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Reviews: 24th February 2008 Review 1
SUMMARY
Game: QUAKE
Map - back2forwards: Forwards Compatible
by: LTH
Download: back2forwards.zip
Overall Verdict: Good custom spaceship/base map, should of been polished and playtested more.
FULL REVIEW:
Sometimes rough around the edges, this remains a well constructed custom spaceship level. The theme is a custom green and brown base, with brown sliding metallic doors, yellow and brown highlighting trim, and cool blue strip lighting and transparent blue glass floors and windows. (note i played this map using nehwarp.exe, some engines may not display the blue glass properly).
Architecture and design features lots of chunky looking corridors and ceiling details, some nice archways and curving walls and detailing like computer consoles and terminals. There is also some slime/sewers areas and some unusual plant-filled rooms. The feel of the map is consistent, the scale of the corridors and rooms is nicely judged, neither too cramped or too huge, and the texturing is well balanced for the most part if not exceptional. The layout is also well built and interconnected and as the player moves up through the multi-leveled design theres an interesting darker theme mixed into the map, highlighted by glowing red light strips. The layout is medium in size featuring 90 enemies.
Game play is notable for only featuring the shotguns and nailgun, which makes it more challenging. Although nearly all the enemies are base grunts and enforcers, the map does not get too repetitive due to the relatively small size of the layout and also very good monster placement and numbers. Theres a good fiend ambush around the midway point in progression which provides a surprise and break from all the base gameplay and enemies. Theres also some decent custom base enemies included.
Its a shame this map does not have skill levels implemented, however. In the end the gameplay would of benefited a lot from different skill levels and more fine tuning in a few areas. The ending features a custom "mini-boss" enforcer with a special super nailgun and lots of health points. Unfortunately (for me at least) his attack often seemed to be bugged and never actually hit me, he seemed to be shooting into the floor or walls. Anti-climatic, and a disappointing ending to an otherwise interesting level. With a relatively small amount of effort spent on tidying up, playtesting and skill levels, this map had the potential to be a significantly better finished map.
overall score: 14/20