Reviews and Submissions

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

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Puritan

Thanks once again, Loke  ;)
No rest for me today it seems  ;D
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

Forge

Loke's on a roll.

Time for me to finally retire back to just being a player?  :)

Quote from: Puritan on  09 February 2013, 21:17:15
No rest for me today it seems  ;D

'bout time you did something around here, slacker  ;)
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Micky C

I can't believe you reviewed "Duke's Nightmare"  :P
Oh well, no harm done.

Wall whore.

Forge

because of the map's elements or the person who made it?

the former: this isn't the only project to modify or use original levels. while minimal effort is put forth in creativity, at least they were honest about "borrowing"

the later: i can't argue with that
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

Loke

#109
Did the final map (The Citadel) today as well. As usual screenshots are added together with the .zip.

QuoteThe Citadel is the final map in the medieval-themed The Quest trilogy, by author Akimbo, and is arguably the best of the lot. Released roughly two months after The Vigilante it pretty much walks over its predecessor while rivaling Slaughter House 2.

Keeping in uniform with the two previous maps the author has kept both the architectural design of the map as well as shading very similar which is both impressive for its time as well as making it feel very consistent. Fortunately I didn't notice the all too much inconsistent texturing which plagued the previous maps so it's safe to assume that Akimbo spent more time on refining the textures this time around. While on the subject it is actually hard to point out faults in the design as everything is evenly constructed without looking too drab or dull apart for a few issues with the overall darkness in some areas. A few corridors, particularly those involving enemies are often pitch-black making it difficult to spot concealed monsters. This can very often be an annoyance especially if you're low on health when the enemy gets in a cheap shot on you while you're trying to navigate a prodigiously dark hallway.

The biggest issue with the two previous maps was the factor of getting stuck whenever you found a switch resulting in some amazingly annoying backtracking throughout the rooms and hallways. In The Citadel the issue still persists however I didn't find it that all too frustrating or even mildly annoying since most of the switches are conveniently located in near proximity of their parent door so you don't have to scour the entire map as before. Incidentally this is a good thing as it keeps the combat in high gear, one of the best features in the map, while still making you stop and think for a second.

And as for the combat then, is it still good as before? Oh yes, very much so. As mentioned the combat is the better part of the map. The enemy diversity is good as it doesn't rely on you fighting one single enemy for the duration of the map. Furthermore careful planning was taken into consideration when adding enemies as they don't just stand around in the open but stay behind walls and pillars or even concealed behind fake walls surprising the player when they activate a switch or do something similar. Fortunately, the spawning enemies near the players' proximity which were very persistent and vigorously irritating in the previous map, The Vigilante, are pretty much gone making the gameplay much more similar to Slaughter House 2.

The Citadel is a fine conclusion to The Quest trilogy. Overshadowing its weaker predecessor whilst being very much on par with and perhaps even surpassing the first map The Citadel is definitely worth a try even on its own. With some good and satisfying combat and fine mapping The Citadel is a good addition to the Duke Nukem 3D universe and well worth a try.

Score: 70

Puritan

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

Loke

Glad to help. I'll see if I can get some more done (of those Forge listed) this week as well. :)

zykoveddy

Duke's nightmare (E1L1 and E1L2 COOP remake with a few design differences) got 79, and Hasit (an all time classic with some great design ideas) got 76.

This totally makes no sense to me. Forge, could you please replay Hasit and maybe give it another rating? C'mon, that map clearly deserves another chance :'(
From the flight of the seagull come the spread claws of the eagle.

Gambini

Not sure about Hasit, I dont remember it. But sure, Duke Nightmare is overrated by like 78 points...  :o

Micky C

Guys don't forget, there's a user rating score. If you don't like the map, give it 1 star. When people see how low the user score is they'll pass it by.

And I know none of you have voted for it because it only had 1 vote when I had a look, and that's the automatically given 3  ::)
No point having a user rating system if people don't use it.
Wall whore.

zykoveddy

Quote from: Gambini on  12 February 2013, 08:31:22
Not sure about Hasit, I dont remember it. But sure, Duke Nightmare is overrated by like 78 points...  :o

If you haven't played Hasit, I recommended it. Sure it's not a masterpiece, but I was surprised by it's ideas and good level design. It's sure better than any E1L1 remake.
From the flight of the seagull come the spread claws of the eagle.

Forge

#116
Quote from: zykoveddy on  12 February 2013, 04:39:05
Forge, could you please replay Hasit and maybe give it another rating? C'mon, that map clearly deserves another chance :'(

Fine. I'll give it another look. It's been long enough where i can go into it cold and be impartial, but don't get mad if nothing changes.

It'd still be better if you submitted your own review, imo

and all the hate makes me want to re-evaluate duke's nightmare. should i also go back and re-evaluate all the other maps that used original levels as a base as well? Maybe I should auto-reduce 15 points from design for every map that uses something from other maps.



This is as harsh as I can get:

Duke's Nightmare

Texturing/Lighting-Shading: 6/10
Sprite Work/Detailing: 6/10
Ambiance: 6/10
Architecture: 17/20
Layout: 18/20
Gameplay/Design: 15/30
Overall: 68/100


This is as generous as I could get:

Hasit

Texturing/Lighting-Shading: 8/10
Sprite Work/Detailing: 7/10
Ambiance: 8/10
Architecture: 17/20
Layout: 18/20
Gameplay/Design: 26/30
Overall: 84/100

I'm not re-writing the summaries, and this is the last time i revisit these two particular maps. now it's on Puritan to update the review page.

