Map Review of dogs

Map review of Dogs

by The-Real-Game | February 4, 2004 | 3646 characters

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I don’t know about you, but I think the whole ebay thing is great. I mean you don’t have to sit in an auction room, afraid to move in case you end up bidding for a stuffed moose or something equally useless. Instead you get to sit at home, usually have a few days in which to bid, but you still can’t stop yourself going bid crazy. The only bad thing I you could be gambling on what someone says. Their version of ‘Mint Condition’ could mean they’ve only run over it a few times with their car. Of course Dogs is a map that isn’t a gamble, as it’s clear from the start it’s good quality.

A map series from the old days of sven coop. This was back before Black Mesa became “So last year” In this map pack you travel through many of the familiar Black Mesa style surroundings and themes, from the concrete areas to the cliff based outside areas.

Architecture wise this is an average affair in most places, but others feature some great detail, such as the office style parts and the outside area. Other areas feel a bit flat and lack any eye candy that makes you go “Wow!” The atmosphere in the maps is of a good quality throughout, will many parts been very reminiscent of the original Half Life. Other things like lighting are well done and add to the realism of the map.

The one thing that shines brightly for this map is the great design. For most of the series the maps flow incredibly well and you’re never left feeling bored or disappointed. Although the only flaw in the design is the huge vent section, which takes at least a couple of minutes to go through, and links directly to the invisible assassins area. This means you’ll have to travel through that dreaded vent at least a few times, which can bring the enjoyment factor down a bit.

For most of the map the gameplay is above average, but the skill.cfg seems to be set rather high, as enemies can be killed very easily, but then again, so can you. Things that impressed me were the mix of puzzles and solid gameplay. The jumping puzzle was great, but so was the apache battle. In which you had to move from each piece of cover rapidly or you’d find it been destroyed by the Apaches barrage of rockets. A bad thing is that you seem to be rather over equipped in most cases, making some battles far to easy, but the battles between aliens and soldiers are great!

However the gameplay is nowhere near perfect. It’s just there’s one major problem, it’s not challenging at all. The puzzles are good, but could be a lot harder yet still retain the entertainment of trying to complete them. The actual battles with enemies are pretty easy, see as a single machine gun grenade can see off an entire squad of grunts. While one round of your magnum can easily kill the apache you face later on. This sadly does affect the series in a big way, as you can easily complete the whole set of maps in under half an hour with just a couple of friends.

It’s quite unusual for me to be complaining about a map series been too easy, but this is one of the few exceptions. Don’t get me wrong Dogs is a great set of maps, and also has the added advantage of been suitable for playing on your own but is too easy when there’s a few of you playing it. Well worth checking out if you want some short but sweet gaming!

Pros:

  • Great Design
  • Above Average Gameplay
  • Nice Variety Of Settings
  • Average Architecture

Cons:

  • Enemies To Easy To Defeat
  • Not Challenging
  • Too Short
Score: 7.1 / 10

Review originally from *

This review was recovered from CreepsWorld.

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