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And every cliff needs a church that has been ravaged and desecrated, apparently. But hey, it always makes for a scenic battlegrounds, don't you think? Especially when you have a dramatic sunset backdrop to accompany it (on that note, a really nice skybox!). DM-1on1-Sargasso, obviously meant for only 2 players (and rightly so, given its smallish size), is a release of said scenario by Miles "Icarus" Wimbrow.
Texturing is pretty top-notch here. There is a lot of concrete, stone-brick and dirt for the purpose of building this church and the decomposing ground inside of it. Differing patterns of bricks make the walls, and old tile floors with dirt (and snow?) covering them show us the "age", so to speak, of this atmosphere. The DespFallenCity textures are a big presence here, as are those from the ever-popular ShaneChurch set, which has been converted for this game and packaged into the ZIP file. It seemed that meshwork also made up a good chunk of the walls. Rough rock textures are what make up the surrounding cliff that overlooks a watery demise. Everything I said accurately describes the textures, which in turn accurately fit the intended theme. I never saw any misalignments either, thus making me give the obligatory extra points on that regard. The architecutre is pretty complex for this small a structure, with archwork being the main character in this cast of shapes and build. Doorways, windows, corridors, you name it, arches are all the rage in each of these places. The exterior of the church looks like it's been constructed carefully with many slow curves and cylinders. Inside, there are a lot of low ceilings, as well as some terrain stemming from the piling dirt/snow. And of course, the cliff would look pretty silly if it weren't jagged, right? Good work there too! The bridges to nowhere (except down, that is) weren't bad either. Great architectural work overall, but what about the items? Nothing to write home about here, but it's not overly simplistic, either. I liked how the health vials in the church's corridors were laid out in a zig-zag fashion. In a word, interesting. At the altar, behind the cross, you'll find the Double Damage artifact, which will prove more than useful in those oh-so-competitive tourney matches. You'll also find some Adrenaline with the Double Damage, so an added advantage in this map is not a myth after all. As for the weapons, it's nothing special - some are inside, and some are outside, all complete with their ammo. Good luck trying to find the Flak Cannon though....ouch. In terms of the overall map performance, it's not so bad, to be honest. The map is scenic but there's not so much detail thrown into one spot, so if you can run this game, you should run this map with hardly any issues.
Lighting was another thing I enjoyed about this map. There is a lot of realistic lighting at every corner. First of all, the lighting from the sky cast through each opening into the church has created some beautiful effects, especially realistic shadows. Shadows were present on the outside too, as the sun is mostly blocked by the large structure that is the map's main combat area. Other sources included small torchlights inside and outside alike. They did a good job with lighting their areas in small, spotty fashion, and had some nice lens flares to match. Really, all said, lighting may well be this map's strongest aspect, and with good reason. In terms of the bots (or just bot, in this case), the behavior was pretty inconsistent. On the one hand, I was facing a considerably fierce opponent, who could frag me if they had their way. But on the other hand, the bot just seemed to be very lost at times. I think it knew to explore most (though not all) areas of the map, but sometimes the bot just seemed to be clueless. At least, that is, until I came back into the picture again. I'd say this map is better suited for online play - and if you're a competitive kind of guy, this is the one for you to try. Moving on, we have the sounds. There wasn't much to listen to here, except for maybe some torch flickering. The music track here was the UT99 classic, the Course, which is included with the ZIP file in all of its .ogg glory. I think it fit the dramatic sunset atmosphere nicely, though I'm not sure I'd have used it for the church theme. But that's just me. As for the map strategy, I think the main focus here is to grab the Double Damage artifact before your opponent can. But you'll wanna search for your foe and fast, because there's oh so much to see in this otherwise-small space.
So in short, it's very scenic and picturesque, but the gameplay is what drags down the tone a bit. But hey, if you prefer online play, then, by all means, disregard the last sentence, yo.
Bottom Line: There is still life in this game, and this map proves why. If you still have this game, I suggest you grab this map now. That is, of course, if you are more into atmosphere.
Score: 7.0
Average User Score: 5.5 (2 scores)
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SkaarjMaster
Score: 5.0
I'm sorry, I can't give this any higher than the score you see me give it. It has nice atmosphere, good music and is rather smallish for a tight 1on1, but there are too many spots to get caught and snag on something, which leaves me at a clear disadvantage to the bot.
2008-05-27 21:46:37
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T2A`
Heh. I didn't even notice the sniper up there... But you CAN reach the flak without the xloc. Hop onto the nearby tree and you can climb your way up.
2008-03-30 01:01:06
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Icarus
Thanks for the review!
I almost decided not to put the flakcannon in the level, given how it would dominate the scene if it were available - both it and the sniper rifle can be reached with the translocater (if anyone plays with it in 1-on-1 anyway).
There were periods in the map's construction when it had multiple levels and more possibility for vertical combat - but it's hard to convincingly fit so much into such a small space. Simplest is best.
2008-03-29 07:42:27
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T2A`
Score: 6.0
Cool atmosphere but the gameplay felt really limited given how flat it is -- the only raised portion is the amp ledge, IIRC. Well, unless you consider the flak, but that thing's so far out of the way it's not even worth going for it.
2008-03-29 02:56:51
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