Ambush 2 - GrandmasterJ

 

    Ambush 2 is a fun little map based on a GI Joe toy set. There isn't really anything ambush related here, clear the map of enemies, there is no end level trigger.

SCMapDB page

Author: Lymphoid

Date of final release: 2003

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Ambush 2

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | March 26, 2022 | 2903 characters

    I played this map right after playing the first Ambush, which I thought was pretty bad. The sequel is much better but still has much room for improvement. The map description says this is a beta, and it shows. The level end is behind a wall that looks like it is rigged to explode but does not seem able to do so. There are underbarrel grenades here that spawn in fours and they got me through the level.

    Right out of spawn there is a respawning swarm of houndeyes. My teammate and I were killing them and with no end to them in sight he decided to use wonky level geometry to hop a fence and trigger the next area. Worried that we messed something up I restarted the map, turns out the fence is destructible and must be destroyed to progress. The whole gimmick of the map is killing enemies, they respawn in place a lot right on top of players. At the top of one tower a gonome keeps appearing with very little room for players to maneuver, it can also throw goo off the top of the tower at players below. It's very annoying.

    The level itself is very nice to look at. The level design is still a little rough, but it looks very interesting. It's based off a GI Joe playset and it does look a lot like the playset. There is a big radar dish tower and a tower with a helipad with what I guess is a gantry. There is a door at the base of this tower that is opened in another area behind another breakable fence. A garg spawns here when you approach the fence and there is a male assassin on top of the satellite dish tower that can see here so it pretty dangerous. There is no indication that this button opens a door so it took a while to figure out what was happening.

    Inside the door is a long jump module which players can use to leap across to the dish tower and climb to the highest point in the level, which also includes a rocket launcher. The architecture up here is pretty neat and standing at the highest point fills one with a sense of accomplishment. The level end is, as previously mentioned, locked behind a wall that should be explodable, but is not. Jump off the tower in a last blaze of glory and then manually change map.

    I had fun with this map. The combat was awful and the paths of progression were consistently confusing but the map looked nice and it was fun to climb. It's a huge improvement over the first one and despite the rocky start I had a lot of fun exploring it.

Pros:

• fun level design
• underbarrel grenades were great fun
• reaching the peak of the tower felt pretty good, as did jumping off to a satisfying splat at the end

Cons:

• combat was a slog, especially early game
• path of progression was not clear
• level end is seemingly broken

Score: 4.5 / 10