"The red skull key" is a
green level. Yes, once again your immediate impression of another one of
Pablo's DooM gothic levels is the omnipresent color green in form of marble
textures. It's every where; on the floors, ceilings and on the walls, only
occasionally abrupt by some rock textures or some metal. It looks ok; it's
just too much! It might be a
little hard to negatively judge the entire level on this statement, but I'm
here to review this map, and I can't very well leave out this detail since
the greater part of a reviewers job is to judge the level by its design and
architecture. And TRSK is just not a very innovative level on these points. The author has
not tried very hard to make something extraordinary (I'm not the one to say
if that is every designers quest and goal, but a little effort on all
areas are required to get a high score) out of this one. It's got some good
shading and a few neat features. However, it looks and plays like most
average levels and the player soon gets tired of looking at that same style
and layout over and over and over again. The map is in
most places very well designed, and TRSK has some nice details to it, but
they are never totally overwhelming or, to say the least, represented in
great numbers. They are there, but they disappear. The architecture itself
is quite good and nice to look at, and it gives the level a good atmosphere.
All of this is off course
counterbalanced by the size of the map, which is a bit on the small side.
It's very linear and the player never feels lost or misguided. It's simple,
perhaps too simple. Not a very big use of various trigger effects and
"no" monsters adds to the simplicity of the level. However, it has on the other hand, a very nasty
"assignment", which the player has to complete in order to move on.
And that's a climb -or rather- some jumping on some very small and narrow
ledges on a "mountain" side. It's actually quite hard and extends
the experience a little.
You feel like you've seen it all
before, but then again, not. TRSK is one of its kind; both negatively and positively.
Download it, play it and move on.
