Tronyn reviews: Conflagrant Rodent by Orl

« Tronyn reviews: Red Slammer by negke || Red Slammer by negke »

## Tronyn reviews: Conflagrant Rodent by Orl

- oms2_2.zip – Conflagrant Rodent by Orl
- Download: oms2_2.zip

Orl’s new map takes place in a vast series of caverns, canyons, and ruined medieval structures, into many of which are built broken wooden structures like bridges, ladders and platforms. From the start I could tell that this map was going to be excellent. Ruined architecture takes time to do in Quake, and the amount of work put into this level clearly shows. To list a few of the details which appear in this map, there are dislodged stones, fallen beams, broken arches, and bent and shattered doors (this was an especially nice and unique detail). In many cases, these details are used as part of the layout, so that the gameplay involves a lot of jumping and climbing. This is fairly unique and really satisfying, the only analogy I can think of is my own soe1m3, but there the consequences of falling from the climb spots was nothing serious. In contrast, this map makes heavy use of lava, so that there is a sense of real danger (remember crossing the broken mine tracks in hip1m3?).

There are some places where pieces of architecture drop off into the lava once you step on them, but what’s more dangerous is the (thankfully appropriately constrained) use of monsters while the player is in such situations. New mileage is made out of scrags especially, which are suddenly much more dangerous when they can block your jump and knock you into the lava, or shoot you at inopportune moments on some high tiny platform. A section with a moving trolley and a unique use of lava is also well done; overall the map consists of many distinct, well-designed segments, so that the gameplay is constantly interesting. New textures contribute to the look, including a fire texture which is used for doom-like effect in some places; the design is both a technical and visual achievement.

The centrepiece of the map is a huge medieval courtyard with water inside it and lava and caves attached to it; this section is full of walkways, arches, platforms, torches, beams, etc; it is a very nicely designed room, and as elsewhere in the map it incorporates very nice rockwork into it. The map is very interconnected, and does not skimp on connecting one area to another visually; given the amount of detail, the map can probably be compared to This Onion, in terms of medieval setpiece design incorporated with lava and caverns. Gameplay is nicely balanced – fiends and vores are especially dangerous around lava, but the grenade launcher is provided and you are even forced to over-rely on it in places, which is an interesting challenge. Health is plentiful for the most part – it’s about surviving section to section, though there are a couple especially dangerous areas, including the end. What we are talking about with this map, is a massive, detailed, well-conceived and well-executed Q1SP that takes an old theme (Red Stone medieval) and updates it in a very nice way. Welcome back to the elder world, this seems like the best map of the year so far to me.

Score: 19/20

04.09.2010 in Tronyn Reviews | 7 Comments »

### 7 Responses to “Tronyn reviews: Conflagrant Rodent by Orl”

1. yoshi314 Says:
   04.09.2010 21:41

   download link seems to be broken

2. Spirit Says:
   05.09.2010 08:59

   Oops, I forgot to upload the file. Thanks!

3. Trinca Says:
   06.09.2010 11:19

   Honestly I think the 19/20 is not the right classification…

   Tronyn are you making the reviews based of brushwork only? if so then is correct, it is in fact a excellent map full of details and ambience!

   If not, game play is not much fun and at some points kind of frustrated :\ the lava pools to get the Silver key and final battle aren’t much fun.

   But is my opinion of course, game play and brushwork I would give it a 16 or 17…

   Orl dont be mad with me :) I liked the map, was a fun blast but in the areas I spoken didn´t had much fun = (godmode).

   More maps please but shorter!

4. Tronyn Says:
   07.09.2010 22:29

   heh, I will admit the lava silver key bit was kind of annoying initially, but it’s a unique scenario, and in this map, the brushwork and gameplay can’t really be separated – I found all the climbing, jumping and exploring to be really fun. The final battle was a bit hard though. Anyway my ratings are just personal opinions of course, I’m glad to see what other people think.

5. gb Says:
   09.09.2010 11:06

   It is a nice map, the brushwork and detailing are probably excellent, but…

   There is a trend in level design to build nice looking structures and then toss in a lot of monsters.

   That’s not enough. And it can’t be enough to rate a level on. What you and others are rating is environment design, ie the quality of brushwork, the creativity that went into the theme and the amount of time that was spent on detailing… and how imposing the whole thing looks.

   A level for a game is more than that, though.

   This map doesn’t have reasonably well executed skill settings, for crying out loud. You can’t argue with that. Item placement is definitely lacking. It didn’t get enough playtesting, and it wasn’t tested by a broad enough selection of people. These things are part of what we call gameplay. It is astonishing how little weight gameplay carries when level designers review other people’s levels.

   I mean environment designers, excuse me.

   It’s not a surprise that gameplay often isn’t done by the same people who do the brushwork anymore.

   My rating, 15/20, based on the parts I got to see before I was inevitably killed while trying to axe things, on Easy. Granted, I usually play different games, but that’s what Easy should be there for… or so I thought.

   But then, you’re not known for “accessible” maps yourself, Tronyn, and with 14 years of Quaking experience the exaggerated difficulty might seem normal and nothing to write home about. :-P

   I’ll go back to those other, worse, more accessible games that have been dumbed down for casual players like me. I should get a console.

6. onetruepurple Says:
   09.09.2010 15:41

   gb, I agreed with your post until you implied that console games *aren’t* dumbed down :-P

   I definitely agree with the notion about environment/gameplay design. I could care less about setpieces as long as the map uses the monsters well. czg03 was renowned for its cunning monster placement, and yet it wasn’t an ugly boxmap.

7. Tronyn Says:
   09.09.2010 15:50

   good points
   I myself am planning to try more unique/new/experimental things after I finish my current batch of (yes epic) maps… you make some good points. Still 19/20 reflects my enjoyment of this map.

### Leave a Reply

Name

Mail (will not be published)

Website