BB Rock Shelter - GrandmasterJ
This mission has two separate maps, the first one players must take and defend an area. The second map is more of a typical walkthrough map where players clear hallways and reach an objective to end the map.
Author: Buschbaum
Date of final release: 2022
Maps in package: 2
Map review of BB Rock Shelter
(originally posted on SCMapDB)
by GrandmasterJ | December 10, 2022 | 6775 characters
This series is broken up into two, maybe eventually three, maps. The first map is an attack and defend style of map, we rush a well fortified position and take it, then we defend that position from waves of enemies. The second map is a very mazey tunnel and vent heavy underground complex shootout. I much prefer the second map over the first and the overall length of the series compared to how much of it I enjoyed doesn't make a very appealing ratio.
The first map starts with us in a sort of well stocked supply room. I say kind of well stocked because there was a ton of ammo and health, but extremely little explosives and HEV. We started with a very good loadout, with both the M16 and underbarrel grenades, shotgun, grenades, and the SAW. But there was only one instance of underbarrel grenades and HEV in the spawn room. Most spawn rooms have the same supplies throughout both maps, save a rocket launcher in the second spawn room in the first map and three HEV in the first spawn room of the first map. We had a lot of ammo and the means to kill enemies, but I still found myself running back to spawn to top off my armor and replenish my grenades.
Actually playing the map starts off well enough. The approach to the enemy position we are supposed to take is heavily guarded, Sentry guns at different points and elevations create deadly crossfires and the never ending grunts all seem to have grenades, both hand and underbarrel. The area players are trying to take is a fortified hill in the giant mouth of a cave. The new spawn area is in a tunnel to the right as well as the door to the next level, which never opened for us but I'll get back to that. After taking the hill the spawn changes and players get to defend from enemies coming from the old spawn point. I should also mention that players get allies, these guys are great at drawing fire but not much else. When attacking they don't do much but when defending they can lob grenades with the best of them. The map would have been much harder without them to occupy the enemies.
As far as defense maps go, it was all right. The battlefield was fun, with some thoughtful positioning of approaches and cover. There is a cliff to the right of new spawn where enemies will jump down and flank us. Sometimes aliens would show up including voltigores and there was an Osprey once.
I mentioned the door to the next level never opened for us, the map time limit is around 88 minutes. We played until the time ran out thinking that any time the map will tell us to move on. The map description says to hold out as long as we can and then retreat underground. The map description also estimates map playtime to be 50 minutes. That trigger never came. I don't know what happened. I only know that the game end exists because I restarted the map and noclipped to the other side of a locked door. The map end didn't even change to the next map, I had to do that manually.
I played this map for 80 minutes and only about 30 of them were fun.
The second map was better but suffered from being very mazey. We start in a spawn room with the same loadout and supplies and proceed to encounter a ton of enemies jam packed into small rooms. The explosives really make a good impact in these tight corridors. But the map really starts to get confusing once we jump in our first vent. The whole map is a series of dense rooms and corridors linked together with a twisty and winding vent system that makes no sense and rarely leads in a straight line. There are lots of grates around so we can jump in and out. Not all the vents are connected, sometimes we got lost becuase we had explored one whole vent system and didn't realize that this one grate in a room we already visited was actually part of a separate vent system.
Lots of the doors are locked with keys and we need to find the keys and bring them back to the locks. This is the type of key players have to carry and survive with to the lock in order to actually use it. It can get a bit frustrating when we don't know what lock this key opens and we have to find it. At the end of the map we thought we were looking for an elevator key and we got a key but it didn't open the elevator and we had no idea where any other locked doors were. It turns out a rusty square on the ground was an access hatch and we had to use the key on it. Now granted there was a keycard slot next to it but we still didn't notice it until after walking around aimlessly for a long time.
The entire time we are in vents and looking for keys enemies are showing up. They fill the halls and rooms and will respawn when the slightest progress is made. This makes the whole map pretty dangerous at all times. The enemies get tougher too, one corridor filled with human grunts multiple times before switching to alien grunts and then shock troopers with pit drones. The map was very combat heavy.
My least favorite part of the second map was the final key, to get it we had to jump over broken catwalks while soldiers shot us from a ledge, the whole room we are in is very dark so it is hard to see anything. The map author was very considerate and actually moves the spawn here once we pick up the key, I bet this part was very annoying in playtesting.
At the end of the second map we get a 'bb_rock_shelter3 not found' so I'm guessing we'll be getting another installment. I hope it keeps up improving in quality.
The first map was decent for the first 30 minutes but after that you can just switch to t he next map. I don't know what was with the end game trigger, whether it's straight up broken or if it only happened that one time. I am not replaying the map to find out. The second map was fun, it had a lot of fast paced combat and it was incredibly satisfying to lob a grenade in a packed room and getting gibs ricocheting out. I wish the supply rooms had a bit more HEV and both kinds of grenades. The level design in the second map was confusing and convoluted, with enough patience and scurrying around players can find their way. Overall I did have fun.
Pros:
- good weapon loadout with decent supply rooms
- lots of great fast paced combat
- The level design of the first map was pretty good and lent itself well to attacking and defending
- updating spawns and all but one of them come with a good supply shelf
Cons:
- the first map end level trigger appears to be broken
- even if the first map end level wasn't broken I don't think it warrants 50 minutes of defending.
- the second map was incredibly convoluted and confusing
Score: 6.5 / 10
Comments
Post a Comment