Old MC. D’s Farm

Everything falls victim to first impressions at some time or another. You can’t help it, it’s human nature. Part of the thing that makes a scenario (or anything, for that matter) “good” is the ability to overcome first impressions and prove to the audience that it is, in fact, worth playing. Old MC. D’s Farm almost accomplishes this. Almost.

Unfortunately, the first impression isn’t too good. The ridiculous name Old MC. D’s Farm couldn’t work for anything but a comedy, and this scenario is definitely not a comedy. The bare bone’s readme doesn’t help much either. The only thing going for it is the graphic file, which is pretty impressive.

Actually, the graphics used throughout the scenario are quite impressive. MC. D. utilizes a snow terrain set that I haven’t seen used in a scenario before, and what’s more, almost all the BoE items and terrain have been replaced by more suitable sets. This is by far the best part of MC. D. It’s incredibly refreshing to have new items and terrain to look at, and it also adds a great deal of atmosphere.

However, the same cannot be said for the rest of the scenario. Its biggest drawback is that it’s tiny. Easily one of the smallest scenarios I’ve ever played. MC. D. didn’t have a chance to prove to me that it was worth the play, there wasn’t enough time! There’s only a couple of things to do, and you can count the people you can carry on a (short) conversation with on one hand. The little dialog it did have suffered from spelling and formatting errors.

As for the plot, well, it’s OK for what it is. The problem is, it isn’t nearly enough! It consists entirely of: finding something, saving something, finding something, end. That’s it. It made me wonder that the author went to so much trouble tailoring the items and terrain just to slap it on a five minute storyline. Then I understood: The graphics aren’t there to add to the storyline as much as the storyline is there to justify the graphics. It’s more of a showcase than a scenario.

MC. D. is mostly bug free, but that’s not surprising considering the scenario’s size and the minuscule number of special nodes. Combat is somewhat unique, MC. D. is played with a premade 1 PC party that is quite weak, though the combat still isn’t all that difficult.

Check out MC. D. and see how much the changed graphics give it atmosphere despite its shortcomings. But don’t worry, you won’t be playing long. 

I rate it 5.6

— Ryan Phelps

Back to Scenario Reviews