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DM-Maralia (UT)
MapAuthor: MarkusW
Date Reviewed: 27 February 2002
Reviewer: lophead



The first thing that caught my fancy when I booted up this map was the preview texture. Im sure its been done before but it was kinda cool to have one which changes through various screenshots of the map like an animated GIF. The author has made use of the awesome richrig texture files, and has included it in his zip file. It is the same file as the original one so it wont screw up your current file if you already have richrig.utx. This may seem petty, but it can be very annoying when mappers cut and paste common custom texture files then include it in the zip with the same filename as the original, causing other maps that use that texture file not to work.

The author says in the readme that this map, initially intended for domination is primed for deathmatch and in particular one on one. The player load suggests between 2 and 4 players. I recommend this map for 2 on 2, or straight deathmatch with at least 3 players. I think the maps a little big for 1 on 1. I had my most fun when I played with 2 other bots against each other in a free for all deathmatch. The bots werent too bad, but there were some minor glitches. For example on one of the stairs they would occassionally get stuck, doing the good 'ol running on the spot routine. I also found that they sometimes were confusing themself jumping and banging into walls where they didnt need to jump.

Maralia is fairly well connected however I dont believe this translates into good flow. Most of the action centres around the area that you can see in the screenshot above. Also, I have never been too much of a fan of transporters (those blue portal things), however Markus seems to have used them relatively well.

There is some decent architecture, will suporting beams, frills and cuttings. The brushwork is quite good but theres something about it that at least to me doesnt make it stand out as being brilliant. Perhaps its not the fault of the mapper, but the overdose of tech-based maps that makes us only really recognise awesome levels in this style, not above-average. One thing that was interesting, was that big fish tank (see bottom screenshot). Im not too sure what the deal with that is, but well its something different. The detailing, like the now standard broken tiling etc was done very well.

At first I thought the red lava in the various areas was a bit too bright, but then found that it actually works quite well. The author has made obvious attempts to "individualise" different areas with different coloured lights, and this helps one not to get lost in action. Lens flares were also used appropriately.

Bottom Line: Youll probably have quite a bit of fun with this map. Its above average but not too much to push it into the godlike category for a map of this type.

Score: 7.0
Average User Score: 6.5 (2 scores)