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Monday 29th May 2000:
Coagula: "Coagula"
(Size: 310 k. No Alternative downloads.)
 
An unusual map with it's earliest origins as a deathmatch design. It's a tiered metal arena floating in the void, with a large ledge spiralling around an impressive central core, and various smaller connections linking the two. Style is metal with industrial hints: grey walls, brick floor, and heavy rivetted beams, level sticks to this theme well, maybe a more exciting theme would have highlighted the map's unique setting. The architecture is fairly good throughout, though some areas are quite simple to keep the map running smoothly. The central core is the highlight, a dramatic pit with metal beams supporting it's surrounding walls, crossed over by bridges. Elsewhere there is a good use of angles and the ubquituous metal beams. The map's deathmatch origins are a bit detrimental: there isn't enough of the superfluous eye candy that makes single player maps visually exciting. The setting is dramatic, the style is good, just more structures would be better, especially around the edges.
Again from it's origins, progression is unusual: apart from having a few passages barred off, the map is non-linear: You can explore and kill and will on the lower tier, the middle tier is simpler, and the upper tier is a matter of finding buttons in any order you chose. All routes are balanced for difficulty....and quite frantic!! The map is p1mped as "brutal" and indeed brutal it is. Plenty of monsters crammed into a small map, with the potential for attack on all sides, with the action escalating as you escalate. And there's always the void to fall into... That's noticable at the start, which is overly hard for the start of a map, as waves of monsters pour from elsewhere and there's few places to run. Once you get some better weapons, the balance is smoother, but continually exciting: A lot of monsters, a lot of ammo, a lot of action. Sometimes monsters teleport in, sometimes you are thrust up close and personal, but usually there's some space and cover to avoid the continual attacks. Maybe too much for less experienced players, but great for veterans.
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