Gargantua Pit - Dunkelschwamm

  

    Gargantua pit is a simple arena with two gargantuas stomping around. Use a wide variety of weapons to bully them into submission. 

SCMapDB page

Author: Jake Andres

Date of final release: 1999

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Gargantua Pit

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by dunkelschwamm | January 29, 2022 | 4677 characters

    Garg Pit (or, gargpit) is a map with a very simple purpose: put players in an arena full of respawning gargantuas, and then sell that the victims of this hell are the gargantuas. I think it does that pretty well.

    The setup is simple: A donut shaped outdoor arena of immense size houses a central tower with two entrances. Within the tower is the player's spawn: a safe haven away from the hazards of gargantuas or bullsquids. In here a plethora of ammo spawns, as well as HEV and Health flowing from wall chargers as freely as if from Dionysus's own krater. From this oasis the players are able to teleport to one of two elevated positions of their choosing. Each of these are positioned at opposite ends of the arena, facing one of the entrances to the tower. These elevated positions are large U-shaped balconies with some respawning health and great vantage points for sticking it to the gargantuas. Beneath these balconies are teleporter stages with ramps leading up to them, out of which gargantuas respawn. Since there are two of these stages in the arena, there are only ever two gargantuas active at once. Each stage has a cabin on either side of it: one with a suit battery and a rocket launcher ammo pickup, and one with gluon gun ammo. I'll come back to the importance of these cabins later. Finally, above each entrance to the tower is an unreachable rampart upon which bullsquids respawn to harass the players from above. The bullsquids keep things moving and prevent the players from camping the elevated spots above the gargantuas too safely, but they're also a constant annoyance.

    The key to playing this map is to first slurp up all of the resources you can in the spawn zone, then run into the battle either through the teleporter or not. Try to keep the gargantuas together and chasing you. As you keep far enough ahead of them, keep your back to them and unload either rockets or gluon gun into them. Stick to whichever weapon you're using for as long as you have ammo for it. As you move, make sure to hit each of those cabins with ammo along the way. Each does not have enough ammo to fuel constant, concentrated fire of either the rocket launcher or the gluon gun, but by the time you run out of ammo for one you should have full ammo for the other. This constant barrage will keep the gargantuas constantly under check and you will rack up a massive score as you constantly deal massive damage. Additionally, getting them into a tripmine trap is a ton of fun and very effective, and if you're having trouble keeping them far away from you, run backwards and drop snarks to distract em. If your suit or health start running low, restock on all of your supplies in the central tower. If the gargs surround the exits, jump out through a teleporter.

    The map's description sells itself short a bit I think when it talks about its simple design. There's a lot of really minimalistic design choices that keep every part of this arena constantly open, while still functional and forcing movement. There isn't a part of this map that isn't important to its design, and it stands as just a playground for nonsense fun. The map itself is rather bland looking, and the lighting is terrible; half of the map is in pitch black shadow, and the players bafflingly are not afforded a flashlight. One of the cabins housing the HEV and rocket is a little short, too, requiring players to crouch to enter.. It doesn't really need to look good, though, because it plays pretty good.

    That said, fighting two gargantuas while bullsquids constantly spit acid at me forever sounds like a punishment placed by a Greek God, so I'm gonna say this probably wouldn't be for me outside of using this map as a lobby for a chatroom or something.

    That said, if you like showing aliens who's boss then pick this up and play it with a friend. If you have a server with lots of arena maps and stuff this one might be fun if you keep its time limit low.

Pros:

• Really good flow and design to the arena
• Good selection of weapons for punishing big blue aliens
• Constant, nonstop action

Cons:

• Some weapons are really useless against the gargantuas, and redundant if you can just use explosive weapons on bullsquids
• The bullsquids are kind of annoying in my opinion
• The map is pretty big and slow to get across without any enhanced mobility like a jump module or gauss gun, but that's personal taste
• You really have to make your own fun in maps like these

Score: 7 / 10