15/09/2008 - "The Underwater Base" by EddX

Hellscrag · Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 17:22

Map Title: The Underwater Base
Author: Edward "EddX" McRobbie
From: Zero Black
Filename: spuw1.unr
Video Playthrough: http://www.dailymotion.com/MMAN2/video/x6snqn_urealzb1

Synopsis: The player is dispatched to infiltrate a Skaarj base. Arriving in a small submersible, his first task is to gain access to an airlock.

Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 19:19

Nice intro leading to a cramped place full of Skaarj Infantries. And more water.

EddX really screwed this map pack in gameplay terms.

Darkon · Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 19:44

UBerserker wrote:EddX really screwed this map pack in gameplay terms.

Could you give a few examples / be more particular?

This map started my experience.. and I think it also ended it. Was too wet for my taste...When you're in the water, everything is a little whiter.. gets VERY annoying after a while. (and reminds me of the time when I had a monitor that was about to die and played Unreal on it.. everything was VERY VERY white/grey.)

Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 20:18

Skaarj Infantries with Stingers in cramped corridors and confusing water tunnels with annoying enemy placement are enough of an explanation.

The map has just a great underwater cave at the beginning which I'll never forget. EddX is great at conceptual grandness.

This is one of those mappack which I never finished.

Jethro · Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 21:53

Yep, what UBerserker said. Great concept, nice architecture and enemy placement making it UNREAL to complete this map. It was hard at the beginning, and once you flood the base it's simply unfair. And the Slith city (map 2 IIRC) was where I ended my journey after being killed 100 times by sliths.

I'd say it's let down :tdown:

Buff Skeleton · Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 22:01

I don't think I even finished Slith City when I was using Excessive UT guns (which is what I started using as soon as I played a few minutes of the first map). There was quite a bit of information overload in here, too.

Overall, really bad gameplay decisions, but some cool mapping ideas. Too bad about the former.

Hellscrag · Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 22:28

Agree with the above, from what I can remember of this pack.

I wish EddX had continued mapping. With conceptual skills like he shows here and in The Sky Shard, he was really just getting started...

Mister_Prophet · Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 22:59

The game never loaded for me after the intro. Otherwise I would have reviewed it by now.

Jethro · Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 23:03

@Waffnuffly: Ah, forgot about the amount of reading here! Yeah, quite overwhelming. Also, most of it provides mostly background and is not necessary for progression. Builds up the story while slows down gameplay.

Mister_Prophet wrote:The game never loaded for me after the intro. Otherwise I would have reviewed it by now.

Intro? ZB doesn't have intro!

Mister_Prophet · Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 23:04

This is the one where you descend down a trench wall in a minisub at the start, right?

Hellscrag · Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 23:06

Mister_Prophet wrote:This is the one where you descend down a trench wall in a minisub at the start, right?

Yeah. And there is a separate intro map provided in the zip.

Mister_Prophet · Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 23:07

Yep. I'd watch the minisub go down and then that would be it. Does the alternate intro map fix that problem?

Hellscrag · Post **Posted:** 15 Sep 2008, 23:25

Mister_Prophet wrote:Yep. I'd watch the minisub go down and then that would be it. Does the alternate intro map fix that problem?

Not sure; for the MOTW I just went straight into spuw1, which started with me having to exit the submersible and swim down to the base.

Mister_Prophet · Post **Posted:** 16 Sep 2008, 01:00

Well I redownloaded it and for some reason it worked this time.

I played the first map, which is the map being discussed here. Immediately, I swam to the big door with lights, but found that I got killed by an explosion upon touching an invisible barrier. Then I noticed the underwater module that was moving toward the gate, and this time I followed it. But I made the mistake of touching the rear, which killed me instantly. Heh, oops

. Third time was the charm, and I followed through.

When I got to dry land, it was business as usual. There wasn't a whole lot to see, and I agree with the cramping comments...only that I was able to take full advantage of it. Skaarj don't stand much a chance when they can't move and you've got enforcers, shockrifles, miniguns, and flak. I thought the door textures were a bit odd, since they were basically walls that opened. I did like the flooded base concept. I think the main reason why water combat in unreal is iffy with a lot of people is that water zones in Unreal leave a lot to be desired.

I did think that 90% of the log messages were a waste of time. "Sequence Delta Omega initiated in sector 763535, awating confirmation from Sigma Alpha." I certainly enjoy work banter in log material, but only if I can understand it. Lots of that going around. Toward the end, there started to finally be some story based logs, and I liked the personal reflection during the transit ride. Not so sure about the mercs being in there. I'm only up to level two so I don't know the full story, but it was quite easy to get the Skaarj and the mercs to fight each other.

And I really hate devil fish.

kea · Post **Posted:** 16 Sep 2008, 08:29

I completely agree with all of you about bad gameplay and great visuals of this map (and mappack overall, I finished it, BTW).

In this map I got killed a lot of times. The worst part was getting into some control room or dunno what it was, there were shitload of Skaarj in it. :shock:

15/09/2008 - "The Underwater Base" by EddX

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