Monster Island. You’ve been teased with the prospect of going
to this fantastical-sounding zone for a few levels. Luckily, once you
hit level 27 on up, you’ll finally be allowed to venture to
this new, and forbidding, tropical isle of danger and intrigue. Just
keep checking your character’s email; eventually,
you’ll get a notice asking you to go to Monster Island to
help the forces of righteousness. Whenever you’re ready, haul
your spandex-clad butt over to the jet in Millennium City and
you’ll get the option to go to the Crisis on Monster Island.
Choosing that option will open up the instance queue, just like
you’re entering a pvp match. Click on ‘join
queue’ and wait (usually only a minute or two) and then
you’ll be whisked off to Fantasy….I mean, Monster
Island.

alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77191"
style="width: 250px; height: 188px;">

First, you’ll be treated to a nice cut scene of the Viper
leader discussing Monster Island in general, and the future plans of
Viper in specific. Whilst he’s rambling away, the scene will
pan over some sections of the island. Right away, you’ll see
that the island is tropical and full of dangerous beasts. Not only is
Viper located on the island, but also the mad scientist, Teleios, who
has forged an alliance with Viper. After the scene is finished,
you’ll find yourself offshore from the beach standing on a
sub. There, you’ll learn that UNTIL and Bureau 17 (a Japanese
group that monitors the island – gotta love the Godzilla
references!) are working to take the island back from Viper. You also
learn that you’re allying, albeit on a reluctant basis, with
Dr. Moreau, another mad scientist who has created a host of manimals
(creatures that were created by splicing men and beasts together).
Fortunately, a good deal of the manimals are peaceful and have thrown
off Dr. Moreau’s shackles. You’re warned to never
trust Moreau.



To gain access to Monster Island, you’ll have to complete the
Crisis on Monster Island quest chain. Luckily, you should not be alone
as that other heroes will have entered the instance with you. This
quest chain is composed of eight parts.

• Secure the Beachhead
• Stop the Viper counter-attack
• Reactivate Mega-Terak
• Destroy the Viper base
• Confront Teleios
• Defeat Teleios’
  Raptors
• Defeat Teleiosaurus
• Use the serum to defeat
  Teleios

To begin, you’ll have to make your way to shore and take out
the Viper defenses. This consists of destroying a number of tanks and
artillery pieces. There are a number of npcs hanging around the area
that can aid you. Just remember to be careful as that everything is at
least level 30. After you secure the beachhead, Viper will make a few
counter-attacks to retake the beach. All you have to do is repel the
assaults.



Now, your mission turns to reactivating Mega-Terak, a giant robotic
dinosaur, who was left on Monster Island by the Qularr. Bureau 17 has
reprogrammed him, but the program is unstable. Your job is to gather
parts to repower this behemoth. Once you have him powered up, his
mighty roar will rend the night air! Then, off he goes towards the
Viper base. The Viper base is full of Viper goons and two legendary
villains, Viper-X and Ripper. Keep an eye out for normal troops as they
respawn extremely quickly. The two villains are incredibly tough and
can one-shot you if you’re not careful. When I ran through
Crisis on Monster Island, Mega-Terak lived long enough to bring down
Viper-X and wound Ripper to about half. Then, the other players and I
took turns pounding on Ripper until he was finally defeated, which
results in a cut scene showing him running away and vowing revenge.



Now, you enter the last phase of the mission chain, defeating Teleios.
You’ll be treated to another cut scene showing the leader of
the peaceful manimals and his friend talking to Dr. Moreau and his
bodyguard. Dr. Moreau has created a serum for the manimals to use
against Teleios, but the manimals don’t trust him. (Moreau
wishes to make an alliance with Viper once Teleios is out of the way.)
At the end of the scene, a peaceful ape-man takes the serum, which
results in him growing to many times his size and having his ferocity
increased. You should follow the ape-man to Teleios’ lab,
which is guarded by a force shield. Along the way, and at the lab
itself, you’ll fight hordes of raptors created by Teleios.
After you defeat 50 of them, then Teleios summons his greatest
creation, the Teleiosaurus. This giant dinosaur is bad-ass. Use your
longest range attacks on him as that, when he roars, he’ll do
over 4000 points of damage, which will probably drop you instantly. At
the end of the fight, you’ll be treated to another cut scene
where the Teleiosaurus runs off into the jungle, and the ape-man tells
you to stay and not to follow. He’ll finish off the dinosaur
himself, and then he rumbles off into the jungle. Now, you use the
serum that the ape-man took to
make yourself gigantic and defeat Teleios, thus ending the Crisis on
Monster Island.

alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77192"
style="width: 250px; height: 188px;">

Please
note! There is a common bug
that occurs during the Crisis on Monster Island mission chain. This bug
occurs after the ape-man pursues the Teliosaurus off into the jungle.
Basically, the force field around Teleios’ lab does not come
down and you can’t fight him. At this point, you have two
options, as was explained to me by a gm when I ticketed the bug. The
first option has been used by players to get around the bug. To follow
this option, make sure that you take the serum and are gigantic. You
can then either leave the island (at the sub) or you can log out. I
chose to log out. When I logged back in, I was in Millennium City next
to the jet. When I approached the jet, I was given the option to go to
Crisis on Monster Island or to go to Monster Island. (Guess which one I
chose?) The second option is to redo the entire mission chain, which is
lousy. Honestly, this kind of bug should have been fixed a long time
ago. Monster Island is the coolest zone I’ve seen in the game
and after waiting forever to get there to be screwed over by a bug was
extremely frustrating!



Overall, Crisis on Monster Island serves as a nice introduction to the
Monster Island zone. The mission chain is very tough if
there’s only a couple of you, but not impossible. In the
process, you get to see some amazing things, such as Mega-Terak kicking
butt on the Viper base and a giant man-ape going toe-to-toe with a
giant dinosaur! (It’s obvious the developers are monster
movie fans. Mega-Terak reminds me of Mecha-Godzilla, created by aliens,
and the ape-man fighting the dinosaur is straight out of the original
King Kong.) Now, get going to Monster Island!