The Good- How splendid, yet another single player map. I hope people will stop releasing those DMs, turn to their artistic side and release SPs. This map is quite straight-forward, in the good ol' Sam tradition- you run around the place, shoot things, pick up weapons, shoot some more, etc. Some of the doors are locked and require a key, but it's usually near by. One of the best parts of this map are the lava parts. You find yourself on a bridge above a lake of Lava, with all sorts of monsters running/shooting/screaming your way. No running and no hiding, and you better blast them to pieces before they reach you. Another neat lava part is the small "boat"- it floats over the lava, taking you to the next part of the map, but you better have a weapon ready because the monsters are coming. Once again, no running nor hiding, just blast, blast, blast!

The Bad- This map is designed for Normal mode, but mediocare players will have great difficulty finishing it. Health and ammunition are scarce, and the big fight on the end is quite resources consuming.

The Pool- Just lava pools :( The pool lovers amongst us will have to find a good swimming suit.

-Iirion Claus-

Think 'a level from the third episode of doom, but in full 3D', and you've pretty much got the idea of the lava warrens. from start to finish, youve got small tight corridors, open spaces filled with lava, and all sorts of creatures spawning in at arms length. this map will definitely impress you with its well thought out battles, and its creative layout. although its pretty hard, its never too hard and you always know where to go and what to do, even though the author gives no clues as to why youre doing it. but we can forgive that. at the end there's also a treat, with a frantic fight with a biiiiiiig lava golem that does a good job of draining you of whatever ammo youve managed to pick up along the way. this map entertained me all the way, and i have no hesitation to give it a high mark. some nitpcik's first however. this map is too short. like it needs to be about four times longer. a possible reason for this is that people want to get their single player maps out the door quickly to begin with. this is fine, as it gives a sense of achievement, but hopefully we'll see some longer maps in the future from this author and others. besdies that, my only other complaint is that the doors are rather temperamental and open only they 'feel like it'. but thats all, download it, and have a blast.

OVERALL SCORE: 9.5/10, i gotta say, i think this is the best single player level ive seen yet.

-mr man-

Caid’s Review Service

LvL: Lava Warrens

Artist: p0gie (cute name, eh?)

Nothing I like better than an overdue review, my apologies to grandpa for taking so bloody long on this one. And one thing I’d like to note before I continue: Blitzkrieg Bop is a great song. Go download it NOW!

Lava Warrens. The name inspires many questions. One of the most prevalent ones being “Warrens? What the hell are Warrens and why do they have lava?” Dictionary.com defines warrens as:

“Warrens, WI (village, FIPS 83450) Location: 44.13038 N, 90.50057 W Population (1990): 343 (117 housing units) Area: 1.4 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 54666”

…Okay then, on with the review. LavaWarrens is a Single Player level that plays like a deathmatch level. I only played it once, so I’m not even sure If I’ve explored all the routes yet. I could tell that the artist was new to sammage mapping. The layout is very well thought out, but the architecture is unbalanced (very good in some places, lacking in others) and there were some eyecandy problems. This map continues the fine sammage tradition of levels that have nothing to do with ANYTHING, and that’s all well and good by me.

Eyecandy: There are some big texturing problems on this map, mostly the lack thereof. I was disappointed to see almost NO detail textures. As mentioned before, the architecture was a bit unbalanced. But that’s okay. The ride up the elevator before the end reminded me so much of quake1, I almost cried. I’d also like to see a more subtle use of coloured light. :) the lava’s nice, but a bit rushed…

Gameplay: This map is crazy. The opening is a bit off topic, but meh. The ride is fun. The elevator is a kick. The constant barrage of lava is cool. The potholes keep you on your toes. The enemy placement is okay. The item placement is shit. I’m sorry, but the item placement on this map is really ass. Having to take down a big lava dude with 5 rockets, 50 cells, 8 shotty shells and the colts is NOT FUN! p0gie’s going to have to go back to the drawing board and rethink this aspect of his map. Other than that, it’s pretty peachy.

Recommended Player Number: One…..

Final Word: This would have been an amazing map if it was done a year from now after p0gie learned sammage. But oh well, he’ll just have to settle for ass kicking

OVERALL SCORE: 6/10

-Caid-

Lava Warrens From the title, I gathered that this map had something to do with lava. Now this may seem like a really silly statement to make, but I assure you, it's important. So anyway, the map consists of two basic types of combat areas. There are a few narrow enclosed spaces, and there are many more "medium-sized" spaces. I say medium sized because there's still plenty of room to put a large number of monsters, but they're not the huge arenas we've seen in other maps. This map is definitely not for the faint of heart, seeing as how there is usually very little room to dodge. Specifically, if you're 'faint of heart', you'll be tempted to try to dodge a rocket, laser blast or whatever and wind up dodging straight into the lava lake below. There isn't a terribly large amount of enemies, but the fact of the matter is that most of the time you're on a little rock outcropping with a lava lake below, and have about five square feet of manuevering space - so you have to be real sharp with the weapons. Also, ammo conservation is vital - in fact, I couldn't beat the final boss because I ran out of ammo (only the second time through did I find that bloody cannon).

The map's architecture is solid, with good texturing and enough detail so the level doesn't look quite like a concrete polyogon. I'd have liked to see more detail on the walls of the lava rivers - even having the walls not go straight up. The only problem I have with the architecture is that some of the doors seem to have some sort of delayed-reaction opening scheme, which can get a little confusing at times. The enemy placement is fairly reasonable, altough there were several places where I was able to take advantage of the AI by hiding in a space too narrow for the critter to go through and shooting it with my pistols (all part of this ammo conservation theme). I have two major complaints with regards to entity placement. One, I consider the cannon absolutely necessary to beat the final boss of this level - so putting it into a secret location seems a little harsh to me. Second, and this goes for most other maps I review, we want more monsters and longer maps! :) I want to see a horde of 200 frogs jumping at me while I desperately try to mow them down with a tommygun. I want to see that giant gnaar crowd that Trisk had in his Canyon Run map. I want to see a cannon-and-bull scenario. What I don't want to see is these maps where there are about as many bad guys as in a Quake map of relative size.

OVERALL SCORE: 7.5/10. I wouldn't call this map spectacular or stunning, but it's definitely worth the download and playing time.

-fifthhorseman-

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