Bridge 2k - Dunkelschwamm

 

    The 2k version of Bridge (both were made in 2001) is lengthier with a whole complex to be explored after the bridge section. It is much more in line with traditional walkthrough maps and has far less respawning enemies.

SCMapDB page

Author: Hezus

Date of release: 2018

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Bridge 2k

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by dunkelschwamm | May 21, 2023 | 3420 characters

    Bridge 2k is a sequel or reimagining of sorts of Bridge, which is a map that I think wasn't terribly good. Bridge 2k honors that by also not being terribly good, and I'll go into why I think that here.

    Bridge 2k's design philosophy is thus: take an obtusely long path to a blocky, flatly lit chamber, and then become inundated with respawning grunts until you are no longer inundated by respawning grunts.

    I've gone to great lengths to describe what I think is bad about fighting respawning grunts in this fashion before, so I'll keep it contained to this paragraph if you want to skip my rant again: when placed in a fight with grunts who respawn within the battle, you kneecap everything that makes grunts fun to fight. Grunts make the arena their own with their high mobility and flush tactics using explosives. The way players interact with this is utterly diffused when more grunts simply materialize out of thin air. When a grunt throws a grenade and I rush in to attack them, it is with full knowledge that as soon as I successfully survive that tense situation I will be very artificially slaughtered by three grunts respawning right on top of me.

    That undercuts any fun in any combat in any part of this map which derives its only fun from interrupting boring trekking through blocky, uninteresting environments. On top of those usual complaints as well, the grunts respawn in very inconsistently, sometimes respawning unexpectedly in previous areas. While backtracking once grunts suddenly spawned surrounding me and killed me instantly. It's an aggravating experience, playing this map.

    Thankfully, the shotgun (and later M16) does a good job of taking down the grunts. Later the map throws respawning xenians and a garg boss at you, but they're pretty minor setpieces.

    The map never does much to look super good. The natural environments are just as blocky as the brutalist concrete structure the latter half of the map takes part in. The lighting, as mentioned, is incredibly flat. It seemed like there was a bit more effort put into the area where the xen creatures were spawning, and that was probably the most interesting looking part of the map.

    Overall, I think you could probably entertain a server with this map on a server list. Otherwise, I'm not sure I'd recommend it. At first I thought this was an improvement on the first map, but on reflection I'm not sure that's the case. The first map was pretty miserable, but it felt like a clearer mess for me to detangle. This was just stressful and frustrating and I had no patience for it.

Pros:

  • Sometimes shooting hgrunts in Half-Life is its own reward
  • There was HEV which made the map playable
  • There was a mounted gun for player use early on
  • There was a shortcut that cut out some annoying routing halfway through

Cons:

  • Lots of timewasting routing through boring, blocky, uninteresting, flatly lit environments
  • All of the combat is a grating, confusing, unenjoyably frustrating mess because of the inconsistent enemy respawning
  • The apache early on is an annoying game of peek-a-boo with weapons insufficient to battle it
  • The garg battle late in the map is just camping a doorway with underbarrel grenades
Score: 5 / 10

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