True Mandalorian Clan Map

Description
Well, the name of this file alone had me running to it: Mandalorian. If anyone knows me they know I love Mandalorians, and anything with the word "Mandalorian" in it makes me jump for it. (Hint to Modders, add "Mandalorian" to the title of your mod even if it has nothing to do with them; it will get them reviewed faster!) Kidding of course. >_> Apart from the title, though, this map bears really no similarity to Mandalorians and probably just references them because that is what the clan that this map was made for is named. A bit disappointing to a die-hard Mando fan like me, but I'll continue on... somehow. ='(

_> Right. I'll actually review it now. The map is a good attempt but falls short in a number of areas which honestly make it too difficult to play or enjoy. First off the map is very poorly constructed. Every single area is confusing and hard to get around, and they aren't really worth getting around anyway. The map is riddled with bugs such as crackling fires that can be heard across the map at an even volume and lifts with confusing triggers. These problems are only compounded by the fact that for a large portion of the map you can barely see where you're going. The actual "Valley" is so dark that I had to crank my brightness up just to see what was there, which wasn't much. The architecture and texturing is repetitive, blocky, and not very interesting to look at.

There are a lot of areas present, from the valley to some sort of space station to a weird dojo-ey area. What you do to get to the space station I thought was pretty neat: you have to hop into this big speeder-ship and press a button, and then voila! You appear in the hangar of the station in said ship, almost as if you flew. The other parts of the map are not so easy to get to, unfortunately. The only way I found the majority of the map, aside from the valley and Space station, was by noclipping around. People generally like to be able to find their way while playing. >_> All the areas do have some nice parts though, such as bars, bedrooms, and bathrooms (the bathroom had the cool feature of being able to close the bathroom door while you're in there).

This map could have redeemed itself by [i]not hurting my eyes[/i]. Yes. This map actually made me shut my eyes and look away multiple times. The reason for this? Horrible, horrible FPS. I can play Crysis on High settings and yet I join this map and my usual 70 FPS drops to 10 or 16. The horrendously low FPS just kills any playability that it could have had. I don't know how other large maps keep their FPS at a steady, even rate but you should try doing what they do. Whatever that is. =_=

There is one saving grace, however, which comes in the form of the music. The map features several tracks from, correct me if I'm wrong, the Halo 2 soundtrack. Martin O'Donnell is an amazing composer and his music adds back some of what was taken away by all the problems in the design and implementation.

In short this map had a good idea behind it but the execution was really botched up. My advice to the author is to try making a new map but focus on the quality and optimization aspects instead of the "I wonder how much stuff I can cram in here!" aspect.

~Laam'inui