Kona releases his fourth Q1SP,
and it is a mixed bag. And I've got a lot to
say about it.
First I'll discuss the looks.
They're quite original, a cross between brown
medieval and blue medieval, but, for some reason,
the map doesn't have much sense of atmosphere
- almost all blue maps with the exception of
the IKBlue ones (which have their own atmosphere)
have an excellent 'Wizard' or E2 feel. Unfortunately,
Grisly Manifest lacks this atmosphere that is
a trademark of most blue maps.
Another thing, the map is called
a Castle, only it isn't really a Castle. But,
I guess Charmhood was called a Cathedral and
it wasn't really that either. Ah well. Back
to the looks; they are original, atmosphere
lacks however; and further on the bad side,
they are quite dark and plain. However, I suspect
that the looks had to be rather plain in order
to make a map that is this big!
The one exception to the generally
plain looks was the upper brown levels, with
the 'imp head' trim outlining angular walls.
Not very detailed, still, but it did look quite
cool. Overall, the looks were interesting in
areas, but below average.
Now on to the map's size and
layout. What a massive map! This is one of the
larger Q1SPs I've seen, and Kona has built an
excellent, interconnective layout as usual.
This has a downside, however - it is probably
possible to get lost since most areas look quite
similar. I didn't, however. The upside is that
the interconnectivity helps out the gameplay,
returning to old areas through new doors, every
locked door is explored, the layout is very
complex without bogging down the player wandering
around trying to find which door he just opened.
Somehow the path to go from place to place was
always clear, despite this interweaving layout.
As well, the great layout adds to the looks,
and the general sense, as a mapper, of 'Wow,
I'm back here now!?' was quite high in this
map. Especially when the final gatehouse connected
back to the main Castle area! How the hell did
*that* happen!
So, a really big map, with
an excellent layout.
And finally, the gameplay.
Lots of new monsters here -nailgun Ogres who
lunge like Fiends, the Snakeman from Kona's
earlier maps, Axemen and Knights from Coven
of Ebony, Centroids from Scourge of Armagon,
and probably more that I forgot to mention.
Some of these were great additions, the new
Ogres were well used and fun to battle, while
I'm sure he speeded up the Axemen - now another
melee monster nearly as dangerous as a Fiend!
However the 'Boss Hell Knight' from Egyptian
Myth was annoying to fight, he took way too
many hits and barely even got off a shot or
two at me. With the huge amount of monsters
and tougher ones, it looks like Kona did what
I was trying to do with Coven Of Ebony, only
more successfully.
Besides the new guys, there's
your basic Knights, Hell Knights, Scrags, Fiends,
and of course, lots of Shamblers and Vores.
And I mean lots of Shamblers! In some cases,
*hordes* of Shamblers! This has a downside as
it really downplays the 'horrific' element that
Shamblers have - traditionally it has been a
single Shambler surprising you with that roar
when you're low on supplies - e1m5 being a good
example. However it isn't that bad, slicing
through fiends, shamblers and vores results
in a doom-like 'I am God' slaughter fest where
you just burn your way through the map's 132
enemies (I killed 'em all) like they aren't
there. Well that's not really accurate, as the
map can get quite hard in some areas. About
2/3 the way through the map there's an area
with two shamblers that was difficult, and the
end was incredible. LTH's last, Exodus, had
a nasty surprise at the end, but this map puts
that to shame. First you walk into a dark corridor
after slaughtering an army of baddies, and I
expected that to be the exit. So, smiling, I
grabbed all the ammunition in sight and blasted
the hell out of the 'final' army. However, that
wasn't the exit - it led outdoors and there
were more Shamblers there! (which were fun to
fight after I just wasted all of my ammo). So
after them was a gatehouse, which I expected
to be the exit. It wasn't - it was a trap with
*more* shamblers and a hell knight boss. So
I killed *them*, expecting THEN to find the
exit. Only then the entire wall opened up and
three more Shamblers and a Vore teleported in!
Then I found that this gatehouse exit connected
back to the main castle (wow!) and THEN the
exit was there.
I've heard complaining that
there aren't enough supplies in this map, well,
some areas get a bit tight but overall there
are enough supplies. However, the Snakeman and
the Centroid monsters most definately look out
of place. Both of these belong in desert or
base environments, I don't know what the hell
they are doing in a cold dark castle place.
They detracted from the atmosphere severely
(if there was a whole lot to begin with!).
So, overall:
Looks: original + somewhat interesting, however,
plain, dark (a bad dark), and lack atmosphere.
Size + Layout: Massive size and excellent layout,
one of the best I've seen.
Gameplay: The best way to judge a map. Did I
enjoy playing this map? You bet. It was a tough
challenge, 20 minutes with 130 monsters, and
it's a definate keeper. Do I reccommend it?
Damned right I do.
Damn, this was a long review.
Heh, don't expect this as a precedent for further
reviews after this, though. Kona's best overall,
I think, is still Egyptian Myth, which I gave
an 86, and which had a great layout and excellent
original looks (and the Snakeman actually looked
in-place) as well. However, this map, despite
its shortcomings, was simply more fun - so I'm
going to score it higher, even though Alk07
is overall a better map. Confused? Ah well.
