4th of July 2024

Factory Parking | Single/Multi | Author: ToiletDuck64 | Download

This is a "Doom" type map from ToiletDuck64. He's done a whole bunch of these maps, and Factory Parking is the first of the bunch to be featured on this site (the author's Chillin', a Hot Map, was reviewed some years ago). The design is obviously quite abstract, reminiscent of Doom maps like The Citadel and Wormhole with its symmetrical layout revolving around a central structure. Gameplay is Doom-like as well, as you often find yourself retreating from enemy hordes to position yourself better, especially early on when you're short on supplies. After this stingy start your ammo situation improves rapidly, but you should still take care not to waste rockets on regular enemies. The map is pretty fun to play and somewhat challenging, but I didn't much care for fighting against Battlelords in open areas with no cover. Also, I spent quite a while looking for a lock for the yellow key card only to find out that I had rendered it invisible by switching from Polymer to Polymost at the start of the map - but obviously this is not the mapper's fault, just some quirk of the engine. The map's symmetrical layout is pretty fun to navigate as paths open up around you bit by bit.
The Doom-like design is a bit dull (although with an interesting palette choice for the sunset sky). Obviously this is more or less what you're gonna get with this style, but certainly there's room for some trimming or at least more ambitious lighting effects. Even giving adjacent walls different shade values could've done wonders to the map's visuals with little effort; now everything looks flat.

Rating: 80