Yea so I havent done any reviews in a long fucking time, but hey look what Im doing now! Its an actual review! HOLY SHIT! Today we dissect Gloom101SE, a small little dingleberry of a map that, while looks decent, has a semi-dark underbelly of super-spam potential. I did enjoy a few games on this map I will admit, but ultimately it failed on at least a few cylinders. Now lets get this over with before my drunken stupor wears off.

In the visuals department, we have a pretty good map. It is nice and clean, the brushwork is very sexy, with no jagged-fuck piece of shit brushes, or portal errors. Most of the brushwork is strictly 90 degree though, but Ill favor that over some of the twisted dickgrinding abstract brushwork that some people have displayed (think Desert Turmoil, jesus oh fuck my god). Everything looks quite clean to be honest. The map kind of makes me feel like Im playing an off-shoot of The Refinery (another Llurk map) or something, but thats not saying anything bad, because that map is probably one of my favorites. Anyway, as for the lighting its pretty standard, and I think all of it is the basic white color. Its ok to use colored lights Llurk, just dont make the same mistake in overusing it like some maps do (once again, Desert Turmoil, fuck kill me now).

Now moving onto the layout, Im going to have to bash it I feel. It really isnt suitable for anything other than a small game where everyone goes fuckwild spamming. But, sometimes that can be fun I guess. Each team has a base connected to one giant room that I like to call "The Room Where My Framerate Drops To Shit", but that only applies to me and a few other low-enders. The giant room of death is free from any kind of obstacles to really hide behind, so its straight up crazy in there. Spiders may have it kind of tough for the first part of the game, because its really easy to just sit in that room as a Grunt and spam the single entrance to their base; but like any game, once you get some good classes up and running youll most likely beat the Humans back. To help in this endeavor is a small, fairly useless vent opening for Spiders to escape from. While a good idea to cut back on the camping, its just one more place for a Human to camp. Fortunately HT's cant fire rockets in there due to some mysterious force (or just an anti-rocket clip brush duh). Speaking of Humans, their base is quite the shitty setup if you ask me. While they dont have an extra exit from their base (unless you count that button operated ass door or whatever), they only have one primary exit. This makes it very easy to camp them in. Plus its kind of tough to arrange a decent turret setup within their base. A lone Stinger could do the job honestly. As for that button-operated door, Ive found it to be fairly useless among most players. I say ditch it and make the hallway connect directly to the room-of-spam so Humans can actually get out of their fucking base maybe.

Ok sorry for that long paragraph, but like I said, drunken stupor. That leads to rambling. Fuckit. Anyway, now we move to the creativity department, and its pretty damn devoid of any of it. The texture use, the brush geometry, the lighting, its all very very plain. But, to be fair, Im willing to say Llurk wasnt aiming to be very creative. He just wanted to make a quick map (an SE of one of his old maps no-less) that would be fun for a few people, and devoid of any fucktarded gimmicks. I applaud his intentions if Im on the money, but that still isnt going to stop me from harassing him about lack of creativity. Seriously, this is like bare-bones Q2 style mapping here folks. Nothing to really catch your eye, if you know what I mean. While this is the case, its probably better off that way. Gloom + gimmicks usually leads to abuse of said gimmick, and it becomes old...quick. But, I stick to my score. One cube here my friend.

Finishing up, the r_speeds are quite acceptable. The e_poly count is suitable for any system, and it runs smooth no matter what (except in my case where models are the real culprit). Thats one thing Ive always admired about Llurk's style of mapping; the fact that he always abides by the rules of the r_speeds. It is probably one of the most important things you can learn as a mapper, and Llurk has it down to a fucking formula probably. Good job there. Now its time to end this fun little journey of a review. While Gloom101SE may be quite tepid and unattractive in its shortcomings, it really shines for its out-right carnage and simplistic design. However, it really could have used something else to give it some flavor. While not a terrible map, I would have to say a bit more work would be required in order for a seal of approval. Im that close, really. Keep up the good work Llurk, and maybe Ill get back to reviewing maps on a regular fucking basis.