Scenario Review Scenario Title: Ice Age  Author: Kestrel Reviewer: Mr.Temba Historical scenario. Frost Giants and Eskimos fight for control of prehistoric ice caps. Download Ice-Age.zip from the Scenario League.

Overall Rating 12/30 SYNOPSIS: none

 

Playability Rating 4/10 COMMENTS: The problems with this scenario start when you open the zip file.  For some reason they are all "pathed" to a full out directory within mps and civ2 and all that.  This is very annoying as it really gives you no control of where to put the files. I reccomend that the author get rid of all the paths and just let the player put the files wherever he or she wants.    There are seven tribes, each starting out very small.  One of these tribes, The Egyptians, should not be played because they have an advantage, all well and good, but who should be played? The Frost Giants? The Koori? The Neanderthals? No explanation is given as to the strange names of these tribes, they have no individual units, no advantages/disadvantages that could be imposed through governments and techs. I would like to see some unique units per tribe, such as the Neanderthals having the ability to make "Cavemen" and the Frost Giants could make Giants units.  Also I would very much like to know who the Koori and Indigeinies are. Some more documentation could be provided but I'll talk about that later.  At first the units are all very well done for the period, we have Swordsmen, Warriors, Settlers, etc all appropriate for an ice age scenario. But before long you have Rifled Arms, Firearms, Ceramic Armor, Lasers etc. The concept here is, I guess, lets just move civilization back, although the scenario starts at 4000 BC just like usual.

 

Level of General Care 3/10 MAP: I really cannot give a good score here. The readme was almost non existant, other than explaining the concept of the scenario (high technology in the ice age), all it does is explain the terrain a little. This is a good start but not enough.  I would like to know what a Scree Plain is, and I shouldn't have to go to a dictionary or reference book just to find out. Also the existence of so much Rain Forest (2 food 2 production) actually gives the advantage to the Koori and Vikings, not the Egpytians.   However the Events is well done for its purpose, changing the terrain gradually but dramatically.  New oceans form, Tundras and Forests shift, all over the course of hundreds of turns. Whether is a "historical" ice age melting, or a fictionally completely made up ice age melting I have no idea, the map at the end of it all doesn't really look like much but it could be the seven continents in a different shape, I suppose.  Also the presensce of a large Barbarian city is totally unexplained, there aren't any events or treasures associated with it, and I would really like to know what it is doing there. Also the name "Barbarrosa" is a strange one for an isolated Berserker enclave.   There are two files that, I presume, explain the units and terrain more but I don't know what kind of files they are or how to open them.  I wish I did.

 

Art and Originality 5/10 GENERAL: The artwork is mostly good but of such varying quality it is sometimes awkward to see two objects interacting that occur in the same time periods.  For example the "Berserker" (who we all know and love as Gimli from Lord of the Rings) looks very odd crossing the Scree Plain, which is just a recolored Tundra.   I can't see any original art here whatsoever. Unless the spoked wheels on the catapult and a few other minor changes were done by the author.  The Forests and Hills look awfully familiar :)

 

NOTES: none.

 

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