This map is the companion piece to Animal
Tusk, the first map author Kona created using
Q3Radiant, and is a definite improvement over
the first one. It is slightly larger than Tusk,
giving players more elbow room for running-n-gunning.
It also uses the same theme as Tusk, which isn't
a bad thing if you ask me because I see Kona's
first map as a flexing exercise and this one
as more or less the real thing.
The setting is (in my interpretation) a kind
of futuristic zoo pen for some large, presumably
predatory, space critter. The stone has a very
organic feel to it, textured in nice greens
with a spattering of brown here there, sort
of like moss has moved in and taken over. Pointy
minarets adorn the many pillars jutting out
of the map's floor, also adding to that ineffable
organic feel. I really groove on this map's
appearance. The name alone builds up a kind
of sub-liminal impression that is amplified
once you get into the map itself. Normally,
Quake authors give their maps pretentious sounding
names that accomplish nothing more than to make
me scratch my head and wonder if the MDMA they
dropped was pure or not. This is one of the
few instances where the name works for the map
and actually adds to its ambiance. Weird, I
know, but that's the impression I get.
Connectivity is much better in Bone than in
Tusk. The gameflow is 90% there with the exception
of the stair zone. Kona seems to have trouble
with stairs, and in Bone the alcove they are
built in really puts a kink into the flow. Off
the main arena is a wicked looking u-shaped
tunnel that takes you to the rocket launcher.
Again the presence of stairs at one end of the
tunnel breaks the rhythm but otherwise the tunnel
is one of my favorite features - it's good fun
camping in the tunnel mouth with a rocket launcher
and fragging hapless bots and players while
they duke it out in the arena. At the backside
of the map is a small atrium that plays host
to the Haste powerup. This area acts like a
bot magnet and the gameplay gets quite frantic
rapidly.
Textures are well done and create a palpable
atmosphere. There is only one part of the map
that looks like either the texture is missing/broken
or the lighting on it is way FUBAR. If you look
at the second screenshot up above you can see
a black patch along the right side just after
the rocks. That's what I'm talking about. (FYI
the second screenshot comes from the atrium
I mentioned a few sentences ago.) As with Tusk,
the lighting is ho-hum - both it and the sky
don't add to the atmosphere as much as they
should, but that's a minor quibble at best.
Overall, I love playing this map. It, like
Tusk, really grows on you after a while. It's
certainly not a perfect map (the sky plane is
way too low, for instance), but it has a ton
of character and that counts for a lot. Get
this map while you can, play it and enjoy and
by all means encourage the author to do more!
