"What kind of creature do we have here?" - A damn good map, that's what!

HallsOfOrn is an outstanding example of what every CTF should be. The author has combined excellent architecture, flow, and playability into one helluva map.

CTF-Hallsoforn is set in some type of modern cathedral style architecture. It's very unique in comparison to most other maps. From an asthetic standpoint, HallsOfOrn is very pleasing to the eye. The author has made excellent use of the 2dSE and curved architecture. Texturing is generally very well done also. Trim and borders around doors, hallways, and edging has been used very effectively. One thing that impressed me quite a bit were the "med-bay" style glass doors. They're everywhere and they look great! Lighting in this level is more or less plain, the only oustanding areas are the flag rooms (halls) where it complements the texturing nicely.

But, no one downloads a map just for looks (well most of us..), the most important component of any map is its playability. CTF-HallsofOrn has playability out the wazoo! The flow is great. The curved hallways and multiple routes to the flagroom will have you looping around and back to your own flag without you even noticing it. This is a sign of excellent map design. I found no trouble areas where you could get stuck in a corner or caught on anything. This helps the bots tremendously and it shows. Bots are able to effortlessly go anywhere in the map, cap the flag and return it. It was great to see a map where the bots can grab the enemy flag before you do the first time. The weapons layout and item placement isn't too shabby either.

Though this map has very few, no map is without faults (except DM-StirctlyDiesel). The author, for some strange reason or another, decided to leave out a music track. Hello menu music... Sound effects are also mysteriously absent. I would think that a pool in the middle of an atrium would make some sound, wouldn't you? Or how about some reverb? Unfortunately, this gives HallfOfOrn a big fat 0 in the sound category.

The map is rather small for the recommended 8-16 players. I found 8 to be more than comfortable. With 12, firefights would get really intense in the cramped cooridors by the flag rooms. Good thing there's very few RL's laying around I guess. I would say a more appropriate number for this map would be 4 to 12 players.

With a few fixes here and there, HallsOfOrn could be a candiate for an Epic quality map.