DM-A4_DawnsInferno
Map Info
	File Name dm-a4_dawnsinferno.zip Author A4 Gametype UT Deathmatch Date Added 09-08-2004 File Version 2.00 File Size 3.87 mb Player Count Unknown Map Description Technically an objective dm map, but given the DM gametype. Review Rating 6 User Rating 8 Overall Rating 7.0
Review
Reviewer ArcadiaVincennes Awe Score:  2.0/3 Date 05-31-2005 Build Score:  2.5/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  1.5/3 User Point:  +1 Overall Score:  7.0/10 DM-A4_DawnsInferno (UT99) A collaboration piece that's a single-player experience, it's dark, hellish, and that's both the visuals and the gameplay. AWE: 2.0 Despite its best intentions it just doesn't look quite as pretty as it was probably meant to be. The several sections of the map are fairly nicely varied however the rock chosen for the first massive chasm blends into itself too well and really should not have been continued into the rest of the map as it was. The other, non cliff-rock textures, are applied nicely, seem fairly well chosen, and are pretty much aligned well. The lighting is purposefully dim but despite turning up my brightness to full, the 'brighter' map had no effect on gameplay quality. The lighting throughout focuses on deeply saturated red, understandably enough, however, the saturation levels could have been turned down a bit more. There is some purple and blue in the other sections of the map that really looks almost out of place when so much of the rest of it is red. I would have prefered to have seen the red coming from the lava blended up into orange and then yellow as distance from the lava increased. Not only does this look more natural in general, it would have helped alleviate light/texture interaction problems that greatly affected the gameplay. Other areas of the map are colored a little less heavily with red - particularly the 'heavenly' areas. I have many complaints about color, brightness, and saturation but the other aspects of lighting - radii, distance from each other, etc... is quite good so my complaints are not directed at the technical side of light application, but more toward the overall design consideration. The architecture ranges from natural a chasm/cave system, to hewn corridors, to medieval/gothic construction. All of the above are well implemented and fairly well designed. I regret the simplicity of the seemingly unnecessarily long sloping corridors and vertical shafts, however I do appreciate the rest of the architecture here. In general, the texture and lighting decisions cause a big problem and are suspect in overall design, as are the long sloping corridors. However, the technical texturing and lighting side is quite good and the remainder of the architecture is well-designed as well. BUILD: 2.5 The build is quite good. From the extremely complicated chasm, to the custom coding, to the botpathing, to the custom messages, the teleporters, and the sounds. I would have prefered a little more ambient sound coverage aside from musical touches, but it was still quite nice. The entire map is lowgrav which I think could have been removed for some of the 'interior' areas but most of the map was designed around this so, again, design over gameplay. CAST: 1.5 I'll be scoring this in terms of a single player experience and not a DM as the name implies because that's what it really is... Despite the carefully thought out weapon and item placement, although the chasm seems to be a bit weapon/ammo happy, the rest of the gameplay is really a bit too difficult to deal with. First, the darkness is a huge problem. Not to the point of not knowing where to go, but it does contribute to a fair amount of disorientation. Second, the almost invisible, extremely tough-skinned enemies. Almost the only thing you can see is their eyes, and coupled with the darkness, this makes them very hard to hit. Second this with the amount of ammo you have to pump into them, and their ability to take you down with just a few hits, even with full shield and health, and they definately have an unfair advatage over you. The seemingly unnecessarily long corridors are actually necessary when it comes to gameplay - it becomes necessary to run the heck away from these things, giving yourself enough space to keep away from them, while giving you a constrictive area to shoot down so that you can be fairly confident you're hitting them even though you can't see them for the darkness and invisibility. Other than those big problems, there really isn't much to complain about. The design and concept is interesting and fairly well implemented within the constraints of this unreal engine and shows a lot of creativity on the authors' part. In general the gameplay can be fun but ony if you're really really good at Unreal or UT. Overall, the visual design of the map is very suspect in terms of the darkness, colors, textures, and monster skins. On the other hand, the concept behind the map is good and fairly well-implemented. If you've been looking for something to do other than traditional gametypes, and want a really strong challenge, then you've found what you're looking for.
