A Quake2 map, another surprise!
With only about an average of one Q2SP being
released every couple of months, it is great
to see a worthwhile map served up to give us
some Strogg bashing. A new author this time,
which means it's not the best looking map of
the year, but it still provides a little fun.
The standard Q2 textures are
used so we have another unoriginal base map.
Walls are plain in most areas, not a huge amount
of detail, but there are some good looking areas
with buttresses jutting out - just as we expect
with Q2. Crates are aplenty, which at least
gives more visuals for the eye, and to spice
up gameplay a little bit with crates to duck
behind.
The lighting was uninspiring though, with it
all being yellow. Some white or even blue would
have made a very nice contrast. The outdoor
areas look like the only lighting is being cast
from the sky.
Gameplay was good as fight
through mostly Gunners, Infantry and Soldiers.
However they are well positioned to make the
map quite challenging at times due to not an
overload of shells. And the MG and SSG were
not brought into the map for quite a while.
Nearing the end the battle really heated up,
with a medium sized outdoor section with alot
of explodable barrels. After taking out the
Soldiers there is a rocket turret, but if you
run and the rockets miss you, they will probably
be close enough to make most of the barrels
blow up with a great bang, and a number of monsters
a spawned at the same time. A great effect I
have not really seen before.
I was expecting this to be
the final battle, but there were a couple more
bosses still to come. The final fly boss did
not work well at all. He is in a large area
with at the end of a corridor which he cannot
enter. And you may only have the SSG and GL
- definitely not useful weapons for fighting
a boss at long range! There was alot of rockets
and cells spread about, but I never found either
of these weapons (nor any secrets).
Overall, an average looking
level with good tough gameplay. I look forward
to the authors next map.