At this point if you're still not satisfied with the scores then it's on you to submit your own reviews.
Take it down to the beach with a hammer and pound sand up your ass

zykoveddy

The updated rating for hasit seems to be fair. Now I'm satisfied  :D
From the flight of the seagull come the spread claws of the eagle.

Gambini

Quote from: Micky C on  12 February 2013, 10:44:01
Guys don't forget, there's a user rating score. If you don't like the map, give it 1 star. When people see how low the user score is they'll pass it by.

And I know none of you have voted for it because it only had 1 vote when I had a look, and that's the automatically given 3  ::)
No point having a user rating system if people don't use it.

I´m gonna giving You a one star rating  >:(

Loke

Okay, did a review for CBP 8: Metropolitan Starlight.

QuoteThe Duke Nukem 3D community is a rather modest bunch of talented individuals consisting mostly of mappers from the early era of Duke Nukem 3D, so called veterans, as well as newer people with different set of skills. If you'd compare it to either the Doom or Half-Life community it'd find itself pretty much dwarfed. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing; with a smaller community most members know each other and from time to time they will get both their minds and strengths together to form an appropriately named community based level, more specifically a so called "Community Build Project". In this particular case ten members sat down and meticulously formed together one of the finest community based maps in recent years, the Community Build Project 8: Metropolitan Starlight.

The premise is, well... there isn't any real premise. Basically, aliens have, for some unexplained reason, invaded a starship housing a gigantic metropolitan. But as in most user maps they all share the same basic formula: merciless extermination. Yeah, it's Duke Nukem after all.

At heart, one might be unsettled by the massive sights that stretch across the immense skyscrapers and landscape of Metropolitan Starlight. Make no mistake, it is an enormous map with many locations to visit such as the streets of the metropolitan, a sewage facility, a police station, the reactor core area of the very starship as well as a stripper bar, an essential addition to any Duke Nukem 3D map, and a brisk train ride all accompanied by a phenomenal original soundtrack composed by Mike Norvak.
Most areas are either blocked off with a force field or a locked door requiring the corresponding key card. So essentially it's not particularly non-linear, i.e. you must follow the predefined route which the mapper set in order to continue, which may come as a surprise considering its massive size. As a result its replay value isn't as eminent as it could've been as you are pretty much required to follow the flow resulting in every subsequent playthrough being very similar each time.
Despite this however the flow is rather good as it seamlessly takes you from one impressive location to another as well as getting progressively harder.
Though you'll visit quite a few different areas all very diverse from each other the section that you'll spend most time at is the tall tower located in the very epicenter of the vast metropolitan. This also serves as a sort of hub area when you go from one sector to another. Moreover, this works great as a fallback if the player would happen to wander aimlessly throughout the city not knowing where to go or getting stuck at a certain part of the map.

As mentioned previously the map gets progressively harder the more sections you discover and explore culminating in an explosive and fierce finale. On the gameplay side of things Metropolitan Starlight is a rather difficult map with over 300 enemies to boot offering some really challenging combat to even the most hardened Duke Nukem 3D veteran.
Starting off with the most basic weapons you eventually receive the standard shotgun and ripper chaingun rather swiftly and can begin your alien extermination as you so please. Obtaining the bigger guns usually requires a bit of exploration, particularly at the beginning, and it is often worth the trouble getting there while a few are conveniently placed inside some rather cleverly obscure secret areas.
Whilst the diversity between the different alien classes are frequently high I had some generally annoying engagements with the chaingun-wielding Enforcer aliens; in short there were just too many of them. Since they possess the ability to damage the player in an instant with their chaingun, a so called "hitscan" weapon speaking in a technical manner, they can really start withering down your health fast. These guys are usually more suitable when placed in high alcoves jumping down and surprising the player when you least expect it. In Metropolitan Starlight however they overwhelm the player constantly and will most surely aggravate you just with their sheer number alone.

One of the stronger points of Metropolitan Starlight is its notably immense and beautifully crafted mapping. The texture work, while a bit drab and generic in a few areas, looks great overall resulting in some really impressive and distinct piece of work.
The map also makes good usage of the exclusive EDuke32 feature called True-Room-Over-Room, usually abbreviated as TROR. Due to this however EDuke32 is mandatory when playing the map. Unfortunately, due to the use of said feature the map do have some ugly visual glitches when playing in either the old classic 8-bit mode or the OpenGL rendering mode Polymost. As such the more recent and underdeveloped rendering mode called Polymer is recommended. In addition, a powerful computer with a more recent GPU, particularly a Nvidia card, is pretty much a requirement for it to even be playable. So if you're from the Middle Ages you might consider coming back when you've got a decent enough computer to run it unless you can look past the ugly visual glitches.
Either way, Metropolitan Starlight looks astonishing in Polymer. There isn't an overly extensive use of Polymer lighting effects so the framerate is rather acceptable even on an ATI card.

Though originally supposed to be a 1-week CBP, as in every member had one week to finish their part of the map, some issues hampered the project resulting in a long delay. But in the end what we got was a magnificent piece of work worthy of all admission. Incidentally the issues surrounding the delay were perhaps only of a positive nature resulting in a longer more polished release. Either way, Metropolitan Starlight is a must have for any Duke Nukem 3D fan despite its linearity and sometimes overwhelming enemy numbers. If you haven't already played it do so now, you won't regret it.

Score: 90