Azac - GrandmasterJ

 

    This is a short map that puts players in a very defensible building with respawning monsters outside. Players who can get past the enemies can explore a short walkthrough portion until hitting the map end.

SCMapDB page

Author: Yaxez

Date of final release: 2005

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Azac

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | September 10, 2022 | 3297 characters

    This map started off looking like a defense map with never-ending zombies and gonomes. But it turned out to be a mix of a couple gameplay elements. It's very short and my teammate and I beat it in less than ten minutes.

    The map starts off with a cutscene of a courtyard with a fence, full of zombies. The camera follows a baby garg around and eventually the fence shatters. I was surprised at first because I was not expecting this map to have production value like this, but it was a fairly simple cutscene.

    Players spawn in a room with a big window and four buttons. These buttons control the laser fence outside, the window that shows this is a little too deep to see the fence clearly. Bullsquids endlessly pelted the window and it was very very annoying. There is an elevator in this room, it goes down to a control room and a door outside that is locked (from one of the buttons by the window). The elevator is small and a bit long, it is very annoying going down to the door, finding it locked, and then having to come back up. I wish the buttons were labelled.

    Spawn also has a ladder going up, this is the route I took, which leads to a sandy canyon roof with friendly snipers being killed by bullsquids. I jumped off here into the wonky cliff geometry to the arena below and started killing aliens. My teammate very nearly jumped out of the level and into the skybox. At the far end of the arena is a big door leading to another courtyard with a bridge over some water, about halfway to the door a bunch of soldiers rappel down and start firing. The aliens and soldiers are hostile to each other so letting them fight is an option, but the soldiers have the advantage and should probably be shot. Over the bridge is a tunnel filled with baby gargs, there is a minigun in spawn and it comes in real handy here.

    The tunnel ends in what seems to be a dead end, but my teammate discovered it to have a breakable wall. In later investigation there does seem to be a hole indicated there is something up with that wall, but it's also very dark and hard to see. The tunnel ends shortly after with another breakable wall leading to a shortcut back to the spawn area courtyard. It took a while for us to discover some platforms winding up around the room (probably because it was really dark) but we got up there, which put us on top of a glass roof warehouse with another courtyard outside of it, all full of soldiers. After killing all of them we walked forward into the map end.

    The map had combat, exploration, platforming, and a cool laser fence. It was short but it was sweet. It may have been simple, a bit rough in places, and have no coherent flow, but it was still entertaining.

Pros:

• The map had a fun variety of gameplay
• I liked the controllable laser fence and lockable doors

Cons:

• I don't like the elevator in spawn
• I wish the buttons that controlled the doors and fence were labelled or the windowsill slimmed
• the breakable walls were not communicated well, at least not in a very dark hallway
• hallways full of baby gargs are not that fun.

Score: 6 / 10