The Review Hub Archive

[Orangeremi]

Map Name : Catalyst
Author: LXV Grizzly
Reviewed By: E93 (GT: Eduardo Dubs)

Enjoyment: 8.5/10
This map impressed me. It started a bit confusing, but it later developped to be fun. I personally dont like One Bomb games, but it was actually pretty fun for a while on this map. Team Slayer is also fun, regardless of the fact that spawn camping happens once in a game.

Balance: 10/10
The balance was very good. The better weapons were placed outside of the bomb base, and we could penetrate easily with the right weapons, almost as well as the other team could steal our weapons and use them against us. =]
LXV Grizzly got it right with the equipment too. We had power drains outside, and they had bubble shield inside.

Durability: 8/10
Despite not being able to break this map, spawn camping can occur very often if the other team exploits it. The red team always spawns in the same area, never 10m away from each other, and the blue team always spawned in the same area too. More spawn areas and spawn points could fix this though.

Aesthetics: 8.5/10
On some maps, you can totally still see that it was once Foundry, but this one is completely different. You can tell how much work was done on it. And the new trend to designate bases (invisibility and overshields) made each base look really cool. The bridges over the map, and even the design of each base were really creative and good looking.

Originality: 8.5/10
''Much like any other matchmaking map'', would fit, because well, it looked like its own map. Not a bit of Foundry i it. Goodbye square box!
It had some good original creations in it, like the high ground on the red base, and that drop-in thing that was a quick way to get to the bomb area if needed.


Overall score (Average of the above): 8.7/10
Very enjoiable overall. The spawn placement needs fixing and some working on.
I really enjoyed playing in this map.
I actually feel that this map is better than some that are currently in the bungie favorites. You could definetely be in there, and top those maps.
I'd recommend for people to play this map in One Bomb, even though I'm not much a fan of assault myself. Team Slayer also works.

[Orangeremi]

Map Name: The Opera House
Author: Duff Himself
Reviewed By: HXC2stepAP
Enjoyment 7/10
This is a very fun map, and with it's support on multiple game types will be having you want to play again and again. There is a slight problem with Player spawns where you can spawn right next to an enemy, but in team based games that shouldn't be a problem.

Balance 8/10
Definitely a balanced map while playing multiple game types for the gameplay covers the entire field. The height of some areas are made up for by power weapons at strategic places throughout the play area to compensate for the lack of elevation. There is no area that is unnoticed in this map.

Durability 5/10
Not the most durable map, it cannot be escaped yet has many flaws in it's design. There are places you can get stuck, making it unable to escape from your tomb.

Aesthetics 7/10
Not the most beautiful map, but pretty none the less. The structure that stands out the most would have to be the stage structure made out of bridges. Interlocked perfectly this is really what gives this map it's name.

Originality 9/10
As for originality this map surpassed the standards, a lot of the structure in this map are rare if not non-existent.

Overall Score 7/10
An overall enjoyable map, works very well for competitive games. Only problems would be spawns and little niches that can cost you your life. While testing i really enjoyed playing this map.

[Orangeremi]

Map Name : Ganghouse
Author: Waylander
Reviewed By: duff himself (GT: Duff Himself)

Enjoyment: 6/10
The map has a great story behind it and it did make me want to test it. The initial reaction was very cool. Both teams had a plan of attack and it seemed like it was going to be great. Then we noticed the patterns of the spawning. A fun map turned into a slaughter where you couldn't stay alive longer than 5 seconds. It kinda turned me off to the map right there.

Balance: 2/10
We played the "Hostage Rescue CTF" and the game couldn't be more unbalanced. The team coming to attack would constantly spawn inside the trucks and get picked off very fast. One player had over 45 kills alone! Also the flag could be returned while the team was inside the house. You could sit in a nice safe area on the second floor...and never be challenged. The defending team I understand should have a slight advantage but this seemed liked it wasn't even play tested.

Durability: 4/10
The concept of this map was simple but things were added to try and make it new and exciting. Various switches were added but they failed to work most of the time and even disappeared all together during certain rounds. The elevator trapped people and the trap doors on the second level killed people in the house several times.

