Lunarun's third Quake3 deathmatch
level comes to us, and it is his best yet.
Coriolis Storm may not have
had the superb gameplay for some, Lets Drink
Beer and Shoot Things had a style and texture
set which soon lost it's shine for me, but A
load of Useless Bloody Loonies has the great
gameplay and great looks to make it a real winner
(except the title).
The map is Doom inspired, using
new textures by Lunarun which are very similar
to the classic game style. A tech-base map with
a bright mountainous scene outside. Details
are rich, with slime barrels and computer consoles
helping to set the theme. The textures are very
good. Although there aren't many of them, it
keeps a consistent theme throughout the map.
Design is A grade quality and very unique.
Gameplay is apparently inspired
by DaPak. Although it doesn't seem that different
to some of the other deathmatch layouts we are
seeing for Quake3, it certainly is well planned
and designed. There are three main areas, the
biggest and best looking with five different
exits spreading in different directions, you
would think would be the central arena. However
it is not, located almost at the edge of the
map. Nevertheless, it still sees a fair amount
of gameplay. The other two rooms are equally
spread across two levels. One has a large spiral
staircase which, although may add some variety
in gameplay, didn't spice it up very much as
you have to be careful not to fall into the
deadly slime at the edge. This area got quite
alot of gameplay, but it wasn't a very big area
and trying to shoot rockets around the stairway
was not so fun. The third main area, with it's
two levels, saw most of the gameplay on the
upper level. But the lower area was actually
quite a large room which could have provided
some good firefights had the bots ventured there
a bit more.
All three areas had twisty
corridors between each other, but teleports
also helped move the game around. Because of
the repetitive corridors and many teleports,
it does take about four games before you really
come to grips with the layout. Despite it being
quite a simple design. Connectivity was good,
which saw gameplay spread throughout most of
the level, with the main arena and stairway
room only seeing a little more action than the
rest. At times, though, you will find yourself
wandering around looking for the thick of battle.
Weapons placement was fine.
However I always seemed to be picking up the
LG and SG. The RL was located across a stream
of slime, in the room of lesser action. So I
never seemed to get it much. While PG was located
in an upper level of the main arena which could
prove quite deadly if your stuck below it and
an enemy picks it up.
The only bot problems were
that they would often get stuck on the single
lift. It is button operated, and uses the Doom
lift sound which was very nostalgic. The bots
just stand there without pressing it. Also the
lift stayed up too long as I would be standing
there waiting for it to come down so I could
pursue a victim, by which time they were long
gone.
Overall, a very nostalgic yet
fantastic design style, pulled together with
good connectivity and mostly even gameplay throughout
the map. The bots didn't have too much trouble
in providing a good game.
