Everything was good except the last block puzzle in L4. IT WAS HEINOUS.
Five stars.
ZScript Havoc
Overview
Feature Quest
Creator:
Avaro
Genre: Miniquest
Added: 31 Mar 2018
Updated: 05 Nov 2020
ZC Version: 2.50.2
Downloads: 593
Rating[?]:
|
Download Quest (6.37 MB) |
Information
Dungeons, puzzles, scripts and chaos.
About Reviews Comments Forum Topics
Cukeman
Edited 06 June 2018 - 12:48 PM
Okay, I completed this quest.
Pros
- Lot of original and clever ideas and amusing/hilarious references I can't mention without spoiling. That may sound like a single point, but each clever script and most implementations deserve separate praise, I just can't tell you about it without spoiling it.
- Mostly fair difficulty.
- Most puzzles save when you complete them.
Cons
- I get tired of every little enemy being OP every single time.
- There are times with the weapon animations block your view of everything on screen.
- While the action is doable, it freaking sucks to be under fire while you're solving a puzzle, please just do puzzles or action, not both at the same time. No one wants to die in the middle of solving a multi-room puzzle.
- Feels overly demanding in some places.
- One or two puzzles I didn't even know how to begin (but most were fine).
- Most new weapons didn't feel like they increased in power.
It's good and it's clever, but it's also frustrating in some ways and not as fun as it could be in other ways because it's all-tough all the time.
I rate this 3.75 (it loses a point for frustrating elements)
Pros
- Lot of original and clever ideas and amusing/hilarious references I can't mention without spoiling. That may sound like a single point, but each clever script and most implementations deserve separate praise, I just can't tell you about it without spoiling it.
- Mostly fair difficulty.
- Most puzzles save when you complete them.
Cons
- I get tired of every little enemy being OP every single time.
- There are times with the weapon animations block your view of everything on screen.
- While the action is doable, it freaking sucks to be under fire while you're solving a puzzle, please just do puzzles or action, not both at the same time. No one wants to die in the middle of solving a multi-room puzzle.
- Feels overly demanding in some places.
- One or two puzzles I didn't even know how to begin (but most were fine).
- Most new weapons didn't feel like they increased in power.
It's good and it's clever, but it's also frustrating in some ways and not as fun as it could be in other ways because it's all-tough all the time.
I rate this 3.75 (it loses a point for frustrating elements)
Useless Old Man Wisdom
Edited 12 April 2018 - 09:41 AM
Zscript Havoc seems to have had a bit of hype in development, and a lot of hype here in the other reviews, but does it really deliver?
On the one hand, in terms of technical aspects, yes, this quest delivers in a big way. Zscript havoc sets out to be a vehicle containing as many scripts as possible, and in terms of that goal, the quest undoubtedly succeeds. While playing through this, I saw a number of gimmicks I have never seen before in ZC. I actually really liked the gimmick of level-4, how the different types of "enchantments" allows the player to interact with the level to solve puzzles. That is one example of good thought going into the implementation of scripted gimmicks. Another example is the means to solving the maze path in order to get the big wallet. The solution is so simple in retrospect, but by no means, necessarily obvious at first glance. Yet another example are the puzzles in level-2 that require interaction with a mouse cursor. Those kind of things that offer a creative approach to puzzles, and make the player observe, think, and hash out a solution, are some things I wish there was more of in Zscript Havoc.
On the other hand, there are a whole lot more examples of script gimmicks that fall short and/or don't add to a positive gameplay experience. Some examples include the myriad of enemies and/or enemy attacks that require constant dodging. As a vehicle to seemingly throw as many scripts into the mix as possible, this is understandable. However, it really gets to be too much with just traversing the overworld and especially in boss fights. Here, surviving and winning really depends on attention and evasion skills rather than much of any strategy. In other words, you may die a lot. I also feel like all of the custom weapons fell flat. Beyond just being macguffins for the most part, the weapons were difficult to use effectively. For nearly all of the way, I found myself just spamming the spin attack on the sword, because bombs, the wand, arrows, or the candle were too much of a pain to control. The sword gimmick also grew pretty tiresome when one finds out it is pretty useless when an enemy is within a tile or two of the player. These are some examples of scripted gimmicks seemingly being tossed in "just because" and not really adding anything positive.
