The original good idea that the authors had was to set an adventure in the Vatican with all its fascinating flavour and history. That, I could have got from a guidebook, and it would have had a better map.
From there, it needs a plot. So there's a terrorist hostage situation. Wait, it turns out they're not actually terrorists (though the adventure still uses that overworked term throughout), they're thieves, and not smart thieves either: their plan is just to bust in and Greyhawk the place.
It's said to be a non-FX adventure. While that may be technically true, it's certainly not real-world, relying heavily on wacky robots and bizarre chemical transformations. Any bizarre and illogical things that the bad guys do (such as supposedly terrorising the PCs with sub-optimal bow attacks when the character carries a rifle that's in all respects better) are because they're insane and obsessed.
What tears it for me is the way that the major characters' backgrounds throw in every bad guy in the world and the kitchen sink. Look, this guy's so evil he worked for al-Qaeda .. then he went to Sudan to help out with the genocide there .. so his plan is to run away to North Korea. Maybe China. This is not D&D where you can invoke different evils at will for a cumulative effect. There's so much contradictory detail that it becomes an unusable grey mush.
That's pretty much how I'd sum up the product as a whole: too many ideas, not enough cohesion and very little, in the end, that I can use.
<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>
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