 |
 |
|
|
| |
|
The heat of the ongoing Unreal tournament battles can definitely exhaust any participant, and enough to the point that they may want a cool drink of water to refuel. Right? Well, it's only fitting that their latest arena is a Mexico water treatment facility by the name of Tel Meco Mex. Rogelio "Desperado#2" Olguin brings to us another CBP2 (Volume 1) release, and fittingly so, I might add. The review's download link points to this map as a stand-alone. You can get both volumes of the Community Bonus Pack 2 here. The map has been established for 4-8 players. I just played one with 4, and there might be a bit too much space for that in my view, but it still works (tourney freaks, at least you're saved on that note). I say 6 or 8 is what you should think about doing here.
Let's start on the architecture, can we do that? Lots of rampwork to speak of here, and some are low while others appear a bit steep. But it's good navigating and better than the usual staircase or two. Good work with wall curvature, slanted ceiling height, and window and door structure. There's even a section of a floor that's been torn and bunched up (revealing some dirt and plants), which is a pretty original concept if I ever saw one. Desp was no slouch with shelter structure either, as he used crates, pillars, and the like for shielding purposes. Then of course, don't forget the wiring and pipework that make the water treatment facility what it is. That is, a water treatment facility! Of course. There's even a cool circular lift (that's a real circle, I can see), that even spins IN a circle when you get on it. All told, the architecture is pretty well-carried out. As for the lighting, there are some good things going on here, and it's mostly lens flares - color, size, and variety. Great choice of colors here: lots of blue and white, plus some red and yellow. Pretty much every lens flare is a fitting small size to go with the quality of the light fixtures. There are some big flares outside, which presumably could be sunlight or headlights of some sort. Big, yes they are, but they sit well with the theme. In short, the lens flares do a good job in helping with the lighting and its varied radii. Some decent shadow effects appear in a few areas, and there are a few dark corners in this facility (which I'm not really that fond of). Otherwise, the lighting is very well done overall. Now, when you talk about textures, steel and industry is the name of the game. Plenty of steel covers the floors, pipe and trimwork, plus some walls, doors, and some other sheltered construction (such as crates). There's some glass covering a few ramps (I think that's glass anyway), and there are also a few glass panels (or is that light?) coming from the ceilings. There's also a considerable amount of concrete to go around, mainly on the walls and ceilings. Lot of masked texture usage as well, as it covers many wall panels (is that water I see outside, or is it a sky? Looks cool though), as well as a few sections of the floor, with some light fixtures underneath them. Nice light fixtures to see here as well, and I liked the small red lights that blinked on and off. A good touch. You'll even like the sparks that fly off some busted pipes on a lower floor - they add to the atmosphere nicely. I think I may have covered just about everything here, and every surface was nicely aligned (especially with the slanted fenced window trim - that must've been hard to do!), and the usage of trim around the ramps and floors is very well done. Little bit more on the visuals here - those are some fine-looking glowing jumppads there! Only one, though, was effective for me, I found. The other two I saw, didn't get me anywhere but back to Earth....with some pain. That kinda hurts the gameplay some, but more on that later. The map's flow is decent. Framerates were a bit low upon the start of the match, but once you get used to it, it's no problem from there. Slow-end machine users might still think otherwise, but it really shouldn't be all that bad.
Now, let me touch base with the gameplay, and the main focus of that is, of course, the bots! They seemed to know where to go, pretty much all the time. I don't think I saw them use the circular lift or the jumppads all that much but I am sure they did use them from time to time. They did use the sloped lift at a lower floor often, though, which is good. But of course, they got their weapons, and fragged away the night - even picking a guy off from above at times. Z-Axis is here, that's what I'm sayin'. I think the bots are just no dummies here when it comes to the gameplay in this map. But online, this one should definitely rock the house - or rather, the server! Now, onto the item placement. It's basic in terms of the weapons themselves, as they're aptly placed smack in the middle of floors or platforms. The Sniper Rifle, as you can see in one pic, is found at an upper level, so good luck trying to go up there. Adrenaline is typically found in lines along ramps, more often so than floors, I think. One such line leads to a Super Shield Pack. Health Vials are found in bunches and lying on the ground, which is an interesting visual aspect. There are spots around with mixed bags of ammo, which I also admire (check out the big package of mixed ammo under the short-circuited bashed pipework at ground level!). Good luck trying to reach the Big Keg O Health, because it won't be an easy task. But typically, item placement is pretty well laid-out here. Sound-wise, there's some stuff around to listen to - you can probably hear machinery cranking away, as well as electricity buzzing from the broken pipes, not to mention the ever-essential jumppad and lift sounds. In terms of music used here, Desp made use of a good custom track here, called The Freek (which is included in the ZIP file along with the custom texture and static mesh set). It fits the atmosphere pretty decently IMO. As for map strategy, of course, have a good weapon handy. But get used to navigating with the jumppads too, and if you can get off a few kills with a Sniper Rifle (sniper-style, the way it was meant to be!), you're playing a good game. You can visit Desperado's website here.
Bottom Line: Great visuals here, the gameplay rocks, it's everything you like in a traditional DM map. You've gotta download this map now if you haven't done so yet!
Score: 8.0
Average User Score: 8.1 (4 scores)
(marking schema)
|
|
|
 |
|
|
DM-Darkspire
Score: 9.0
An exellent map.
And just proves to all those stubborn people that think all industrialistic maps are the same.
2004-10-11 02:20:33
|
|
SkaarjMaster
Score: 8.0
interesting industrial-tech map with good mesh work, lots of room to maneuver, nice tune.
2004-10-09 11:40:35
|
|
NOTINTHEFACE
Score: 8.0
This map just rocks with the unexplainable feeling that makes you whoop when you lift-jump up to the Keggohealth, land in a field of gibs you made with a shock combo, and wall jump into perfect position to shove your flak cannon into that skaarj's back!!! Great map here! Just one more reason to download the CBP2.
2004-10-08 16:02:52
|
|
NOTINTHEFACE
This map just rocks with the unexplainable feeling that makes you whoop when you lift-jump up to the Keggohealth, land in a field of gibs you made with a shock combo, and wall jump into perfect position to shove your flak cannon into that skaarj's back!!! Great map here! Just one more reason to download the CBP2.
2004-10-08 16:02:44
|
|
Olister
Score: 7.5
Nice visuals and gameplay, although some areas felt they were scaled a bit too big. Great map nonetheless.
2004-10-06 15:20:07
| |
To add a comment, you need to login.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
