Plague's End Review (semi-late)
12 years ago on a fateful day in August; The adventurer was tasked with rescuing a damsel in distress from a quarantined area. That begun an expansive quest series in which The Adventurer got embroiled in politics, conspiracies, perilous journeys, annoying sheep, lost races, and light puzzles. Now, the final chapter is here, as a parting gift from the amazing Mod John A we have; Plague’s End. The hype and expectation are higher than they have ever been for a quest, and overall the quest really does deliver. Many small and a few major issues stop it from living up to the unreal amounts of hype, but the quest is still great and ends the series on an extremely high note.
Going back to the elf series means going back to a series with the classic quest style (lots of globe-trotting through existing areas), and Plague’s End uses that style perfectly. However, Plague's End does have quite a few new areas to explore, and all of which look absolutely gorgeous in their own way. The highlight is undoubtedly The Grand Library, which looks absolutely stunning and almost alien in its beauty. The new elf models are great overall but the eyes are far too small, on lower details it looks like some elves don’t even have eyes. Despite their awful eyes, the Elven elders look absolutely amazing. One can tell that a lot of care and creativity went into their respective looks, and it really paid off. Another thing to mention is the amazing music for the quest, it;s very atmospheric and beautiful. The music team never fails to impress, and this quest along with Fate of the Gods may be their best work yet.
To move onto the story of the quest, is where the quest encounters its first problems. The story as a whole flows fine, it hits the right beats in the right order, and gets everything that it needs to get done complete. But the story as a whole feels incomplete, like it was just ticking off items from a list of things that needed to happen in the story. There is nothing more to the story other than what NEEDED to happen within the quest to completely close off the series. It feels like they ran out of time to keep writing the quest and dialogue after the second draft, and had to go straight into development, without any time to polish and refine the quest. To make it simple, the story of the quest was rather rushed, and often feels like a checklist rather than an actual story. If the Ardougne revolution and the finale had been extended and given more meat, the story would have been miles better. The dialogue also needed a major re-write, as it is incredibly tacky and brief in many instances. The lore within the quest is done to near perfection, every new piece of info fit into the overall lore of the elves and the game as a whole perfectly. The new reveals are very subtle and spread throughout the quest perfectly. The only complaint that rises at the end of the quest with the lore, is the desire to have more, which is honestly a real compliment to everyone involved with the elf lore. The final reveal of the Dark Lord was also pretty well handled, ignoring her cheesy dialogue, making her an aspect of Seren that was created due to Seren’s secret fascination with death, was a smart idea, and whoever thought of that deserves a massive round of applause. Something that the elf series is well known for is its unique puzzles and its ability to constantly keep players on their toes, even after 8 quests. Sadly this is something that Plague’s End also fails to do well enough. The riddles to find the lost elders are undoubtedly the most challenging part of the quest, but the hints given by Gwir ruin that difficulty a little bit. She honestly just solves a few of them for players, and leaves them to do the heavy-lifting. Had the riddles been slightly extended, and the hints from Gwir removed completely, this would have been a flawless segment of the quest. The elf series has never been about combat, or even had much combat. However in a time in RS where combat is incredibly advanced, the final boss fight could have been improved. Had they merged the fight with the incredibly simple light puzzle, the quest could have lived up to the elf series’ reputation for unique and fresh gameplay. Despite some major issues, the quest is still incredibly enjoyable, and adequately ties off this long and deep quest series. As a whole the series has had high points and low points, and for the past 9 years has been parked on a fairly low point. Plague’s End manages to return the series to the heights that it once achieved, and satisfy players overall with the series. The quest could have undoubtedly been better, but what we did get in terms of lore, graphics, music, and even story was enough to give this huge series a worthy conclusion, and get us even more hyped for Prifddinas (Which no-one even knew was possible).
