Review of Xenophobia
"This map should have died with the 3vs3 league..."
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No I am not reviewing this map with fire in my eyes and a clenched fist. Im feeling a bit generous during these peaceful times, so Ill take it easy on this fapstick of a map for once. Xenophobia was originally a small map designed for the 3vs3 League tournament, but unfortunately (*smirk*) the league never got a foothold and failed due to lack of community organization (go figure). Well, Echon decided to expand upon his map and release it for use on the public servers. Alas, it might seem that wasnt such a bright move.
You can tell that this map is a work of newbish preportions right off the bat. The paper thin rock walls, and shoddy brushwork; lack of texture variety, and blantantly idiotic layout vouch for this observation. The map is split into two sections, caves and a base. Ive seen it before, and I still see it. Sometimes it works, but only when authors add more than just those two components to the map, such as luxorious eyecandy, or use of special entities to put a bit of mission-based emphasis in the map. Unfortunately, this map doesnt do anything except be a map with caves and a base. Caves that are ugly, a base that is repetitive and confusing, and it all comes together to form some kind of twisted dimentia-inducing pile of garbage you can't help but be fascinated by. But hey, at least you can see where youre going.
Well I suppose the caves arent that hard to memorize. Everyone in the Gloom community is used to figuring out layouts in maps where there are a lot of rocks present (haha), but it is up until you get into the industrial base section that it becomes simply fucktarded. The texture scheme in the base does not deviate one bit. The same texture everywhere you look. Sure youll cross a few computer screens along the way, but then you end up going through a door, circling around 15 other computers with adjacent hallways, and end up back at the SAME COMPUTER you started from. Along the way youll probably be spat out into one of the two outdoor areas where the luscious "Llurk Rain" is present. Ill admit the rain is indeed a nice effect, and I credit Llurk for figuring out a method for functional rain using the bare-bones Q2 engine. I do not, however, credit Echon for blowing the feature way out of fucking preportion. These rooms are so stacked with the rain that its absolutely ludicrous. In fact, you can see the repetition in raindrops if you take a glance, and random sheets come falling at the same time. Totally butchered.
While restricted use of this rain will really have no effect on the framerate dynamics of maps, since Echon decided to go all-out and shit a brick here, I cant help but blame the rain for the 1000+ wpoly rspeeds in the outdoor areas. Maybe that, or it might even just be bad decisions made in the layout, with no visplane considerations in mind. I really didnt take the time to investigate this too much, as the 10 frames per second werent doing me a while lot of fucking good. Although, the rest of the map runs at decent speeds; one might even say flawlessly once you start flailing about in the maze of hallways the industrial base contains. Cant knock Echon for that, even though he probably didnt know what he was doing anyway.
That last sentence right there about sums it up in my opinion. Observation of some of the more well-done and popular maps out there would be enough to convince anyone working on a map like this that, perhaps, maybe this map could have used a lot more time and effort. My guess is that Echon was too busy enjoying the fact that he would have a complete map released, which would give him bragging rights to those few individuals who have not yet made a map attempt for this mod (a whole 10 people no less). Or maybe I might be wrong. Maybe he really did put his heart and soul into completing this map from its early stages. If that was the case, he should have done more research, and had a bit more practice in the art of mapping. Sure you can say "I want to make a map" and follow through with it, but there are standards. Well-known standards that compotent mappers abide by. No I am not questioning Echon's mapping ability here (even though most of you want to), but there should have been more sense than to release this crap and hope it to be a worthy release. Xenophobia, meet the toilet.
You can tell that this map is a work of newbish preportions right off the bat. The paper thin rock walls, and shoddy brushwork; lack of texture variety, and blantantly idiotic layout vouch for this observation. The map is split into two sections, caves and a base. Ive seen it before, and I still see it. Sometimes it works, but only when authors add more than just those two components to the map, such as luxorious eyecandy, or use of special entities to put a bit of mission-based emphasis in the map. Unfortunately, this map doesnt do anything except be a map with caves and a base. Caves that are ugly, a base that is repetitive and confusing, and it all comes together to form some kind of twisted dimentia-inducing pile of garbage you can't help but be fascinated by. But hey, at least you can see where youre going.
Well I suppose the caves arent that hard to memorize. Everyone in the Gloom community is used to figuring out layouts in maps where there are a lot of rocks present (haha), but it is up until you get into the industrial base section that it becomes simply fucktarded. The texture scheme in the base does not deviate one bit. The same texture everywhere you look. Sure youll cross a few computer screens along the way, but then you end up going through a door, circling around 15 other computers with adjacent hallways, and end up back at the SAME COMPUTER you started from. Along the way youll probably be spat out into one of the two outdoor areas where the luscious "Llurk Rain" is present. Ill admit the rain is indeed a nice effect, and I credit Llurk for figuring out a method for functional rain using the bare-bones Q2 engine. I do not, however, credit Echon for blowing the feature way out of fucking preportion. These rooms are so stacked with the rain that its absolutely ludicrous. In fact, you can see the repetition in raindrops if you take a glance, and random sheets come falling at the same time. Totally butchered.
While restricted use of this rain will really have no effect on the framerate dynamics of maps, since Echon decided to go all-out and shit a brick here, I cant help but blame the rain for the 1000+ wpoly rspeeds in the outdoor areas. Maybe that, or it might even just be bad decisions made in the layout, with no visplane considerations in mind. I really didnt take the time to investigate this too much, as the 10 frames per second werent doing me a while lot of fucking good. Although, the rest of the map runs at decent speeds; one might even say flawlessly once you start flailing about in the maze of hallways the industrial base contains. Cant knock Echon for that, even though he probably didnt know what he was doing anyway.
That last sentence right there about sums it up in my opinion. Observation of some of the more well-done and popular maps out there would be enough to convince anyone working on a map like this that, perhaps, maybe this map could have used a lot more time and effort. My guess is that Echon was too busy enjoying the fact that he would have a complete map released, which would give him bragging rights to those few individuals who have not yet made a map attempt for this mod (a whole 10 people no less). Or maybe I might be wrong. Maybe he really did put his heart and soul into completing this map from its early stages. If that was the case, he should have done more research, and had a bit more practice in the art of mapping. Sure you can say "I want to make a map" and follow through with it, but there are standards. Well-known standards that compotent mappers abide by. No I am not questioning Echon's mapping ability here (even though most of you want to), but there should have been more sense than to release this crap and hope it to be a worthy release. Xenophobia, meet the toilet.
User comments:
Hmm... this map is UGLY - Krybosis
Show some pictures next time. - Xenoid
i do love giving schon's maps a 0 - Ranger
it's my first map you fuckers :p - Echon
Best map ever! ! ! ! 10/10 !!111 - Cataclaw
| Total: 16 ratings |
Comment: Ok, we have repetitive caves with the same old rock textures, INCREDIBLY repetitive hallways with even more annoying texture schemes. The rain is probably the only thing decently textured here.
Comment: I dont know if I remember correctly or not. This was originally a map designed for that failed 3vs3 league or something? A bunch of hallways and rooms connected is as close to I can get to describing this layout simply. Attrocious at best, and further down its just a mess of expletives.
Comment: That 'rain' effect would have added at least one cube to the creativity if he hadnt used the effect in such a rediculous manner. In stark comparison to the rest of the map, there is absolutely no creativity here that I saw. Caves and a base. Shit, he could have made it look at least somewhat original with better texture use. Bah, fuck it.
Comment: No thank you. Ive only played this map roughly two or three times, and thats more than enough for me to diagnose this map as utter crap. An insult to you, and insult to me....but most importantly, and insult to Echon. Much like the 3vs3 league, a total flop.