Glacialis

[salsaSkaarj]

Found the map Glacialis on oldunreal some time ago and started playing last week, and finished just now (in 5 sessions I think).
I didn't know anything about it but realised (from the start) that I was going to have a very hard time with this map. In fact when I started it took me about 30 seconds to die and a couple of restarts to figure out a working strategy, one of them being find something with a instahit (at least almost) and pinpoint accurate weapon as soon as possible.
After 2 of 3 corridors it dawned upon me that just about every enemy is enhanced and ammo, although plentiful, has to be used sparingly.
After about 6 corridors and open areas with very careful playing (hit and hide strategy with DP secondary mode to start) I finally had enough "heavy" ammo to risk a couple of close encounters.
Luckily health can be boosted way above 100 with special healthpacks which can add to at least 200 (I think I once had 205 or something so I suspect it can go up to 300, perhaps even higher). Shield and armour are regularly available, and it's welcome, if not necessary.

I played on Medium but it felt like extraUnreal difficulty and I had to take regular savegames (necessity).

To make this short, gameplay balance is way off, and gameplay becomes tiresome because there's not much room for enemy progression and using too much flak or rockets too early (which is very easy to do) means you're left with too little to hold back 3 or more enhanced Skaarj (a couple near the end took more than 10 direct rocket hits + flak before they succumbed).
As for build: generally quite good I thought (a couple of HOMs here and there but they don't influence the gameply).
I have to admit that the icetheme was a bit too much for me, it's quite a long map and after an accumulated 5 or 6 hours of playing time (not counting the restarts) the icegray becomes very monotonous.

I sound a bit harsh on the map and perhaps unfairly so because in the middle and near the end I got a message about spawnpoints being activated which makes me think that perhaps this is a coop-map and not an SP.

My conclusion = this is a map for UB but not for me.

[UB_]

My conclusion = this is a map for UB but not for me.

Hey play Xeops thx I'm cooking up a slice of life sequel this autumn/winter

[salsaSkaarj]

...
Hey play Xeops thx I'm cooking up a slice of life sequel this autumn/winter

It's been on my list for some time already and I downloaded it a month or 2 ago. BUt since you've been patching it, I've waited for the "final" version.

[UB_]

...
Hey play Xeops thx I'm cooking up a slice of life sequel this autumn/winter

It's been on my list for some time already and I downloaded it a month or 2 ago. BUt since you've been patching it, I've waited for the "final" version.

For now no new versions are planned to ship until at least the sequel is becoming a thing (and a complete one at that).

[ividyon]

a slice of life sequel

Wait what, "slice of life"? Will it have a Krall late to school running with a piece of jam toast in its mouth?

[UB_]

a slice of life sequel

Wait what, "slice of life"? Will it have a Krall late to school running with a piece of jam toast in its mouth?

I've done too much dark shit, it's time to try the opposite!

[StalwartUK]

This was certainly an "interesting" level. Best described some kind of possible homage to Zepheon thanks to the cold Skaarj theme (including textures) with a distinct arcadey feel to the gameplay, health can be upped to a maximum of 350 and you can load yourself with ridiculous amounts of ammo.

I didn't have too much difficulty getting through this on Unreal difficulty with the odd save here and there (only died three or so times I think). The Skaarj fights are tough, espcially the ones armed with hitscan weapons which can easily peck you to death if you're not careful. Obviously for skilled players. The tweaked weapons (dual automags for one) do help to even things up a bit.

There's absolutely no music and hardly any ambient sounds to be heard apart from one or two points where you hear the same wind sound.

At point there's this force gate you have to deactivate to get into the vents except that the force gate doesn't actually doesn't block you therefore making that sidetrip pointless and saving fighting off a bunch of Skaarj.

It's just about passable but it's lacking in some areas. It's fine I guess if you got a bit of spare time and want to kill some Skaarj.

[salsaSkaarj]

...
I didn't have too much difficulty getting through this on Unreal difficulty with the odd save here and there (only died three or so times I think).

Wow, on Unreal?
Granted, once I survided the starting attack (the Behemoth isn't a problem since he's quite static) it was possible (a fair fight) to keep the vermin at bay, but that first wave is really testing (and the second wave coming from inside can be very dangerous if they get through the door in numbers).

I replayed this section on Hard and managed to survive ... but only with a bit of luck with the biowaste gun on the first couple of Skaarj which left me enough ASMD ammo to keep the second wave from overwhelming me.

I should try it on Easy to see if this doable for inexperienced players. (I doubt it).