This map is the companion piece to Animal Tusk, the first map author Kona created using Q3Radiant, and is a definite improvement over the first one. It is slightly larger than Tusk, giving players more elbow room for running-n-gunning. It also uses the same theme as Tusk, which isn't a bad thing if you ask me because I see Kona's first map as a flexing exercise and this one as more or less the real thing.

 

The setting is (in my interpretation) a kind of futuristic zoo pen for some large, presumably predatory, space critter. The stone has a very organic feel to it, textured in nice greens with a spattering of brown here there, sort of like moss has moved in and taken over. Pointy minarets adorn the many pillars jutting out of the map's floor, also adding to that ineffable organic feel. I really groove on this map's appearance. The name alone builds up a kind of sub-liminal impression that is amplified once you get into the map itself. Normally, Quake authors give their maps pretentious sounding names that accomplish nothing more than to make me scratch my head and wonder if the MDMA they dropped was pure or not. This is one of the few instances where the name works for the map and actually adds to its ambiance. Weird, I know, but that's the impression I get.

 

Connectivity is much better in Bone than in Tusk. The gameflow is 90% there with the exception of the stair zone. Kona seems to have trouble with stairs, and in Bone the alcove they are built in really puts a kink into the flow. Off the main arena is a wicked looking u-shaped tunnel that takes you to the rocket launcher. Again the presence of stairs at one end of the tunnel breaks the rhythm but otherwise the tunnel is one of my favorite features - it's good fun camping in the tunnel mouth with a rocket launcher and fragging hapless bots and players while they duke it out in the arena. At the backside of the map is a small atrium that plays host to the Haste powerup. This area acts like a bot magnet and the gameplay gets quite frantic rapidly.

 

Textures are well done and create a palpable atmosphere. There is only one part of the map that looks like either the texture is missing/broken or the lighting on it is way FUBAR. If you look at the second screenshot up above you can see a black patch along the right side just after the rocks. That's what I'm talking about. (FYI the second screenshot comes from the atrium I mentioned a few sentences ago.) As with Tusk, the lighting is ho-hum - both it and the sky don't add to the atmosphere as much as they should, but that's a minor quibble at best.

 

Overall, I love playing this map. It, like Tusk, really grows on you after a while. It's certainly not a perfect map (the sky plane is way too low, for instance), but it has a ton of character and that counts for a lot. Get this map while you can, play it and enjoy and by all means encourage the author to do more!

 

Score: 3/5