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For some reviewers, having to review a fellow team mate’s map is a minefield. My experience with the phenomena has generally yielded that type of situation, but for the author rather than the reviewer. Suffice it to say it’s not in character for me to go easy on a fellow reviewer. If anything it would be safe to say I’m a little more critical. This stems from my belief that if you are going to create a level after having reviewed other levels, you should firstly be able to practice what you preach, but also you should have picked up quite a few tips along the way. This is not to say that I am an advocate of the mantra which says that you should be able to build good maps yourself before you criticise others; far from it. Such notions are for the puerile. However, if you are going to the trouble of creating a level, you should be able to demonstrate that which you have made mention of. So where does that leave our own Virgo47?
The layout of the map centres around three main rooms, each with the focus of a particular pickup. One room has the 100 shield, one the 50 shield and one the UDamage. The strength of the map lies in not only the construction of these rooms, but even more importantly the connectivity. Dead ends are practically non-existent, which for a DM map is a very good thing. There is always somewhere to go from any given point in the level, and I can’t really think of anywhere in particular where you are limited to only a single choice. The overall architecture is not exceedingly detailed, nor is it truly a standout, however it is definitely pleasing enough on the eye not to detract from the play experience. There were, of course, a few areas with which I have some complaint. Apparently the 50 shield room was the original beginning of the level, and the long ramp in it inspired by an escalator. It’s a shame, then, that I felt this was one of the weakest areas. The ramp felt entirely too long and straight and boring. A similar effect could have been achieved, but by segmenting the ramp into a series of smaller, stepped ramps interspersed with brief plateaus to break up the monotony. Also, despite the decoration, that section also felt very plain and rectangular. This wasn’t helped by the graffiti wall. This wall features a wonderful, large scale graffiti texture, but the author has been so intent on preserving and displaying this that we end up with a plain, straight wall which stretches on with no detail or variation for entirely too long. A simple solution would have been to cut in a series of bevelled recesses along the wall’s length. Aligning the large texture across these recesses wouldn’t have been very hard at all, and if the bevels were wide and the recesses not very deep the texture would have been just as prominently displayed, but with a more interesting wall segment. I also think a bit of detritus spread out sporadically along its length, despite partially obscuring the texture, would have helped the level’s overall appearance. One other niggling issue was some of the choices and uses of a few static meshes. There are a few points which just seem to have had a static mesh thrown in to add some detail without it being entirely relevant. Examples include the SC-Tank2x mesh from the X_SC-NewMech1, and wallwheel01HA mesh from the Humanoid Hardware set. These two in particular jarred. Not much in the grand scheme of things. I felt the klimopBD (vine with leaves) mesh from the DEBPchecker set was a little overused throughout the level, and the ARBTempleVines from the ArboreaHardware set really stretched the whole plants in an industrial space theme uncomfortably. The rest of the meshes were used well.
Texturing throughout was very good with a broad selection of custom content including some from Hourences HourIndusX package, all dutifully embedded in the mylevel package. It was nice to see a map using the HourIndusX textures without looking like a map that uses the HourIndusX textures. It’s a great set but it has been used a lot by numerous level designers, many of whom clearly didn’t really understand the set’s strengths. Despite drawing from several different texture sets, the author has pulled them together well. I didn’t really see any misalignments, so the author has definitely been thorough in this regards. I did think that the getherto rules texture cropped up in too many places for good taste. The lighting was a bright spot (pun completely intentional). The author has made good use of hotspots and contrasts with a nicely selected colour palette. What I did miss was any significant shadow work, save for that on the upper floor of the UDamage atrium. Granted the skybox doesn’t really have a noteworthy lightsource, what with the moon so dim, but with all those apertures in the ceiling some serious atmosphere could have been injected via shadow and radiant light combinations to accent the strong hotspot work. Personally I felt the blue lights in the lower section of the 100 shield room and the upper section of the UDamage room could have been somewhat paler, but that’s a distinctly subjective call. It would also be safe to say that the skybox was a little disappointing. Featuring a simple static image, it really detracted from the level. No clouds moving slowly, no dynamic lighting, and as I mentioned a minute ago, the moon looking unrealistically dim. One last gripe with the lighting was the light placed at the rocket launcher. It seems pointless in terms of functionality beyond illuminating the rocket launcher pickup. I always feel the lighting should appear to have a point prior to weapons going in. Remember most of the levels we fight in are supposedly converted from other uses (and this one certainly is). My point is, without the rocket