Underworldfan's Single Player Map Reviews

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## Reviews: 23rd August 2006

SUMMARY
Game - QUAKE
Map - tmqe06_pack: QExpo 2006 Turtlemaps [4 map pack].
by - HeadThump, popacabra, Trinca and Zwiffle.
Download - tmqe06_pack.zip
Overall Verdict - 4 maps made in around 1 week, of varying quality.

FULL REVIEW:
tmqe06_headthump: Bone Pickings
A reasonable medieval theme, although pretty incoherent and messy in places, this is a cramped mediumish sized map which has a highly interconnected if basic layout. Progress is made thru a series of small areas and rooms, which are quite cleverly interconnected in some ways. Gameplay is not too bad, a decent mix of monsters, although monster placement overall is only average. The map varies quite a lot in quality, some areas are significantly better than other, weaker areas, both in terms of map design and gameplay.
It provides a reasonable challenge but in the end the map needed more fine tuning, which obviously wasn't available due to time constraints.
tmqe06_popacabra: Popacabra
This is a decent, medium sized custom base map, the design and layout is quite nice and the theme is quite original, featuring a green/blue lights texturing theme which gives it a reasonably different feel from being just an idBase map.
Gameplay progression is quite good but perhaps to easy due to too much health and armor. Still the progression from grunts and enforcers thru fiends and Hellknights ambushes too shamblers is fun, if predictable. Architecture is quite well built and there are some good lowering walls/lifts and moving platforms. Fun but could have been a bit more challenging.

tmqe06_Trinca: Happy Birthday
This map is a smallish metal custom map, which features basic architecture and texturing. There is not much new or original here apart from a nice star platform early on, just a series of boxy rooms and areas in which horde combat against groups of similar monsters is the main mode of gameplay.
This leads to gameplay being repetitive and unexciting in general. This feeling is compounded by the ending, which is 10 rounds of monsters spawning in, its been used many times before and this style of arena combat is in my opinion boring and over-used, so i didn't enjoy the ending too much. Ammo and health in the ending are at least well judged to give it some merit. Overall, i felt that this map needed more variation and imagination, especially regarding gameplay.
tmqe06_Zwiffle: Better than Trinca's
The best map in the pack in my opinion, this is a well built medium sized medieval level. It has a twisting pathway which must be followed, around stone corridors and rooms, which interconnects well and at different levels. Along this path medieval monsters regularly spawn in, and with the layout and spawning monsters creating a continuous stream of attacks, the map reminded me of a [Kona] layout, albeit on a smaller (turtlemap) scale. This was also the only map in the pack which had decent lighting.
Gameplay and difficulty overall was quite nicely judged, but ammo and health were definitely a bit too generous. If supplies had been tighter this could of been a really finely balanced piece of work, with increased tension and enjoyment. As it stands, its still a fun, well built turtle map.
Overall: This map pack is of an average quality overall, given the short timeframe for making the maps, but only Zwiffle's map really stands out.

Overall Scores:
tmqe06_headthump 11/20
tmqe06_popacabra 12/20
tmqe06_Trinca 9/20
tmqe06_Zwiffle 13/20