Once the elevator was sprung people saw no need to even go through the front door at all. There were little spots to jump up but they were barely used. People starting using the terrain to jump onto the side of the house. You can scale the entire house to reach the flag without ever going in. I'm not sure if that was intended or not but it really took away from the focus of the map... the house!

Also one thing I really didn't like was the entire map was open. The back hallway was not closed off at all. I know its not needed but we joked that if you took the flag and hid it back there the game would be no fun! Its a little touch that needs addressing.

Aesthetics: 5/10
The swat trucks outside were very nice. I do like the fact that barrels were added under the box to look like more wheels. There were boxes merged into the floor which also was meant to give cover. The floors in the house for the most part looked decent. I also liked the doors that were teleports.

Then there were things that really didn't look so good. The staircase up to the roof was awkward to get up at times. The roof was not level and the bumps were distracting. The 2 corner pieces of the house were nothing but great spots to spawn camp the incoming team. The house was cluttered on the first floor with all the boxes. The overall flow of the house needs improvement.

Originality: 6/10
The story and the layout of the thread was great. I liked the idea a lot of having a swat team outside with trucks (lights and all!). On the other hand the idea of just a big house is not really original and it just seemed like another version. There were switches like a gate and an elevator that have been done before also. It was a good idea that turned into a big box-like house with some cool trucks outside.

Overall score (Average of the above): 4.6/10
The map has potential. The story behind the map is great but the map just falls short of what it could be. The outside had a lot of great forging with merged boxes and swat trucks that looked very cool. The house had a nice walkway and a switch for a grand entrance. The start of the map is great but with play you see all of the flaws. With a little attention and some tweaks this map could be a lot of fun!

[Orangeremi]

Map Name:Diameter
Author: DRiSCOLL14
Reviewed By: Vicious Vice



Enjoyment: 9/10
This capture the flag arena may look like the run of the mill map but that is quite incorrect. The simple design and ample cover make this a very face pace map with well balanced set of weapons and a unique look. The flag captures were tense and the defenses even better the map is definitely worth a try for any fan of CTF.


Balance: 6/10
Even though the weapons are well balanced this map lacks a good spawn area and is not perfectly symmetrical. The biggest issue we had with balance is that the geo-merged door on the red flag spawn blocks the left side and the right side you are able to walk through, while on the blue side you may walk on either side. Also the sniper spawn on each side allows you to spawn camp with great ease or you could just stand in the respawn area and camp there so that leaves a lot to balance. But if you are playing a casual game wit friends this shouldn’t be to much of an issue.


Durability: 3/10
Sadly, I was forced to deduct many points in the category. The spawn camping issues are one thing but the ease in which a player may leave the area of play is a big issue. You can get up on the perimeter of the map with an easy grenade jump or just jumping of a teammate. There are also a few holes for lost grenades that could be easily fixed. (mainly in red spawn)


Aesthetics: 7/10
The map itself looks very nice the walls and cover are all well interlocked and the fence wall between the two flag spawns looks good. I applaud the author for attempting to create arrows with teleporters but they looks kind of sloppy but points for attempting something few even try.


Originality: 6/10
Not many maps are perfectly circle like this map and the spawn areas are reminiscent of those from Terminal. The cover, pallets and open boxes all work very well for the map, but there is lack of anything new or eye catching other than the simple yet original design.


Overall score (Average of the above): 6/10
Overall this was a very enjoyable map and decently balanced so I can’t be mad at this map for the lack of roof which would fix the major issues of this map. I feel this map is good enough to deserve a version two and maybe some new ideas for unique cover.

[Orangeremi]

Map: S7 Line
Author: Bl00d F1R3
Reviewed by: TexturedSun


Enjoyment : 7/10
I did actually quite enjoy this map. But i think that is because i like smaller, enclosed maps, suited for 1-4 players. I think there are a few issues which hamper the overall score, which i will go into detail with in the subsequent sections.

