[ Reviewed by eXodus ]

 

Before I played this level, it had been a while since I had sat down and enjoyed a good Quake2 map. That said, I must say it was a lot of fun to play through the latest entry in the Mel Soaring series from Shaun "Kona" Ross, one of the more prolific single-player mappers in the community today.

The Mel Soaring series has been around a while, since the original one entitled Hear Me Roar. Since then, we've seen one HL level, one classic Quake level, and with this latest one, a trilogy of Q2 levels make up the full complement of MS maps.

 

In Ancient Rigby, Mel has been living peacefully on his own for a while until he detects some Strogg assembling a force at a nearby moon. It's off to this site to end the Strogg threat and clear out Rigby, the castle that the map is set in.

 

Kona's mapping skill is evident from the moment you touch down in the first map (Ancient Rigby was originally one continuous level, but due to compiling errors, it has to be split into 2 parts). Nearly all of the textures in the map come from a source other than Q2, such as Hexen2 or maybe a little classic Quake. The visuals are top-notch, and the architecture and starry night sky compliment the new textures very well. I really like Shaun's ability to make environments that are well-suited for some good Strogg bashing, but still different enough from standard Quake2 to make the level interesting and aesthetically pleasing.

 

Gameplay is relatively simple and straightforward in Ancient Rigby, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun! On the contrary, this map was actually quite fun (not frustrating at all) and provided a good dose of that classic Q2 action. If you're an SPQ2 veteran like me, this level won't take you long to complete. The map is very linear and there are minimal other objectives besides fragging everything in sight.

 

The only problem that detracted from my enjoyment were some really bad HOM (Hall of Mirrors) effects. They seemed to plague the map in more than a few spots, probably due to the way the levels were constructed. The first trouble spot is also only one room into the first map...

 

Nevertheless, if you can stand a few visual quirks now and then, by all means pick up this map and enjoy it. Shaun has told me this could possibly be his last map for Q2, so if you've enjoyed them as much as I have, please write up a little something and mail it off to him saying thanks for his hard work. Good job, Kona!