-- Home/News
-- Map DLs/Reviews
-- Mapping Tutorials
-- About
-- Contact

 

Q: Do you like the new design?
 
Yes    No

View Results
 

  -- Quake 3 Arena
-- ID Software

-- Telefragged
-- Planet Quake
-- QuakeQuakeQuake
-- Quake 3 Mods
-- Srnet
 
 
Chambers of the Crestfallen
Yes! Get a load of the looks on my first-ever CTF map! Lots of detail, nice lighting effects in the bases and more! Once again I suppose I should talk about looks first, since I'm already way ahead of myself here. This is by far the best looking of any of the maps I have made so far. The arched doorways are somewhat advanced, with the caps being textured differently from the main curve. Walkways over the lava in the bases have nice curves and curved borders. The long, curved hallways have nicely curved lights going through the top, and there are many other curved as well as angular brushes that make the map look nice. As you can kind of tell, I am big on the usage of curves contributing to the looks of a map, but I also appreciate the angular feel as well. For example, my sykotrny2 level is strictly angular, and besides the jaggies because of the angular brushwork, it came out very well. This level is my highest scorer yet on looks. As you can tell, it is gothic-themed, but as for the style...... I would say that it is just an indoor base-type level, since it isnt really an outdoor level, but doesnt have that gothic castle feel either. The aesthetics are fairly good too. It consists of two long but skinny bases and a connecting room in the middle. It's ur classic CTF map. It has two levels, but the second level is very small, consisting of small catwalks in the flag room and a plasma gun room in the bases. Each base has two rocket launchers, two shotguns, a grenade launcher, and a plasma gun. The railgun is in the connecting room on one of the high ledges. The bases consist of four, (too) long, curved hallways, splitting near the entrance of the base and coming back together at the flag room. Where the hallways are farthest apart, a straight hallway goes between them, and from that hallway you can access the plasma gun upper level room, which dumps you back out right near the flag room. The flag room is a large, open room, but its filled with a deep lava pool at the bottom. Oh, and how unfortunate that all you have to walk on are these skinny catwalks. =) Hehehe. Normally, that would make for a lot of deaths in the brouhahas (sorry, i have no definition page for that, lol) that occur in the flag room. Well, soon you will find out why few brouhahas occur in the flagroom and few deaths happen there. Lets talk playability, shall we? The map plays fine, and easily supports teams of up to 5 people, possibly 6. It is actually a large map; it is the LARGEST POSSIBLE size (lengthwize, 8192 units) that a quake map can be. It would surprise me if you found yourself lost in it. It is well lit, and you wont find yourself wandering aimlessly, and completely blind at that, All paths lead to the flag, which is probably not the best thing to do for a CTF map, but it was my first, so..... The only reason I would take off of playability points is because of the fact that sometimes the map runs slowly, especially while looking at the flag for some reason, and while in the plasma gun room. I think this is probably due to a lack of caulk behind my curves. Thats pretty much all for playability. I'll talk about *shudder* the.. BOTS playing right now in the Fun Factor aspect. Even I, the creator of this map have to admit that its not fun at all. Why? Because of the bots. They dont even try to make a feeble attempt to take your flag! They all sit on their damn asses and camp in the base. This totally eliminates team play on your side. While you're computer controlled team mates are waiting for the enemy that never comes, you can storm the enemy base alone. Only to find 5 or 6 bots, each armed with an RL or SG, waiting to take you out. If the bots are anything higher than level 2, you will have a mighty hard time getting past them at all, let alone up to the flag and out of the base. Now do you understand why there arent any "brouhahas" (which, by the way, just means like a fracas or a quarrel) in the flag room? Oh well. That's the tough life of a mapmaker. =) I always could have added something to fix that, but it would just keep the other team in its base then. I just couldn't win with this map. The only reason I gave it any fun factor points was because when you play it with some HUMAN people, it really isnt so bad. Thats all for this map. I am very pleased with its visual and aesthetic outcome, but not the fun aspect. And the game is all about fun, isnt it? What good is a map that sux to play in cause its no fun?
 
  {Click for Larger Image}
Scary spikes.
    {Click for Larger Image}
Get a load of that hazardous base!
 
 
Ratings: Looks - 21/25; Aesthetics - 20/25; Playability - 20/25; Fun Factor - 10/25
OVERALL RATING -- 71/100
   Download Now -- sykoctf1.zip (3,151 K)
   Email syKotic -- syko_quake@yahoo.com
   Visit syKotic's site -- syKotic's Lair
   Return to Map Review List
 
Design by Dave Conway; ©2001