Balance : 5/10
Spawning in a map such as this is ALWAYS an issue. Being so small there are, inevitably, going to be times where you spawn near someone or close by to an enemy. Your spawn placement (looking in forge here) needs some improvement i feel. From my experience double-barelling every spawn point can lead to easy spawn killing and often-times, predictability. You could do with having more single spawns in cover, uch as in the two open boxes where the BRs spawn, maybe even some more cover specific to spawning (although that can tend to ruin the aesthetics ... its a fine balance, i know. I'd also like to mention your lack of spawn areas. I can't stress enough how instrumental they are in forming an effective spawn system. Even one neutral one, covering the entire area would be better than none. Your weapon choices were okay, but to be honest, nothing too exciting, still they did their job well enough. I question the inclusion of a Sniper Rifle though, as well as the Shotgun, maybe a Mauler would have been better suited. Also, when we played (and when i've just went back into forge there) the red side gets a Plasma Rifle, while the blue side doesn't.

Durability : 8/10
This is your highest scoring area, as you utilised the invisible barrier at the top really well. Its impossible to get out of this map (i'm pretty certain). Unfortunately the spawn system brings you down, as well as the ease of camping. You could simply get the Shotgun and hide up inside the angled open boxes next to its spawn and insta-kill anyone coming past.

Aesthetics : 4/10
I'm going to be very harsh here, so don't take it personally. I love the idea, but your execution was, to be brutally honest, sloppy. You could have spent a bit longer neatening everything up and this would truly be a 8 or 9, but the map is filled with sloppy interlocking and gaping holes in the walls. You added some nice touches behind the fence walls and under the 'track', but it doens't forgive the walls, crooked stairs and often bumpy floor. I know you have the skill to make these areas looks excellent, you've showed it in the main station section, but like i said, a little more time spent could have improved your score greatly.

Originality : 7/10
The 'ultra-neat' fully-enclosed 1-4 player map genre is getting a bit stale, but there are always the exceptions which prove that it can keep on giving. But your extension of the 'Pallet Parade' (no, this is not a comparison to Pallet Parade) style train track is one i can't remember seeing before, so you do well with that.


Overall : 6/10
You created a good concept, with decent execution, but you have let yourself down in some key areas which could have helped excel this map.

[Matty]

Map Name: Renegade
Author: TDHarding (GT: Tom D Harding)
Reviewed by: E93 (GT: Eduardo Dubs)

Enjoyment: 7/10
I think we all enjoyed playing this map. It was unique, small, but it did the job better than tons of other maps that are out there. It was really enjoiable for Crazy King. The only, non-fixable flaw, is that this map is pretty small. Matches bigger than 4v4 will be overpopulated, and your average life-time will be very short.

Balance: 8/10
Balance is pretty good, maybe for being more of an Objective map, that doesn't require bases. All the weapons are well layed out, and you won't find yourself complaining too much about weapon placement. The Rocket Launcher and the Sword are the only things you have to really worry about.

Durability: 10/10
This map includes Avalanche-ish looking Man-Cannons, they prevent you from escaping the map (although you can't even get that high), and they're great for aesthetics. Spawn-Camping does not happen here, no need to worry about that. There aren't even the weapons to properly spawn-camp. =]

Aesthetics: 9/10
When you first play this map, you will probably think it was inspired by Avalanche (despite the size) and the surrounding Man-Cannons. Even the crates look good here, and the Interlocking was perfect. There's no getting stuck somewhere, like in other poorly interlocked maps.

Originality: 8.5/10
The way it is all layed out, and all the bridges, and corridors, etc..., looke good and are original. TD took the time to think this over, and it worked. You will actually want to play King of the Hill after this map, because it just makes it look fun.


Overall score (Average of the above): 8.5/10
I enjoyed this map, in the most parts. Just don't bring too many people in your party to this game, or it will seize or, diminish its ''fun-ness''. Perfect for 3v3 parties, and it's also great for FFAs, like KotH, and Land Grab.

