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Custom Map Reviews |
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USP-05, "Valley of Shia'dorle" by Jaunie and FriezaStoryThis map was originally designed by Jaunie, but the 2.0 version has been slightly altered by Frieza. He has corrected some of the bugs and errors that existed in the 1.0 version, and made improvements on the original. He has also made an entirely new entrance to the original map for a fitting transition from Usp-04. You start were you left off in USP-04, and head straight for an elevator that brings you down to the lower parts of a Skaarj installation. Your goal is as always to find the exit to the next map, and to do so you travel trough the beautiful valley of Shia’dorle, into an inhabited Nali village with huts and a church. The gates to the cemetery are closed, and you have to find a way to open them.
Creatures and ItemsWeapons acquired: Automag, Stinger, ASMD, Eightball. ArchitectureThis map was originally designed by Jaunie, but the 2.0 version has been slightly altered by Frieza. There are still some major flaws in this map, including two very large hom effects, one inside the Skaarj installation and one inside the church.
Architecture is quite good in this map. It is basic with some 2d stuff, but it all blends into a valley and village that are believable. Instead of trying to impress with nifty terrain, the authors have done it the “easy” way and surrounded the valley and village with tall and very steep mountains. This works much better than trying to make super terrain with ultra smooth surfaces and curves, and the risk of ending up with two frames per second. They’ve also implemented this “clean cut” technique when designing the ground and it’s almost needless to say that this does not give the same effect. The Nali structures look familiar, especially the huts and the well, and even though it is basic, it is exactly these objects that make up the Unreal universe and make hardcore fans go: ahhhhh...home again! TexturingLike Usp-04 this map also has both Skaarj and Nali environments. The Skaarj installation uses the Hourlighted Skaarjtextureset, and the Nali village and its surroundings are using genearth.utx and mix of Nalicastle.utx and GenIn.utx. Scaling and general usage is good. There are only a couple of minor texture misalignments, and you really have to be looking to discover them. If you like the Nazi marked crates or not is really up to you, but whether or not they belong in the Unreal universe is open for discussion. All in all a good job texturing the map! LightingAt the start of this map there is a corridor exactly like one you just left in Usp 04, and this one is without the lens flare. Seeing how it looks in Usp-05 I am tempted to say that the same should have been done in Usp-04.
SoundExcellent use of sound on this one. The outdoor area is really alive, and organic sounds are hitting you from every direction. The same goes for the Skaarj area even though sounds are scarier here. I do not think there is a single quiet moment in the entire map. Technical ExecutionUnfortunately this map is riddled with one of the strangest bugs we’ve ever encountered. It seems that an area of the Skaarj installation is very sensitive to what renderer you are using, and might just crash your game, or even worse, cause a bluescreen error. The community has discovered that it might help to switch to default d3d settings for this map.
It isn’t a very advanced level if you consider the number of movers, triggers, scripted events and so on, but apart from the before mentioned bug, it seems like the map is well composed, and you are never in doubt that you are looking at the work of experienced mappers. GameplayA very fun map to play! Most of us love maps where you start inside a cave or installation and then get to go outdoors. And it’s even more fun when there are Brutes right outside “the door” waiting to play. Even though there isn’t really much to do in this map besides opening a gate, it has both nice scenery and well balanced fights. It is probably one of the easiest maps to survive, but that just adds to the dynamic flow of the pack. That Krall have a tendency to be sleeping on guard when you just got the eightball gun, well, that’s just their own fault. Overall EffectThere are still some major flaws in this map, including two very large hom effects, but a huge improvement to the 1.0 version. It is fun to play but does not fill any real role in the story. Even if this is a standalone map in this pack, it’s more likely to be remembered as the entrance to the catacombs of Shia’dorle, which proves to be a more memorable experience. Too bad that Jaunie wasn’t around to do the improvements herself, but Frieza stepped up and did an excellent job!
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