Map Comments
redfist 06-01-2005 02:03 AM MDT Rating: 8.5   This map Definitly makes you work for your oats,some really cool stuff in there.freaky,scary,suspense,and logiststics.very cool,very worth checking out.And different.You the same A4,,,,,,,,irc.ut,pendragons? cool !!,never knew you got into mapping. @G hehe Hey A4,you could invite the strange scorers to a 1on1 in ANY level hehe. EDIT Just because it's not an assuult map,well anyway,it's a good level.it's a rather cool level,deserves much better than average score. From the review ""the rest of the gameplay is really a bit too difficult to deal with. First, the darkness is a huge problem. Not to the point of not knowing where to go, but it does contribute to a fair amount of disorientation. Second, the almost invisible, extremely tough-skinned enemies. Almost the only thing you can see is their eyes, and coupled with the darkness, this makes them very hard to hit. Second this with the amount of ammo you have to pump into them, and their ability to take you down with just a few hits"" I couldn't of said it better,thats why this level IS good. A4 09-10-2004 04:27 PM MDT   Hopefully, not too many people are tainted by the previous build of this map which was SUPREMELY unfinished ( i was a bit overeager) This map was a ping-pong effort between myself and Dawn Knight (author of many maps) Please read the readme included in the zip and hope you enjoy! Feel free to comment as you will, yes even if its to rip on meh :D and yes i am THE A4 from PENDRAGONS irc.utchat.com :D ......and CursedSoul...how can you give a 5.5 based on the red color scheme? Obviously, you havent discovered the switches hiding in the shadows of the upper levels, and the portals which take you into the InnerSanctum, which ISNT red at all, but gothic looking rooms and cathedrals NOT to mention the stairway to heaven (which is HIDDEN somewhere below) AND the Pearly Gates?!? Come on man...if you're gonna comment on something, at least play it all the way thru to the end and make an INFORMED judgement! and YOU, GTD-Carthage , maybe im an IDIOT, but the 2 zips are named Screenshots.zip and Just4Coders.zip....so maybe those are SCREENSHOTS zipped up separately, and "Just4Coders" MIGHT be all the extra coding and custom brush tools used in editing this map, which MIGHT be interesting to MAPPERS! I offer this last hint to people who wish to COMMENT on the map... RTFM! the readme explains the whole concept of the map, and lets you know that there is MUCH more to this map than just a red canyon with lava at the bottom! Nahand 09-09-2004 01:19 PM MDT   ... i loved it for concept, and that is the whole map pretty much. I won't rate it because i like it and because i do think it is a great learning map. Scoring it by DM standards would be right, but unfair. Take a look "just" for the technical part. At least because of that :) ... And A4, please consider mapping SP? ;D ... Sergeant Todd 09-09-2004 01:26 PM MDT Rating: 9   Wow! Are you sure this isn't an ASSAULT map in DM clothing? Quite an experience playing this, in a "demonic" sort of way. Very refreshing. And the name - nice twist on "Dante's Inferno"......... Sergeant Todd out quillion 09-09-2004 07:40 PM MDT Rating: 7   I agree with Nahand, SP. i enjoyed playing this very much was a change from the normal stuff, nicely done. Its unreal! Pends from irc.utchat! i aint heard that name in years. I still think G owns Q tbh;P Shao 09-09-2004 07:48 PM MDT   I prefer neither is SP or AS...... or other like , Mh ( monsterHunt ) , Mctf ( multicapturetheflag) , JB ( jailbreak ) PitViper 09-09-2004 10:36 PM MDT Rating: 8   First, let me say that I played this in the rough stages and I thought this was a cool, kick@ss concept then. Now however the finished product is beautiful, in a Hellish kind of way. Weapons are numerous and well placed, as are the power-ups. The bots I thought could have been better, or maybe I'm just a bit too used to the ones in UT2k4 now. The bot routing seems good though. They seem to be able to get pretty much anywhere in the map. One thing I'm not sure that I'm crazy about though are the use of the Skarj Lords as what I will call the "Hell's Gate Guards". They seem to be a bit tough for my taste. Now if it was cooperative, then they wouldn't be so bad, but then that kind of takes away from the DM aspect. Overall, a very good map with a unique game play that I would like to see more of. Maybe one for UT2k4? Viper GTD-Carthage 09-10-2004 07:04 AM MDT   What's with the tons of extras? There are two more ZIP files inside this ZIP file. CursedSoul1 09-10-2004 02:04 PM MDT Rating: 5.5   its sp, not dm. the lighting is a bit boring, mostly red. i understand that this map cant really handle a lot of deco, so i wont be a bitch about that. nice idea though, but its not dm. Death - UTCS 09-10-2004 05:14 PM MDT Rating: 10   Absolutely Brilliant map and a must for all UT fans. A4 has done a great deal of work on this map to get it the way it is and its dam hard in the first place to create maps. I think he deserves some credit for his achievements and hes getting a Massive thumbs up from me as I have yet to complete it. Very Very Very well done A4 - nice achievement Download this map - you wont be disappointed! juliana 09-10-2004 06:21 PM MDT Rating: 10   Nice map A4 q:D very scary q:x, like the sounds speciallyt the cathedral bell sound reminds me a lot the game Thief, that is one of my favourites games, well is a great map like it a lot :D see ya and hugz*** Ghozer 09-11-2004 08:59 AM MDT Rating: 8   Nice Map A4 -- i played one of your EARLY versions a while back and liked it, one point with this version tho is it seems a little dark, its hard to see alot of the monsters in most places, but its a nice, big, well thought out and tested map.. i would say the monsters are a little hard, but maybe thats just me as i dont play regular weapons (insta/sniper only :D) -- All in all tho a good 8 /10 -- Ghozer - Admin of irc.utchat.com DonvanVliet 10-19-2004 06:05 AM MDT Rating: 5   You have to kill Satan to end the map. When you have this map on a server it resets the Timelimit and the Fraglimit in the .ini. So it is hard to maintain this map on a server. It is a great looking map though. I give it a 5 because of that problem. koeckchen 10-19-2004 10:59 AM MDT Rating: 7   I think the design of this map isn't the best, but it is something special, different from all the other billions of maps. Also the sense of this map is new! I like it! So all in all i gave it a 7!! CrommCruac 03-31-2005 04:46 PM MST Rating: 10   Superb. Atmospheric. Amazing. Two games in one really. Some beautiful touches. Thanks A4 Ice-Dancer 03-31-2005 07:08 PM MST   MH version would be nice DancesWithSnoopy 05-27-2005 03:20 AM MDT Rating: 5   Ive known A4 for a while, and played this map many times in unfinished stages as well, and I agree with another reviewer, its more of an assault type map in DM clothing. Perfect description. As for actual fragging its much too easy to just camp and kill, but thats not the point of the map.... I would rate this map higher if it had its own genre, but as a dm map I hate to say it but it lacks tactics. As an objective based map Id give it a solid 8 or so but for DM well, this is the best I can do.It IS well made but it isnt DM. Nothing personal A4.