I've been finding cs_twilight on public servers and thus have finally tried some real gameplay. While my experience is still limited, I wanted to offer feedback on the map and encourage others to give the map a try.

It is a mini-cs_office, in that it is a small office building with hostages, using cs_office textures and models inside. There are two levels (floors) unlike cs_office's one. CTs start outside of the building and can enter the front doors or back door on floor 1 or climb the fire-escape and enter thru broken windows floor 2. This gives the Ts the guessing game necessary to balance the map out. There are enough corners and cover and hiding places and two-way hallways to make both sneaking around or loudly running a risk.

If Ts rush downstairs from their upstairs starting positions they may immediately encounter CTs. In this case if CTs have stuck together or arrived first they'll probably clean up the over-eager T. But anywhere someone is in the building is an iffy location because it's possible to be flanked. The halls run a complete circle around each floor. There are two staircases between floor 1 and 2. Besides doors and corners to hide behind, there are a couple dark spots or potted plants to make your presence less obvious. And the map is so small that it's trivial to run to another location or see someone coming and attempt to run around to approach from behind them.

Even if you're kept guessing a little bit, there's no real complexity to the map. Just running around it a few times allows you to get a feel for it, which is great for those who haven't played this one before. One problem I found at first was differentiating between the stairwells: they're both too similar to tell which is which. And the same might be said about the halls - there is some variety in architecture to give away where you are in the building once you get used to it, but it would be better to have more visual variety. A flickering flourescent lamp in one location might help a lot.

It's also too bad there aren't more features. I don't think there are any working doors or other usable objects. No security cams, no fire escape door with alarm, and the building is more hallway than used office space. Realism is otherwise fairly high, with some great attention to detail to make the map visually pleasing, enough physics and breakable objects to keep the short attention span busy, and no suspense of disbelief needed: you fall right into your role and don't have to think for a second about the map as it's already a perfect environment to get down to business.

Which is why this is so much fun. Six players can have a field day, making wish there were a lot more maps made for small teams and servers to rotate thru them. It's really too bad that cs_twilight is often followed up by a killbox on the servers willing to rotate custom maps. At any rate, if you run a small server or see cs_twilight as a current map, consider trying it out. I bet it'll last - I'll be surprised if I find it doesn't have immense replay value.

Cheers to Anozireth, and if you, Anozireth, feel like taking this map to the next level with custom textures, models, and even more detail, a little bit of reworking, etc, you could take this map to 10.

Design

Gameplay

Verdict
Worth every penny; more maps should join the ranks of the tightly orchestrated environment with all the trim that is cs_twilight

Pros
decent layout, small map - nice and quick rounds, well balanced, complete with attention to detail, a good deal of fun

Design
not enough customization, few special features

I've been finding cs_twilight on public servers and thus have finally tried some real gameplay. While my experience is still limited, I wanted to offer feedback on the map and encourage others to give the map a try.

It is a mini-cs_office, in that it is a small office building with hostages, using cs_office textures and models inside. There are two levels (floors) unlike cs_office's one. CTs start outside of the building and can enter the front doors or back door on floor 1 or climb the fire-escape and enter thru broken windows floor 2. This gives the Ts the guessing game necessary to balance the map out. There are enough corners and cover and hiding places and two-way hallways to make both sneaking around or loudly running a risk.

If Ts rush downstairs from their upstairs starting positions they may immediately encounter CTs. In this case if CTs have stuck together or arrived first they'll probably clean up the over-eager T. But anywhere someone is in the building is an iffy location because it's possible to be flanked. The halls run a complete circle around each floor. There are two staircases between floor 1 and 2. Besides doors and corners to hide behind, there are a couple dark spots or potted plants to make your presence less obvious. And the map is so small that it's trivial to run to another location or see someone coming and attempt to run around to approach from behind them.

Even if you're kept guessing a little bit, there's no real complexity to the map. Just running around it a few times allows you to get a feel for it, which is great for those who haven't played this one before. One problem I found at first was differentiating between the stairwells: they're both too similar to tell which is which. And the same might be said about the halls - there is some variety in architecture to give away where you are in the building once you get used to it, but it would be better to have more visual variety. A flickering flourescent lamp in one location might help a lot.

It's also too bad there aren't more features. I don't think there are any working doors or other usable objects. No security cams, no fire escape door with alarm, and the building is more hallway than used office space. Realism is otherwise fairly high, with some great attention to detail to make the map visually pleasing, enough physics and breakable objects to keep the short attention span busy, and no suspense of disbelief needed: you fall right into your role and don't have to think for a second about the map as it's already a perfect environment to get down to business.

Which is why this is so much fun. Six players can have a field day, making wish there were a lot more maps made for small teams and servers to rotate thru them. It's really too bad that cs_twilight is often followed up by a killbox on the servers willing to rotate custom maps. At any rate, if you run a small server or see cs_twilight as a current map, consider trying it out. I bet it'll last - I'll be surprised if I find it doesn't have immense replay value.

Cheers to Anozireth, and if you, Anozireth, feel like taking this map to the next level with custom textures, models, and even more detail, a little bit of reworking, etc, you could take this map to 10.

Verdict

Worth every penny; more maps should join the ranks of the tightly orchestrated environment with all the trim that is cs_twilight