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Reviews: 23rd December 2002. Review 1

SUMMARY
Game - CUBE
Map - arena2: Arena Infinitum
by - piglet
Download - arena2.zip
Overall Verdict - A sequel to Arena Perpetual, with a few subtle adjustments, but the same basic gameplay ideas.

FULL REVIEW:
This map has the same basic gameplay idea as its predecessor, "Arena perpetual". That central idea is to clear ever-increasing numbers of monsters in a series of rounds, with a large supply of ammo which is pre-supplied on the map. The arhictecture and the textures used are better in this map, than its prequel, its nice too have the two different zones to vary the setting of the "arena" a bit. The following quote is taken from the author's readme and explains the main adjustments that have been introduced for this sequel:

Differences from "Arena Perpetual":
1: Your no longer obliged to kill all the enemies to advance (but if you plan on surviving long its a pretty good tactic).
2: There are now two arena zones with subtle differences.
3: Half as many enemies are added per level than in the original.
4: Ammo should be less of a problem, staying alive should be more of one.

There seems to be no extra health or armor in this version, unlike the previous one, hence its harder to stay alive. Also now the teleporters are slightly more complicated, the first set take you to the top of some stone columns. Then you must jump across the columns to the second set of teleporters which take you too the other zone. The idea behind making the player jumping across the columns is too encourage the player to kill all the monsters first, and not just being able to jump into the teleporter like you could in the first map. It a clever idea, but it does become somewhat tiresome jumping across the columns every time, and its takes too long a route to have to go through 2 sets of teleporters.

To be fair to Piglet, the real solution (i assume) is some kind of trigger in Cube that does not allow itself to be activated/triggered until all the monsters in a particular zone/area are killed (i know maps in Quake 1 that do this). Personally, i thought the amount of monsters added per level was fine in the original as well, and did not need to be changed.

In the final analysis, strangely enough, i find myself preferring the simplicity of the first map (Arena Perpetual) better. But good work Piglet for releasing this sequel.

Overall Score: 15/20