Another month, another map from Peter Manson. If you don't know who this guy is or haven't played any of his maps (for example; Plateau, Ruin and Eden), what the hell have you been doing? Playing Quake 3? Shame on you. The map is of a similar theme to Eden/Plateau- it's based around a series of rocky, outdoor paths with a few medieval type buildings and waterfalls. The name 'Shaolin' is Mandarin (Chinese) for 'new forest' and is a Chinese martial art, yet you're fighting in and around a Japanese temple, based on a map previously made for the <!-- BBCode u2 Start -->
Bushido HL mod<!-- BBCode u2 End -->.
Now, this level is huge. It's 60% huge outdoor canyons and 40% huge indoor corridors. And seeing as Bushido is a CTF-type mod with two teams, it's symmetrical- not quite down to the last pebble, but getting close. At either end is a temple-cum-base that's been 'linearised' to stop you from getting lost or camping in one particular room. You enter the temple via a front courtyard (see first screenshot), go down some stairs and grab the longjump, walk along a long and empty windy corridor, go down a very tall ladder, and then you're halfway to the other side! Some teleporters or other means of reaching the outside world would be a very welcome addition here; you keep expecting to see around the next corner a roadblock manned by Marines and an APC... Between the bases, there are 3 of the aforementioned outdoor sections; 2 are very long and tall canyons with a river running down the middle, fed by a waterfall. The third is a pond further up with rivers that supply the waterfall, and is where you can pick up a few snarks and other items.
Thrown in with the map are some arcane, futuristic pushpads and teleporters. Yep, for the umpteenth time he's come up with another new type of teleporter; this time you step into a yellow-light filled pod, experience a warping effect (like in op4ctf_wormhole and a few others), and appear on the roof of the teleporter somewhere else. It would have been a better idea to place a couple of portals underground or near the temple, as they only shuffle you between the canyons. In the underground route between the two bases, there's a large pit o'doom that you have to cross over via a pushpad; there's an egon sitting in an incredibly exposed position in the middle, and you're going to be hard pressed to get out with it in one piece.
Many of the author's previous maps suffered from r_speed problems, even the fantastic Eden to some extent. This map doesn't quite break that curse, but they're not a hindrance to gameplay. W_polys can touch 800 in a few areas, but most of the time they're varying between 300 and 500.
Although it is prettier than Eden, it's certainly not as fun to play. There's no multi-levelled fighting arenas (except the large canyons where the one tier is about a mile above the other) and it's too linear- not only do you get bored running around the same sections, but it just takes ages to get anywhere. The author has provided plentiful weapons and ammo to accommodate the large size, but as the level is linear all you need do is wait for a few seconds for things to respawn, and then a few seconds later it's possible to have 60 armour and all the slot 3 weapons (and maybe the longjump and gauss if you're lucky). Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but most of it is placed along the paths you'll travel along in bunches, and there are very few weapons that require you go out of your way to reach. Perhaps the author may consider cutting this map in half, and improving links between areas to make things more interesting, and then release the result. For now though, your best option is to find 10+ people (clan matches?) if you want to play this and enjoy it at all.
Design
Fantastic interior and outdoor regions, with low r_speeds to boot
Gameplay
Too linear and big for it's own good
Verdict
More could and should have been done with this, but at least it looks fantastic.
Pros
Looks fantastic
Design
Too linear and repetitive in construction for it's size
