CRS: Marsh Wastes

Yowza. Another great map by Trisk. You may remember him as the artist who constructed ‘Canyon Run’, the map that obliterated the bar for single player serious mapping. He’s back and with a Vengeance. if you thought canyon run was innovative, you were right! And this map keeps up the tradition. most of us (okay, maybe just me) thought that canyon run would be the lost standing standard for coop SS mapping, whelp, the same author has come along and delivered once again, forever altering the way we look at sammage coop maps.

Eyecandy: If there’s one thing this map hast, it’s 2 things. And those 2 things are atmosphere and eyecandy, and loads of them both. The map starts you off in the middle (or the start?) of a swamp. A very dark swamp. Looking around, you can see the artists obvious attention to detail. The fog is just right, the lack of light on the terrain is a marvelous addition to the level. The use of trees (and attractive trees at that) is very nicely done. The outdoor areas of this map reminded me a lot of Neille Manke’s classic horror epic: They Hunger. The visuals speak for themselves. I recommend you dl this map and see it on your own.

Gameplay: The gameplay of this map is very strong. I don’t want to spoil any of the fun for you, but needless to say, Trisk has maintained his ironic sense of enemy placement and superb use of level gimmicks. Fighting random on that ‘walk of faith’ [author’s note: this part of the map is destined to be a classic sammage event] is quite possibly the most buttery smooth gameplay event I’ve ever enjoyed. (well, maybe next to the rock climb in half-life.) However, I would like to see more enemies and some more level – it was a tad short.

Recommended Player Number: 1-3. 4 is pushing it, but possible. Nothing beats the “where’s my team” feeling on this map Final Analysis: A great map that falters only in length. But alas, all good things, eh?

OVRERALL SCORE: 9.8/10

-Caid-

i wanted to like this map. i really, really did. i liked canyon run, i think trisk is going to be one of the greatest single player mappers in the SS community. so i was looking forward to playing this. but, well...for one, its way too short, as part of a single player episode, this would be fine, but as a standalone map, it just ends all too soon. the atmosphere created by the level is pretty cool, but still pretty simplistic, and i never really got into it much. combat was very disjointed, and just didnt seem to 'flow' somehow. the map was fun enough to keep me playing through, but at the end of it, i still felt there was enough lacking to warrant not going back to that map. there were still a few places where things looked nice, and i still think this mapper is going to be awesome, but i'm just gonna have to give this one a miss. believe me, im not trying to be sensationalist or anything by dissing this map, if i liked it, i wouldve said so. heck, if youre reading this, you might as well download this map anyway because everyone else loves it, so you probably will too.

OVERALL SCORE: 5/10 i'll just brace for the flame mail now...

-mr man-

Well, Trisk, you done went and did it. You made a really good map. Sure enough, there's very little 'Egyptian' in this map, except for maybe that toppled-over statue - a nice touch, I thought. Sure, there aren't too many monsters to frag, and a relatively small weapon selection. But there's _atmosphere_ in this map. No, I'm not talking about that feeling in your chest, I'm talking about the map itself. This map showcases the fog very well, and proves that Serious Sam isn't an "Egyptian Only" engine, and can do very well in a dank, dark environment.

The architecture in this map ranges from your average swamp to Trisk's familiar 'gigantic ruined temple' construct. Making a short return is the slide, and an awe-inspiring new trick which I won't spoil for you. Let's just say that when you see it, your jaw will drop and drool will start slowly dribbling down your chin. Well, maybe it's not THAT awesome, but it is really cool. And yes, you do get to fight a few badguys at the location. I have a few minor complaints with the architecture - First, there are places in the swamp where if you duck down beneath the water, you can't 'swim up' above the surface. While it didn't prove too detrimental to my staying alive, since I could just strafe to the nearest incline and above the surface, it could prove to be annoying if you for some reason decided to go for a really long swim. Second, I noticed that the fish would willingly follow me out of the water and over fairly large hills. I'm not sure whether this is a problem with the map or the game engine though. Other than that though, the swamps look... well... like really dark swamps. A little blocky, and the texture seems to be just black, but give the man some credit. He doesn't have the Quake III engine and it's 'curves' to work with (For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, in Heavy Metal: FAKK2, there was a series of levels staged in a swamp. Now I don't know about you, but I thought those levels looked quite like actual swamps - complete with trees, lilies, man-eating plants and evil aliens out for your soul.) So anyway, good job with the swamps, consider using some textures on the ground next time. The other areas are meant to be blocky and are quite well-textured with quite a few interesting details (some of which will piss you off - "all I wanted was my freakin' tommygun..." :)

The monster placement... well, I beat them off, but not without considerable strain. I'd like to point out that I only save/loaded once or twice (on Hard), so this isn't an "arcade action" type of map - more like a "freak you out" type of map. The variety of monsters lives a little to be desired, but you can't really expect to fit a major biomech or a reptiloid highlander into these little swamps. And you just HAD to put in a crowd of gnaars, didn't you? Didn't you?

OVERALL SCORE: 9/10. Great map, a little short, needs more monsters, 'little debugging, and add some dark moss texture to the swamp floor.

-fifthhorseman-

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