sm197_ionous - for art and gameplay - 5/5

Some of these are surprisingly detailed, for only having six textures maximum. I particularly liked Pinchy's level; some parts made me think of subway stations or shopping malls, which only made it more surreal.

Ionous' map is a good reminder that one doesn't have to use all textures at once to produce good visuals. Can't help but remember those very fashionable alternating wood types on stairs, because what decaying medieval fortress wouldn't have that.

Pinchy's map is probably the prettiest while retaining the simplicity. Very nice colors.

Artistical's seemed like something very special, but ends up a mess as you jump and fall and teleport around, getting most of the messages out of order. There doesn't seem to be a very clear route to get the whole stream of consciousness in a semi-coherent manner, although maybe the whole point was to portray a shattering mind of a dimensional traveler. Also, you can slip through the cracks and into the lava, which was clearly not intended, because for the most part it's not even real.

Interesting pack of speedmaps. All played on skill 2.

Artistical: had a hard time to find a custom engine where it worked. Some simply crashed and closed on their own when trying to load it. This is some kind of enviromental/puzzle/narrative map, it is hard to tag it. It is interesting and well done for the most part, but would have been a lot better if it were half as long as it becomes repetitive. On the brown part the lighting creates some issues, and on the blue part the cluess to guide the player stop appearing and at some point it seems that there is nowhere else to go. Also it requiring bsp2 was quite pointless.

Fairweather: Was a good way to make a map with pretty much one texture and lot of good use of verticality and modules. Solid combats even if one or two are a bit bland. Has some issues of not being clear where to go next at the very end. The last enemy was interesting.

Greenwood: This one was evil, in the good sense, so do not let the first impression stay away from it. It was a quite novel idea and well done, even if rough..

Ionous: quite solid in looks, but it is nothing special, like a high budget game, even more considering how short it is. Could be the introduction of a normal release.

Jcr: it has some quite interesting ideas and solid gameplay, but it is a bit frustrating on skill 2 on the first room.

Pinchy: Quite original, in both use of textures, layout, and brushwork. Has some issues with ammo and combats on the very beginning, depending on the order of the paths taken.

Saila: after the introduction it seems that could be like Ionous', but it has more personality and thought behind. Good narrative too. Still, like Ionous' it seems that it could have less work on brushwork to focus on offering more to the players.

Ww: quite suprising and has nice and uncommon ideas on solid brushwork and combats, but there is too little room to move around for the first half, making the experience a bit frustrating. The player can be found without ammo too depending on how he moves. I am hoping that the laser is intended to be for the enemies.