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REVIEWS

The Girl in Ill Humour

Created by Lucky Day
Reviewed by VPJ
Review Posted on 2010-06-06

Quick Pros:

Creative area design.
Excellent scripting.

Quick Cons:

Variable quest difficulty.

Summary (No Spoilers)

Number of Players: 1
Hours of Game Play: 3-6
Character: Nelor Redwa Elven CN Sorcerer 15/Rogue 2;
Rowan Ayloud Human LG Cleric 3/Monk 12;
Jonas Malleson Human NG Fighter 8/Rogue 4
Start Level: 12-17
End Level: 17-20
Hak Size: None
Death: Respawn with penalty
Resting: Some restrictions
Requires: SoU; HotU
PNP conversion: No

A young child lay near death, her frail form curled up under the helpless gaze of her loving mother. The diagnosis: a fatal disease brought on by an imbalance of humors. Only you, stalwart adventurer, can save her life. You must brave the four planes of earth, air, fire, and water to return with the cure. Success will require a selfless spirit, a generous soul, an iron will, and the wish not to be eaten by a giant spider if you refuse.

Author Description:

You must save the life of a Little Girl in trouble. Unfortunately, her mother didn't give you much choice.

Review (Spoilers)

Back in the days of yore when men were men, women were women, and gnomes were ignored or spat upon in the street, it was believed that the balance of four humors regulated the body's health. Any imbalance could lead to sickness, insanity, or creating a module for a BioWare design contest.

The Girl in Ill Humor (GIH) was originally submitted for the 2007 BioWare World Design Contest. It sports some very strong area design, good scripting, and some amusing quests.

Gameplay : 6.0

GIH is not an extended-length epic. Given that this module was originally submitted for a world design contest, the tight focus should not be much of a surprise. Of course, the original contest rules called for a module of no more than 40 minutes in length. I'm going to guess that the author got a bit carried away with things as my first playthrough took over 6 hours and subsequent ones were over the 2-hour mark.

The quests are fairly straightforward. There is one overarching story arc--save the little girl--but it is made up of independent quests in the various planes of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water). There are a few small sidequests here and there, but by and large, this adventure is focused on the main goal. The quests can be done in any order and there are a few small sidequests, so the feeling of railroading is minimized.

Given the nature of the story, the four main quests are essentially FedEx types, but the manner in which you have to collect each humor varies based on the plane where it resides. Most have at least one puzzle. They're generally not too difficult, but the need to use some thought in order to successfully complete a quest is always welcome.

The major quests vary in length and complexity. The quests in the planes of earth and air are fairly intricate, with multiple areas and events. The other two planes were a bit simpler. The fire quest consisted of a simple FedEx puzzle (though some nifty scripted visuals), and the water quest is a fairly straightforward, if short, hack 'n slash run where the puzzle consists of finding the trigger to start the quest in the first place.

If you're in need of gear, there is plenty to be had from the merchants in the main square of Port Freedom or in the guildhalls. The journal was updated regularly and appropriately, although entries were often added after the particular quest had been completed. However, given the nature of the adventure, there wasn't too much hand-holding required. Map pins weren't used very much, either. In most cases, they weren't needed, but in others, such as an area transition along a featureless map edge, they would have been nice to have.

RP/Storytelling : 6.5

GIH starts out with your PC whistling a happy tune while walking through a field on a lovely day. A shout for help brings your adventurer face to face with a very large spider standing guard over her daughter and requesting your assistance. A brief consideration of the numerous disadvantages to saying "no" to an arachnid twice your size leads your PC to agree.

From there you will find yourself in the town of Port Freedom, or at least part of it. There are four guilds in the area, each representing one of the essential elements and each containing a portal to their respective planes. You must complete a quest in each guild in order to save the little girl.

As one might expect from an adventure written for a BioWare world design contest, it's not a profound, convoluted story with multiple plot twists and deep dialog trees. It is, however, an unusual spin on the damsel-in-distress story, written with a good serving of humor (no pun intended), and one twist near the end. You may also notice the occasional nod to such classic stories such as Jack and the Beanstalk or Fantastic Voyage.

There is very little roleplay in this module, and that seems to be intentional. There are a few choices in the dialog trees for flavor, but they will have no effect on the outcome or the gameworld.

