Alien Die 2 - Dunkelschwamm
Monsters sit in better mousetraps of varying degrees of creativity and involvement from the player in a gallery of fatal contraptions.
Author: Michael Koeberlein, LordSlayer
Date of final release: 1999
Maps in package: 1
Map review of Alien Die 2
(originally posted on SCMapDB)
by dunkelschwamm | March 11, 2022 | 3709 characters
Alien Die 2, sequel to (in my opinion mediocre) map Alien Die, is a significant improvement on the formula of watching enemies die while placed safely away from the players themselves. This time there are far more interesting contraptions, an overall better aesthetic which gives the map a sense of identity, and better distribution of set pieces. This time, instead of everything being messily placed in a circle around a big death pit, the map is broken up into four sections where each toolbox comes with its own set of fun gimmicks.
I would say one of the biggest improvements that this map has over the previous Alien Die (other than everything working quite well) is that each contraption is given proper space to be a big, interesting death machine with its own characteristics. There's a giant blender that dumb vortigaunts keep walking into that I find really fun. The map spawns players next to a giant zombie-crusher that is shaped like a railway tram so players can ride the crusher through a bunch of zombies. Set pieces which pit enemies against one another work much better, and their spawners are more creative.
There's some gimmicks that don't work as well for me. There's one where there's a mounted gun in front of a couple respawning enemies, which is fine on its own, but the respawner is broken and tends to overflow with zombies, causing them to run rampant through the level and make a mess. It's a shame, since this is one of the only gimmick in the map that I found to have so much jank. There's also a breakable vending machine that's got some mad z-fighting and broken buttons which slide sideways. There's also an ammo dispenser which dispenses ammo for weapons which, to my knowledge, do not appear in this level. I get the sense that the mounted gun, the vending machine, probably the zombie-killing train crusher, and possibly the ammo dispenser were probably prefabs or sloppily implemented tutorials.
I also need to briefly point out that, though each area of the map has far more personality than in Alien Die, they're still bizarrely blocked out and without clear intention at times, and some rooms (especially the first two areas, with the vort grinder and the zombie crusher train) have painfully bland textures. It's painfully bland in a way which can be seen as having a personality, but it's a painfully bland personality.
Despite the previous negative statements, I think this is an incredible improvement after Alien Die and sold me a bit more on the concept. I now believe there are creative ways to grind up Half-Life enemies with rotating brush entities which can be interesting and fun to watch. I could even see this map holding a server's attention for 10-20 minutes, up to half an hour maybe if the players are an easily entertained bunch.
If you would like to grind up aliens in big ol grinders then give this map a try. Heck, even try it with a friend. There's some real fun alien killing machines on display here that are worth checking out once or twice.
Pros:
- Some really creative and fun alien killing machines
- The layout of this map allows many players spread out having their own fun
- Huge variety of concepts
- A lot more personality to each area than in previous Alien Die map
Cons:
- A couple of the machines let enemies get loose too easily
- Things are still pretty crummy in the brushwork and texture department
- Some strange things, like ammo for weapons which aren't present or that broken-ass vending machine
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