This is a very good map. After
playing this, I realized just how good the original
Coagula was, and came to the conclusion that
the Coagula series is my favourite piece of
work by Tim Elek.
The map again takes place in
a black void, ala The Edge Of Oblivion. The
theme has been subtly altered from gray-ancient-Runic
to green-tech-Runic. The lighting uses spotlights
very well, while the texturing is always suitable
and the architecture is not overly detailed,
but for the size of the open area, runs very
well and feels nice and solid. In some places
the lighting is a little too bright, but the
map looks good overall.
Gameplay is very interesting,
with basically monsters able to attack you from
all over the map. The ogres attacking from above
are not annoying, as in some maps - they're
threatening. As in the first Coagula, luring
Fiends to jump into the void is entertaining
and humorous. The Shambler wasn't as effective
as the placement of the rest of the monsters,
but I'm not sure exactly how it would be improved.
Item placement is fair and floating items add
a neat touch to the map - an addition which
the first Coagula didn't have.
There's not a whole lot to
say with this map as it's quite small, except
for three things. First, the theme is very cool
(and is subtly different from the first map).
Second, gameplay is good. Third, looks are good.
The map may not be large, but taken with the
other Coagula map as a collective package, the
two maps are a very relevant moment in Q1SP.
Review
by Tronyn
Tronyn's Score:
84
After Elek's excellent Tides
of War, this looks to me like it was completely
rushed out. It's nowhere near as good as Coagula,
but it did have some good ideas and a nice style.
Unfortunately the architecture was fairly plain
- I would have expected something pretty spectacular
in a small map like this. Even so, the layout
was good as you rotate upwards through some
70 monsters. After hearing that it was quite
difficult I decided to play through in normal,
but I finished it thinking perhaps it wasn't
designed for normal at all, and just for hard
skill. So I went through in hard yet there were
ALL the same monsters and not one extra. It
was a little easy compared to Coagula, but still
a fun little map that will fill in that five
minute gap when you have nothing to do.
