Arena - GrandmasterJ

 

    This is an arena. There are many like it, but this one is Arena. Enemies spawn in without end and the architecture is simple and blocky.

SCMapDB page

Author: Rivendell

Date of final release: 2006

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Arena

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | June 17, 2022 | 2295 characters

    Arena is a fairly bland map. Players spawn next to friendly NPCs and some hostile ones and they fight and players can step in and help them. Left alone these two factions can generally keep each other busy. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to which monsters are friendly and which are hostile, it all seems random. There was a gargantua that I saw and helped kill but then I tried looking for anything else of interest and didn't find much, meanwhile my teammate fought spawning turrets, female assassins, a minigunner, and a big momma. I guess your mileage may vary. Players spawn fully loaded so that helps a lot.

    The map is a big empty room with a divider and catwalk in the middle. Outside there are some rock-textured lumps that players can walk over, eventually hitting invisible water. The invisible water surrounds this courtyard and goes straight up to the top of the map. The water doesn't actually reach the sides of the map, there is a strange and useless gap between the water and the skybox. So swim to close to the side and fall out of the water. On top of the big box is a friendly gonome and bullsquid and a hostile gonome. There is also a cylinder of water on top of the big box but it doesn't really go anywhere.

    Honestly, the whole map feels bland and uninspired. But it also has some care put into it, players start with a full complement of weapons plus 200 health and HEV. The combat may be way too easy due to all the allies scattered around, but the map spawned in some bigger threats periodically which was fun. At a certain point after we had reached the top of the building the spawn point updated to be there. Seeing a spawn update is a good way to give a feeling of progress. It was probably a good diversion in 2006 when it was made, but I find it boring and ugly now.

Pros:

• Having players start with all the weapons was a great idea
• starting players with 200 health and armor was also a great idea
• The map managed to surprise us by spawning bigger enemies and it made the map more interesting
• updating spawn point

Cons:

• the map design is pretty bad
• the map looks very bad
• the gameplay is all combat and there are too many random allies to have engaging combat

Score: 4 / 10