Midnight Madness : May 25, 2000

Don't you just love a map that has a good balance of features? For example, Midnight Madness has some nice open spaces for fraggin your enemies in. It also has some sinister and restricting corridors, where you don't know who is going to be coming next. I believe that Apocalypso has done a good job, balancing out Midnight Madness.

Midnight Madness has an extraordinary atmosphere, as you might have guessed this is a night map, and Apocalypso has got it looking, to a certain extent beautiful. Most of the areas in the map use dark atmospheric lighting, very effective. You can tell that Apocalypso has spent hardcore man-hours getting it right.

Texture usage in Midnight Madness is different; Apocalypso has used the standard Half-Life textures but he has used them very well as the map has its own feel. Quite unique I think.

The map has some superb sections that just has to be seen to be believed… It isn't everyday you see such creative ideas in a multiplayer map. You can easily catch yourself out and kill yourself!

The outside areas have a first rate looks and the inside sections have a number of corridors connecting them together. It can be a little daunting at first because the map it quite complex and isn't mirrored like various deathmatch maps. You soon get used to the feel nevertheless. Apocalypso has tried hard to get his map to connect well; I believe he has done a good job.

I hadn't seen Apocalypso's work before Midnight Madness so; I spent a good two hours running around the map inspecting the quality etc… Its innovative features and good looks have impressed me. I threw some bots at Midnight Madness to give me an idea of how it would play… The bots performed well within the level and didn't have any trouble. It played just like the rest of the finest deathmatch maps. (One thing I'll say is… don't use bots with this map unless you have a 'fast' PC.

I have to pull Apocalypso up a bit on his item placement though. I cannot fault the placement of his weapons but ammo and other items don't seem to be as well thought out. You wouldn't notice it much in you deathmatch however.

Summary:

This map has originally and lots of features. Cleaver design work and texturing is what makes this map professional. When you splash down in Midnight Madness it's a little daunting because of its complex layout and structure but you will like it. A great map and it competes with the rest.

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