Action : 6.5

There is a good bit of action in this module, though each elemental plane varies in both the type and number of enemies you will encounter. Some enemies are obvious choices--water elementals in the plane of water, for instance--while others have less obvious inspirations ranging from The Prisoner to the Cthulhu mythos.

Most of the combat leans toward the easy side. The Vault page states that no encounter should have a challenge rating of more than 10. Also, the author has chosen to use scaled encounter triggers for much of the module, so you should find similar difficulty over a wide range of character levels. This can be a positive or a negative, depending upon your play style. The encounters they spawn run the gamut from melee creatures to spell casters to magical clouds of who-knows-what.

There is the occasional surprise, however, so you should still save your game on a regular basis. If you fail to do so, you can respawn at the cost of 50 XP per level and 10% of your gold.

Visuals : 9.0

Visuals and atmosphere is where GIH really shines. Considering that the BioWare contest rules stated that no custom content except scripts were to be used, the author has managed to give the areas a unique feel using the tools available only in the OC and expansions.

Although the areas are not large, they are nicely designed and match their respective elemental planes quite well. Tilesets were well chosen and things are given a different look both through scripted effects and the creative use of placeables. For instance, the plane of fire has your PC wading through knee-deep lava called via script while navigating a maze that consists of ghostly walls. Also, the tables in the Water Guild consist of overlapping divining pools, giving them a unique appearance.

There are many nice details throughout the module, both scripted and placeable. For example, every seat can actually be used. Additionally, the guildhalls in Port Freedom have restrooms. While your PC doesn't actually have to make a pit stop now and then, there are still enough modules out there without toilet facilities that the inclusion of them caught my attention.

Cutscenes are used well in this module. Given the number of them in such a short adventure, one might think that there's a potential to overdo it, but the author seems to have gotten the balance just right. They are called at appropriate moments in the quests and last for a suitable length of time, neither too long nor too short.

Sound : 7.0

Sound is also well-chosen in this module. Again, there is no custom sound, due to the contest rules, but the default selections were used very well. The ambient music was appropriate to the areas and placeable sounds were used well throughout the module. The creepy sounds in a long-dead city of ghosts or the gurgling noises found in downtown Atlantis added greatly to the atmosphere and feel of the module.

Replayability : N/A

Given the linear nature of the module and the short time frame needed to play it, this module is probably not the best choice for replay value.

Polish : 8.5

Overall, this is a very well-polished module. There is ample detail in the areas, and the scripting is well done. Additionally, I found no bugs in my playthroughs.

I've already mentioned some of the detail in the Visuals section above, but I'll reiterate that there are some very nice placeables that add to the atmosphere or should just be good for a laugh. For instance, placing a sign by a shipwreck stating that it is being maintained by Local 296 of the Freebooters Union doesn't add much to the story or the gameplay, but it is a nice touch and should be commended.

I found no bugs in this module. Each script appeared to fire when and how it was intended. Cutscenes have especially been a problem in my recent experience with some other modules, but I'm happy to report that the ones here fired consistently in my playthroughs.

Documentation is on the Vault page and there is no separate readme file. It does a good job of telling you what levels are appropriate and what to expect in general. It doesn't give installation instructions, but given that there is only the *.mod file itself to download and install, only a player that has never downloaded a community module may have difficulties. There were also a few little details that, although they didn't detract from the overall effect of the module, they should be mentioned here. There were a couple of very small typos and one seat in the earth guild had you hovering a few inches in the air when you sat in it. Other than those things, there were very few negatives.

Solo : 6.0

There are no henchmen in this module, so your PC will face the dangers of the elements alone. That said, the three characters I ran through this module were able to make it through without too much trouble. But this module really isn't really about fiendishly difficult combat or heavy roleplay. It comes off as a tongue-in-cheek romp through the four elements and if you play it with that in mind, it can be an enjoyable time.

Multiplayer : N/A

The author does not recommend that this module be played in multiplayer.

Fun Factor : 7.0

If you go into this module expecting epic stories, fierce action, memorable henchmen, and deep roleplay options, you'll likely be disappointed in The Girl in Ill Humor. However, if you want a light-hearted demonstration of the capabilities in the default toolset that won't take you all week to play, you should give it a try.

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Update 6/10/2010 (VPJ): It's since been noted by Lucky Day that my reference to Fantastic Journey was wrong and it should have been Fantastic Voyage. Oops. The citation has been corrected in the text.

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