Werd0z - GrandmasterJ

 

  Any map author has to start somewhere, and this is it. The author's first map certainly feels like a first map.

SCMapDB page

Author: Werd0z

Date of release: 2006

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Werd0z

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by GrandmasterJ | May 30, 2026 | 3510 characters

    This is the author's first map and this person clearly did not know what they were doing. This map has everything like the walls in the first room not reaching the ceiling, bad proportions, misaligned textures, misaligned water, and plenty of z-fighting. It's a learning experience for the author and not really something I could ever recommend for casual play.

    Despite all the shortcomings there are some nice things in the map. It had a nice progression of weapons from mp5 to shotgun, grenades, revolver, and finally the rpg, plus some HEV at spawn. Combat is largely sporatic enemies clustered together in rooms. There is one area where players are dumped out into the exterior of the map and there is no skybox, so it's just a black void. There were assassins of both genders scattered around and they blended into the background almost perfectly. I can't help but think that was a deliberate choice and it was a very effective surprise tactic, it was also a good choice to only have one of them be a sniper because that could have gotten really annoying.

    There is one point where we have to destroy a breakable wall to proceed but the wall is a flat cliff face with zero indication that it is breakable. I thought the map was broken and wanted to end it but I'm glad my teammate kept us going because that was like the halfway point. After that is a bridge that we have to jump across and the ropes and some of the planks are intangible. We can shoot the intangible planks to break them. I hope the author learned not to do that anymore. This map doesn't have checkpoints or shortcuts so it's a long way back to this bridge and if you die you have to do the bridge again.

    Early in the map we have to dive into water, but the water is even with the floor and the wave height is bigger than zero, so the water wiggles crazily above the floor. There is another water surface below the water. Immediately after this point players have to take a mandatory 33 points of damage. It's a really ugly underwater section followed by mandatory damage, just a really bad pairing.

    Edit: It's not until a day later that I noticed the screenshots for this map has a daytime skybox. For me the sky was a black void. Did the skybox break somehow?

    Eventually we find a button that drops us into water just long enough for us to be confused before the map ends. I don't recommend this map but I think it's an interesting look into how somebody approaches their first map. There are plenty of mistakes but I also see some good design philosophy beneath. It probably really is the first map the author ever made. Good on him, my first map wouldn't compile

Pros:

• Good supplies for a low amount of players
• I believe the author purposely paired assassins and dark backgrounds and it works really well
• the author didn't spam snipers using the above method
• I thought the end of the map was actually pretty funny

Cons:

• Breakable walls with absolutely nothing to indicate it as such almost made me quit the map
• intangible parts of a bridge with absolutely nothing to indicate it as such is very annoying
• bad proportions, bad texturing, overall ugly
• the amount of z-fighting is incredible, also the water looks bad
• Mandatory fall damage
• long walkthrough map with zero convenience for respawning

Score: 3 / 10