Reviews

While I'm really an addict of the older kind of maps, namely my own and those from Ryoko's Red Spectrum, I can't help but gape at these immensely pleasing levels. They seem a little more complex than what I generally look for, and I'm not a large game nut, but damn, these are fine.

About a year ago, Ryoko and I were talking about how pleased we were with our map packs. He said something to the effect of, "These maps might look shoddy in comparison to future maps" in defense of older packs like Coriolis, whose popularity I couldn't understand. I disagreed with him at the time: Underworld and Red Spectrum were never to be eclipsed.

Looks like I was wrong.

There's a lot of levels in this pack, so many that my eyes glaze over. One that caught my attention is "Kingdom of Cydonia".

This doesn't get as much play-time as maps like Werefrog, but to me it's every bit as enjoyable - lots of rooms and halls and elevators to run through, with a nice central room with pillars and sniper posts. Good ammo and weapon replacement keep every section of the map used.

Bungie's original net maps were OK for their time and purpose - to get people on the net and enjoying carnage. But, to me, most of them wear thin after a while.

The Second Quest project was a much-needed update to the original levels, adding the right additions to the basic feel of the originals without diverging too much.

Beyond Thunderdome is still a fast moving big ol' arena.

Return to Waldo World has new ramps and ledges that make it even more fun for small frag-fests. It's a bit darker than I like, but it's prettier... staring at the flashing lights over the central pit after being splashed by a rocket is actually kind of fascinating now.

King of Pain and Route 66 are nicely modified. In particular King of Pain gained some much needed complexity making it more of a challenge to splash or be splashed. Route 66 is probably my favorite KOTH level now.

This is my go-to pack, the one I grab when I want fast action.

My favorite levels, Simon, CFA 3000 and Werefrog, are great examples of simplicity in design that never get old.

To me, a level has to look like it would actually exist somewhere. In an intelligent alien world there would probably still exist aesthetics when designing a building, and we would notice those even if their culture and architecture was radically different from our own.

What I like about Ryoko's work is that his levels look like they could be real, and that they'd been designed by an alien architect.

That's not to say that Ryoko is alien... maybe he is... maybe not....

Anyway, that's beside the point that these are gorgeous levels, very playable, don't immediately reveal their secrets so they're fun to explore, and nicely spread the carnage all over their rooms, instead of focusing it all in one place. These are good for hunting, sniping, all weapons, and warfare styles.

They do slow down a bit on older/less powerful CPUs because they are complex, but that is the price we pay for great environments.

This really does make co-op so much better; what was once an annoyance is now genuinely fun!

Hoo-Rah!!!!

Seeing as three of these are contest entries into my contest -- all of which received very positive scores, too -- I'd say that's enough to sell this pack. It's even better than Quick Six! Good stuff.

And by all, I mean any number of people.

I played through this entire pack with two other people, and even Downfall of Paradise, which is much bigger than the other two, was still awesomely fun. Even though I never ended up seeing the whole map, there was action every second. Excellent flow! I like the other two for different reasons, mostly because they are small but BEAUTIFUL. I especially like the detail that went into Serpant's Kiss (the jjaaro one, i think). The other map (lava one) was very beautiful too, especially in the parts where the walls are broken. I love how in all of these, there is an invisibility powerup, and while the only reason to get it at all on Downfall of Paradise is to cloak against motion sensors, the shadow plays in the lava map and especially serpant's kiss (which are easy to hide in WITHOUT invisibility) make the use of invisibility more strategic than just sneaking up behind somebody. I also like how there are health rechargers in serpant's kiss and the lava map. Health rechargers don't really belong on big maps, where unless you put it in the middle of an arena or something similar, it would be freebe health to anybody, if it's tucked into a corner (CTF maps are arguable here, though); but in small maps the recharger can be used, but only if the placement is exceptional, and it is. In serpants kiss, I only felt comfortable enough to stand there long enough to fill only half a bar, before dropping down the side to hide against anybody who might have seen me, and in the lava map, I made sure that there wasn't anybody in the middle before i started recharging. This is the way it should be; making you brave enough to reach the charger but cautious enough to not stand there for long. In short, great maps! I can not wait for more!

