Arctic Escape - GrandmasterJ

 

    Arctic Escape is Arctic in that the hallway players are in is snow themed, and the escape bit comes from the end level trigger being in a helicopter. There is little opposition on the way to the end.

SCMapDB page

Author: Rodhy

Date of final release: 2021

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Arctic Escape

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | May 30, 2022 | 3260 characters

    Arctic Escape is a short and easy map where players take a leisurely stroll down an arctic hallway to a helicopter. It's a pretty rough and blocky looking map. Chain link fences and ladder textures don't have transparency applied so both objects have unnatural black spots where one would usually be able to see right through.

    When we started the map we immediately picked up some weapons and ammo off the ground. To our complete surprise the stuff popped back into existence instantly. There was a great deal of loot at the start, HEV batteries, 9mm, magnum ammo, inside three crates was a crossbow and bolts, shotgun with shells, and satchels with tripmines and grenades. They all respawned instantly and we armed ourselves to the teeth before starting down the hallway.

    The map is fairly light on combat. There are some interesting landmarks to investigate, like a small two story cabin with a sniper rifle and some ammo for it. The combat encounters that are in the map are dealt with very easily by well prepared players. I came up on some shipping containers that had a whole swarm of enemies cleverly hidden behind it, I retreated and threw a satchel charge, blowing half of them away. I tossed one around the other side and blew the other half away. It was a lot of enemies and I barely took any damage.

    I did die once, at a certain point the floor gives out and I fell to my death. I sat on the supplies until I was full and walked back. It was somewhat of a trek back to the front, but the map is so short if my teammate didn't also die to the pit trap he would have just beat it before I could catch up. We next get an M16 with grenades, but no bullets, and that makes the last combat sections very easy. We run right to the helicopter and the map end. There were some nice arenas set up throughout the level, but they were mostly devoid of enemies, what little opposition we faced in the map came from ambushes.

    This map has a great spawn area, it is jam packed full of supplies and it all respawns instantly so everybody in the server can get some. It's a bit of a shame that the map is so light on enemies because I had a lot of firepower to unleash on them and with two or more people these poor NPCs just don't stand a chance. The map itself could use some work, I hope the mapper can get more experience and get that transparency on his fences and ladders. One of the comments for this map talks about how the snow crunches underfoot and I didn't even realize how true that was at the time, that's really a great feature. It would have been better if it was less obvious that the map was a straight hallway, the cliff walls were unnaturally straight and the map would have benefitted if any effort was put into making them look even remotely natural.

Pros:

• Best spawn area ever
• I felt like a badass blowing the aliens away
• the snow crunches underfoot, that deserves to be highlighted.

Cons:

• map doesn't look great
• far too light on the combat, we have all this firepower and very little to use it on

Score: 6 / 10