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Another review for the game of Onslaught, and here, we find ourselves on a strange planet that needs certain forms of energy to keep living. The odd plant life found here is one of the main sources of energy. All of this is possible in this Rogelio "Desperado#2" Olguin release, Argento Del Alma (in English, it's "Argent (or silver) of the Soul." Yeah, I know Spanish and can speak it fluently too). This map was originally released with the Community Bonus Pack 2 (Volume 1, specifically), and changes have been made since the previous release to make it into a stand-alone, hence the map I'm reviewing. Olguin makes the map to hold 8-12 players, and seeing as there's a lot of space to run around, I think even 16 could go in here (but I've been wrong before). But no fewer than 8 should go in here. (You can get the CBP2 pack, by the way, right here.)
One thing you'll notice here is that there are no flying vehicles around (in other words, Raptors and Mantas are completely absent from the picture). Your only choices of transportation are the ground types: Scorpions, HellBenders, and Goliaths. There are plenty of these at each PowerCore, along with several laser turrets. Navigation may be a bit better if the flying vehicles were around (I'm sure that maybe Desp aimed to make it a challenge for ONS players here), but at least everyone knows what they're doin'. Which, of course, brings me to the bot intelligence. They were quite adept at maneuvering, both on foot and in vehicle, but more so in vehicle. They were great at putting their powernodes together (that is, they had their link guns, secondary fire, ready), and in most cases, were able to avert disaster by destroying the enemy powernodes that made their cores vulnerable. -I know this because I was close to destroying the red PowerCore a few times but I got picked off and the disasters were averted!- Of course, they were good with their usual weapon skill. Their only flaw was that they may not have explored the middle areas all that much, but I think that may be all. Everything they needed to do - they did. That's what counts. This should be a fun map online, I imagine. The skybox is quite something, I think - great mixture of dark clouds, planets, stars, moons, and the like. And the sky is slowly rotating (unless I'm dizzy or something). You also gotta like the dust flying around near the top of the map. Great way to support the theme of an odd planet, but it also brings me to the ever-important lighting. The skybox does fit what the lighting does, and what the lighting does is make things a bit dark in plenty of spots in this map. Seems like the darkness can only be spurred by the color of the clouds, and the sources of light you see are the strange light-bulb plants, as well as some torch-fire, industrial complex lights, and standing lanterns (almost like street lights to me). The sources do feature some good lens flare usage, and the lighting they give off is decent; decent enough that it doesn't leave you in the dark (literally) 100% of the time. The darkness is my main gripe with the lighting, but I should say that the lighting was very effective and well-done otherwise. (Lighting was the major difference between this map and the CBP2 version, for the CBP2 version, as I'm sure many of you know, had the blinding sunlight that a handful of gamers had griped about, since it hurt overall navigation some. Well, there's none of that to worry about now, of course.) The map's flow is decent, though the terrain may not make it so for slower-end computers. Still, with just land to go around and not a lot of detail thrown into one given area, this map shouldn't be too bad to play, as framerates should remain on the high side.
Architecture, as you'd expect, is particularly well-constructed. As you'd expect in an ONS map (well, would you expect it or not?), terrain is the star player here. None of that jagged stuff either (ol' Rogelio ain't no n00b, trust me!) - nice, smoothly-sloped (did I make that one up?) grounds, great rocky cliffs, and well-shaped boulders do wonders for the atmosphere. A couple of industrial structures also lie within this strange atmosphere, and they're constructed pretty nicely, with curved walls and tops. The platforms that the vehicles and turrets lie on are ok as well, with ramp usage well in tact. The powernode stations look good too. Good job on the architecture overall, in short. Texturing also gives you an example of why the map's theme is what it is. You'll be treading on sandy/rocky grounds while you see steel and concrete structures in a few spots, all complimenting the rocky ruggedness of the boulders and cliffs that surround you. Great usage of fire in this map as well! Don't forget the banners that signify the team ownership at each core, and signify it well! I've just about touched base with all the textures used here, and I can gladly say that no clashing was found anywhere that I looked. As for the items, what you're dealing with here is, in one word: lockers! Plenty of weapon lockers lurk at each core and node (in fact, they're all that's here), and they are very useful in this type of game. Make sure you stock up well before trudging to another node or even the core! There's also a Big Keg O Health waiting in a middle-of-nowhere area of this map, and bots don't seem to grab it all that much, so this is your chance to make a statement for yourself, gameplay-wise. There were a few sounds here; particularly speaking, the roaring of the fire near the top, as well as a few wind sounds, fittingly enough. Music track here....uh, either it was default or it was included in the bonus packs (I wasn't able to keep track here but I don't know if I had previously heard it), but the point is that it sits well with the eerie planet theme. And in regards to the ol' map strategy, I pointed out a couple of items during my discussion of the items, but also, be prepared when you try to establish a node near the enemy powercore because the enemy will be well alert on that note. I kid you not. Make sure your teammates are following your example here.
Great stuff overall, but not-yet-perfect gameplay (including the lack of flying vehicles) and the darkness of the lighting (that probably makes no sense whatsoever) bring down the quality some. But not a whole lot, really. You can check out Desp's website over here.
Bottom Line: Long story short, it's good if you like Onslaught. Download this map.
Score: 7.0
Average User Score: 6.7 (4 scores)
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DM-Darkspire
Score: 6.5
While he was updating the visuals he could have gone further and made some gameplay improvements. Like more node protection from tanks.
I love that skybox though, 1whole point for that :D
Better than the CBP2 version imo.
2004-10-27 03:47:17
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SkaarjMaster
Score: 6.0
crazy wide-open desert, needs more details, actually a little too wide-open, where are the flying things? Scored night and day versions the same.
2004-10-09 11:40:00
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T2A`
Score: 7.0
Damn, is everyone gonna rerelease their maps from CBP2? They might as well do another formal release that overwrites all the previous ones so we won't need two versions of 40 maps to play online. :D
Cool night scenery but too damn dark (for me)!
2004-10-06 19:21:55
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Olister
Score: 7.5
I like the night theme, looks great. Not much else to say really.
2004-10-06 15:16:38
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