*) Info:
A 1.92 MB download for 8-16 players. (16 was too much for my taste.)
*) General:
Set in a large and spacious canyon with central peaks. In the valley you have little lakes here and there, even a little waterfall. Hewn into the central rocks you have a few "bunker-esque" rooms. Several teleporters take you faaar up onto walkways spanning the chasms.
Three Control Points: one inside the facility, one outside in the valley on a little platform, the third on a bridge so far up that even eagles fear to tread.
*) Worst:
Architecture was what I was most unhappy with. The landscape as such was nice, with the exception of the waterfall perhaps. What was not so nice, however, were the interior sections. Blockish architecture wherever you look. I think the setting of the map would have been perfect for cave/room combinations ý la Malvolence, but it's all enclosed cubic architecture. :(
*) Bad:
Lighting was another issue where I wondered here and there. The outside parts feature daylight, and in light of what UEd can do, that seemed realistic enough, especially since the author was wise enough to carefully choose appropriate texturing for the sky.
Inside, again, things were of a different nature. Bright parts and dark corners too close than to appear realistic. Starkly red lights at quite a few places...
Flow was ..... "unusual". I wouldn't really call it bad, but the overall layout of the canyon means you have to run a couple of "empty" miles to get from one focal point of action to the next.
*) Good:
Bot performance was hard to judge. They went around the map very well. Translocated to Amp and Invisibility, yet failed to do the same to the Redeemer, because the T/L beacon bounced off the upper rim of the crate the warhead lay on. They went for all other (quite well placed) items, though.
The author put Defense Points in, which is something one should be very careful with on a DOM map, especially if they are near a CP. Sadly, the reviewer thinks that (even considering the playercount) 15 of them is about half too many. All of these were directed and correctly configured, though, and the bots were lethal snipers up on those walkways, shooting anything that moved down in the valley.
The final issue to mention in this context is that I never saw them make use of the elevator up to the bridge CP. The elevator pathing would have been functional, but the point is they never went into the little corridor that lead up to the elevator. Extra cost adjustments of some nodes in the cave's mouth's vicinity might have solved that problem.
*) Best:
Sounds were wonderful and present a-plenty. With HyperBore.umx the author included a wonderfully fitting piece of music.
The Theme as a whole was very nice, too.
And on top of that the thing should run pretty smooth even on the older machines.
*) Summary:
Refreshingly different. A map to prove all yon doomsday-proclaimers wrong who would attest DOMINATION lay in it's terminal breaths.
DOM likers should really take a look.