Castle Map - GrandmasterJ

 


    The author of this map appears to apologize for making each of his maps. I found this very interesting and I just had to experience BingusMaster's maps to see for myself.

SCMapDB page

Author: BingusMaster

Date of final release: 2020

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Castle Map

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | January 16, 2022 | 3454 characters

    When I read in the map description 'sorry for making another map' I just had to see what this map was all about. I played the author's only other (at the time that this was written) map on scmapdb Act of Bingus, the map description for that map promised it would be his last map. I've never played anything where the author was apologetic for making it up front like this.

    The map starts off in front of a castle. The map design is very blocky and simplistic. The floor texture inside the castle does not look like it was made to be tiled, the whole thing was clearly a single texture repeated over and over again. Players are given an objective of infiltrating the castle, during this time there is an invisible wall separating players from going off to either side of the castle, and from going forward into the moat or drawbridge. The invisible wall does disappear, so be sure you aren't running forward towards the moat, my teammate and I both jumped into the moat to see what was up only to find ourselves trapped with no way out. Our first deaths were by suicide because we could not leave the moat.

    You'll want to go right around the castle. Going left gives you nothing and you have to go around the entire castle just to end up at the right side anyway. Here there is a weird box, it's unclear what triggers it, but then soldiers spawn nearby. After killing the soldiers the box goes away to reveal something that resembles a flag. My teammate and I started pressing the use key on it and hitting it with our crowbars, eventually the flag started lowering, it happens slowly so I'm not sure if it what the correct choice is, hit or use.

    This opens the main door which leads inside the castle. It's very big and empty inside, with a few scattered zombies as enemies. There was a room with a ramp to the next level, but the ramp ended in a ceiling. Clearing out the bottom floor opened up the ceiling and the ramp did lead to the next level. The top floor was much of the same, except with stronger enemies and an updated spawn point. There is a SAW here with ammo that respawns very fast. We fought a bunch of voltigores dressed up as dragons, circle strafing while nailing them with SAWs worked wonders. Eventually after everything is dead a hole will open up in the ceiling and a ladder will appear in the middle of it. I want to reiterate that the ladder is in the middle of the opening, not anchored to any side of the hole, just free standing all the way up. At the top are more dragon voltigores and after they are dead a giant starman from Earthbound shows up. The starman is a garg, players must rush onto the roof to grab a rocket launcher and kill it, without blowing yourself up.

    After the garg is dead the map congratulates you and it is over.

Pros:

  • Nice custom models, I liked the dragons
  • ammo respawns very fast, allowing for quick resupplies
  • the spawn updates halfway through

Cons:

  • map doesn't look great, the architecture is blocky and the textures are clearly tiled
  • the moat at the start is a trap, it doesn't kill you and players can't get out, forcing suicide
  • it was sometimes unclear what triggered what
  • the starman did not belong with the fantasy castle aesthetic the map was going for

Score: 5 / 10

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