[ Reviewed by: Calyst ] - [ Date: Tuesday,
2nd October, 2001 ]
In a long line of singleplayer Quake I
and II releases comes Satyr, Alk14 for Q2.
Kona's experience keeps growing and it truly
shows here; Satyr packs excellent design
and combat in a new map dressed in medieval,
stone, and wood overtones, including a bit
of IKBASE (likely unknowingly on the author's
part), making the overall visual presentation
one of the most diverse ever seen in a Q1/Q2
map.
The quality of the level design is quite
impressive with the aforementioned styles
meshed with one another in a theme that
may seem trivial at first but truly adding
to the effect of the story. While Quake
maps don't need a story to thread gameplay,
the effort towards explaining the situation
is definitely appreciable. As for routing,
the layout slowly leads through the vertical
component, passing by some impressive architecture
and neat designs (although the level of
complexity is somewhat mid-range), through
a variety of intelligently-placed staircases
and ramps, ending in an arena with just
enough room to make the final fight challenging
but not so much as to make it too easy.
Featured here are 197 enemies, but fortunately
they're not all immediately spawned; only
a fraction of them are, with the majority
of them teleporting in. Most of the Q2 enemies
make at least one appearance but are sorted
out and placed in optimal position so as
to evoke plenty of out-of-seat moments,
keeping combat fresh and consistent. The
intertwined layout lends itself to map-crawling,
guaranteeing new suprises in old places,
thus rendering consistent pacing. And the
pacing is fast and furious, starting heavy
and ending even heavier, but still very
feasible on Hard.
Although the lack of good lighting makes
certain fights tricky, Satyr is without
a doubt among Kona's best and most polished
releases all things considered, and is most
definitely recommended.
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