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XYZ 8000 in his Insite profile states that he's Nalicity reviewer and that said I expected more from his map. Of course mapper and reviewer are two different things... kinda. I had my downs as a mapper too and I expected more from myself. Still, UT3 seems to be flooded with a lot of test maps, first maps, etc. After my last review I'll be more dispassionate this time because this map is slightly better.
Parallel is small DM level symmetric along X and Y axes (luckily not along Z as well ;-)). It has one central room and three smaller rooms on both ends. This all is connected with few doors across three floors. Middle floor is the main one, lower one consists of tight corridors ending with lifts or teleports and in corner rooms there are jumppads to upper walkways. Of course you can also use liftjump to get here. This all is executed in a Necris theme, although rooms are really boxy for real and convincing Necris level. You'll hardly see any BSP here because especially walls are covered with Necris wall panels in a really rich manner. I had no problems with performance (because I over-dimensioned my rig for UT3 ;-)) however with many hundreds of thousands of mesh-tris in view you might have some. Lighting is blue and maybe not flat, but still rather boring. Some other colour would help.
What about gameplay? Map is intended for 2-4 players. Even duels are very very intense, because the map is small. You can of course play 6 player massacre here, but in that case I recommend lower AI level. On higher levels bots are very strong here because how small the level is and how many corners it has. Count in some not very precise sound location, skins blending with any environments, fast rockets, omnipotence... this level emphasize many UT3 flaws and gives you little strategy options layout-wise. Luckily, weapons are not symmetric. There is flak down there along with six vials, but I don't recommend togo there unless you know exactly where is your opponent. However with four lifts and four teleports you have plenty of options to run if you have enough time to do so. Middle floor has shock and rockets in opposite rooms. The key here is upper floor really. With 4 health packs, 6 vials, stinger, sniper - and belt... why to bother staying down there? I always jump down only for a second and then I use nearest lift to jump up here and try to control the crowd (or dueller, whatever) from here. It works. It's also another nail adding to levels flatness.
Symmetry, boxy layout, flow limited to upper level. That's the overall feel from the level. Sure it looks detailed - but that's because of UT3's stock assets. Both gameplay and AVA are sub-par although you can experience some dense duel matches here. No real strategy involved though. If you want symmetric level, go for UT2004's DM-1on1-Corvus - and even it can prove that symmetry kills potential. Double symmetry then kills it twice.
Bottom Line: Little Necris level without real strategy, symmetric in both axes. Stay up there, shoot down, time belt, run over vials.
Score: 4.0
Average User Score: (0 scores)
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XYZ 8000
Thanks for the review. I agree with most of it, except for the part of the dominance of the upper level.
Camping (and just staying on the upper level) is very hard in this map, since there lots of ways in and out every room and all the spam weapons (the most effective in this map thanks to the cramped spaces), plus Shock Rifle, with relative ammo are all located in the lower floors, giving players down there very effective attack weapons against minigun and sniper rifle (especially shock combos are very hard to avoid when up there). The shield belt is powerful, but it doesn't last long and it's easy to grab also from the lower floor, while the Health Packs are in a dangerous position perfect for spam weapons attacks.
Thanks anyway. My next map will not be symmetric :)
2008-06-01 04:50:22
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