Tyrs Arena 9
Content - Quake2 - Quake2 Levels - Quake2 Multiplayer |
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Author: Ran | Rating: 6.34 | Download: dm9ran.zip
According to the Tyrs Arena 9 readme, it’s designed for duels and smaller free for all fragging festivals, but I don’t quite catch that feel. Granted I tested this with bots, but it doesn’t feel like it’d suit a 1 on 1 match in the least. I found myself wandering around just trying to find the stupid bot numerous times because the map is just way too big for a duel in my opinion. Even when I went up to having 4 bots in there, it still felt pretty roomy. Not that this is really a bad thing, its just that the figures are a bit off here, and I can’t imagine this making a good map for a duel. Weapons are spread fair distances apart, along with all the other items. The health in the map felt kind of scattered like it was thrown in there as a last thought. Weapons and armor felt like they were placed appropriately for a duel, but like I said you probably won’t want to duel with someone on this map.
As far as how the map itself plays, it runs really smooth and has slick connectivity if you know how to strafe jump. If you’re not so hot with trick jumping, this map could get frustrating as there are a couple gaps that you can’t clear with a normal jump, like to get the armor up top. You have to strafe jump for that and I could only reach it from the air tunnel side. The mega health requires some decent strafe jumping skills and is probably the most difficult item in the map to reach. When it comes to connectivity though, the map moves pretty smoothly. There aren’t any dead ends to send you back tracking, and there are multiple tiers to fire down upon your enemy from. If you’re jumping for the armor, you’re an easy rail victim from the bottom floor, so you’re always vulnerable. One thing I didn’t like is if you play with a higher number of people you’ll find yourself running around with the blaster more than you’d like to, and I absolutely despise having to use my blaster.
When it comes to looks this map’s not exactly a beauty either. The room with all the pictures of people, I assume from the [+30] clan, just looks completely silly and draws from the overall feel from the map. Then the lighting of the map bugged me quite a bit too, and that rarely happens. In quite a few of the rooms, only half the room has lights. Take the main room for instance, one side is lit up like a Christmas tree while the other side barely has any lights. You’ll notice this in quite a few other rooms also. My only assumption is the author was trying for some moody lighting effects, but it came out looking like he hasn’t finished the lighting. The textures are nothing out of the ordinary either. Hope you like the same brownish colors you’ve been seeing for quite awhile, because you’re getting more of it here.
Overall Tyrs Arena 9 plays alright, it’s just nothing special. You won’t load it and go, “Oh My!” you’ll just load it and frag away. It’s fun for a quite a few rounds no doubt, but nothing that will leave a lasting impression that brings you back for more. Grab and try it, you just might dig it.
- f4nt