[Matty]

Name: Atrium
Author: weremidget
Reviewer: haruki jitsunin

Enjoyment: 8/10 This level is really fun for slayer and king of the hill. It doesn't play well for the 2-point objective games. while playing capture the flag, I, personally, was able to capture three flags without getting killed once. However, team king(doubles) worked really well. I only wish you would have tailored the hill points to fit your map better. Meaning, the center hill could be widened tofill the whole center box area. There were many times in king of the hill that it became "ring around the rocket box." Just widening it to fill that platform would make it perform really well.

Balance: 6/10 The rockets were well balanced, however, the maulers (there were two) had a 1.5 minute respawn with one extra clip each and a run time maximum of 7. This lead to a lot of maulers on the map. Had you, maybe removed the extra clip, or set a run time maximum of 2, or maybe changed the respawn time to 2 minutes, I think the mauler would have had much less importance. Another thing was the grenades. There are (according to you) 12 placed on the map, with two starting grenades given to each player (on standard gametypes). I think you could cut the placed grenades on the map in half only giving three of each because there was more grenade lobbing than COD4 on this map. However, the rockets were amazingly-well balanced to where they were a reward, but not so important. Again, the turrets were good, but not overly important, especially on such a small map. The snipers really shined in this level. They were important (which is surprising on such a small map) and it kept people going up to the snipe tower to see if it had respawned constantly, however, with the 2.5 minute respawn, most of the time it hadn't.

Durability: 9/10 The only reason I docked a point here is because there were a few times that the spawns seemed iffy, enemies spawning close to eachother, etc, but I mean, you couldn't get out of the map. There weren't (obvious) repeating spawns or spawn patterns and nothing really seemed "broken" or "exploitable" about this map.

Aesthetics: 7/10 It looked clean, walked smoothly and the bases looked cleanly forged, however, there aren't the "wow" forging aesthetics that forgehub looks for in maps. I mean, I'm not saying it looks bad, it just doesn't have a wow factor.

Oiginality: 8/10 This is an area that combines both aesthetics and gameplay. If it were just originality in gameplay, I'd give it a 9/10, however, the originality in the aesthetic touches were, like I said in aesthetics lacking. It's an amazing map, it plays amazingly well for slayer and KOTH and I can't wait for a v2.


Overall: 8/10

A great enclosed map that does make you forget you're in foundry. It plays well, looks good, while there are a few weapon balancing issues that could be fixed and a little more attention to the hill points in KOTH would work wonders, it's a really good map.

[Matty]

The Review Hub

Map Name: Elysium
Author: thesilencebroken
Reviewed By: Iv0rY Snak3

Enjoyment: 8/10
This map is great fun to play on with smaller parties, it allows for constant action, in a nice unique layout.
it loses marks because you are constantly dying from grenades, there are a few too many, and almost everyone in my party had some kind of grenade as their tool of destruction. just remove a couple of unnecessary pairs, and it would greatly improve the gameplay.


Balance: 8/10
being a symmetrical map, you have to be pretty stupid to make it unbalanced. but the problem is the weapons you chose, well not so much weapons as equipment. The OS and camo spawns could have been switched around, because generally in gameplay, i found that a lot of grenades were ending up on the top floor, so an OS would be more suited up there, and there was little traffic on the bottom floor, so camo is quite helpful, allowing you to sneak up to the higher levels.


Durability: 5/10
the map is inescapable, which is always a plus, although spawning can be a problem. the starting spawns are horrible to be honest, both teams spawn facing each other on the middle level, extremely unprepared, and it never ends well. easy fix though, that would get you an extra mark or two. also, some spawns in 4v4 games can turn out quite bad, there was a point in a match where i was facing off on one guy, 1v1 style, then two of his buddies spawned behind him and i died, when originally i had the upper hand.
i know the spawning will never be perfect because of the layout of the map, but they can be improved upon.


Aesthetics: 9/10
the map is beautifully interlocked, (except for one small unnoticeable section) not a bump anywhere, and everything is well lined up, i can tell you put a lot of effort into making it look beautiful. although there is something missing, there isn't anything that i will remember aesthetic wise from this map. but that's not a problem because the gameplay provides some hilarious accidents.


