I just recently ran this for my group, and the adventure simply is... not good. It's not terrible, but there are too many better adventures out there for this to be rated anything more than 2 stars (the higher starred reviews are, AFAIC, inexplicable - I sob to think what people have played through in the past!). ;)
There are numerous editing errors and omissions throughout, including a missing key, no mention of where a passage goes to, and no note of what the doors are made of. Encounters are of a questionable nature (CR 3 shadow in a room with a necessary key immediately comes to mind) in difficulty (especially when it is discovered that there's pretty much a time limit involved).
Notable is that the maps are truly horrendous. It looks like it's just a bunch of ugly, simple tiles put together (which it is), and the boring layout and ugly map quality result shows. Really awful - my players rolled their eyes seeing the layout and maps (especially disappointing considering other Paizo products... including part 2 and 3 of this series!).
The story/motivation is decent (and if explained well enough by the DM, I've found is good enough for players to want to continue on to the next modules in the series - though I tied it into our FR campaign, which we prefer, so that helped a lot I think), and the town of Kassen (complete with a nice map and good description) was really great and added value.
I gave this 4 stars for one reason only - the massive poster map of Westcrown.
An excellent map in its own right, this map has the added benefit of actually being good looking and *useful*, as it is far superior to the (very poor) "map" (rather a picture) found in the original AP in cartography.
Further, being a poster map allows for easy use during a game, the addition of detail, and a better understanding of the PCs immediate surroundings. DMs who enjoy running city campaigns and have players with an eye for detail will appreciate the poster map.
As for the rest of the maps... they're just (most of) the ones found in the AP. Much less value-added there, unless you don't have the AP and love maps.
Bleh. I didn't like this adventure because of the map packs (and maps - or lack thereof - in general).
The maps are boring, and very... square. No variation, not very pretty, and wholly bland. (The one map that was new and not part of the Gamemastery map pack was excellent, as usual.) I was also disappointed that the Academae was not mapped. Probably too much for a 32-page adventure, but that just means that the adventure was too big for its britches (something I've always found aggravating).
I did appreciate the attempt at an interesting location (magic academy), and I also appreciated the section inside discussing how one might incorporate it with Curse of the Crimson Throne. Nice touch.
I got this since I was stuck with a subscription, but having read the back (thankfully the info was there, and the use of the map packs are not a surprise - very good, Paizo!), I would have otherwise stayed far, far away. After going through it, I was right. My players would never accept the lack of detail found in this adventure and would require me to do ridiculous amounts of work to make it acceptable for them.
