[ Reviewed by: Jay ] - [ Date: Friday,
19th April, 2002 ]
"Oh, Goodie! O Frabjous Day!"
The Resident SPQ2 Fiend claps his furry,
grimy paws together in glee, drool oozing
down his recessive jaw, making unattractive
patterns in the fur of his protruding belly,
before dripping to the floor of his pit...
"Another new map from Kona!" This
does not happen often, and when it does,
it is normally a cause for rejoicing.
And this time is no exception. Kona has
produced another masterpiece for us. Let
The Fiend give away the ending: this one
is Superb, unquestionably.
Oh, yes, Disclosure: - Both The Fiend and
The MetsFan playtested this map. As usual,
Kona's map was pretty much done, and The
Fiend's comments were in the nature of polishing
the gilded lily, not anything more. Nonetheless,
you Beloved Visitors deserve to know this
little fact as you read this and decide
whether or not you want to give this a shot.
Although if you do not, you will definitely
be missing something...
Let's start where The Fiend normally does,
with the visuals and the environment. The
visuals are impressive as only Kona can
do it. The motif is castle, with a theme
similar to what you would find in Classic
Quake, but with Kona's own distinctive touch
- which will not surprise you if you read
the TXT file and see the origin of the map.
The Fiend did not see any visual flaws,
and the whole is very consistent: brooding,
dim without resorting to dark, foreboding,
grim, grimy ... just the sort of place where
The Fiend would feel right at home, as long
as there are plenty of nooks and crannies
where he can scurry off and hide from danger.
Lots of slime and nastiness pooling around.
Lots of stuff to see, and you will get to
see it a lot. Pick any place in the map,
and you will likely get to see it from two,
three, four, or more vantage points and
elevations. When you go outside, as you
will with regularity, the typical Kona sky
lends an air of familiarity to the entire
ambiance (a pretty fancy word for The Fiend,
no?). Progression is linear, but this does
not matter at all, because the path through
the castle winds around, in and out, up
and down, inside and outside, doubling back
on itself, so you will always be seeing
something new. Fascinating in a grimly beautiful
sort of way.
Not
that you will be spending a lot of time
on gazing about as you stroll through the
castle, not if you want to stay alive, that
is. Kona packs about 135 enemies (Medium
Skill) into a single level, which means
you will have your hands full. No high-tech
teleporters here, just excellent placement
of a wide variety of enemies, mostly the
smaller ones up through Tank Commander,
but with a couple of Bosses. Watch out,
a Boss can appear where you might least
expect it to try to toast your behind. Kona
puts on a great show at the end, but does
not necessarily save the appearance of all
the Bosses for the finale. Surprise is the
name of the game, another hallmark of a
Kona level, along with maybe brutality at
the end.
Anything not to like? Well, enemies have
this nasty habit of coming at you from behind,
from supposedly cleared areas, while you
are trying to preserve your skin against
the nasties in front of you, without any
warning. (Yes, The Fiend is reaching here.)
Oh, and the one secret? It is not just nasty,
it is ... darned near impossible for someone
as uncoordinated and clutzy as The Fiend,
a tease to frustrate.
When all is said and done, The Fiend rates
a map by how much fun it is to play, and
how it dazzles, with eye candy as well as
adrenaline from the combat. This map is
indeed Superb. From this standpoint, it
may be Kona's best so far - with more hopefully
to come, many more. Not only Superb, but
even deserving of a medal - a Gold one.
You must give this one a try, and then hurry
to tell Kona how much you liked it.
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