The abandoned base is a
single level for DooM 2. It contains a few new graphics from Quake 2 and
Ultimate Doom including four magnificent skies. It also has new music from
Duke Nukem 3D.
You can clearly see John has paid a lot of attention to the detail of his
level. I think one of the keys to a good design is to avoid flat floors,
ceilings and walls. John has clearly taken care of this. His ceilings are
almost always filled with lights on several heights. And, the walls mostly
have windows in it. In most levels with windows you just get stuck staring
at the sky. Not in this level, John has made a huge plain around the
buildings with tree's and a large lake. This isn't super detailed but it's
better than nothing. The floors are fairly flat but there are a lot of
lighting effects thrown in which is good. And to make it complete, John has
added some pillars and decoration here and there which really proves he has
good design skills.
The gameplay on the other
hand is very average. The level is pretty short only taking 7 minutes to
complete and the difficulty level lies very low. In almost every room you'll
find a couple of medikits waiting for you which takes your health back to
100%. The monster placement is just average too. The monsters are mostly
just scattered around the room. Oh, and if you like to fight Hell knights,
Spiders and Arch-Viles, forget it. The toughest monster you'll find is the
Spectre. The keys are well placed around the level making you wander around
a bit but when you pick them up
it's always fun when there's an unexpected trap to surprise you. In this
level, you wont find a single trap so it gets a little boring after a while.
The gameplay sure could be handled better.
If you're a beginning level designer and want to know how to create some
nice design, this might be interesting for you. But if you expect a good
gameplay with a lot of surprises, I'd advice you to run trough this in
no-monsters mode.
Score: 76%
