The Tain

For what appears to be a first-map this demonstrates a reasonably concise effort, though extremely quick; I completed it in about 8 minutes on normal.

Storyline

The description of the plug-in says it all really; you're in control of one of the small groups that entered Tharsis looking for Soulblighter, but have fallen through to a lower chamber in the dangerous volcano. This premise is interesting enough. The pre-game text is very short, and there are a few spelling errors.

Colour Map

The colour-map is fairly simple and a bit confusing. It has two main types of terrain, a dark rock that suggests solidified lava, and a red moving type suggesting molten lava, however both are passable with the exception of some small areas of the dark-terrain. The map is also mostly obscured by dark fog which makes things hard to see.

Game-play

The map is fairly short and easy, and essentially has you wandering around a completely free-roaming area looking for an exit (which will be obvious when you see it). However, depending what direction you choose to start in you could find the exit without having to fight many enemies at all.

There are some thrall and soulless dotted about, but the main threat comes from some new units, a type of Myrkridia that throws weak fireballs, and blue bre'Unor that throw a paralysing attack. Both are actually fairly well balanced, though the Myrkridia can cause significant damage to archers and dwarves if you're not careful.

The battles are fairly easy once you know the enemy capabilities, and there are few truly threatening forces to stand in the way of your much stronger group. Scripting however is competent in its behaviour, with a few interesting twists such as the "lava creatures" attacking Soulblighter's forces, and sometimes each-other.

Overall

My aim isn't to slight a first-map, but this is what it should be viewed as while playing. It kills a little bit of time, and isn't completely un-playable. However, a more linear map, with focused groups of enemies would be better.