In terms of regular design, I found the overworld pretty unremarkable. I also feel like all of the enemies were way overbuffed with health, seemingly to add cheap difficulty. In addition to the constant chaos of needing to dodge laser, projectile, and other attacks, there was a large amount of pitfall, near-death, and "Link is tripping out-type" obstacles that add little more than cheap difficulty. I felt like the money system was pretty balanced, even though there isn't a whole lot to buy. I found exploration to be worthwhile in terms of finding helpful health and item upgrades. I found the dungeon design to be pretty good. By that I mean, the dungeons are easily approachable and, while requiring some thinking from the player in terms of puzzle solving, can be solved pretty quickly with a minimum of aimless wandering or backtracking. In terms of puzzles, none of the puzzles are very hard in my opinion and all are straightforward in terms of logic - although some may require multiple attempts to solve. I wish there were more puzzles instead of overbuffed enemies. In spite of the gimmicks that add cheap difficulty, I found the overall difficulty to be pretty fair. By that I mean, I'm not very good when it comes to boss fights, but I found myself able to defeat all of the bosses on the first try and never wished for a blue tunic. I felt like the final boss fight went on too long, but I got through it easily enough thanks to the optional potion item.
Overall, Zscript havoc has some good things going for it and is a technical achievement if you are into that sort of thing. As a Zelda Classic quest, it kind of falls short. Maybe I just don't get this quest, but most of the scripting gimmicks just didn't do much for me - or in many cases, I didn't like them. I imagine ultimately a lot of these negative gimmicks I mentioned are intended to create a parody quest of sorts - like the Quest for the Hookshot quests; or, a parody of the ZC cliche that if it doesn't have scripts, the quest isn't much, which in either case, Zscript havoc hits the mark. Objectively, I would give this a 3/5, but I rated it a 4 for the intangibles and because there were a few gameplay features I enjoyed a lot.
On the one hand, in terms of technical aspects, yes, this quest delivers in a big way. Zscript havoc sets out to be a vehicle containing as many scripts as possible, and in terms of that goal, the quest undoubtedly succeeds. While playing through this, I saw a number of gimmicks I have never seen before in ZC. I actually really liked the gimmick of level-4, how the different types of "enchantments" allows the player to interact with the level to solve puzzles. That is one example of good thought going into the implementation of scripted gimmicks. Another example is the means to solving the maze path in order to get the big wallet. The solution is so simple in retrospect, but by no means, necessarily obvious at first glance. Yet another example are the puzzles in level-2 that require interaction with a mouse cursor. Those kind of things that offer a creative approach to puzzles, and make the player observe, think, and hash out a solution, are some things I wish there was more of in Zscript Havoc.
On the other hand, there are a whole lot more examples of script gimmicks that fall short and/or don't add to a positive gameplay experience. Some examples include the myriad of enemies and/or enemy attacks that require constant dodging. As a vehicle to seemingly throw as many scripts into the mix as possible, this is understandable. However, it really gets to be too much with just traversing the overworld and especially in boss fights. Here, surviving and winning really depends on attention and evasion skills rather than much of any strategy. In other words, you may die a lot. I also feel like all of the custom weapons fell flat. Beyond just being macguffins for the most part, the weapons were difficult to use effectively. For nearly all of the way, I found myself just spamming the spin attack on the sword, because bombs, the wand, arrows, or the candle were too much of a pain to control. The sword gimmick also grew pretty tiresome when one finds out it is pretty useless when an enemy is within a tile or two of the player. These are some examples of scripted gimmicks seemingly being tossed in "just because" and not really adding anything positive.
In terms of regular design, I found the overworld pretty unremarkable. I also feel like all of the enemies were way overbuffed with health, seemingly to add cheap difficulty. In addition to the constant chaos of needing to dodge laser, projectile, and other attacks, there was a large amount of pitfall, near-death, and "Link is tripping out-type" obstacles that add little more than cheap difficulty. I felt like the money system was pretty balanced, even though there isn't a whole lot to buy. I found exploration to be worthwhile in terms of finding helpful health and item upgrades. I found the dungeon design to be pretty good. By that I mean, the dungeons are easily approachable and, while requiring some thinking from the player in terms of puzzle solving, can be solved pretty quickly with a minimum of aimless wandering or backtracking. In terms of puzzles, none of the puzzles are very hard in my opinion and all are straightforward in terms of logic - although some may require multiple attempts to solve. I wish there were more puzzles instead of overbuffed enemies. In spite of the gimmicks that add cheap difficulty, I found the overall difficulty to be pretty fair. By that I mean, I'm not very good when it comes to boss fights, but I found myself able to defeat all of the bosses on the first try and never wished for a blue tunic. I felt like the final boss fight went on too long, but I got through it easily enough thanks to the optional potion item.
Overall, Zscript havoc has some good things going for it and is a technical achievement if you are into that sort of thing. As a Zelda Classic quest, it kind of falls short. Maybe I just don't get this quest, but most of the scripting gimmicks just didn't do much for me - or in many cases, I didn't like them. I imagine ultimately a lot of these negative gimmicks I mentioned are intended to create a parody quest of sorts - like the Quest for the Hookshot quests; or, a parody of the ZC cliche that if it doesn't have scripts, the quest isn't much, which in either case, Zscript havoc hits the mark. Objectively, I would give this a 3/5, but I rated it a 4 for the intangibles and because there were a few gameplay features I enjoyed a lot.
- Cukeman likes this
