LEVEL BEST

[KaM]

Hey up.

Well, very interesting perspective sir, on the S5 front. S5 was definitely a huge step up on S4 in terms of gameplay, I do believe that. S4 had many revolutionary ideas, such as the inclusion of the eye shield and so much outside footage, but unfortunately to the extent that the gameplay was maimed for it. S5 tidied this up, and yet also added many fundamental extra features - you mentioned the causeways - and there's also the emergence of a certain Smirkenorff.

Yes, the one thing that did impress me about S5 was the surreallistic 'theme' of 'Winteria' - the idea of breaking from the traditional dungeon mould a little bit further. Ok, I think the final challenge of S5 was pathetic, but daring to add a theme was included, in my opinion, in the latter stages of Ben's quest in S6 - an indication of the final showdown as such. Juliet Henry-Massy was fantastic, icy and heroic for her respective roles, and yet the role of Aesandre was very well 'preserved' to hold some unpredictability about the way the series panned out, unlike the sometimes drole repetition seen constantly the previous year.

But I do believe that S5, while not the finished article, had excellent features (Winteria, the causeways, Smirks, Juliet and both her characters) and led the way for the immense S6 and S7, the excellence of which I do think panned from ideas tried in S5.

[Malefact]

Series 5 also gave us Lord Fear, Sylvester Hands, Scarkill, spyglasses and scrolls. The only thing that doesn't make it one of my absolute favourite series is that it moves rather slowly sometimes. Series 6 changed all that, of course.

Thinking about it, series 5 was an even braver move than series 4 because of all the changes. It was radically different from what was being done as little as two years previously.