This is without a doubt the most informative and helpful hold that I've ever played. (for example, I learnt that seep don't use vertical preference, and many other things too)
Due to it being such a large hold, there are a few rooms (mabye around 20-30) which I haven't completed. However, I think I've seen enough to rate and post a review here. I appreciated the non-linear nature of the hold, making it easy to jump in and out of the annexes whenever I wanted to. Also, the consistent and fluid level design in each annex really helped improve the atmosphere and polish of the hold.
A few annexes were fairly easy, but others were much more difficult. There were a few I didn't like so much, such as eyes+potions (don't like decoy potions). There were a few levels where I didn't learn much new - goblins, rock golems, simple sword tricks, and fegundos, but the puzzles make up for that, as they were good practice for preparation for other holds. On average, the difficulty was probably somewhere around the 6 to 7 region, most of the challenge rooms require some perseverance to get through, but not too much, and some of the secret rooms are
really tough.
As for the puzzles, most were well thought out and designed, although like most holds, there were a few which I didn't like much. However, I am giving this hold a 10, not really representive of the fun, but more the overall quality of the hold. This is especially true of the Advanced Brain Movement Annex. I recommend that everyone should play the hold, purely for that level.
The hold is also useful from an architectural view. The vast numbers of challenge rooms in some of the annexes (rock golem especially) really help showcase the depth of most of the monsters and elements. Building rooms suddenly became so much more interesting.
Overall, this is just a excellent must-play hold. The hard work of each of the authors really shines through. Larrymurk holds suddenly became so much more approachable
. I'll be looking forward to an Advanced Concepts #2. (brained grouped wraithwings ftw
)
tl;dr - if you already know how all the basic monsters move, start with Brained Roaches -->
Advanced Brain Movement -->
everything else
Here are some more details about individual annexes:
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×Simple Sword Tricks
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×one of the easiest annexes. Beginners should definitely check this one out, some valuble tips about vertical preference and blocking roaches with your sword are included. It also had a consistent style, with an application room after each tutorial section.
Goblins
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×was a bit shorter than I expected. There could be a bit more elaboration on why and when goblins move diagonally around obstacles, and more detail about their move preferences. All the rooms were easy.
Fegundos
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×don't think I learnt anything new here, after playing the interlude in TCB fegundos became pretty straightfoward. The secret room was nice, it required some thought, mainly due to me missing the lynchpin at first.
Brained Roaches
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×haven't beaten some of the northern-most challenge rooms. Nice explanatory introduction to brained roach movement, I'm able to appreciate most of larrymurk's rooms in other holds now, after knowing more detail about brained movement (like Award Ceremony: Bronze: 1N2E). Challenge rooms were nice, and steadily increasing in difficulty.
Rock Golems
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×really nice level design. By far the largest of all annexes, this one is full of challenge rooms. Most of them were quite nice, and of medium-ish difficulty. The secret rooms are tough though, I haven't completed them all yet.
Queen
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×similar to rock golems, a pretty level design but not as many challenge rooms as I would have liked. Thanks for the information on roach egg movement order, I couldn't find it written down anywhere else.
Eyes + Potions
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×I can't stand decoy potions, so naturally this one wasn't one of my favourites. I learnt about the monster-decoy preferences, but otherwise nothing new. I skipped almost all of the challenge rooms here.
Disarmed Mimics
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×Fairly helpful information here, although some of the later simultaneous mimics + token stuff is just intimidating. I really hope architects don't require people to know about that.
Seep
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×Fairly good, and the few challenge rooms were challenging.
Speed Potions
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×Good but more difficult than other annexes
[Last edited by da rogu3 at 05-22-2011 07:20 PM]
