| Valley of Dying Things | |
| by Jeff Vogel | |
| Lew Titterton’s Review | |
Before people question the need to review this, the only free scenario, and the first one that comes with the game, consider that although most every experienced player has given it a whirl, there are still newcomers to Blades who may benefit from a review of even the tried-and-(basically) true Spiderweb scenarios. So, without further introduction, here we go:
I give Valley of Dying Things an 8.0. For a while, I was thinking of going higher out of general respect for Jeff and Spiderweb, but I’ve decided against it. Not that 8.0 is bad, but for the designers of the game itself, you could and should expect better.
First, the pros. Valley’s programming is excellent (which it of course should be...) Specials (and special items) are very well-used, and there are no appreciable bugs. Custom graphics, while not in abundance, are used very well, and are professionally done. This scenario looks pretty good (so to speak), with a nicely icky, polluted atmosphere and a good feel of decay.
Then things go downhill. The outdoor areas feel huge, and are generally wasted. Subplots with a random (and hard-to-find) bandit hide-out and an (even harder-to-find) Drake are nice enough, but are pretty tacked-on and irrelevant. There are also one goblin and three undead adventures, none of which are related to one another or the main plot! I get the distinct feeling Jeff realized he had made the outdoors too big but couldn’t think of valid ways to fill it, so he tacked on all these little quests which are done well enough, and somewhat fun, but ultimately are hollow and sub-par.
The main plot fares better. A little better. Actually, it starts off excellently, as you delve deeper and deeper into the mysterious School of Magery. Well-connected, progressively harder, spooky, and complex. Nice. Very quickly, however, the school becomes annoyingly large, and just as quickly you realize the entire scenario is one VERY heavy-handed pollution allegory. How can a man with the creativity to found the Scorched Earth Party take such an overdone political topic and handle it so blandly? The ending, which I won’t fully give away, basically ignores the motive of the polluters, leaving you to wonder why they did it. I suspect Jeff wanted a nice, easy moral for all the parents and kiddies who play Blades. “Hey kids, pollution bad! Blades good!” Ugh.
The reason I give this scenario an 8.0 is because, flat and preachy though it is, there really isn’t anything especially wrong with it. Most of the time it’s fun, it’s very well-balanced for a beginner party (although I went back and ran through it with a basic one-player party — quite the challenge, but I enjoyed it more than with six). Valley is, ultimately, not a very cerebral adventure, but it’s great for the younger or starting players, and it’s also great for new designers. With extremely sound programming and the password provided, just throw it in your “Scened” folder and open it up! You’ll learn a lot more in a few hours than you would by fooling around blindly in the Editor or stumbling over help files.
— Lew