Originality: 8/10
the layout of the map is unique, and adds something to the gameplay, although there have been other maps in the same style as this, they have not achieved the same unique gameplay as elysium has.


Overall score (Average of the above): 7.5/10
I enjoyed mos of my games on elysium, except for the spawning problems, it was great fun. i would reccomend smaller games of 3v3 or 2v2 aas opposed to 4v4 because of the size of the map, and the spawning improves with the size of the party.
overall, greatjob, just make some tweaks to your spawning system and it could be even better.

[Matty]

The Review Hub

Map Name:overpass
Author:The Dew Aka UR MAST3R
Reviewed By:roche178

Enjoyment: 8/10
I must say I really enjoyed this map I the gameplay was really intense and the map layout is very functional. Although your spawns were a little bit off and also defending a flag in a game of 1 flag CTF was extremely difficult.

Balance: 6/10
Here is the main weakness of this map defending a flag is near impossible because of the way the spawning system is set up when one team goes to the enemy base to retrieve a flag the enemy start spawning in the defenders base they then grab the flag and capture it.

Durability: 7/10
Your map is pretty much not escapable although your spawning system was dysfunctional and caused problems in the gameplay of the map which made the game unfair for one side I recommend putting another spawn area further away from the base.

Aesthetics: 8/10
This map was really nice to look at your bridges are really smooth I saw no bumps at all and the area was not to cluttered. However there is one area behind the sniper tower that really looks sloppy and the area near the red door looks a bit messy too.

Originality: 6/10
As far as originality goes you did not include any new concepts or ideas but the map layout is fairly unique I don't see many maps with bridges playing a such big part of the gameplay.

Overall score: 7/10
The main problem I have with this map is the spawns as it throws off your balance and the fun but overall I had alot of fun with this map the bases are really well constructed it looks really nice and has very intense gameplay.

[Matty]

The Review Hub

Map Name: Cubical
Author: Gopuri
Reviewed By: Zstrike13

Enjoyment: 6/10
I played two different games on the map with lots of different people. Most were very mixed about the map. We played his TS KoTH variant, which was quite original as a gametype. The objective to stay out of the bottom seemed easy, but became difficult when you aren't careful. Unfortunately, the breakability of the map and bad spawns brought it down.

Balance: 8/10
Gopuri did quite well here. No weapon completely overpowered the map, but the sniper was pretty advantaging to any one team. Overall not bad. The Splazer wasn't particularly used much however as the small arena-type map made it too time-consuming and almost definitely a death.

Durability: 4/10
Had to deduct a lot here. The ease in which we broke out of the map was unfortunate. Once on the third floor, a hop onto a wire spool was all it took to jump or nade jump out of the map. Also, the spawns were a problem here and there. There were definitely quite a few times I spawned in front of or behind an enemy, sometimes as he spawned too. This could be fixed with some spread out spawn placements.

Aesthetics: 7/10
Nothing too crazy in the map, but it overall looked nice, especially for a non-interlocking map. The center platform was nice, and the stairs around it made for a nice touch, but interlocking could have helped ease it out as bumps in the stairs and floor here interfered with gameplay. I found myself stuck on the stairs at one point as an enemy fired from behind.

Originality: 9/10
The gametype really helps raise the overall score here as the idea really kicks it up. The game is KoTH, but the objective is to stay out of the hill. Not done too much so good job there. However, the hill is essentially a death pit and the map is an arena, which are not very original, aiding to the loss of the point.


Overall score (Average of the above): 6/10
The map wasn't bad. I loved the idea, which really helped boost the score, but the durability crushed this map. It would be best to build higher and thus ruin all chance of escape, and spread out the spawns. That is my best advice. In the case of low budget, try the infinite budget glitch, though possibly too late, it will help your ability to fix this problem. The pit itself isn't bad, but I would possibly add some small sort of cover, just to help anyone who falls in. Nothing drastic, but some walls or something. Overall, the map probably could be much higher rated with some easy fixes. Don't fret over the durability though. Definitely try fixing it, but don't think you are the only one who has lost there. Anyway, pretty decent map. I'm sure you will get better as time goes on. :]