I played a little bit through this level and I thought that it was pretty well done.
The lighting is really nice, and the displacements are the star attraction IMO for this map. They add so much to the Z-axis gameplay that I think the slopes on them are really cool. Either that or I've got a thing for Z-gameplay.
At first I thought the map felt like a maze with similar textures everywhere, but then I thought about looking for landmarks to denote each of the areas apart, and noticed, you made quite a few landmarks and small details that it would be hard to get mixed up I thought. You just have to play the map for more than 3 rounds to get familiar with them I guess.
The displacements were cool, but I think I noticed maybe 2 or 3 missed sewn spots. But overall, really nice job on them. It can be a difficult tool to grasp for a lot of mappers, it looks like you've excelled at it pretty well.
One problem in the lowest part of the map I think, the area is pretty big, but pretty flat with only bumps of displacement grass poking out here and there. somewhat distracting, but I would think that could be an easy fix to make it feel a bit more natural.
When it came to the moving doors, I started as terrorist and made my way down the long 'hallway' to the gate, and thought I reached a dead-end. I moved against the gate and nothing happened. I eventually came around to the other side and pressed the use key to open it, but this wasn't immediately obvious to me because I think the Valve maps like de_inferno simple allow you to move against operable doors to open them. The same went for the door access to the underground area; I didn't know it could be opened until I reached it from the other side and thought it the only possible way out.
It's a nice looking map, but there weren't many unique sounds beyond the ambient ones. I think the map could use locational sounds to help aid players in remembering where they are. Landmarks aren't always within a player's view even if they're right next to it, but an identifiable sound would be.
From the screenshots, it feels like a very minimalist-type map with subtle details, and the use of only a handful of textures, but after playing it, I've gotten a different opinion on the aesthetics, and think it's a very elegant map. It felt like a plausible place (except for the surrounding skybox area. I get the 'Eden' idea out of the desert. I'm guessing 'de_oasis' has been done to death?
For the displacements, I would use a little bit more variety on the open grass areas, or maybe different grass textures beyond just the dirt alphas for paths. It would make it feel that much more thought about and appreciated I think.
And one last thing: I think the map in terms of gameplay-related issues, could use a pass on sticky geometry. There are a lot of posts and frames sticking out past the walls that it's easy for a player running backwards from an enemy shooting madly to run into and get killed 'unfairly'. I would add player clip ramps along the sides for all those places where it sticks out less than 24 units from an otherwise flat surface
Ok, I'm done with the floating comments in my head from playing the map.
...I think
Thanks for posting!
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