Underworldfan's Single Player Map Reviews

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## Reviews: 26th January 2003

SUMMARY
Game - CUBE
Maps - sm07: Speedmap 7 (3 maps)
by - Pushplay/Sirlivealot/Spentron
Download - sm07.zip
Overall Verdict - collection of 3 speed maps.

FULL REVIEW:
Overview:
"Speed maps" are maps built in a limited amount of time (eg 100 minutes), and the theme for this pack seems to be "hell"-type environments.

Map 1 - sm07_pushplay: When I'm God, everyone dies.
Aside from a funny and very clever name, this map offers interesting architecture, basically red/pink metal type textures, with some interesting fluorescent lighting fittings and some reasonably intricate and cool ceiling/roof structures (see the two screenshots, above). There is also an interesting and unusual uneven floor section in one part of the map which adds considerably to the difficulty of moving around to avoid monsters.
Its not a particularly big map, but one packed with enemies, 116 in total. Be warned if you don't like hellpigs you might not like this level! The vast majority of the monsters (maybe around 100) are hellpigs, and they come at the player from everywhere; above, below and all sides, the map could perhaps be described as one long *hellpig ambush*.
Mixed in with the pigs, are a few rhinos and Bauuls; the latter are well-placed in strategic positions throughout the map to surprise you and this adds to the tension of playing the level. In common with other recent pushplay speedmaps, health supplies are tight (but fair), again adding to the tension and challenge on offer. As such this is a reasonably hard map but that's why the cube skill levels are there, overall good, challenging cube maps are definitely the way forward.
Overall, gameplay is maybe *slightly* repetitive (possibly too many of the one type of monster), but this is still a well-built, challenging level.

Map 2 - sm07_sirlivealot: Taking down the Dark Lord
A medium sized map which starts overground in a garden, moves through a house with the now trademark sir livealot furniture detailing and then falls down a (very) long shaft to reach two large underground arenas packed with monsters. Architecture is basic and functional, nothing special but it does the job. The color scheme is somewhat bland compared to sir livealot's normal (high) standards, but its ok.
This is a significantly easier map than Pushplay's, mainly due to less enemies (59) and a more abundant supply of ammo. In particular at the end of the map a giant slaughter of enemies is made much simpler by the addition of both the chaingun and the Quad power-up; it might have been more challenging without the Quad, but it does make for a fun ending to this neat little map.

Map 3 - sm07_spentron: My computer is Hell, This is just a Map
Another reasonably small and straighforward map, again the red "hell" texturing is prominent. The level is basically one huge room with a pit in the middle which the player initially falls down into. The large size of the main room may cause some slight frame-rate issues for people with older machines, but if nothing else it shows the cube engine is good at handling large open spaces.
There is a decent mix of enemies but the small number in total (28) means the map is not too difficult. Once the inital onslaught of monsters is dealt with, the rest can be picked off relatively easy given the decent supplies of both ammo and health.
The only really tricky bit is at the start when the monsters can fall down into the pit from the room above and surprise the player. Fun gameplay overall but a bit short and easy.

Overall Scores:
sm07_pushplay: 17/20
sm07_sirlivealot: 14/20
sm07_spentron: 13/20
Overall speedmap 7 pack: 14/20