Fire Temple - GrandmasterJ

 

    Welcome to a Fire Temple inspired by the Legend of Zelda. There's lots of platforming here along with a maze, traps, secrets, and sometimes monsters. 

SCMapDB page

Author: Dr.Abc

Date of release: 2014

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Fire Temple

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | May 25, 2026 | 4365 characters

    The first thing I notice about this map is that there is Zelda music and sound effects, so this is a Legend of Zelda map. It's obvious in hindsight, but I didn't know that going in. There are some signs that have text on them I might have seen in the Zelda games and some weapons have replaced textures on them to more like weapons from Legend of Zelda. There is also Thor's hammer at one point, I don't know what is going on there.

    The map is one big unfolding puzzle. We've got lots of platforming over pits of lava, a maze with instant-kill walls, big eyes we have to make blink, buttons to press, and enemies to deal with. This map is very large and has lots of variety. One big problem was the lack of respawn support and by that I mean it always really sucked to respawn and it doesn't have to be that way. The instant-kill wall maze and invisible platforms over lava are enough to send us to respawn frequently and that's not counting everything else we have to deal with. At no point does the spawn area update and the only shortcuts that open up help circumvent one puzzle at best, and that happens only twice. The weapons are unlocked all around the map and they don't appear at spawn so enjoy having to hunt down weapons. We do need specific weapons to break specific obstacles so players will absolutely need to backtrack through multiple areas to make sure they have what they need. I cheated and I have no shame in it, the map time limit would definitely been reached if I didn't. I would also probably have just quit in annoyance if I could not cheat my way through this map.

    I really liked the puzzles and the variety. We have some stuff that isn't so fun like the instant-kill wall maze and there is one part where we have to walk over an invisible walkway over lava. But there was another puzzle where we had to platform upwards while being pushed in a direction and another where one player had to press buttons to move platforms that another player jumps on. We actually went around that puzzle when I realized we could just run across the lava and take minimal damage. A lot of the puzzles are just backtracking to figure out what this new weapon breaks or what door got unlocked. As more things get unlocked the map resembles a maze more and more.

    The map does have some combat. In the beginning of the map enemies are used sparingly and as objectives. Before we get a crowbar there is a vortigaunt that can shoot us across a canyon and after we kill him a bridge appears to the next area. There is a zombie early on that we can't kill and later when we can kill him he unlocks a door. After a certain point we open a door and there are ten zombie soldiers behind it and nothing happens when after we get rid of them. From that point on combat is fighting lumps of enemies so if you had to respawn I hope you collected all the weapons from around the map.

    There is a room with a bridge to a locked door, the boss room, and if you look straight up you can see ledges and doors and a big platform way up there. It looks really good. The textures are pretty flat, using the same stone texture for pretty much every wall. But the map architecture can be really detailed in places and that tall room before the boss room is really nice to look at. Also the lava texture doesn't tile real well, my teammate described it as looking like a quilt.

    This map has a lot going for it like a variety of puzzles, some thoughtful early combat, a decent Legend of Zelda paint job, and some fun set pieces. It has a lot dragging it down like the horrendous experience of respawning, thoughtless later combat, bad texture work, and so much backtracking and getting lost. Right at the end when we unlocked the boss fight all the weapons appeared at spawn, it was like a slap in the face.

Pros:

• wide variety of gameplay and puzzles
• some parts of the map look really good
• it has some fun Legend of Zelda sounds, models, music, and textures

Cons:

• the weapons don't appear in spawn as you unlock them
• lots of backtracking and it is easy to get lost
• some parts of the map look really bad
• the lack of shortcuts draws the map out

Score: 4.5 / 10