Tribes2Maps.com - Review of "Radiance" by DrPimento

Review:
If you like yellow-tinged maps, this one's a winner. With lighting that reminds one of a new spring and deep, yellowish water, it's a very interesting approach to the "picture-perfect" mapping style. After playing a few moments, tho', you realize this isn't just for those of you who like those "yellow-tinged" maps..

Even the slowest-to-the-uptake Tribers (I claim that title) will see in just a few minutes that this is not an easy map to cap with. Wether it's merely insanely hard, or just demanding teamwork, I'm still deciding on. I'll address that later on. The second thing you'll do if you're one of those slow people (again, me) is realize, near the end of the match, that there are FISH in the water. That's right.. I was laughed from here to Kingdom-Come for not seeing them sooner, but my amazement swallowed any embarrasement felt. (Most of it, anyway)

Gameplay is spread way out on this map. Granted, most of the heavy action takes place around the flag, but there are so many far-flung battles as opposing scouts sight eachother and clash in hatred that it's impossible to classify all the fighting as being at "home". Wether it's trying to run intercept on that incoming jug, or just driving off that gosh-darn annoying sniper, you're going to have to leave the base, and when you do, you're going to realize that you have to have learned to ski, first.

The distance between flags is one of three: Really long, Long, or Tricky. The really long route goes around the central ocean.. (I would call it a lake, but it's too big for that) The hills encircling the playing area provide a quick, dry route, but it is very, very far out of the way.. plus, if you can't ski, you're going to never make it. The Long route goes straightline.. but that means through the water, which is agonizingly slow. Better catch one of those fishies for a snack, you'll be at your destination in about an hour. The Tricky route requires you to hop from platform to platform, with a single misstep plunging you into the "long" ocean route.. plus, this leaves you wide open for enemy snipers. Have fun with that way..

But wait! There's more fun! Once you have succesfully traversed your path of choice, you've got to get to the flag. This is a task not for the faint of heart. The flagstand has a roof of sorts over it, which is nearly perfect for both shielding those under it from spam, and stopping cappers from making grab-and-go runs. I say "nearly perfect", because there are two ways around this. First, for spamming, once a Heavy gets under the shield, he's hell on earth. The same protection that was against him now works for him.. he's free to mortar all the deployables at will, while safe from most indirect fire.. his enemies (in spawn armor, probably, no less) must come TO him to fight. Second, for capping: there is a line you can take, but you must be absolutely perfect in it, and that jug has to have cleared the way out. Hey, then all you have to do is pick one of those 3 routes back home, and travel it, only this time while fighting off the hordes of enraged enemies! No problem, right?

Playability of this map is a little lower than average because of all those factors. It would have been lower, except for the pure fun factor: this map is, on the whole, an unescapeably fun map. Everything about it reccomends itself.. if you can't take the heat at base, go out in the open and annoy someone! There's stuff here to do for everyone.

Attention to detail is lacking in no manner, that I could tell. The sky, the lighting, the base construction and placement, the FISH!, even the platforms practically scream out: "hours of time! days of a life wasted in pursuit of this map!" I can't imagine anyone looking at this and not admitting it's one of the few perfect maps in existance, at least appearance-wise.

Balance is slanted very far to the defense. If my previous words haven't said it enough, let me try again: "Good luck getting to the flag!" Heck, for that matter, good luck even getting near the base! But it's so fun doing it, it doesn't hardly matter. Besides.. once there's a mad rush, SOMEone is bound to grab it, right? Riight...

Item Placement again suffers only the slightest bit, and only in one area. Whenever you rearm at an inventory station, you get the odd feeling that you are very vulnerable to spam.. and there's a reason. Every single station is in a little "pit" of sorts.. inside the base, to be true, but you'd never make it out if someone started dumping grenades at you.

Mechanics are high just because the map works. Sure, it's hard, but with teamwork, it'll make it easier. Sure, it probly won't ever cap out, but hey, who cares! Every minute is an enjoyment. And besides, anything that encourages teamwork is commendable.

Overall, I'd tell you to go play it, in as few words as possible. I'd skimp on the words just because, in all likelyhood, I'm already IN the map, and have a few too many snipers on my tail, fighting mad from some serious ownership.. Seriously. Give it a try! You won't regret it, I promise.

To see the rest of the map details, including the map author's description of the map, and user-submitted comments, go to the map detail page.