Reviews and Submissions

Started by Forge, 08 December 2011, 16:29:29

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ck3D

Are you looking for a review for this one too, Puritan?

Fully gotcha on Facebook, too. All my social media would be long gone if I didn't need it for work so much.

Puritan

Quote from: ck3D on  31 August 2020, 11:28:19
Are you looking for a review for this one too, Puritan?

Fully gotcha on Facebook, too. All my social media would be long gone if I didn't need it for work so much.


If you would be so kind  ;)
You are a good reviewer for sure. You may PM me your review and I'll put it up immediately.
Very much appreciated!

"Social media" has become socialist media. Censorship and lies goes hand in hand.
MeWe are a neutral platform and you may be anonymous.
No gathering of your personal data.....etc
Recommended !
Bitter words mean little to me. Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday in the mist of time, when they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine, and the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when I'm old and wise

ck3D

#257
Very rare are Duke 3D user maps so chockfull of surprises that the mere act of writing a simple review risks instantly slipping into spoiler category. And Shaky Grounds Pt. 3: Epicenter just so happens to be one of those (urban-themed) pieces that tells its own story - or its own chapter of the story more specifically here - as written by longtime Build engine narration legend from the Netherlands, Merlijn Van Oostrum.

The author not only lives up to his legacy here with more stellar design, clever texture applications and good taste as far as general visuals, but also pushes it even further in terms of gameplay flow - navigation is made clear from the beginning to the end of the level, ensuring you'll never get stuck despite the existence of a constructed plot, but also dotted with moments of build up then release. It's hard to think of any map since Red 4 and Red 5 (not coincidentally also by Merlijn) with such a progressive sense of immersion - here your whole ride will be punctuated by atmospheric moments of tension and bouts of all possible kinds of action, including some particularly ambitious explosive surprises (jack-in-the-box style - except your brain will be the box).

Just like the previous installments in the series, Shaky Grounds Pt. 3: Epicenter is a magnificently-crafted city map but also and most importantly, one of the evolutive kind that's only too rarely seen. Here you can literally expect the urban landscape to move around you as you go, and lots of thinking and technical effort has been put into the implementation of a ridiculous amount of effects to make sure your time in this map will feel so coherent and live, with some surreal props thrown in for good measure; for brief moments you won't be sure on which side of the screen you belong: 'here you go weird' as a certain saying goes, but only the best kind of.

If around the time of its release, Duke 3D was popularly regarded as a more interactive Doom, then the whole Shaky Grounds series so far can similarly be viewed as a more dynamic Roch. If ever needed, with that map set, Merlijn reminds us all that pseudo-realistic, complex (or Kompleks?) environments don't have to be static, and discourage authors from using terrain effects that originally made a lot of the strength of the Build engine - if anything, they may in fact make for just as many opportunities to push them, thereby inviting the exploration of new dimensions in Duke 3D mapping as opposed to repeating old tropes. Each and every installment is a piece of art and instant classic.

Score: 98

Merlijn

Thanks for the review! ^_^
I'm willing to write a review for Woudrichem war (and perhaps some other recent maps too). But since Woudrichem war is made by Maarten, it's probably not appropiate for me to determine the rating.

Puritan

Quote from: Merlijn on  08 September 2020, 21:32:14
...
I'm willing to write a review for Woudrichem war (and perhaps some other recent maps too). But since Woudrichem war is made by Maarten, it's probably not appropiate for me to determine the rating.


No problem.
Your integrity is indisputable, sire.
And thank you for offering a helping hand  ;)
( I was thinking of a score around 97-98 if it is a relief ....)
Bitter words mean little to me. Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday in the mist of time, when they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine, and the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when I'm old and wise

Merlijn

Alright, it took a bit longer than expected, but here it is. If it's too long, don't hesitate to shorten it a bit. :)

Review: Another alien attack 1: Woudrichem War

Duke Nukem 3D is well known for it's simulation of real life locations, in a time where most FPS games were just abstract mazes. A lot of user mappers took this idea even further and started recreating monuments, castles and even whole city blocks. Authors like Pascal Rouaud and Ck3d are well known for translating European architecture to the build engine and pushing the enveloppe. Now Maarten has taken the next step by recreating an entire town and its surroundings. This whole map tries to replicate the city of Woudrichem, a real historic place in The Netherlands. The result is a very ambitious and remarkable map.

