The license applies to MSDN text/images and to my levels

10th of July 2007

Lighthouse | Single | Author: Billy Boy | Download 4Mb

Description: A huge lighthouse. You're supposed to get on top of it but my bet is that only a handful of people have actually managed to do that without cheating.

Design: This is one of those levels that have rooms with almost zero details but where it doesn't matter one bit. What I'm talking about is Conceptual Grandness. The map is huge and it looks huge. You really feel like nobody when you're at the very bottom looking up. The whole lighthouse structure looks amazingly brilliant. Texturing is also crappy (includes a lot of custom textures - some of which are good) - there's all kinds of weird shit that looks out of place but even that doesn't matter at all. Lightning is quite good by the way. There are some areas where it shows that Billy Boy can easily add some magnificent details - like the guillotin area - but doing so would eat too much resourced (believe me; there was none left). There are tons of neat tricks and Billy Boy has filled the level with a trick that was thought to be impossible (years ago): entering buildings that have solid (as in not made of sprites) roofs.

Gameplay: The gameplay is a pain in the butt with tons of buttons, tons of keys, tons of puzzles that seem to make no sense and so on. However, monsters and ammo are quite balanced although there are many tight spots where you actually have to start looking for ammo. Some enemy encounters are unfair, like meeting Pig Cops in crowded places and so on. So, with all this in mind, who would play such a thing? For one thing, it's a huge challenge getting on top of the map - makes you feel like you're on top of the world. Cheating is useless and spoils every achievement. However, a walkthrough is welcome and it just happens that Quakis wrote one some months ago. So - USE THE WALKTHROUGH!

Conclusion: An amazing map - the longest I have ever played (took me 117 minutes!!!). It looks brilliant and is a goddamn challenge. No one but Billy Boy can create something like this. Also check his other maps Clearwater, Deadfall and Bedrone.

Rating: 94