Just completed the e3 booth tour and quests (for the second time, more on that later). I think I can see what they're trying to go for with their e3 booth and I think the vision is wonderful. The execution, however, is a bit of a mess. First, let me note that with one exception (noted below) you could potentially walk through the whole thing with no issues and find it enjoyable.(to a certain extent). Particularly if you're the social type and enjoy the social aspect of Home in general (I am not). That said there are some fundamental issues with not only the presentation but the quest execution as well. I suspect many of these issues may derive from technical limitations. For example:
Presentation:
- The vast majority of the game content is presented as static screens with overload text.
- Character animation is quite poor and very limited (general Home issue).
- The total play area is quite limited.
- Content often loads a bit too slowly and doesn't seem to be pre-cached to help hide this (general Home issue).
Execution:
- The variety of quest types is quite limited. Mostly "consumer education" type quizes and a subsets of different fetch quests.
- Your e3 quest progress is completely lost when you leave the area.
- Your prizes for tasks/sub-quest completion are presented in the form of voucher codes (for any non Home items) instead of automatically being redeemed as items and added to your account.
Combine the presentation issues (primarily static images overlaid with static text and slow loading) with the execution issues and what you end up with is a potentially frustrating experience. As soon as you leave the area (for example to complete one of the final tasks), you lose your progress as well as your voucher codes. So, you can only get those codes back by starting the entire e3 quest over from the very beginning. Add onto the fact that one of the quest objectives requires that you have spent time in another area and you could end up working your way through the entire quest, only to come to last task which requires you to leave, do so, and then come back to find that your progress has been lost.
So, what I recommend to anyone interested in checking this out and completing the quest, first go to the e3 Theatre. Spend the required 30 minutes there watching their coverage (the completion of this task for the e3 quest is permanent across all quest sessions). Then go to the e3 booth area and then start the quests. You need to go to the Quest Station first and complete the first PSV task before doing anything else. I wouldn't bother looking around much initially as you'll have to go through all of the booths anyway later. Please note that all tasks are completed in the order they're presented and
only in that order (no jumping ahead for the content you want). I recommend having a mobile/portable device with you opened to the
SEN storefront's redeem code page. That way you can type the voucher codes in directly and redeem them then and there. You can download the actual content later from your download list. There's one code you can't redeem from the PC store and that's the PS Plus 30 day trial. You'll have to write that one down.