Holy Crypt
Nick C

This is the first map I have reviewed, so if I miss something, so please do not go to hard on me, I assure you that I have spotted almost everything. This new map was just created by deCyber's Nick_C. I have always admired the maps deCyber puts out; most of them are almost perfect. This map is very well done. The levels setting gives you this psychotic feeling that if perfect for multiplayer and bot games. It takes place in an old crypt. However, let's save the rest of the details for now and go over the looks.

LOOKS:
This map has some nice textures in it; I could not spot any major texturing problems in the map. There were however, one or two unaligned textures, but they are only slightly unaligned and you would have to look hard to spot them. Lighting is well done; there are not too many lighting mistakes. The lighting color matches the scene, and is not overdone, and in most parts of the map, the brightness and darkness are near perfect to perfect. I did however spot some lighting problems, coming up a pair of stairs; the lighting is too dark to see the stairs, so you cannot tell if there are even stairs there. I do not know if that lighting is supposed to be like this, or if they forgot to add the lights there, but I find it slightly disturbing since there are a couple of lights near that part. The skybox is well done, and gives you a creepy feeling that makes you stand there and stare at it until you get shot, and it has a nice midnight color to it. However, I would have expected a little more, and the clouds were moving excessively fast for the scene. Overall, the skybox was very good. The architecture is great in this map, it may confuse the new user at first because of the way it is built, but after a couple bot or multiplayer matches in the map, you will get to know and recognize it pretty well. The brush shapes are well suited for this map, and are usually in appropriate places. If you fall into the lava or the acid there is no way to get out, this adds to the slaughterhouse style of this map.

PLAYABILITY:
This level can handle 8-16 players and still play good without feeling too cramped, though having less then that is way too easy, even having eight players is pretty easy, this map is made for more players. Although over a 56k modem, this level might lag because of its size, it is still worth playing. I like the botplay in this level if I play with 14-16 bots, any lower for me is way too easy, so if you are "God Like" in your UT fashion, and you want to play with bot, ad as many bots as you need.

FAULTS:
I could not spot too many faults, except that you need a lot of people to play this level or it gets very boring, and this might cause some lagging problems. And another thing is the placement of the armor, it makes the map too easy, all you have to do is get 199 health with the vials, then get the shield belt, and you just lost all of the challenge in the game, and if you are like me, an unreal map isn't an unreal map without some sort of challenge.