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DM-CBP2-KroujKran (UT2004)
Map Author: Desperado#2 & Hourences
Download Here! (194.33 MB)
Date Reviewed: 12 October 2004
Reviewer: Homeslice
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And the CBP2 madness continues! This time we have Krouj Kran, which is an abandoned Skaarj facility which was strangely, according to the in-game description, left untouched (and thus, not destroyed) while other Skaarj habitats have been decimated. Eventually, this old research lab became an arena for Deathmatch Tournaments. It should suit 2-6 players fine, but 4 is probably the fewest you'd wanna play with if you want a tourney match. Rogelio "Desperado#2" Olguin pumps out yet another Community Bonus Pack 2 release (this particular map is from Volume 2), and this time he's brought along Sjoerd "Hourences" De Jong for the ride.
First off, of course, would be the architecture of the map. Plenty good to see here in terms of that. The walls aren't actually curving and twisting around hallways, but on them, there's lots of construction and light fixtures bearing down in slanted fashion, and looking really good too. Some of the other walls do curve near the lifts and other corridors, which is good stuff. Much of the curvature in the map comes from the ceiling, with lots of what looks like scaffolding, pipework and lightwork. Nice visuals there! Ramp usage isn't unnoticed here either, and it's carried out very nicely and smoothly, so props to the authors for that. The lifts also look well-built. In short, architecture was nothing short of impressive. The lighting is what I feel might be the strongest aspect of the map. By this, I mean that there's so much to see with it - especially with the colors too: lots of green and yellow, plus some white, and quite a bit of blue, litters the place, and in fine fashion, too. The blue comes from the skybox outside (looks kinda plain outdoors but it's effective, and the sun looks great too!), and it fades into the indoors with some great shadow detail on the floors and ramps! Gotta love it! As for the green, white, and yellow, where they can be found, is no question: the light fixtures on the ceilings and walls, virtually everywhere. They all supply some great color to the map, with not one spot getting too much of it. The lights all come attached with some cool lens flares, and they help the visual aspects of the lighting here signficantly. I don't think I can say much else about all this because I think, in addition to what I've said, the pictures in this review can speak for themselves too. Great job on the lighting overall, and why not? Flow is decent, but at times, during the heat of the battle, framerates can get a bit on the low side. But to be fair, the visuals don't hurt it too much, so any machine that can handle the game that is UT2004 should be able to withstand this map. Now, the items. Again, there's some pretty basic patterns in this department. You'll find Health Packs against the walls, Health Vials and Adrenaline in corridors or along ramps, and assorted weapons in the middle of floors. The Lightning Gun is conveniently placed on a platform that you gotta double-jump to (ah, don't you love getting to do such a thing?), and a Super Shield Pack can be found on a small watery segment of a lower floor. Ammo is typically found alongside their weapons, or in mixed assortments in other spots along walls. Good placement overall, with no overloads present either.
Now, the bot intelligence, which is ever-so-important in any map. They seem to find their way around just fine. They'll grab and use their weapons well, get onto the lifts, all the like. They might've gotten stuck a couple of times but it doesn't destroy the quality of the match. Really, they did great otherwise. This is definitely one you'll wanna try online as well. Moving on, we have the textures. Steel is the main feature here, of course. In what forms? Well, just about anything....floors, walls, ceilings, trim and construction, ramps, you name it. It's all there. Good choices for different surfaces too - tiles on the floors, ramps that look to be somewhat fenced (and some of that texture was also used on some ceilings), and some rust on the walls. Some of the walls also have a bit of concrete making them, and there are a few floor panels made of glass, which lets you see some machinery below. Then of course, the lights - nice-looking textures there, and they sit well with the atmosphere. Lots of steam effects exist too, and I liked the reflecting of the watery grounds as well. All told, texturing is nicely chosen and planned out, and even in some of the tricky areas to align (such as the curved ceilings), I found no misalignment issues. Great work! Now, the sounds. You'll hear a considerable amount of 'em here, including many steam sounds, plus some other machinery noises, and of course, some lift sounds. Always important there. Music here is KVision, which was an old music track from back in the Unreal 1 days. The boys converted it to an .ogg format, and it fits the atmosphere pretty decently, actually. And in regards to the ol' map strategy, just do what should usually be done in a DM map - that is, grab any good weapon, grab more than your share of Adrenaline and Health, and stalk your victims! Since there's a Lightning Gun here, you might consider sniping a little bit also. You can go visit Desp's website here, and as for Hourences, you'll have to go over here.
Bottom Line: It's visually stunning, and the gameplay actually matches it too! This is definitely one you want to keep on your hard drive for sure!
Score: 8.5
Average User Score: 7.9 (7 scores)
(marking schema)
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Desperado#2
I never thank you for the review here so Here goes. Thanks I enjoyed the review :)
2005-08-24 12:31:39
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Ghost
Score: 8.5
great viisuals, stuning gameplay, one bad thing: it doent remind me AT ALL of unreal1's architecture...i'd give this an 8.5, sould be a ten if there was just a few ported textures :)
2004-12-08 11:43:19
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Virax
Score: 8.5
I LOVE the atmosphere, and the gameplay is definitely above average. There are a few snaggy bits, but nothing too bad.
2004-10-13 21:50:02
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Olister
Score: 7.5
Good flow, nice futuristic style, which is better than usual industrial maps. Fun map
2004-10-13 13:27:31
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Alib2001uk
Score: 7.5
As usual this map is of a decent CBP quality =)
@ Turns2Ashes: Pretty l773? ;)
2004-10-13 12:22:17
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NOTINTHEFACE
Score: 8.0
Wow, this level blew me away, except for one thing: weapons placement. If all the players have either the minigun or the rocket launcher, it's a bad thing. The shock rifle and the bio-rifle should trade places, the minigun should be somewhere else entirely. Just those two things would make a world of difference. But other than that, this is a whopper, grab it!
2004-10-13 12:14:38
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T2A`
Score: 8.0
Wish I had a more constructive comment, but I don't. ;)
It's pretty 1773.
2004-10-12 18:56:39
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SkaarjMaster
Score: 7.5
great AVA, I especially liked the use of green, layout could be a little better.
2004-10-12 15:03:04
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