Garg - GrandmasterJ

 

    Listed alphabetically, the list of maps tend to form clumps. Garg is first in line in the clump of Gargantua themed maps and is pretty indicative of what these maps tend to play like.

SCMapDB page

Author: ShotGunKiller

Date of final release: 2002

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Garg

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | May 15, 2022 | 2364 characters

    The map description is very apt for this map, it is an arena with infinitely respawning gargantuas and an arena with some exploration bits. Players start on a cliff overlooking the garg and the arena, I immediately saw a rocket launcher on top of a building, when I ran across the bridge to get it the bridge broke and I fell in with the garg. You have to jump up the crates in front of the building to access the rocket launcher, there is a vent around the side of the building that allows access to the inside and some goodies. There are some other sections with enemies, like the long hallway on the other side of the really big door in the arena. At a certain point alien grunts start showing up.

    The map looks fairly similar to what you'd see in Half-Life. Some of the textures are stretched, especially on the doors, which are also pretty thick. There are some breakable walls that z-fight with normal walls and so its obvious where paths are going to open up. The map doesn't look terrible but it does look amatuerish.

    There was also some weird settings where we didn't have flashlights and started with no weapons and had to pick everything up. The weapons didn't respawn right away so my teammate had to wait a bit to get the same weapons I had. It seems unnecessary for an arena map like this to throttle the firepower the players have, especially when the main opponent is a garg and all the weapons that have any chance of doing any damage to it are all scattered around anyway.

    The map has no end. We noclipped around to see what was around and I found out that I saw it all already. There is not much to this map, it is pretty small. The respawning garg in the middle is something that's been done a lot and there is nothing really different here about it. The rocket launcher does the best damage so be sure to monopolize it.

Pros:

• Nice idea, arena with exploration added
• I liked the map layout, spawn over the arena with path down and clear points of interest.
• players are rewarded well for exploration

Cons:

• level aesthetic could use some work
• lack of flashlight and starting weapons is a baffling design choice

Score: 6 / 10