In addition, I had to noclip past the Combine barricades. I think a message flashed that the doors couldn’t be opened ’til all the Combine were killed. I killed them all, I thought, but noclipping showed a couple that were just standing there, hidden from me. I killed them the hard way (from the “proper” side of the barrier) and the doors stayed shut, on all three barricades and the one into the building.

So I noclipped to the next area, the text said to run into the building on the right. I killed the Combine inside and went back out and killed the Combine outside, then went back in the building. Finally tried something and I was told I’d disrupted their communications. Still nothing. Finally noclipped past the next barrier and found all the Error messages Phillip mentioned.

I finally finished using impulse 101 & god mode, though by that point the Strider was close to dead anyway–I was just frustrated enough to not care about doing it “right”.

I didn’t play the map, but I found the screenshots interesting. While the mapping is awful, the author really did something interesting to the atmosphere in the map. It makes the city look much more western than City 17 ever did. The textures didn’t fit well, but it was still interesting. I love when mappers try and do something different than an overly-orange sunset that’s seen in so many maps, even if they didn’t pull the new atmosphere off correctly. I don’t know why, but from the screenshots, there was just something that made me like this map instead of just thinking it’s some poor quality mapping.

My problem with this map is quality and details. All the areas look unfinished and the author’s homepage does say “currently under production” but it’s unclear if this is just outdated text or not.

The starting area is a good example, your carriage just rolls to a stop and once outside the area looks like it needs a lot more work.

Visuals
The author has gone for a dark and bleak atmosphere but I don’t think it has been achieved. Half of the buildings are bright, as are the streets. Somehow I think the width of the streets also makes it feel too airy to be bleak.

The are lots of “ERROR” symbols in the map and this just may be a missing texture on my part or a custom texture that was never packed into the BSP file.

Gameplay
There is text that appears on the screen and as regular readers will know that is a big negative for me already. Unfortunately it gets worse. The text doesn’t stay long enough on the screen and it is wider than my screen, so you can’t see all of it. May be I missed something important? I don’t it but it’s all part of the “quality” I mentioned earlier.

Layout and Design
Why is that that designers always make players start in a dead end? How often do large streets like the one in the map end abruptly? Not very often. I understand that making huge areas just to make things look real is hard work but it’s important. A simple Combine barrier or walking wall is all that’s needed. In fact that’s probably what they were designed for.

I also dislike it when author’s become too ambitious beyond there ability. Here the author has tried to create some sort of above ground Combine train system and it just looks tacky and from what I played doesn’t add anything to the gameplay at all.

Summary
One of those maps that really aren’t that fun to look at or play but certainly not the worst we will see this year. It only gets my MAYBE rating because neither the gameplay nor visuals make it stand out.