Don't Look Down

Review'd...see the Marvel Map Review thread for more...

Don’t Look Down​

By: ezekiel20five17

Quick Overview

For those too lazy to click on the link, this is a non-circuit oriented race map using almost all of Avalanche. I’ll be breaking the review down into three categories: aesthetics, creativity/design, and gameplay.

Aesthetics

Although this isn’t very important in a race map, most of the map is pleasing to look at and appears professional. The shield doors and energy blockers keep it away from the grey/brown drab that often plagues foundry, and interlocking has been used where necessary to make it smooth and streamlined. I know how much of a pain in the ass it is to interlock in the air, so it’s good to see that you put the effort into it where others might’ve just thrown boxes around. I also noted some nice angular geo-merging, so extra points for that as well.

Pretty much everything in the sky (and there was a lot of it) looked clean and well thought out, unfortunately I can’t say the same about the objects on the ground. It’s nice that you tried to add a few teleporters and mancannons to direct the player, but they seem strewn randomly about and just seem rushed. The minefield also appears that way, I know there’s no real way to improve it but it just doesn’t look good.

However, as it is a race map, your score for aesthetics won’t weigh much on the total.

8/10

Creativity/Design

Racetracks on Avalanche have so far been few and far between, so it’s good to see someone take the initiative and put ‘goose and snow together. Using the whole map is certainly a positive, and no easy task considering how damn big it is. The race setup is certainly interesting, as it uses a checkpoint based system rather than a lap-based system. Both have their pros and cons, but your system certainly fits the map (a lap based system wouldn’t work at all on your map, as there’s no feasible way to prevent cheating).

The racetrack doesn’t seem to be one coherent whole, but rather a whole bunch of individual sections (which is different and fits the checkpoint system quite well). My personal favorite areas are the branched downhill path (to start), the banked glass turn (before 1st trap), the banked turn over the edge of the map (yep, I did fall to my death), and the geo-merged launch ramp on the other side. Each of those sections is well-designed while at the same time brings something new to the table.

9/10

Gameplay

Here’s the big one. None of the above is important if the track doesn’t play well so…

My opinion was that the gameplay is fun yet slightly frustrating. If there were a competitive and casual section for racetracks, this would certainly fall under casual. This is partially because some luck is involved with successfully navigating the track (unless missing the shield door three times in a row was my fault), and the checkpoint system makes it so that falling off or otherwise driving poorly won’t ensure that you lose the race (so you’ll always have a shot at coming back).

A few of the jumps require extreme precision to avoid overshooting the landing platform, and hitting what seemed like a good jump only to find yourself tumbling 60 feet down into the snow might be enough to get on some drivers’ nerves. At least they can always skip ahead to they next checkpoint and wait if they don’t want to chance the jump again.

One of the bigger downsides is that the race seems to be only designed for two mongeese (or 4 players max). I did notice other mongeese spawned around the map, but there were only two at the starting areas, so I don’t know how the game would work (or IF it would work) with more than two teams (it also seems way too narrow for large races).

Also, the gametype that we played on was flawed. The VIP should only be allowed to be a passenger so that the other player must drive him around, otherwise the non-VIP player can just get off the mongoose and harass the other team (like I did). I do like the idea of having combat between the VIP’s on the back of the ‘geese, so fixing the gametype should help promote that (and the gravlift trap is very original and well thought out, so it would be good to see it used more).

7.5/10

Overall

This is one of the better racetracks I’ve seen, and certainly the best on Avalanche so far. Anyone looking for a fun (but not necessarily competitive) racing experience should try it out. It’s good to see someone show some originality in the racing genre. And put some damn periods in your post next time so that it's more like a description than an indecipherable code.

Final Score: 8/10

 

looks fun yet confusing. I might download it. Must've taken a long time to make!

 

This map looks sloppy but that doesnt mean its bad. it is really fun. somebody who doesnt download this is missing a lot

 

Looks very hard! I can never do any of the high up race tracks on Avalanche because they are usualy like this, so skinny... I'll give it a try but the Mine Field makes it seem kinda strange...