[RELEASE]Early To Bed

[Nexus]

Early to Bed, review by Nexus, 20/5/2010

Sanek's map Early to Bed is a short and very enjoyable map that pits Duke against a bunch of aliens who for some inexplicable reason have set up a base in his apartment building.

The detailing and spritework are not hugely detailed, but do the job, and in many places resemble the levels from the original game. There are a few misaligned textures and more effort could have gone into shading, but it's unlikely you'll notice this while playing- you'll be having too much fun blasting alien scum. There is also a very nice button-pushing puzzle you need to solve.

The main downside to the map is that it often just doesn't make any sense. Why would aliens set up a base next door to Duke's home? And why are the means to unlocking all of their doors hidden in his apartment? It's illogical, and that becomes jarring from time to time.

Quibbling and criticism aside, this map has one major saving grace. It's fun. Aside from a little bit of tedious backtracking early, and the final showdown where you *WILL* run out of ammo and have to make a desperate bolt for safety, the gameplay is a treat from start to finish. Enemies and powerups are well-placed, and the level flows smoothly throughout.

All in all, a very passable level from a mapper who is improving all the time.

Texturing: 8/10
Sprite work/detailing: 8/10
Ambiance: 8/10
Architecture:16/20
Layout:15/20
Gameplay/Design:28/30

Total:83/100

[Henri K]

Nice review, Nexus. I also had some problems with the start puzzles, but overall good map.

[TimLowndes]

Yeah good review, went pretty much exactly along the lines of what I would have said.

[Puritan]

A few screenshots would have been nice.

[Forge]

While I don't completely agree with everything in your review, it was nicely done

 except:

The main downside to the map is that it often just doesn't make any sense. Why would aliens set up a base next door to Duke's home? And why are the means to unlocking all of their doors hidden in his apartment? It's illogical, and that becomes jarring from time to time.

Unless this blatantly effects game play or atmosphere, personal opinions are best left personal.

Your 8 out of 10 for ambiance doesn't match what you are saying.

Why wouldn't aliens try to set up shop as close to their nemesis as possible? To me keeping your friends close and your enemies closer fits the bill here.

Maybe all those locks are Duke's. Could be it's his security system to keep the aliens out of his apartment and to slow them down if they did manage to infiltrate his home. The aliens even had view screens with clues because they were in the process of decoding it.

Other than this, I think your review was well done, especially for a first one.

[Mikko_Sandt]

Why should personal opinions be left out of reviews? Reviews are not supposed to be encyclopedias.

I too thought the change of scenery was a bit random.

[Forge]

I put personal opinions in my reviews all the time. I don't think personal opinions should be left out of reviews if they're done tactfully and justified. The questions he posed in the review can easily have logical answers (which I pointed out just a few), and then it wasn't reflected in the score. To me that says, "I'm going to complain about something I don't like as a personal opinion, but I'm not comfortable enough to demerit the map for it."

Then why even bother mentioning it? It is now perceived as a personal opinion and not an accurate reflection of the atmosphere of the map.

Might as well have wrote, "Didn't like the layout nor the atmosphere of the map, it made no sense to me. It scores an 83."

He could have just as easily said the shift from Duke's apartment to an alien hideout right next door, through the use of a puzzle that should have been placed at the transition point instead of in the apartment, was done too abruptly which deterred from the atmosphere and flow of the map.

It says the exact same thing and it's still a personal opinion. I can also now be wishy-washy with the score.

Like I said, unless it blatantly affects something about the map, there's really no reason in stating a point blank personal opinion. When you start asking why in a review and it's not about something absurd and use that to justify a point. Then the obvious answer is why not and the justification is lost. Not everyone on the planet is going to see it through the same eyes. What I like, you may dislike.

And yes, I agree about the poor transitions from one part of the map to the next, and some of the textures used didn't help matters very much.

It's all splitting hairs when you come down to it. I thought he could have worded it differently or just left that part out, you feel that it's fine. We can throw piss and vinegar at each other all day about this, but in the end it's all just opinion and perception.

[Henri K]

Using personal opinions in reviews have to be placed well. I won´t say I´m excellent reviewer or something like that, but here´s how I put my opinion in:

"Level felt very interesting at times, but sometimes it´s flow was something that could have been in need of work."

There´s no need to put "in my opinion" into review, if you don´t like it. You can go round that thing using that kind of sentence.

PS: My 200th post and three stars. "My kind of party, wish I had time!"

[Nexus]

Your 8 out of 10 for ambiance doesn't match what you are saying.

Well, I didn't feel as though it detracted from the atmosphere enough to lower the mark there. I did take off points from the architecture and layout sections.

[Forge]

I'm not trying to be a jackass about it, but sometimes I have difficulty in expressing what I'm thinking and I end up getting wordy to the point that it sounds like a rant.

[Henri K]

I have the same problem. My my mother tongue is finnish (as well as Mikko Sandt´s), so my English may include many linguistic flaws here and there. Although I try to express what I mean with varying results and sometimes I try to understand others with varying results, too. Did you undertood me or did I just express myself in a complex way?

[Forge]

I have the same problem. My my mother tongue is finnish (as well as Mikko Sandt´s), so my English may include many linguistic flaws here and there. Although I try to express what I mean with varying results and sometimes I try to understand others with varying results, too. Did you undertood me or did I just express myself in a complex way?

Your very fluent and it's easy to tell what you're trying to say. As far as rants, comparing you to me is like comparing a match to a forest fire.

[Henri K]

OK, I see. 

[Merlijn]

I just played it, overall it's a pretty good and fun level. The overall texturing and trimming overall was pretty good and very much in the old 3dr-style (especially the computers). I enjoyed the buttonpuzzle. But I agree that, at times, the way the map switched back and forth between appartment- and hi-techlocations felt too abrupt and random. I didn't get a proper sense of location because of that. Were was I? Duke's house or some hi-tech facility that happened to have some living rooms?

Your previous maps have this problem too, it seems like you're just making up things as you go along. There isn't much wrong with that, but some planning in advance or having a general idea sure wouldn't hurt I think.

[ck3D]

I liked the look of the apartments, they were nicely done and that button puzzle at the start was a good idea. I was let down by how short the map was, though - it's was a pretty good start, and those tunnels looked pretty amazing (even though I wasn't feeling how one of them was blocked by invisible walls), when I first ventured into them, seeing as the game hadn't ended at the helicopter scene I was expecting things to keep going for a little while (ie. to be led to a middle-sized city through that one last tunnel or something). The hi-tech locations weren't needed, but the only one I really didn't like was the one with Cycloid's spinning head, it looked like something out of a map from 1996 and contrasted with the rest so much haha. The firefights were pretty fun, but yeah the gameplay was pretty random

All in all : your design skills have matured (for urban settings at least), so now that you can make good-looking maps, it would be interesting to focus on the quality of the gameplay, to make plain good maps in every aspect