The map starts outside the city and lets the player circle the place first. This is a nice way to introduce the player to this world and give them an idea of the general geography of the area. Enemy encounters are built up in a similar fashion, starting off slow but becoming more intense as the players progresses. Once the city is unlocked, the map becomes more unlinear. The player has to hunt down 3 keys and has the freedom to decide in which order to get them. The entire city is ripe for exploration, and there are hidden goodies everywhere. Even most of the rooftops are accessible, resulting in some enjoyable parkour.

Throughout the city, there are a lot of historic Dutch buildings to be admired, and there are a lot of fun little details. For example, there's a playground with some creative usage of sprites. There's even a little nod to E1L1 (you know it when you see it). But it's the sight of the whole city on screen at the same time that's the most impressive thing about this map. The hunt for keys will frequently take you from indoor sections to the top of a building and the sight alone is worth it.

Gameplay-wise, there's quite a lot of enemies to deal with. A surprisingly high amount of recon patrol vehicles and pig cop tanks patrol the area, combined with lurking assault troopers and fat commanders. But Maarten is always pretty generous when it comes to ammo and health and this map is no exception. And while there are some spicy fights in here, it never gets unfair. The city itself may be a little disorienting at first, but luckily there are viewscreen camera's to guide the player. What's more, there's a large bell tower in the middle of the city, which looms over the other structures and serves as a handy landmark.
My only minor complaint is that some indoor areas are cramped, but luckily these areas don't contain too many enemies.

The map saves the best for last though, with a thrilling and awesome finale which I won't spoil here. Let's just say it's the perfect cherry on top.

Conclusion: this map pushes this old game to its utter limits by creating an entire city and its surroundings, and showing it all on screen at the same time. That's remarkable enough, but it also offers a lot of fun firefights, exploration and memorable moments.There's no reason not to play it, so 98 points is what it gets.

Rating: 98

Puritan

Excellent review, sire.
Thank you very much :)
Bitter words mean little to me. Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday in the mist of time, when they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine, and the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when I'm old and wise

ck3D

Nice, solid in-depth review, Merlijn!

The word on the whole city being visible at once instantly reminded me of Perro Seco's Doom map Planisphere 2 which is a recreation of New York City https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Planisphere_2 I don't even play Doom anymore and haven't in a long while but the execution is insane and the result a genuine piece of art IMO. When I first found out about it I couldn't believe it and was obsessed with it for a good minute.

Merlijn

Thanks!

And wow, that Doom map is really impressive! I wonder if mapster could even handle that size. It kinda reminds me of the unfinished Duke theft auto mod, but this is even bigger.

High Treason

It's a long, long time since I've been seen around these parts. Whatever.

It seems a couple of my maps are missing over here, so I'll shamelessly push them on this place now because I have nothing better to do or something. Most people here have already seen these anyway.

Firstly Alien Abductee from February last year; http://dxzeff.com/trash/AlnAb237.zip
Duke4 thread; https://forums.duke4.net/topic/10452-release-alien-abductee/ - the file linked in that thread is outdated, you want version 237, not version 236, though if you played the map already then 237 only really made minor cosmetic fixes and music fixes, but should be the version used from now on.

Secondly Dimension Shift from August last year; http://dxzeff.com/trash/VHT0136.zip
- And yeah, that is an overlapping sloped roof; http://dxzeff.com/trash/TROR_is_for_pussies.png
Duke4 thread; https://forums.duke4.net/topic/10697-release-dimension-shift/

Don't know if they meet the criteria for maps here, but at least they're around for consideration now, I suppose.
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Puritan

Hi

Thanks for the notification.
I've uploaded Alien Abductee just now.
Man, that was a hard level to beat  ;D

Dimension Shift will be uploaded soon. I promise.
Bitter words mean little to me. Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday in the mist of time, when they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine, and the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when I'm old and wise

High Treason

Ah, cool, many thanks.

