Dark Island - GrandmasterJ

 

    Dark Island is a maze with useful landmarks to navigate by and a lot of scavenger hunting. Players start out woefully weak and underprepared but thanks to an amazing spawn and weapon unlock system as the map goes on players are more and more empowered.

SCMapDB page

Author: NIPPER

Date of final release: 2005

Maps in package: 1

(originally posted on SCMapDB) 

Map review of Dark Island

by GrandmasterJ | December 12, 2021 | 2989 characters

    I played Dark Island a lot way back in the day. I played it the way it was meant to be played, with loads of people. I remember it fondly back them but I also don't remember how to beat it because most the time other people were actually progressing and I was just wandering around, lost.

    Now that I've played it with three people and we tried to stick together and beat it together the rose tinted glasses have come off. I still think it is a great map, but it's a big maze with multiple scavenger hunts and tons of respawning enemies. Some enemies respawn forever, some spawn in on triggers. When I was lost and others were hitting milestones I would never be wanting for enemies to fight, they would periodically spawn in everywhere. But with a team getting lost all together the map became real tedious.

    A lot of the enemies had real fun names. The first boss was named EVIL, the respawning zombies are called respawning zombies, and at one point I encountered and murdered the whole cast of the TV show LOST. The enemies are real fun.

    The map beginning is especially tedious because you are limited to melee weapons only (players start with no weapons, the site of the first boss fight also has the first weapon). This fight is definitely something for three or more players, its a gonome that will replenish all its health upon eating a corpse or gibs. It has a lot of health, hits hard, gets full health on eating a player, and we only have crowbars. This is where single players and less than skilled two player teams would have to end the game right here.

    Eventually players will get a hive hand, rush past the wizard to get it. The hive hand is far more powerful than it was when this map was made so it really helps to have. All weapons will appear in the spawn area as soon as they are picked up by anybody. This is a HUGE quality of life improvement and Dark Island has one of the best spawn set ups out of nay map I've played. There are four teleporters that will spit players out at the four cardinal points of the island, each one with a doorway to the maze-like interior.

    I don't like mazes, but Dark Island is my favorite maze. It looks good, the infinitely respawning enemies are weak zombies and usually pose no problem to me just wandering around. There are plenty of landmarks to get a mental picture of the map like a beachside camp, a big treehouse, a waterfall, and a pit with a tree in it. As far as scavenger hunts in mazes go its pretty good.

Pros:

• Great atmosphere, fun aesthetic
• Top notch spawn room with updating weapons and teleports
• Surprising amount of action
• The enemies have real fun names

Cons:

• Its a maze
• Its a series of scavenger hunts
• The objective is almost never clear, even when it is not a scavenger hunt

Score: 7.5 / 10