Yet another must have net pack!

This fine triptych is the beginning of a worthy successor to Red Spectrum.

Sh*t, who am I to argue with Ryoko?

I concur -- this is an outstanding map pack. I'm particularly fond of King of Infinite Space for groups of 4-6; Watchtower is excellent for 3-5.

I'd've given this pack 5 stars except that Watchtower's limited respawn points results in waaay too high a spawnkill incident rate.

Yes, there are weaknesses in this pack, but they stem from a time when the Art was simpler and netfeedback nonexistant.

This map pack is spectacular because the flow is terrific (ok, ok, IN THE FOUR THAT ROCK).

Excellent use of elevation shifts and relatively sheltered respawn points are two under-emphasized high points to this map pack.

I just wish the latest versions of A1 didn't crash Grendel's Happy Cookie...

i cant find the flag when i first tried it out idk if the bridge is supposed to go down and i like the lvl

This pack has very few (arguably no) flaws in it. All of the maps have their own qualities that make them fun to play, and I don't regret playing on any of them.

However, at the same time, there's nothing truly original in this pack. It doesn't explore any new tricks, in my opinion, but it does what's been done before very well. Which isn't bad at all, really. I'd just like to see a little more creativity.

Some of these maps seem unpolished, or have other flaws (like simply being too effing huge); on the other hand, some of these maps are fantastic, and the architecture and geometry overall is fantastic, if not overwhelming. A must-have just for the cool visuals alone, but a keeper for some solid maps.

Great map pack. Ecliptica and The Wildfire are personal favorites. The maps are well balanced and have a good layout of ammo and weapons.

These maps may seem a bit old-school by today's standards, and half of the maps may not be generally used, but the pack is monumental. The good maps are (still) among the best I've ever played, and the pack is (deservingly) canon for multiplayer.

Good work so far, but I, like Treellama, have a few things to say. First of all, The main page map order doesn't really seem to have any set pattern. I think it would benefit from some organization, and perhaps truncating or eliminating the summary (from the front-page) altogether--this would save space and make the page less confusing.

I know searching is coming soon, so I won't talk any more about that. The only other miscellany I can think of right now is that version numbers on files since the 1.0 release have gotten messed up. For example, in JUICE, Treellama actually rated v1.1, while Ryoko was the one who rated v1.0, but they are swapped.

I heartily endorse this product. JUICE eats Chisel's lunch, then the lunch it brought for itself from home, then some cookies from the vending machine. It's that good.

I heartily endorse this product. JUICE eats Chisel's lunch, then the lunch it brought for itself from home, then some cookies from the vending machine. It's that good.

Simplici7y is very crude compared to Fileball yet, but it's actually still being developed so there's hope.

Some things I would like to see:

• I didn't know it was possible to rate maps or leave comments until there was a message on the front page saying so. How about a "Place Your Rating!" link like Fileball has? The stars are very unintuitive.

• I got a page of weird errors when I uploaded All-Shapes, but then it got posted OK. So I don't know what's up.

• How about a file upload progress, like fileball has?

• Also, it's difficult to find things. A keyword search would be very useful.

JUICE does a lot of really useful things that are nice to have on call at a random time. It's not really something I rely on -- yet -- but it's nice to know that, oh, I need to replace all of X with Y... and JUICE is there. Or I have a bunch of floating objects... but JUICE can fix all of those.

It's a great tool to have.

JUICE does a lot of really useful things that are nice to have on call at a random time. It's not really something I rely on -- yet -- but it's nice to know that, oh, I need to replace all of X with Y... and JUICE is there. Or I have a bunch of floating objects... but JUICE can fix all of those.

It's a great tool to have.