Organized Crazy Addicts

[puntloos]

DM-Ayoka (UT)
MapAuthor: MarkusW
Date Reviewed: 5 March 2002
Reviewer: lophead



The first thing I didn't really enjoy about this map was all the different things I had to extract into their different directories (utx, u, umx, unr, files everywhere!), however this is just me being lazy and obviously doesn't detract from a maps quality. Its always good when an author uses fresh content, whether it be different music, textures, sounds, whatever. And Indeed Markus has used them all. He (as he notes in his readme) has used some wheel of time content.

To start of with, I've decided Ill get the bad over with first. My big, big gripe about this map is the lighting. And I really feel disappointed because really I feel it greatly detracts from what could have been a very good map. The problem with the lighting is that it is just plain sloppy in areas. What I mean is that there are some parts that are just pitch black that suddenly become fully bright with no explanation (no apparent light sources or reason). The lens flares seem to be used quite well, but it is the general lighting of the various structures that aren't so good. It is due mainly to areas of light and darkness that just look totally unnatural and wrong, as if it is temporary. But I also think Markus has let himself down with the gratuitous , and perhaps unnecessarily gaudy lighting in parts. I realise by looking at the skybox the sort of colourfully atmospheric theme he is trying to get at, but I think he has perhaps taking a few shortcuts in order to do this.

Now that I've got the whole issue of lighting out of the way, I can focus on some of the positive (are there are many) aspects of this creation. In terms of architecture and construction I think he has done a great job. The towers, whilst sometimes simple are very effective. They are almost deceptively simple in that they are totally polished with all the trimmings and detail. His use of custom (wheel of time) textures is kinda refreshing. I did find a few sloppily applied textures however. He seems to have constructed the terrain areas with precision and the waterfall, usually a hard thing to perfect, comes off quite well.

The overall layout is well done. The map flows and bots play well (I did see what I thought was a bot swimming in the air! I don't know what it was, but could someone say if they too experienced this!). Due to the fact that it is an outdoors map there is inevitably areas where because you may be looking down on most of the map, the framerate will drop a bit. If you have a decent rig though, you probably wont notice it too much.

Bottom Line: This is a very good map, that has been spoilt by some sloppy lighting. It does have great gameplay, layout, and flow so it is definitely worth the download. However, I will be looking forward to the author creating a remake ( maybe a ][ or 2 or SE, whatev

Score: 5.5
Average User Score: 5.5 (1 scores)