Choose Campaign - GrandmasterJ

 

    Lobby maps are for players to pick their next map. The Single Player Campaign Portal map is a really well done example and its mere existence pretty much makes this map obsolete.

SCMapDB page

Author: Unknown

Date of release: 2017

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Choose Campaign

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | July 2, 2023 | 2347 characters

    I feel weird reviewing maps that have been made obsolete by newer maps. It doesn't really matter how good this map is, players probably won't play it because the successor is an upgrade. I'm a bit relieved that this map is obviously inferior, it's split up into two maps, the first one (helpfully named '2') lets us choose between chapters in the big three, Half-Life, Blue Shift, and Opposing Force. The second map is a much smaller single room affair that starts the same campaigns plus They Hunger, Half-Life Instinct, and I think two others that I didn't recognize and did not care about.

    Players must go up to the map they want and stand in a box, this starts a countdown and whichever box has the most players is the map the server will change to. It's simple but elegant and the map displays text on our screen so we know what is going on.

    The level design is function all the way, at least in the first map. The three rooms for the three games are big boring boxes with a minimum of decoration. The texturing is all standard Half-Life stuff that doesn't leave an impression and each room is the same. The second map, (helpfully named '4a') is small and looks like one small room, but the side with They Hunger has an open top that players can climb out of. Here we see that the level is on a floating island and we can run around the exterior. There is nothing else to really see or do here.

    The map is obsolete and doesn't really have any qualities that would make me come back. Beyond the bare bones map selection mechanics there are no secrets and barely anything to explore. The map selection is even broken up across two maps, I don't see how that was necessary at all, both maps are extremely small and simple. There are no good reasons to play this map.

Pros:

• The second map has a nice exterior section
• the actual map selection was easy to understand and worked well

Cons:

• the functionality was split across two maps
• not much to do besides vote for maps
• maps were bare bones simple and looked bland
• there are better versions, this map is obsolete

Score: 3 / 10