A mad hard level by someone with mad talents;
but don't get all worked up yet, talent doesn't
necessarily translate to an awesome level, as
we see here, Mel Soaring still needs some tuning.
The visuals, and potential gameplay displayed
here show that Shaun Ross will create some great
maps in the future should he continue to edit,
which I sincerely hope he will do. Mel Soaring
is an extremely unique display that's hard to
categorize under any genre of level; it's half
base-style (a weird, but nice looking base at
that), and half rocky outdoors. The connecting
between the two types are fantastic, and the
brightness level was done perfectly for atmosphere
without being too dark. Mel Soaring quickly
reminded me of a top-of-its-class level recently
released, Small Pile of Gibs, but unfortunately
all that's justified to be compared is the great
mix of indoor/outdoor and the perfect brightness
level.
Mel Soaring is far from being a flawless level;
in its current form, it's a bit messy in fact.
While the visuals were well-done in general,
they formed no detectable theme. The design
of the base quickly changed from almost temple-like
textures, to the traditional crate-filled experience.
I also felt the green lighting was a bit too
strong in some areas, and some places had green
lighting with no light sources to be seen! A
lot of different textures were used, and as
a result of these factors, Mel Soaring felt
awkwardly eclectic. Nonetheless, I can't but
help to gawk at some of the great, and very
creative architecturing that's evident from
the screenshots.
The fights and balancing in Mel Soaring is
the same story as the visuals: great ideas implemented,
but a tad messy. For one thing, I think the
author would be better off if he made the current
hard difficulty I played in as skill three.
Mel Soaring requires mad skills, particularily
with the hand grenades, and there was one point
where I must've been forced to kill ten consecutive
enemies with a single health left... of course,
I had to save and load twenty times. If the
fighting was fair and brutal, as it was on a
couple of occasions, then I wouldn't be complaining
so much; but on most occassions, the fighting
was within small areas and with many bad guys
that are very hard to fight in enclosed spaces,
e.g. gunners, parasites.
Layout had its ups and downs as well. I liked
the author's attempts at non-linear-ness, which
were partially successful, but too much backtracking
was required and the whole experience was a
tad confusing. And a big opportunity Shaun missed
is having an underwater aspect to the outdoor
areas, as many great outdoor areas do; instead,
he opted to make the water acid so watch out!
Having a mega background story to set things
up is one thing, following that through with
clear, and well-themed mission objectives is
another. The F1's in here were mostly: find
the blue key, or the commander's head etc. It
had little to do with the great story the author
set himself up with, and what I had to do wasn't
clear enough so there was a bit of confusion.
Mel Soaring is not yet a level that achieves
greatness, but with some more work, I feel the
author could easily reach that standard. For
the time being, I still recommend Mel Soaring
as there can still be some great fun, and the
end fight will bring nostalgia to all you Widening
Gyre buffs out there
