This is my favourite map of
the Lietenant's so far. Not only are his maps
continually improving in technical quality and
size, but I am not a big fan of base styled
maps, of which both of his previous maps were.
Cruel Intentions (I have no idea why it was
titled that) is built up in a Moonlite Assault
(Tyrann's classic Q1SP Castle) style, with a
few new touches, and is done quite well.
Blue stone floors and white
walls are the theme here, with some big outdoor
areas and some smaller indoor and outdoor areas
too (most of the map is some way or another,
outside). Detail was lacking, but some areas
did look very cool (the start area and the square
tower area, for instance). I thought in some
of the courtyards an uneven grass surface, ie
Drakopf, would have been better than the flat
stone floors. I know that with the size of the
areas some more detail may have dragged the
framerate on slower systems, but I don't care.
This map looks good, but it could have looked
awesome.
The layout is good too, though
there are some long hallways which can get a
little bland. However, all in all it's very
interconnective, much more so than the previous
LTH maps, and you continually work your way
upward. Gameplay is quite difficult when you
have Ogres bombarding you from positions high
above, then slows down a little when / if you
killed them (I changed my FOV and 'sniped' them
with my shotgun), then got a bit tougher as
you moved up, then surprisingly ended without
too much of a challenge. The new crossbow knights
had a cool introuction - just arrows / bolts
being shot at you from above without seeing
what was shooting it - though their sounds were
a bit annoying (sounds like a tarbaby), and
a new skin would have helped. Some areas were
particularly tough, this however can be avoided
if you don't kill monsters you aren't 'supposed'
to. However I decided to kill all the Ogres
that were far away that I could, and paid the
price by having to Axe a Knight horde to death.
All in all, this is a good
map and another improvement for the Lieutenant.
Review
by Tronyn
Tronyn's Score:
78
It is interesting how Lieutenant's
maps keep getting better. Which is why I think
it's a bad idea that you need to play them all
over again to collect ammo for the latest release.
I deleted the debut long ago, so I had to just
play through Lthsp2 again to get some ammo for
this latest map. But that still wasn't enough.
And then you get these Ogres who give you two
options - use up all your ammo in sniping them
using non-sniper weapons (tedious). Therefore
as soon as your finished you've run out of ammo
and have nothing but your axe to kill the next
dozen monsters with. *[Kona] Quits* OR you can
play the entire level putting up with the constant
random explosions around you until you're FINALLY
given the GL at the end of the map to take them
out. About 3/4 through I just got sick of reloading
and trying to fight without a frickin' exploding
on my head, and put on god mode.
There were new Knights, which
I absolutely hated. It's a nice idea, though
I don't think if fit in very well with the castle
theme. I always thought of Robin Hood being
in a forest. Also they were very good at hitting
you, which didn't make them very fun to fight.
However the design was good,
this time seeing an excellent vertical layout
(ruined by Ogres). Design was solid and reminded
me of Moonlight Assault and was only plain in
a few areas (as opposed to the previous maps).
Overall a great improvement
in design, but a gameplay disaster just due
to some small issues.
