Review: Konosus: The Secret of Minos

As Project Zephon's case has showed us, multiplayer arenas if constructed properly may translate to single player quite efficiently. Konosus: The Secret of Minos, originally a deathmatch map from 1999, revisited ten years later by the author and a person called W3RM, just might be one such map. Is it?

Wey's original design technique certainly helps in that regard. As the author himself acknowledges in the release notes, he aimed not for a typical fragfest arena, but for a setting and this made it easier to turn the level into a single player endeavor which turned out quite neat.

Konosus is a fairly large map with a river running through the center of the area. This river is blocked by a dam with two castles nearby. The player's task is to clear out the castles on both sides of the dam and find a way to the top of the rock formation surrounding the entire valley where the destination camp is located. That's all there's to it. And with no story implemented it may seem pointless.

But it really isn't. The visuals themselves are awesome for a 1999-era map. The castles, boasting new textures look realistic and fresh. The little details like a steamy little cloud at the waterfall or rundown machinery at the basement, or finally the small library that makes the player feel like home are a feast for the eyes and with the lighting, while not perfect, still good enough not to spoil the impression, the level is one of the better ones out there. There's also a lot to hear in Konosus. The ambient layer is pretty rich and adds to the enchanting feel of the level and the Unreal Crypt tune fits the location like a glove.

The gameplay factor is the toughest part to pull off when dealing with MP-to-SP porting. As a solo adventure usually revolves around searching for a way to unlock the next portion of a location by doing something in the previous area, leaving too many routes open might prove problematic. That is not the case with Konosus however. The level is fairly linear but each main location can be accessed by at least two ways and all have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, if you use the teleport to get to the second castle, the Skaarj troopers patrolling the premises will sooner or later spot you anyway and just might enter the interiors and engage you up close. On the other hand taking the bridge makes you fair game for the snipers while giving you enough room to jump around, avoiding shots.

Enemies are plentiful but so are weapons and health provisions. Seemingly there's no concern here for gameplay balance but the players may be surprised or even frightened of entire teams of Skaarj charging. However in those cases you just might realize how useful might the Eightball Gun's regular spread shot mode be. When I saw the squad on the bridge charging at me, I deployed a full set of six missiles at them and watched the gibs fly. Only two of the opponents remained but those were quickly picked off from behind cover. Earlier, the player encounters a titan. It might prove tempting to waste as much ammo as you can on the beast, but I beseech thee - touch it not! A much better idea is to provoke the Skaarj troopers around to either attack from distance and hit the titan accidentally or close in on the player and get hit by the rocks thrown by the monster. It may be tricky but it is doable and shows the authors' mastery at orchestrating the entire thing as it forces the players to utilize their surroundings instead of mindlessly firing away at everything that moves.