Metal Bar - GrandmasterJ

 


    Metal Bar is a reference to a genre of music and a drinking establishment, not a material and an object. This map features two bars with speakers blasting some heavy metal with very low quality audio.

SCMapDB page

Author: Robootto and RNG

Date of final release: 2006

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Metal Bar

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | February 19, 2022 | 3682 characters

    I've played enough maps made by Robootto to know I'm probably not going to have a good time. But RNG also helped make this map, and his maps are amazing. RNG's influence is probably a big reason why I think this map is one of Robootto's best maps.

    The map design is simple, start off in a small park with a couple doors. One door is locked up tight and never opens, another leads to a small guitar store, and the other leads to the first metal bar of the map. The map description says there are two, its pretty difficult to find the second one and I would never have looked that hard to find it if I didn't already know it was there. I did use noclip to find it in the end.

    The map design is simple and nice. The metal bars have some fun posters on the walls, interesting brushwork drums, custom music with the second bar having multiple track options. The glass bottles and glasses take forever to break which is strange but it wouldn't be a Robootto map if things weren't off in some way. Speaking of off, there is a strange device (my teammate has informed me after I had already written this that what I was looking at was the kitchen. I was looking at a counter and overhead cabinets, textured badly) behind the bar at the first metal bar. Pressing use on the corner of it will open the door to the guitar store across the way. The door is on a timer and for some reason it is a huge block. It will close behind you and lock you in forever so don't dawdle in here.

    The second bar is accessed by attacking a nondescript wall in a hallway in the starting area. There is a faint line that players can use to discern that it is there, but I had to noclip around to find it. This leads to a tunnel that opens up to the second metal bar. It has a different layout and feel than the first. If I had to guess which bar RNG made it would be this one. The first bar felt like a wonky Robootto map and the second bar feels like a bar.

    There is a ramp here leading to a wall. The wall has a lot of health but can eventually be destroyed leading to an area with a load of fun weapons and infinitely respawning scientists. My teammate and I spent a great deal of time here gibbing scientists with various methods.

    I should also mention that I started playing this with the map version I got from Robootto's big map pack. This lacks the custom textures needed, so I got a lot of purple and black checkerboard. I had to download the individual map off the scmapdb database entry in order to get the necessary wads. So be aware of that.

    I had fun here. There was very little bullshit typical in maps made by Robootto, and the atmosphere was really nice. The custom music is great and my teammate and I actually looked up some of the bands featured. Death metal is not our cup of tea, is what we've discovered. The scientists were real fun to kill and was a nice way to end the map. I can't imagine a map made by Robootto alone could ever be better than this.

Pros:

  • Fun level design, the map was interesting and had good atmosphere
  • there was a notable lack of painful to play sections that many of Robootto's maps have
  • killing the scientists ended the map on a very high note
  • the custom music was a big part of the atmosphere but deserves its own shout out.

Cons:

  • maybe this is just me, but I think the path to the other bar should have been more obvious
  • the destructibles have too much health, both the breakable walls and the glass cups and bottles

Score: 7 / 10

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