Back in the mix I am, but not with a vengeance like I have been known to. After succesfully updating the map listings with R1CH here at the GMD, we now have a whole slew of new maps to dismember verbally....er review, yeah. Today I treat Station 41 to a proper burial.

For starters, the brushwork is pretty sloppy. There is some effort put into some of the odd wall designs/ceiling grates, and the Human base has a certain creative flair to it, but the rest of the level is primarily cheeseball brushwork. This map is quite old, and I believe it to be one of the authors first, but that still doesnt dismiss the fact that it is about as boring as a NeverWinter Nights conversation. The textures are your standard fare baseq2 set, used in an even less-than-standard way. Youve seen this map four hundred times before, and no, its not any better now. The lighting was decent overall, with the Human base being fairly bright, and the rest of the level conforming to the Spiders every wishes with darkness and a few dim lights here and there.

The layout is where this map falls flat on its ass. Any hope you had of this map being any bit fair is shot right out of the cakehole of a large buffalo, and into a pool of dissapointment. First off, the layout is small. Its damn close to being smaller than derelict, but a few misleading paths and hidden areas make it a little larger than that. It wont take you more than 30 seconds to get from one base to the other, hell even less than that. The only thing stopping you from this short excursion is a big fat asshole of a chokepoint. This one takes some serious cake. Like any shitty chokepoint, there is the requisite door; but beyond that, there is a maze of crates and boxes to raise even more hell. Sure this evens things out for the Spiders, making it so Humans cant sit from a distance and just obliterate anything once that door opens, but from a larger standpoint, this gives the Spiders an utmost advantage.

Not only will there be about 500 obstacles lining the hallway after that door, but due to the small scale of the maps architecture, Spiders will have little trouble raping anything that ventures into that boxified asscasket of a chokepoint. There are dozens of cramped nooks and crannys the Spiders have at their disposal, compared to the Humans who have equally cramped quarters and even less building space, and are undoubtedly shitting their pants as they wait for the next Kami to destroy their seventh wall of turrets. Note: Cramped Areas + Humans = NO...

The one area that generally shines is the large hangar, located approximately 5 feet away from the door-of-spam. Yea a door leads into it, but once you get in, the playing field opens up to thankfully large preportions, and provides for some intense and fair battles. Of course, thats only if you did get past the 500 obstacles I mentioned before.

Of all the things that this map doesnt do right, there is one thing it nails dead on, and thats the r_speeds. Sure the small scale/layout is going to provide ultra-smooth gameplay, but I would trade an extra 300-400 rspeeds for less-cramped battlefields any day. Coming from me, trust me, that is NOT an understatement.

Wrapping up, its time for a final summary. Station 41 is one-sided fragfest for the Aliens. Humans will not have a chance in hell unless there is a crack team of godless lpb's constantly ripping some ass apart. Even then chances are slim, for one Stalker could easily end this map on his own. Yea, playing one-sided maps as that "one" side may be quite fun, but from a standpoint of equality, this map really licks the bottom of the dumpster. Someone light a match god damn it....