June 24, 2009
IoTM Review: Nonsensical Time Travel.
So, it’s June. That means it’s the month of the crazy, wacky Super-Content Familiar. This time it is the Baby Sandworm.
It’s probably my favorite June familiar, hands down.
I’ve played all the previous June content areas. I own a Llama, too. Each of the other ones seem like puzzles to overcome in order to get ascension relevant consumables. You have to figure out how to rush through the Violet Fog to get your munchies pills or how to trick the Wormwood to get your Not-a-pipes with the minimum amount of turn investment. There is some funny, entertaining content in there, but it’s all just for the rewards. The Llama stuff was nice, in that it removed the puzzle to get you the items from a specific zone, which you can get while doing other quests. But it’s still just “beating the system for buffs and consumables.” That’s cool. People like that. But it’s not perfect for me, really.
The content that the Baby Sandworm gives you is a series of three, interconnected storyline quests, and that is why I love it.
To do this, they first just give the item people want the most from the content straight out. The sandworm drops Agua de Vida, a spleen for turns item. Wonderful. When you use it, then you get the ‘unlock” item, which isn’t trade-able. That’s an interesting drawback. But once you get into the actual quests, then you get into a quest throughout time. Granted, it makes absolutely no sense that you’re doing this quests by “remembering” what happened over time periods, especially in the future. But the content is entertaining and fun. Hell, it’s got a full in-game implementation of Hunt the Wumpus right in the quest! That’s pretty impressive.
Basically, I loved the quest. I’m going to love going through it several more times over ascensions to get all the rewards. I’m going to appreciate how wanting to do that content is going to make me actually use my spleen to be more efficient. I love this familiar.
And hell, it’s the first full Sombrero Mr. Store familiar. If nothing else, it’s a million times better than a normal Sombrero. There’s no reason not to get this. You know, unless you’re just opposed to donating, I suppose.