Boredgasm - GrandmasterJ

 

    This map is a visual as well as an architectural mishmash. Players must navigate the unusual level design and appearance to find giant floating blue orbs. Collecting ten out of twelve will end the map.

SCMapDB page

Author: Keen

Date of release: 2012

Maps in package:1

Map review of Boredgasm

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | April 16, 2023 | 3211 characters

    This map has a lot of author credits and is labelled as unfinished. Plus the main author, Keen, is known for his wacky mish mash of artstyles. The result is a crazy melange of twisty hallways, secret doors leading to secret areas, and some unique and tasteless art.

    We start off more or less in the middle of the map, from the map description I know we have to look for blue orbs and press on Picard's face, but none of that is communicated in-map. We spent a good long time exploring all the crazy nooks and crannies and finding orbs before running out of places to find and pressing on Picard's face, which did seem to open a new area. That is the entire gameplay loop of the map, explore and pick up orbs.

    The map is crazy looking with a wide variety of wall textures. Watch out because there is some nsfw artwork including good old tubgirl art and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle getting intimate with a poor lady. There is also My Little Pony art and it is NOT pornographic, how novel! There are a few areas that are not just a dadaist collage that manages to be pretty dark and moody. The map also has some nice background music, which is always appreciated.

    Players start with almost all the weapons and loads of ammo, but there are very few enemies around. We do have a couple of friendly units right at the start of the map but they don't do much. We fight some sped up zombies lurking in some hallways and there is a human grunt that respawns in a room a bunch. Wasting our rockets on him takes care of that problem.

    After we find ten out of twelve blue orbs the map very abruptly ends. We played this map twice, the first time we were confused when it ended as we weren't keeping track of the orbs. We restarted and I noted the map time limit was a very low 30 minutes. On the second playthrough we speedran the orbs and ended the map in about five minutes. The map will just end, no fanfare.

    I really like how the map isn't just your standard Black Mesa walkthrough or arena or whatever. But it's also kind of a mess, there are lots of dead ends and areas with nothing in them. Three blue orbs were dumped all together in a pool of water. The textures are mostly random ancient memes. There is a lot of variation and fun things to see, but it is all just visual noise with little rhyme or reason to it. The exploration aspect was decent even if there were a lot of dead ends with nothing in them. I wish the map ending was more thought out instead of being abrupt and jarring. The map definitely feels abandoned, its an interesting idea done ok that could have benefitted from more playtesting and balancing.

Pros:

• the map looked very interesting
• some fun music brought the map together
• good loadout and supplies

Cons:

• the map is very confusing
• very abrupt ending and low map time limit
• lots of dead ends and at the same time one area had three orbs. It seems thoughtless
• the bad porn on the walls bars the map from being for everybody, and from being tasteful

Score:

6 / 10