[u1] [ut] New single player maps OUT!

[Delacroix]

GTD-Carthage, one of the masters behind SP2D and Project Zephon has started a new episodic project Don't Shoot The Chest. This Nali-themed pack with lots of comic relief has already seen its first episode released with more on the way. Go, Carthage!

Another out-of-the-blue release is the work of the ModDB user Forsete and it's a new single player map called Chamber of Choice. This small project also boasts an ancient theme.

Nr.2000 is more known to the Monster Hunt communities rather than here but it has come to my attention that he did port his magnum opus, Andromeda to single-player/cooperative game modes. The two-map project has been available solely on a certain cooperative server but due to it closing down, the pack has recently been released to the public with both the author's and the server administrator's approval. It is available here.

Take note that both Don't Shoot The Chest and Chamber of Choice require the OldUnreal 227 Patch to work.

[Legendslayer222]

Okay, I've talked about Don't Shoot the Chest in its thread but as the others don't have threads I'll talk about them here.

The Chamber of Choice was fun, but not what I was expecting it to be.
[spoiler]From the picture and the name I was expecting some simply designed ancient area with a couple of portals and some sort of critical choice. However, there isn't really a choice. You need to go through both portals to complete the map, the only choice being which order to do them in.
Each of the portals leads to an area completely different from the starting room; one is a Nali castle themed location and the other is a mine. I liked the variety, although it doesn't help the map have a cohesive story. I noticed some basic rectangle hallways in the mine area, but there were some cool rooms and nice details too, like a hole in the brickwork with some crystals behind it.
The mine was the best part, and the temple area probably the worst. You go back there at the end and have a typical warlord boss battle.
Overall it's short, but more than I was expecting and worth a run through.[/spoiler]
Andromeda is not balanced for the single player gametype.
[spoiler]The map does have a cool introduction sequence that got me really pumped to play it, with a great music choice and a dramatic hike up to the actual gameplay part of the map.
Things all go downhill from there. The first combat room is an arena with a tonne of pupae in it. They are lead by two beefed-up elite pupae. It takes so long to kill them all I decided you must not be meant to kill them. However, the door ahead was locked. I fired until I ran out of ammo (other than my recharging DP), cheated in maximum ammo and finally killed the elites. The door ahead opened, leading to... another pupae arena with two more elite pupae.
After that exhaustingly long fight you get your first key and are sent to another arena with Mantas. This is easier because mantas are stupid enemies and there are no 'elites' here, but the fight takes place on a suspended platform and I kept falling off as I tried to run away from often three to five enemies while shooting them. The fourth fight is flies, and while it is satisfying to blast hordes of them out of the air, eventually I ran out of places to run to and was overwhelmed. I decided to give up here.
The build of the map was very nice, especially the outside area you traverse in the intro with details like a castle above you and spires of rock below. However your immersion is ruined later by the constant presence of posters of who I assume are the map makers. Floating arrows point where to go, and most of the time I didn't need them to work it out.[/spoiler]

[Delacroix]

Andromeda is balanced properly, it's just that the player's approach must be non-standard. I do agree the elite pupae are a significant hurtle, but no other place made me stay for long. The best way is to circle around and keep shooting something rapid.

[TheIronKnuckle]

Chamber of choice was fun. Good short romp. Moving onto andromeda now

about half an hour in to andromeda. This map sucks major dick. I'm using a combo of slomo 100, allammo and summon warheadlauncher to clear out the rooms. what. a. grind. So unfortunate too because the build of this map is pretty good