Adam's Dungeon - GrandmasterJ

 

    Adam's Dungeon is a trap and monster filled maze with a boss fight and a difficult platforming room. With two players the map was difficult and took a long time to complete.

SCMapDB page

Author: Adambean

Date of final release: 2009

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Adam's Dungeon

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | January 28, 2022 | 6484 characters

    Let me be upfront, I am not a fan of maze maps or first person platforming. This map has both. I wasn't too excited about what I saw on the map's page either so I didn't have high hopes going into it.

    The map is a maze. It starts off with a deluge of gonomes and pit drones right off the bat, players could be fooled into thinking it is a combat heavy map. Yes, there is combat and plenty of it. The combat is frenetic and claustrophobic, the whole map is a maze of hallways and running backwards from incredibly fast and powerful enemies while frantically trying to shoot them. But the real obstacles are invisible instant death traps found in certain hallways. When fighting players have to make sure they don't go down the wrong path and get instantly killed. I kept bumping into my teammate and blocking him, usually getting us both killed. Then the aliens would eat our corpses and regain all their health. At one point we were both getting killed by a gonome in a tight area and we both died like three times to this guy. Eventually I decided to lure him into a smasher trap and gibbed us both. Doing that was incredibly fun, but overall I'm not sure I really enjoyed the combat.

    The traps were unique and interesting. Most of the time when going down the wrong path players would get killed in fun ways. You might be smashed, you might get electrocuted, you might get burned, you might get dropped into acid. I think it goes without saying that I died a lot playing this map. There was one trap that players had to jump over to progress. I don't like how that is set up because there are other traps that seem like players can jump over but will actually block and kill players. The trap I'm talking about was a section of hallway that would lower into what looked like lava, my teammate dubbed it the 'Sunny D' room. Great name, but I had difficulty jumping over it and I hated that room.

    One really great thing about the map is that there is a teleporter room accessible near spawn, both teleporter exits drop players off in good locations. In a maze map filled with traps like this one I was so happy to see this. But then we hit a boss fight, a gargantua in a temple. The fight itself was pretty fun but our spawn point updated to be deep in this temple, far from the entrance. After we beat the boss a door opened up on the first level. Our spawn was still in the temple. It felt like the next area was the other corner of the map, travelling from the new spawn point to the next area was a huge pain. The teleporters were rendered useless, no time was saved trekking back, and since we were coming at the maze from a new direction our mental maps were all messed up. That spawn update was great for the boss battle, but it overstays its welcome and renders the helpful teleporters useless.

    There are two jumping puzzles in the map, three if you count the 'Sunny D' room, and I hate both of them. The first one is a green room with some alien controllers floating around when you fist enter and acid covering the floor. The room looks daunting to cross with thin broken up rails the player has to jump across. Some sections are slanted and some sections have walls that push the player off triggered in long intervals so its hard to time when they will come out. I feel like the push blocks are just rubbing salt in the wound. I couldn't get past the first quarter of the puzzle, my teammate managed to beat it though. The door at the end has spikes that come out in set intervals, so after beating some brutal platforming players can still get shredded by the exit door. This is sadistic.

    The second jumping puzzle really isn't about jumping. There is a near invisible pattern of platforms suspended just over some lava. The platform is hard to see but does pulsate a bit so its easier to see at certain times. I also think it might be slippery but its hard to tell when you can't see it. Also, you are taking fire damage the entire time you are in the room. It's just a little though, my teammate got across the room with 50 health. I will admit here, I cheated across the gap because I had lost patience with this map.

    The end room was nice. Players get dropped into some water. Going up and out puts them in a room full of ancient memes from the long long ago. I haven't seen the O Rly owl in probably 10 years before today. I don't actually know if that is true or not, but I feel like it is. Going down into a teleporter will put players in a room with HEV and long jump with a plaque on the wall saying 'the end'. There is also a tunnel back into the maze, I guess as a sort of New Game+ or to dunk on the server's losers who haven't gotten to the end.

    One last note here, the map is beautiful. Players first spawn in an outdoor area that looks nice. The walls are very steep ramps and weird things happen when players rub against them, but eh, that seems like a goldsrc problem to me. There is a fountian in the middle of the map that looks great. The textures set the mood and I liked the T-Rex head symbols scattered around. There were some barred windows with fun light shaft effects, the green acid and imitation orange juice glowed and gave their respective pits eerie lighting. The traps also blended in well with the environment. Using the Desert Eagle's laser sight can give players clues about the locations of traps, but typically there is no warning. I used my spray to indicate where traps were.

    I am trying real hard to be fair to this map because I know it's just not what I am looking for in my Sven maps. But after seeing the push blocks in the green platforming room and the last platforming room's whole premise it seems like the author enjoys causing people pain like some sick psychopath. I did have fun in the map discovering traps and enjoying scenery, but two out of two puzzles were big turn offs for me.

Pros:

• Nice looking map, good textures
• fun and interesting trap variety
• teleporters were very thoughtful additions

Cons:

• combat was a slog
• updating spawn point renders teleporters moot and does not put players closer to their goal
• The green room jumping puzzle had blocks that push players off, completely unnecessary
• The last puzzle was garbage and I don't feel bad cheating past it

Score: 5 / 10