Barnacle Flight - Dunkelschwamm

  

    Barnacle Flight is a map based on a quirk of barnacle grappling your fellow player, causing everybody to fly (glitch around) in the air. On the map database it lists the author as g1l but in the map the author is listed as Venomys. Also, there is a map titled 'Barnacle Flight 2' that preceded this map, this map comes after number 2, it's all very confusing.

SCMapDB page

Author: g1l

Date of final release: 2007

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Barnacle Flight

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by dunkelschwamm | September 22, 2022 | 2144 characters

    Barnacle Flight is a gimmick map where players use the barnacle on one another to zip around in the sky above an island. The sky is full of bubbly cloud sprites and some silly looking giant squares of scrolling cloud textures. The island itself is a nice jagged chunk of island in the water (the water does not extend far beyond the coast before hitting skybox) and features both a teleporter to the spawn area and a central lake which can launch players with an invisible force if they aren't careful. The spawn area is a strange flying saucer high above the island, with a spinning triangular prism providing instructions on how to pull off the barnacle trick and fly around. Jumping at it brings the player up into a teleporter to a secret lounge area that gives off a distinct Counter-Strike Source vibe that I can't put my finger on. Beneath the triangular prism thing, in the center of the flying saucer, is the Barnacle, which is the only weapon in the entire map and must be collected. That just about explains it.

    I think this map is fine as a way to showcase a fun gameplay gimmick. I tried it with one other player and got a few minutes of entertainment out of it. I think, with a bunch of players, it could be pretty special. I recommend playing with as many players as possible. There's no map end, so give it a time limit if you're gonna use this in your server rotation.

Pros:

• Fun little jagged island with a fun little lake
• Good way to show off the gimmick
• Jumping from the flying saucer down to the lake is pretty fun, even if you miss the water and go ker-splat!
• The lounge area looks nice

Cons:

• Map is mostly pretty empty, all things considered, even if that's the point
• Some of the visuals, especially the clouds, look kind of bad
• The strange geyser force in the lake is not well conveyed, is confusing
• Not a lot done with the barnacle- the map is so one-note that it barely offers anything else

Score: 6.5 / 10