DM-DarkCastle
Map Info
	File Name dm-darkcastle.zip Author Wolff Gametype UT2k3 Deathmatch Date Added 11-19-2002 File Version 1.00 File Size 2.21 mb Player Count 0-8 Map Description None Review Rating 3.5 User Rating 3 Overall Rating 3.5
Review
Reviewer Twrecks Awe Score:  1.5/3 Date 12-10-2002 Build Score:  1.0/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  1.0/3 User Point:  0 Overall Score:  3.5/10 What I call a menagerie map. Darkcastle is filled with the collective things the author deemed cool. Lacking a true theme, the surroundings create a wannbe facade on an Room-Corridor-Room UTish map. Item placement is also a littered fare without much consideration as to where an item is, rather feels like items were "fit" into the map, also possible key points don't get "key" items. Simple architecture and brush work belie any advanced skills but shows that Ued's learning curve is being mastered in an agressive manor. Texture alignment offends the eye along with poorly sourced lighting in numerous spots (lights should gradiate from their sources and not just have large radii, textures should compliment the architecture and not be just be wallpapered) The Nice lava pit with lattice ceiling far above along with a few good visuals elsewhere shows the author has potential to achieve even better results, next time.
Map Comments
Magaera 12-15-2002 12:36 AM MST Rating: 7   Pretty, pretty. Doesn't play well enough to match its appearance, but gosh is it pretty. Other mappers take note: most of the lighting is achieved through point light sources, not ambient lighting. This is a Good Thing. Nothing looks washed out, there are brightness variations even in "well-lit" areas; it feels like a real space. The attention to architecture is also pretty good. In particular, the author seems to full-implement even unreachable details, like the crenellated apex of a high tower that really exists only as eye candy for a tight killing zone at its base. Bravo for paying attention to details. I have only minor nitpicks with the visual design. The only one that really stands out is the texturing of the staircases; it seems overly "busy" and obtrusive. How many really would put a repeated skull pattern on the kickplates of their stairs, hmm? Unfortunately, the flow just isn't that great. There's only one of each kind of weapon on the map. On many maps this isn't a problem, but this one is so big that it's a long trek to get to your favorite, and you'll have to pass through a bottleneck or three on the way. There are also a few locations where the bots tend to congregate -- notably by the minigun and in the lava-pit room -- which limits the action. I never did wind up running around the aforementioned tower's base; the map flow just never took me there. Despite it being a big loop, the map wound up feeling pretty linear, back and forth between the RL at one end and the lightning gun & flak cannon at the other. Speaking of the lightning and flak, the room they're in, while (again!) pretty and architecturally interesting, is just Too Darned Big. Long seconds to run around or across the pit to get to the flak cannon, more long seconds to get back to the door out, even longer if you bother with the elevators to go get the lightning gun... is it any wonder this room winds up holding a lot of the action? Solid, fun, but the mediocre play drags down one of the prettiest maps I've yet seen. Bot40 12-14-2002 05:34 PM MST Rating: 2   OK, take what he said, the map is exactly the opposite, ugly textures, lighting, no arctitecture. The only thing acurate in that comment is the gameplay which indeed, is poor. BangOut 12-14-2002 05:49 PM MST Rating: 3   it's ok... feels like a UT map 1/2LuNaTiC 12-14-2002 11:09 PM MST Rating: 1   uhhh...nice lighting?? What r u looking at?