Watership Down by Kyla

 

Usually, I'm hesitant to review areas by people whom aren't known for area making, but for some other thing - administration, lets say. The reason for this is that I hate to catch someone "off guard" - I dont like being told that i'm a horrible fighter, since i'm a necro, and i'm pretty sure that an admin wont want someone to say thier a horrible area maker, as they, well admin. However i made an exception for this area, for one simple reason: It's an exemplary area in many aspects, and suffers from nearly none of the pitfalls that most areas do.

Let's start with the "good": There's valuable eq here that even someone of "about" the right level could get - in other words, you dont need a hero to eq you with stuff from here. Also the xp is good, but there's a "dry spell" of about 5 or 6 levels where you simply won't get good enough xp to keep you coming there constantly - so it's not a "one stop shop" so to speak. Also, higher-level areas are clearly marked off so lowbie's dont go wandering in un-awares.

Also the geography here is very realistic - you climb up hills, climb down into burrows, and generally feel as though your in a realistically done rabbit warren. Also characters and other geographical features stay true to thier literary counterparts - no suprises here if you've read the books. One interesting note is that the mobs here have a large-ish amount of "personality" about them. Big wig gives you a noogie, General Woundwart screams during combat, other rabbits beg for your help or sob quietly. Interesting to be sure.

Another thing that's well done is "descriptive detail" - you get a real "feeling" of where your at. While it's not as mood inspring as some of the more desolate landscapes (to me at least), it is quite able to bring a distinct vision to your mind - one of grassy plains and dark deep rabbit holes. Interesting to be sure. There's also a good bit of "reality" dosed into some of the layout; for example there's scarcely a described place you can't enter, and the barns and such are as full of detail as could be hoped.

All told a well done examplary area, with good mobs, and some pretty handy gear. The only complaints (such as they are), is that the geography it's self is a bit foreshortened - you have a feeling of "rushing" from place to place, instead of a slow, leisurely walk. The other complaint? some mobs just aren't very challanging, and from what i can tell there are simply no casters in the entire area, save the Black Rabbit (see if ya can find him).

Check it out, levels 8 - 15 and 20-30 - have fun and always, keep exploring - this area links to several other smaller areas.