The City, Kurshok Compound

Day 7 (Dawn of the Dark Age)

Visiting the same place two or three times can be dangerous, especially if it's a tourist attraction. The danger is that, in an attempt to get to know a place better, you'll end up finding the things you once found interesting competing with new attractions set up expressly for tourists. Theme parks are the worst, but virtual worlds can be nearly as bad. The Kurshok, frankly, are just such an attraction.

You can never be sure if 11th-hour introductions like the existence of the Kurshok was always "in the cards." Did the designers of this world intend to create an excuse for more dark stony dungeons? Or did they run out of ideas and say, "You know what would be great? Let's get those dumb guards from above ground and stick them in Creature From The Black Lagoon suits." It's hard to tell. You see, the Kurshok aren't that bad. They're culturally distinct from other groups in the City, they live in ruins (and ruins can be cool, as I trust the panorama suggests), and they glisten with early traces of Next Generation Gaming's obsession with specular maps.

But are the Kurshok their own culture, or just bumbling guards layered with a new veneer. With their predisposition to ending my life, I was unable to make a clear assessment. That doubt isn't something that can go away - without proof one way or the other, I'll always suspect that they're just the latest fish-themes tourist trap, trying to keep people coming back.