Evoloution 61-62 by Staff

 

Ahh, Evoloution. Sacred highest of achivements for the denizens of NS. As such one expects only the best from these "areas". Do we get it? With my recent expirance in evoloution 61, I decided that it woudl be interesting to "rate" such areas as I would any other. Be aware if your looking for "hints" or "secrets", while you might learn some names or some general layout stuff, don't be to eager.

The first thing that suprised me about this evo was that it was most definitly a "themed" area - as is every evo i've ever expiranced. I was impressed by the manner in which things were "accuratly" recreate from myths and such (with this ones' theme being Neptune, god of the sea). Everything was accuratly done in a fashion befitting an undersea (palace? area? i'm not sure exactly...the feel isn't so much of a palace as that of some kind of very diverse area). Of course the area is exceedingly small - perhaps 20 rooms, perhaps less then that even. The whole thing is under water, requiring water breathe potions (thankfully provided), and being no recall (and no shadowflight).

The acutal rooms and such are diverse, as i've said - things represented include rocks, coral, gold, force fields (for an "out of water" area), and a grate. There's no real coherence aside from the basic "undersea god" theme, and luckily you do get to keep the items you discover. One oddity is a key that persists after a quit (most disappear), and some fairly exotic items - beltwear, floaters, ect. Nothing is "extraordinary" for a hero, but some lower-levels could make good use of the Sea Foam and what not, particuarly while leveling.

The challange factor is "variable" - all types of mobs (from humans to animals to mythological beasts) are represented, with some being aggro, and some not. There are casters and regular fighters (including one nasty bastard who has Dispel), and generally they represent a "fair challange" to your average person. If you bring in recall potions and sanc you should have no problems - and casters of course should use minions/elementals (oddly they seem to already have water breathe). Most notable is that the mobs (with the exception of neptune) have very few progs involved with them - mostly they are silent, and merely await doom or whatever else you have in store for them. A singing siren or a cursing triton would have been nice, and added a touch that is rarely seen in any area.

The room descriptions are descriptive, and make good use of color - indeed the entire area is a sort of "cyan" color, which adds to the "underwater" feeling. Items of note (namely a rock) are highlighted so thier easy to see. One thing that isn't well described are the doors - you have to address them by direction, not "name" which can be rather annoying at times. I like to have both, so that if I should feel (as i did for a brief time) like doing some heavy role-playing, i can do so, opening the rock or gold by name. Equipment found is fairly well described - You know what it is but that's about all that can be said for it. There's not much creative use of color in the item names, to be sure.

Other then that the area is interesting, and if it were not an evoloutinary area, and had severeal more rooms and a bit better cohesion, it would have made a fine palace for AquaRealms with only a few modifications. I say check it out - not that you have a choice :)