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Wednesday 9th December 1998:

Flee3: "Flee - map 3"
(Size: 880k. No Alternative downloads.)


This is a somewhat unusual map to review as it is actually part of a 3 map pack, with a little altered Quake-C, and a hub based map system. However, this map is available seperately, and is significantly better both in architecture and especially gameplay than the other two maps, so I am recommending this map but not the others. This map has not particular theme or context, and contains both metal and medieval stone like architecture, in a variety of styles, and a variety of base and medieval monsters. However, the author gets away with this as there are no obvious clashes (unlike Knights in a base map, for example) - the lack of an obvious theme actually seems to work in it's favour, though I would prefer a more solid theme for this map, I think. Suffice to say that it is a semi-gothic bastion of sorts, with a plethora of arena like rooms. The architecture varies, but has some great touches in places - some large and rather bland square sided rooms are present, but these are given interest by various constructs, like the watchtower above. There are some nice curving corridors too, and some impressive arenas, though in places the scale is a bit too large. Textures vary as you might guess, but are applied well and generally fit the rooms.

The map encourages a little exploration, but generally you are forced one way. The secrets are something else altogether - they are very useful, and one in particular is rather large and impressive, with fine architecture.... but I never got to see it until taking the screenshots, because I just could not find the buggers!! Maybe they are just very hard to find, maybe I missed something really obvious, maybe I'm just crap - but if anyone can tell me how to get either of the 2 Perforators (*without* rocket jumping - that's how I got one =)), please tell me, and put me out of my misery. Onto gameplay, and it's good - it rewards caution and a steady approach - charge in and you will find yourself in the embarrassing situation of having little ammo and being attacked from various angles. Take your time, scope out the next areas and plan a bit, and you should have plenty of fun, as there is room to move and escape if needed. The gameplay isn't overwhelming though, due to the size of the map and rooms, and it builds up nicely from an easy start to a more challenging and interesting finish which had me running frantically to one of the lifts in the final room. So it's a good fun map, despite the slightly confused theme.

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