This is a fairly simple first-release for this author, which takes on a 'seen it, done it, bought the T-Shirt etc.' HL textured arena theme which we've all seen before in some guise. But at this early stage, that's not really important- what we've got here is a playable map, with some good and bad points. It's not the best in the world, but it's not bad for a first release, and shows a lot of promise.

If you think about it, technically this map is a killbox- no, hear me out- it consists of a single large courtyard, which seems to be part of a larger installation (the BM Training facility), although there is some coloured lighting, thought put into weapon placement, and it's clearly visible that the author has actually put effort into making it- so it's miles ahead of any other killbox!) Doors in multiplayer maps are usually frowned upon as they may cause you to waste time trying to open them, but there's no problem here as none of them work. The level is split into two levels- there's the ground floor, with various grassy areas and podiums, and not a lot of ammo. There's then a higher level which is where most weapons/ammo are to be found.

You can access these roofs by using one of two bounce pads (or some very thin & niggly stairs)- they're not too hard to use, and they aren't Xen bouncers, so they fit with the rest of the map. Although quite often it can be a struggle to reach the top of a building, or you may try to jump onto a building that's too tall, so some practice is required. Up here, there's a small, dark bunker to snipe from, and the odd precarious ledge with batteries or the gauss sitting on it.

You'll need to have the gauss to get the longjump which I thought was a bit unfair- the gauss is got by using one of the bounce pads, whilst the longjump is sitting on top of the dark sniper hut. Health is very scarce on this map- a problem when you have to take into account all the falling damage you'll incur, on top of all the ammo flying around your head (of which there's a lot because of the open design). Weapon of choice on this map is either the RPG (because of the open layout and ease of collecting it) or gauss (open layout!), both of which don't have that much ammo so you might want to conserve it.

Something that really gets on your nerves after a while are the background sound effects. Now, usually I'd complain if a map didn't have any, but this one goes over the top somewhat. Everywhere you are, there's at least 2 sound effects playing, with nothing that you can see that's causing these sounds. Most annoying of all is a sound effect of buzzing flys, which is a 1 second WAV that loops over and over again. The truck/Xen space ship sound effects which appear to play at random are nice at first, but again, they get tedious and you can hear them coming from a point in the middle of the map.

As you may expect after seeing the first screenshot, the map does have an r_speeds issue. We're not talking about some niggling spot up on top of one of the buildings where they reach 800- they remain 600+ almost everywhere in the map, going over 800 on the higher levels. Not recommended for weaker PCs, because without the upper levels, you're stuffed when playing against other people. E_polys never go over 3000, but I suspect some people may still experience some slowdown.

But despite it's failings, it's still playable. Although the theme is nothing you haven't seen/played before, it's fun to play for a while- just so long as you don't think of it as a killbox!

<!-- BBCode Start -->(Since this review was originally published, the author has always held it against me for calling this map a killbox. Well, it is, and you know it :biggrin: /me runs)<!-- BBCode End -->

Design
Nice lighting, but annoying sounds and seems a bit 'muddled.'

Gameplay
Plenty of RPG/gauss/sniping going on, although r_speeds are a concern.

Verdict
Turn your screen brightness up for this surprisingly well made killbox level.

Pros
The best killbox ever made!

Design
Too dark, annoying background sounds, r_speeds

This is a fairly simple first-release for this author, which takes on a 'seen it, done it, bought the T-Shirt etc.' HL textured arena theme which we've all seen before in some guise. But at this early stage, that's not really important- what we've got here is a playable map, with some good and bad points. It's not the best in the world, but it's not bad for a first release, and shows a lot of promise.

If you think about it, technically this map is a killbox- no, hear me out- it consists of a single large courtyard, which seems to be part of a larger installation (the BM Training facility), although there is some coloured lighting, thought put into weapon placement, and it's clearly visible that the author has actually put effort into making it- so it's miles ahead of any other killbox!) Doors in multiplayer maps are usually frowned upon as they may cause you to waste time trying to open them, but there's no problem here as none of them work. The level is split into two levels- there's the ground floor, with various grassy areas and podiums, and not a lot of ammo. There's then a higher level which is where most weapons/ammo are to be found.

You can access these roofs by using one of two bounce pads (or some very thin & niggly stairs)- they're not too hard to use, and they aren't Xen bouncers, so they fit with the rest of the map. Although quite often it can be a struggle to reach the top of a building, or you may try to jump onto a building that's too tall, so some practice is required. Up here, there's a small, dark bunker to snipe from, and the odd precarious ledge with batteries or the gauss sitting on it.

You'll need to have the gauss to get the longjump which I thought was a bit unfair- the gauss is got by using one of the bounce pads, whilst the longjump is sitting on top of the dark sniper hut. Health is very scarce on this map- a problem when you have to take into account all the falling damage you'll incur, on top of all the ammo flying around your head (of which there's a lot because of the open design). Weapon of choice on this map is either the RPG (because of the open layout and ease of collecting it) or gauss (open layout!), both of which don't have that much ammo so you might want to conserve it.

Something that really gets on your nerves after a while are the background sound effects. Now, usually I'd complain if a map didn't have any, but this one goes over the top somewhat. Everywhere you are, there's at least 2 sound effects playing, with nothing that you can see that's causing these sounds. Most annoying of all is a sound effect of buzzing flys, which is a 1 second WAV that loops over and over again. The truck/Xen space ship sound effects which appear to play at random are nice at first, but again, they get tedious and you can hear them coming from a point in the middle of the map.

As you may expect after seeing the first screenshot, the map does have an r_speeds issue. We're not talking about some niggling spot up on top of one of the buildings where they reach 800- they remain 600+ almost everywhere in the map, going over 800 on the higher levels. Not recommended for weaker PCs, because without the upper levels, you're stuffed when playing against other people. E_polys never go over 3000, but I suspect some people may still experience some slowdown.

But despite it's failings, it's still playable. Although the theme is nothing you haven't seen/played before, it's fun to play for a while- just so long as you don't think of it as a killbox!

<!-- BBCode Start -->(Since this review was originally published, the author has always held it against me for calling this map a killbox. Well, it is, and you know it :biggrin: /me runs)<!-- BBCode End -->

Verdict

Turn your screen brightness up for this surprisingly well made killbox level.