Fortiss Duelpack

Description
Seems there's quite a trend for simple maps lately. This pack continues the aforementioned simple-but-effective trend.

In this pack, you'll find four small duel maps - Twilight, Walkway, Grass and Platform.

Twilight has quite a moody theme to it, although it's definitely not dark as the name would imply. There are one or two technical flaws - when falling into the water, you get the fade-death effect. However, before the screen fades, you can see your character hit the bottom. Secondly, the texture for the platforms is missing. Normally a texture isn't much of a problem, but when it's used for a big chunk of the map, it really should have been sorted out. Still, this map is good for a few duels, the design theme fits together very well, and there's no FPS issues at all.

Second is Walkway. This map gave me a feel of one or two areas from Halo, which is a funny story because- Oh, yeah, the review. Well, you've got the floor, you've got a walkway above, you've got two small stairways at each side, and a quite wide but also claustrophobic chamber to duel in. Need to escape from your opponent for a moment? Well, if you're fast and deceptive enough, you can distract them and slip into a nicely-placed hiding space. It's small, Egyptian themed, uniformly lit and not much variation in texture style, but just because of the theme and the strong resemblance to one of my favorite Halo areas, I'd say this one is easily my favourite of the four. Again, the smooth gameplay makes up for the simple and unexciting layout.

Third up is Grass. First thing you'll notice is the missing texture for the platform. Aside from that, it's a typical map straight out of a Rich Diesal tutorial. Curved spikes, bump terrain, and water, although to be fair the water shader isn't the baseJKA shader, so it doesn't look terrible. Falling into the water here won't get you killed, and the only lethal object is your opponent. This one is probably best for equal-term duels. You know what I'm going to say - the theme is woven in solidly, and the FPS is superb. Isn't it ironic that the Yavin skybox looks best when you can hardly see it?

Last but not least is Platform. This map is considerably better in terms of design, but still flawed. The main platform is big, but maybe not big enough, as it can be somewhat restrictive to movement. The floor texture for the small temple is missing, and the flames don't hurt. You can fall off the edges and you will die, but it doesn't do the fade trick - you'll hit a trigger_hurt just above the floor and slam into the invisible skybox. The fade-death method would have been much better. Still, good FPS, nice balanced arena, so hey, it does it's job.

Across all four maps, the textures and lighting were big problems. Lighting was almost completely uniform, which while it doesn't look [i]bad[/i], it certainly doesn't look [i]good[/i] either. Aside from missing textures, the overall texturing was quite plain. While Førtis doesn't risk overdoing variation, he doesn't really do it enough, meaning the end result is quite uninteresting. Also, some textures are noticeably used in the wrong situations - such as Platform's namesake. They don't align and the texture just wasn't designed for a round platform. Sadly, none of the maps have music. While it's not necessary, it does add atmosphere. Bot support isn't in either, so while these maps are in theory great for those with low-end systems or slower internet, they aren't much of a viable choice because of that.

Architecturally the maps were unexciting, but they did look quite good, especially Platform's ruined temple. The rubble all looked quite realistic, and when an author can use GtkRadiant to create something realistic, even if it is basic, that's a good sign. My impression from these maps is that Førtis has a good grasp on Gtk's tools and how they work, and for a first map pack, this exceeds the standards set by quite a stretch, although that's not really saying a lot to be frank. But, for a first-timer, Førtis has done a pretty good job. If the errors were to be fixed, and some improvements made, this pack would be great for those without powerful computers or high-speed internet.

Keep on mapping, Førtis. I'm looking forward to seeing how your skills develop over time.

~ Kouen

[b]Bot Support:[/b] No
[b]Custom Textures:[/b] No
[b]Custom Models:[/b] No
[b]Custom Music:[/b] No

[b]Gametypes Supported:[/b]
Duel