiers is less likely to wow you than The Fog, but when all is said and done, you just might have had a more fun and rewarding experience playing the former.
Ultimately, I give The Fog an 8.0 as well. Similar to Algiers, but very unique in many ways, with some things better, some things worse. In the case of both these scenarios, there are better choices, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth downloading. They are — and you’ll have great enjoyment if you do so!
Just watch out about that combat mode...
— Lew Titterton