Gauss Lab - GrandmasterJ
Use the gauss gun to jump around the level, avoiding obstacles and toxic goo. This map is apparently an unfinished part of another map, but it feels fairly complete and self-contained as it is.
Author: Keen
Date of release: 2007
Maps in package: 1
Map review of Shopping Centre
(originally posted on SCMapDB)
by GrandmasterJ | April 3, 2023 | 5838 characters
Gauss jumping is the art of charging up the gauss gun and launching yourself great heights and distances. This map is all about doing that. It's got a lot of platforming featuring gauss jumping, lots of vertical shafts we have to fly up and a couple difficult trick jumps. It should also be noted that this map is an unfinished beta, the message of the day even says the first part of the map was 'misplaced' and that we are left with this. It's a fine map as it is, and it doesn't come off as an unfinished beta.
We start out in a vaguely Black Mesa themed underground walkway complete with chasm. There's a barnacle area with a little sign declaring it to be temporarily (I guess permanently now) nonexistent. There is a fun little secret sequence here where we can get the barnacle, egon gun, and explore some neat areas. The barnacle was absolutely necessary and the map does have a couple barnacle points, so I'm going to tell you where it is. The gameplay happens past the room with scientists observing an rpg in a room with teleporter bays. There is a sign to the left, jump above the sign and get the barnacle before playing the level.
Once we get past the teleporter we are in a weird room with water, ammo, and a vertical shaft. The geometry of the whole thing makes it a bit finnicky to line up with the shaft. It's not a promising start. But soon we enter the first main area, a tall hallway with crumbling pillars and debris dotting a pool of toxic goo, and it looks pretty cool. We launch ourselves clear across the room and it's a fun trip. We take a lot of damage falling into the goo (there is a ledge we aim for but I never got on it) and there are some annoying headcrabs but we find a ladder up and it's all fine.
But that's the end of the map impressing me with its visuals, the rest is flat grey walls, the occasional office with an observing scientist, and some electronics or whatever. In fact, right after we clear the main hallway we find a laser that gibs us if we try to sneak under or over it. It looks like there is enough space for both approaches, but alas the real solution is to stand under the blue light, shoot the vent, and then gauss jump up. We were stuck on that for a while. The very next room has three buttons, one turns off that laser, one puts a grate over the goo in the main hall we were just in, and the other is seemingly nonfunctional. We got lost for a minute trying to find the next area, turns out the button that turned on the grates also opened a small vent in an out of the way area. I should also mention that there are arrows spray painted on the walls pointing players to where they need to gauss jump. The arrows are very helpful, but the map seems to bust out some unintuitive nonsense when we aren't flying through the sky. There's this bit with a vent near the second checkpoint that is the worst part by far.
I said that barnacles are necessary to finish the map, this is because there are a lot of tricky jumps and lots of cases where we take fall damage. At one point I made a difficult jump and my teammate made a dive into some poison. I went on ahead, but the fall damage added up and I had like 20 health left. The next bit was a blind jump through a high window, I was sure I wouldn't survive. My teammate came to catch up to me and used the barnacle to grapple off me to skip a difficult bit. The map does have checkpoints, the initial teleporter has two slots nearby, but we go quite a ways between them. At one point I had to make a very tricky jump and had very little health. My teammate positioned himself to be grappled, and to our horror I never picked up a barnacle. I tried the jump, died instantly, then noclipped back over to him. Let this be a lesson, get the barnacle!
At the end of the map we see the beautiful face of Patrick Stewart, kissing him tenderly drops us in a nightmare room of strobing Kevin Sorbo and some mid tier screechy music. Major epilepsy warning folks, don't let Kevin Sorbo be the last thing you see. Walking through a teleporter here ends the map.
I should also mention that we came back to the map after we beat it for reference while writing these reviews. I had promised an observing scientist I would kill him so I decided to make good on that threat. When I noclipped through the window and turned the eggheads into pieces a bunch of alien slaves teleported in. It's a real nice touch, I don't think anybody could trigger this without cheating.
The map was pretty good. The first main hall with the crumbling pillars looked really great, some parts of the map looked good, and most of the map was pretty bland. I don't necessarily mind the blandness, I think it pulled off a good test area look. There was one ledge that blended in and was hard to see due to the flat texturing but it was only one instance. The actual gameplay was pretty good too, the gauss jumps were all pretty fun. The barnacle and checkpoints really helped move things along, however I feel there could have been more checkpoints. The map is heavy on doors that don't open, any one of them could have had a teleporter behind it.
Pros:
- some areas were beautiful
- the actual gauss jumping was really well done
- there are checkpoints
- the barnacle is a great help
- interesting and worthwhile secrets
- I love that there an rpg just sitting on the ground right before we start a gauss gun course
Cons:
- the map was so bland that in one specific area it was harmful to the gameplay
- long time and lots of difficult jumps between checkpoints
- the non gauss jumping puzzles were all trash
- epilepsy and Kevin Sorbo warning
| Score: |
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