The combat was ramped up for Alien Abductee, largely as I already knew it would have to be ramped down in Dimension Shift. The part with the fuel cells can be quite nasty if you stand still for too long outside and if you didn't notice the steroids in the train station.

There's no rush, wouldn't want to be saturating the front page anyway.
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ck3D

New, good-looking 8-level episode release by Brazilian author Preto Murara: https://www.moddb.com/mods/pretomurara

Puritan

#268
Quote from: ck3D on  24 October 2020, 14:50:43
New, good-looking 8-level episode release by Brazilian author Preto Murara: https://www.moddb.com/mods/pretomurara


Holy cow!
Thanks for the heads-up, ck3D !
Just passed this episode.
It's a marvelous production right up 3DR alley.
The details and sprite work is top notch. One of the best made trains in DN3D history, I'd say.

Not to mention the office building....
The progression and action are outstanding.

Absolutely worth a couple of hours of your time!


I'll upload the episode to this site soon.
Bitter words mean little to me. Autumn winds will blow right through me
And someday in the mist of time, when they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine, and the sadness would be lifted from my eyes
Oh when I'm old and wise

ck3D

#269
Yeah I finally just played it, top notch stuff, I especially liked the last few maps. Here's a review you can use (in addition to yours if you're already working on one):

Downtown Journey is quite the epic new 8-level Duke Nukem 3D adventure by Brazilian author Preto Murara, marking his first public release despite two decades of Build mapping under his belt. Preto is such a purist he even used a classic Pentium with the original Build.exe to craft the whole package (no Mapster32 convenience and enhanced limits; also meaning that the set is fully compatible with Duke Nukem 3D 1.4+), a trait that can be retraced even in his mapping style at the core: clean, simple architecture and interconnected layouts very much in the tradition of the original episodes, with some creative twists here and there that only rarely feel out of place.

As the title implies, your whole journey as Duke will be of the urban kind, with a feel somewhat reminiscent of popular community add-on Metropolitan Mayhem. Spoiling every level individually and thus the sense of progression would be a shame, but it can still be said that every single one of them bears a strong sense of location (some more than others) and successfully pulls off specific themes or concepts that have only rarely been tackled in Duke, all the while never really falling into the gimmicky.

Some of that experimentation turned out for the best and some for the worst, though; for instance there is one train level that looks magnificent, yet is completely unpractical to navigate due to the amount of decorative sprites cluttering the player space. Or, also, a hotel map in which extensive use of the jetpack is required, but what's always an interesting concept falls flat here due to the scarcity of the item, making for a good chance that Duke's ride might softlock. A few of the levels also use too many decorative doors, in-your-back respawns and at least a pair is way too dark (especially if you don't play in Classic mode as intended). A handful of keys and puzzles might feel a bit mean, too.

What's good is really good, though. The entire adventure feels almost canonic due to how much respect was given to the traditional style with each map, be it in terms of clean looks, straightforward and coherent storywriting, and science in the layouts and transitions from level to level. The author really only took liberties when it comes to picking new themes (for instance, a bus station or a mall), experimenting with concepts (that jetpack level) or enhancing visuals - not counting that train level, sprite work has been put to excellent use everywhere to simulate both small objects and entire floors depending on the settings, and it always looks really clean all the while usually consisting in uncommon tile picks. A lot of the maps are littered with singular instances of smart constructions, small or big, and the result only complements the classic tone instead of clashing with it. The mall level is an especially great representation of that, in addition to being a fantastic map altogether.

In the end, Downtown Journey is an instant classic, and another sweet reminder that sometimes simple is best. It has its own quirks and flaws, but also its strengths and then some more when you count those directly inherited from the greatness of the original game design, which it certainly doesn't shun. The quality of its attempt at looking and feeling professional all the while comprising some nice bouts of creativity definitely justifies its place in your Duke 3D directory.

Rating: 92