If Excavation Gateway represented one side of Vengeance - slow, boring, trivial levels - then this map embodies the other - levels that are very difficult and frustrating but lacking any fun either.
There are a few factors involved in this. One is the Pterodactyls. They're designed to be completely unfair. The vast majority of them exit via the top lane, either coming in from the lower right entrance and taking the tunnel down, or the worst are allowed to actually spawn from where the tunnel comes out. Either way it doesn't give you a lot of time to deal with them. Once they exit the tunnel at the top of the map you probably can only get two or three shots on them before they reach the exit, and even that's dicey because the waves are designed so that you probably have ground units at your chokepoint at the same time that your towers are focused on. The best solution I found - as demonstrated in the videos - is to build two Bone Flingers on the rightmost build points. These can kill or at least soften up the Pterodactyls before they get to the tunnel, making it a lot easier for the towers around the upper left chokepoint to finish them off.
The second factor is the Prehistoric Dwarf spam, which means you need to start preparing for it from the beginning of the map. The only real solution for this many of them (at least with free-on-mobile towers) is Possession spam, and even then things can get dicey due to the third factor.
That third factor is the Venus Fly-traps, which not only catapult mobs forward, but also change which lane they're on. They are the epitome of unfair, because when both of them are active they can take a unit that has just entered from the top right entrance and effectively catapult them straight to the top left exit - the first one grabs the mob and throws it halfway across the map onto the bottom lane, then the second one grabs it and throws it within spitting distance of the exit at the top. If this turns out to be a Prehistoric Dwarf things can go downhill really quickly if you're not prepared.
All in all this is the theme of Vengeance though - in most cases the developers just missed the fun somehow that was in previous games. The levels see-saw back and forth between too easy and boring and too difficult and frustrating, and rarely do they hit the sweet spot in the middle of a good challenge that's fun to take on.
Impressions
This is definitely a contender for hardest map in the game so far, and the grades are absolutely brutal. This one definitely sorts out the heroes into top and bottom tiers, and it's a largely a case of the top row of heroes taking 'C's while the bottom row gets 'A's. Margosa and Jigou in particular were perilously close to getting 'D's, but I made some adjustments in my strategy that allowed them to slide by with some 'C's that were definitely on the minus side.
Final Grades
- Veruk - C
- Asra - C
- Oloch - C
- Margosa - C
- Mortemis - C
- Tramin - B
- Jigou - C
- Beresad - A
- Doom Tank SG-11 - A
- Jun'pai - B
- Eiskalt - A
- Murglun - A
- Dianyun - A
- Jack O'Lantern - B
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