To be clear - my feelings about this game are mixed. Some parts of are wonderful, amazing, better than anything I've seen.
But this quest is not one of those lovely bits. This quest is trash.
I hate everything about it. Every. Single, Thing.
What do I hate?
I hate the aesthetics. Why am I adventuring in 19th century Birmingham?! I hate the DOS2 of it all. The steel watchers that explode and leave necrofire behind, the grenades, gunpowder, oil, combustion engines, the rivets, prefab walkways. Nothing about it says 14th century Europe.
I hate the DOS2 mechanics. Barrels, necrofire explosions, grenades.
I hate the story. After abusing the F8 key I was able to rescue all the gnomes from the underwater lab and, as a reward, I'm put in the middle of a fight where the innocents go down in a single turn unless you save scum to get initiative. And - just when you think you've found a way to save them - the necrofire explosion undoes all your work.
Of course the online strategy guides start with "gather the barrels from" . . .
I hate the feeling of futility I get from the quest. I should have gone stealthy and planted the bomb because the innocents on level 2 end up dying anyway. Way to make me feel like my extra effort was wasted 19th century quest . . .
And when are finished you interact with a 1960s computer mainframe. Fuck this quest.
