Yes
- just like he ignored the issue of TASTE
when selecting the texture and lighting designs
for this game level and indulged himself in a spray
paint fume inspired flight into madness. Either
that or he unplugged his monitor and worked by blind
intuition.
THE
MAP: The real shame is that the map is for the
most part architecturally accurate to the original
DM5 (always one of my personal favorites, which
is what drew me to this level in the first place),
plays more or less the same, and contains some interesting
Quake 2 "jammies" that would be
intriguing additions to the old favorite if they
weren't buried beneath a haze of hideous textures
and screwed up patches of obnoxious neon colored
lights. Just looking at the map produces fits within
me that bounce between suicidal rage and unreasoning
hilarity. The lower "cistern" area is
textured like the inside of a car engine and glows
with a sickening, neon pinkish red hue that makes
the water seem like a sewerfull of Pepto-Bismol.
The two teleports so vital to the original formula
of the map have been embellished with hideous structures
featuring a lemon yellow and cherry red splotched
screen that looks like molded Jell-O. He has made
it a "space" map in that through foggy
glassed windows that are inserted into the roof
here and there, asteroids wheel in the heavens (as
well as a "secret" BFG platform that can't
be reached without turning your clipping off and
flying through the wall). The roof is resplendent
with weird H.R. Giger-ish looking "mechanical
bone" textures in places that bring the expression
(sic) Jismnasium to mind for some reason...
this map is truly a demonstration of how to get
everything wrong with texturing to such a degree
that it makes what otherwise might be a respectable,
dignified little Quake conversion look like
something awful.
 |
|
A view of one
of the lemon/cherry Jell-O teleports and,
at lower right, the inaccessible BFG platform
out in space.
|
GAMEPLAY:
Once again I had to test the map with Omicron Bots,
and once again they picked an area of the map as
their own (the submerged "cistern" area
with its Hyperblaster and Invulnerability powerup
playing the role of Bot Bait) and stayed there despite
the fact that I made some nice routes for them to
use. Human players will no doubt range a bit further
throughout the map if given the chance, but barf-bucket
runs will probably disrupt the game as people step
aside to hurl from the nausea induced by the abominable
texture and lighting design.
FUN
FACTOR: Whatever - I like to play Quake
2 so if you put me in a plain box and make me
face off against my opponents with nothing
but a blaster I could still probably enjoy myself
if in the right mood. The classic map layout is
still there, so maybe swtiching to software mode
or your monitor to black and white is
an idea to keep in mind.
THE
BOTTOM LINE: An interesting experiment in combining
the best of Classic Quake with some of the
worst of what's possible with Quake 2 design
overkill. The result is a hideous genetic mutation
gone amok and rampaging across the Internet like
that guy in Lawnmower Man. If you let it loose on
your hard drive, take care.
-
Squonkamatic
for the People!!
