15/12/2014 - "The Banner of Blood" by Eric Evans

[Jigoku]

Map Title: The Banner of Blood
Author: Eric Evans
From: Peril on Mars
Filename: pml3.unr
Music Files: UTemple.umx




Video Playthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAqAk9rtrYQ

Synopsis: The player walks through a Skaarj infested temple.

Discuss!

[Semfry]

A decent enough dungeon type map but it's pretty linear and doesn't have the feeling of structure that makes me consider maps four and five stronger medieval themed maps overall. Playing normally you're also pretty overequipped and starting with nothing like in the video almost feels more appropriate balance-wise outside the random high-end ammo lying around. One detail I like in all the later maps of the set is the use of mountains outside the windows in the later maps of POM (regardless of it not looking like Mars at all); it's a small thing that somehow sticks out as a notable feature of this pack to me.

[UB_]

I like how DavidM reused that ending corridor straight from Strange World lol

[Sat42]

The Banner of Blood is great - it's oldschool, it gets the job done, like the rest of Peril on Mars. Yeah, forget about Mars, the pack never did try to be credible in that regard, aside from a half hearted attempt in the background info provided by the ReadMe.
I like the atmosphere here and like Mman said, the use of "real" (build) mountains outside the windows is nice. On my first playthrough, I felt that some of the ambushes made things quite tense, and it took me about half an hour to get through, because I actually found the progression to be quite hard - when you reach the area where the hallway suddenly collapses due to an explosion, I remember getting stuck for a number of minutes because I couldn't find the trigger that allows the player to move on behind the collapsed hallway - I got frustrated enough that I repeatedly tried to jump over the debris to get to the other side, and after some perserverance I actually got through (without cheating) but my joy was short lived because the door out of that room remained locked! So I reloaded and eventually found the switch in the fireplace - that actually triggers the secret doorway to get through AND it spawns the Behemoth you need to kill in order to open the door to the exit.