|
Author |
File Description |
crasher |
Posted on 08/08/17 @ 08:25 AM
File Details |
Version: |
The Conquerors 1.0c |
Ahh, this is the life, you think to yourself. Out on the open sea; adventure, far off lands, danger, the smell of salt in the air... The breeze blowing across your back, and- ...sand in your mouth? Slowly, you wake up and claim your senses. The salt is still in the air. The breeze still blows across your back. ...But you're lying face down in sand...
You roll over, dazed. Your grand vessel is now splintered upon the rocks, disintegrating before your eyes... bodies, bloated with salt water, bobble into each other in the surf... There is nobody else around. "Dear God..." you stutter. Your bow and a few arrows lie close by... "Not AGAIN! Well I'd best find where I am...."
This is crasher's entry to the 2003 Pretty Town Contest and was uploaded because the host site DGDN is no longer active. |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
---|
Cataphract887
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 08/28/17 @ 07:49 PM
Crashers "A Lost World" certainly lives up to its name, depositing the player upon the shores of a mysterious tropical world. The name carries another meaning, for the file itself had nearly been lost to the sands of time, luckily being re-uploaded to the blacksmith by its administrator. Harking all the way back to the 2003 PTC, and not the current PTC it happens to find itself surrounded by in the file lists, this scenario boasts an impressive map design and setup in a way that feels far ahead of its time. While the absence of advanced tricks harnessing the power of off grid placement certainly makes itself felt, this is still a map worthy of a playthrough.
The map starts out with a mysterious beach scene which was both foreboding while being pleasantly detailed. Exploring further into the map reveals a still thriving civilization, albeit one with encroaching signs of decay. Their are many towns covering the map, which possess a pleasing shape and building placement. A reasonable amount of life is present with some units patrolling and others positioned to be engaging each other in conversation, though I was surprised to find none of the inhabitants seemed to talk to the player. The functionality of the map was good, with the lumbercamp area having its own housing while the farmlands had their own rural buildings as appropriate. I found the same true of the quarry with its barracks used for housing;the entire city is well varied in this way, and every area has its own purpose and character.
The terrain on the map still looked good and was certainly sufficient to make a pleasant viewing, though the jungle terrain is perhaps the one most benefited by offgridplacement, as compared to recent maps it was quite noticeably a thin feeling. A repeated scene, and one that was successful in my eyes, is the use of bridges atop cliffs with waterfalls. Another was a broken down bridge crossing a gorge;I found these to be convincing of actual height and enjoyable to look at. There is even a underground river attempted;the entrance looks quite nice, though the exit perhaps a bit too flat. The beaches were nice, but I wouldn't have minded some more dirt1 being used. The foaming wave trick was deployed liberally but I didn't find it particularly effective in this map.
The music was an effective touch and added a great deal of mystique to the map. I did find it had a high point to it which was much too loud. Combined with its somewhat low quality, likely due to being in the days of 56k dialup, this soundtrack became slightly repetitive. The large map also caused some issues there as it repeats many times before finding everything. Its a great track, but perhaps a higher quality source would fix any issues here.
In summary "A Lost World" remains a great map, one that is well worth checking out. It likely would have won the PTC2003 if only its absent minded author had remembered to actually upload it! |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 154 |
Favorites: [] | 1 |
Size: | 1.58 MB |
Added: | 08/08/17 |
|