House of Tricks

Description
This is version two of DeathWish's House of Tricks map, which at this point is long overdue (mostly on our part). Kouen decided the map was in need of a fresh opinion, rather than a summary of what's been updated, so here I am! Let's get down to it though, shall we?

This map is chalk full of secrets - if the name "House of Tricks" didn't give you that impression already, I'm telling you now. The author has tried to make it as interactive as possible, so be careful what you're pressing, where you're walking, or what you're swinging your lightsaber at. You never know what'll be behind door number three, or what'll explode when you hit that seemingly nondescript random button. Okay, so the buttons aren't really random, but sometimes the effects are. It keeps things interesting!

The architecture, as with the first version, is still very blocky. Some details have been added, however, to soften the look up a little, such as curving pipes, or preciously stacked crates. This helps draw the attention more toward the decoration and less from the walls. I know that the wall textures in the first were repetitive. I couldn't say whether they were or not, because that was not where my attention was focused. Either kudos to the author's good planning, or kudos to his dumb luck. The map has also been expanded a bit, adding new rooms and new features for us to play around with.

Bugs. I hate bugs, but they're always there, unfortunately. Missing textures, and z-fighting are my biggest complaints. Initially the missing textures seemed to be isolated to one door, but after further exploration there were a few other areas that were missing textures. I'd recommend releasing either a version 3, or a version 2 patch to fix up those textures, as unlike other bugs that can be a real deterrent to downloads. I only found one instance of z-fighting, so that wasn't too bad. But definitely something to remember for future mapping endeavors. As Kouen mentioned in the original review, you should always caulk surfaces that won't be seen. In fact, it's much safer to caulk everything, [i]then[/i] add your textures to a particular brush. That way you can make sure to only add textures to the surfaces you can actually see!

Gameplay. You want to know how it is, right? Well unfortunately I'm not an expert in that realm, but I'd take a gander that gameplay should be pretty good. Lots of open space, and lots of weapon pickups, so you can blast each other til kingdom come as long as you want. Or you can trap your friend and perform nasty experiments on them. Your choice! The interactivity on this map is definitely a huge plus, so all you people who consistently scream "more secrets" in every single map's comments need to pick this puppy up immediately. With more practice, I'm sure this author will be able to make one heck of a secrets-packed map for you all. This map, however, isn't too shabby on its own. An improvement over the first version, to be sure, and definitely worth a look for people who enjoyed the original.

[b]Bot Support[/b]: No
[b]New Texures[/b]: No
[b]New Models[/b]: No
[b]New Music[/b]: Yes

~Inyri