launcher there really isn’t a significant need for that light fitting. Forgive my nitpicking, though, as the lighting is certainly very solid and for the most part well executed. The sound work in the level is more disappointing. Only twenty three ambient sound actors grace this level, and most of these have a reasonably small radius. There are a handful of sounds with a wider radius but no effort seems to have been made to blend together an intricate soundscape. To be sure there are requisite spot effects such as dripping water and the like and these instances add a little something. The other thing that bothered me about some of the sounds was that, just like some of the static meshes there was no substantiation of their use. A good example of this is the birds present in some of the ambient sounds. These are in sections where there are more plants, but I don’t see how that logically translates to using birds. So too the wolf sound. There is insufficient support from the skybox or external elements to justify this sound, or indeed the owl sound. I can see where the author is trying to go, but I think he is asking for a few leaps of faith and the overall end effect is more a jumble of random spot sounds than a cohesive and immersive sound experience. A good soundscape involves a lot of work and most authors simply aren’t prepared to do the hard yards for something you can’t see. However the most successful level designers know how integral effective sound design is to emphasising the atmosphere in a map. This author has done some very deliberate things with the sound, and this alone is still very good to see. At least some thought has gone into the design, and there is nowhere within that map that lays silent. Sadly, we have only a stock music track to keep us company, and although it is most probably my favourite from the stock tracks this doesn’t mean it works for the level. A custom tune is always preferable, unless it is horrendously chosen to cut against the theme.
This brings us to game play considerations. In my mind, game play is this level’s strongest point. The level of connectivity, as I mentioned earlier, is fantastic. Both vertical and horizontal movement is afforded ample opportunity. Walls have numerous cutouts disguised as vents or collapsed sections to allow smooth horizontal movement between the three sections. The author has also included numerous dodge ramps as well as elevators and a jump pad for quick vertical movement to supplement the stairs and ramps of the layout. Game play is fast and furious, although when playing offline the bots do seem to spend more time in the central room, with the 50 armour, than either of the other two rooms. This is most likely a result of weapon placement. Whilst physically the locations are sound enough for most weapons (with the exception of the bio rifle which I thought should have been higher), there is a disproportionate allocation of hardware in the central room. The UDamage room holds only the shock rifle, whilst the 100 armour room has a plasma rifle and the flak cannon. Compare this to the central room which features two health pickups, the rocket launcher, the minigun and another plasma rifle with a small room just off to one side having the bio rifle and another two health chargers. You could also count the lightning gun, but really this is in a corridor between the 100 shield room and the 50 shield room. With human opponents who never know when items are about to respawn, it’s more likely that fights will be more spread out as players vie for control of the bigger pickups on the map’s extremities. Bots, on the other hand, know exactly when pickups are due to respawn, and so rarely bother with the two outermost rooms except when a spawning is imminent. The bot use the dodge ramps well and even lift jump, so the author has done well in the pathing. I didn’t see the bots go for the lift jump in the 100 shield room, but then the rewards (a few health vials and a couple of ammo packs) really aren’t worth the effort. In fact that’s true of a couple of the dodge ramps. Some of these the bots aren’t pathed to use, but I can’t see that humans would bother terribly much with them either. Most of the harder (read: higher) dodge ramps which I have never mastered only lead to a handful of health vials and scant else which is really no way to reward skill. Still, for a throwdown, flat out FFA this level works extremely well with liberal doses of z-axis, once again most notably in the two outer rooms where human players will journey far more often than bots.
This is a strong level and it deserves a place on your hard drive. The visuals are pleasant and solid, and game play is of a high standard. The author’s greatest weakness in this level seems to me to be a lack of consistency in theme, be it visually or aurally. With a more uniform selection of things like static meshes and sounds, together with a richer soundscape and perhaps a little more consideration for atmosphere through lighting and sound, I have no doubt this author has the potential to create some truly compelling levels. This one may not be the epitome of FFA, but it does represent a strong example of the game type and can provide significant entertainment offline or on, though with a better overall experience online. Now all that is needed are a few servers willing to add it to their rotation.
Bottom Line: Could well be a keeper for many, and certainly worth the download.
Score: 7.0
Average User Score: 7 (1 scores)
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SkaarjMaster
Score: 7.0
interesting little DM map with really nothing that makes it stand out and nothing to really complain about it either...fun to play.
2006-08-11 08:46:53
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