THE FOLLOWING IS THE REVIEW FOR VERSION 1.0. AN ADDENDUM FOR V 1.1 IS AT THE BOTTOM!

Bus Depot is easy. Easy-peasy. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, you might even say (if you’re in 2nd grade). If Bus Depot was a girl, it literally wouldn't even have legs to close. It is THAT easy.

For starters, Bus Depot is WIDE open, just like… you know what, I’ll add a fresher joke here. Bus Depot is so goddamn full of open air, you could mistake it for the inside of Paris Hilton’s head. As soon as you pop the first door, you have more than enough room to run trains pretty much wherever you please. That’s not to mention the 100-meter sightlines you can easily draw on some spawning zombies!

It doesn’t help that the map (roughly the same size as Ascension) only contains FIVE pieces of buyable debris… you can buy out the whole thing faster than Donald Trump can buy out an entire Chinese sweatshop. That is to say, it’s not hard to open up the entire map by Round 5.

The wall guns are all bonkers powerful and cost less than 2k, so really there’s no reason to even use the box except to try more of the firepower out. Oh, and you can get the wonderweapon for free… by Round 5.

How? Because most of the map is a scavenger hunt. Find the giant flaming skulls, shoot all of them, then grab your CEL-3 Cauterizer. Run around staring at the dirt like some sort of senile mud-wrestler, then get thousands of points and quick powerups via the dig sites. Even the powerswitch is created through the tedious and annoying process of finding three separate buildable parts.

Does anyone enjoy this? The shameless rewarding of players for… really, just looking at a map, taking it all in like they should do anyways. Why not reward players for completing challenges, or surviving to high rounds, or simply being good? Well, that would ramp up the difficulty, and we can’t have that!

I sound like a salty old asshole, but you know what? I’m tired of maps that can essentially be beaten by Round 5. I’m tired of trying to limit my own character’s strength to raise the difficulty, only to find that the map is so easy nothing I can do will make it challenging. I’ll stop here before I pop a blood vessel -- but do you get the idea?

Moving on, let’s chill and talk about the pro’s: yes, there are a lot of them. The weapons are good, because they aren’t covered with those weird ass see-through holes and they don’t make little wet-fart noises when you left-click. So, they basically meet my standards. They don’t EXCEED my standards though, mind you -- I set them a bit too high for that  .

The map itself caught me totally off-guard, because it’s not really a Bus Depot. 90% of the map is actually comprised of customized TranZit locations, with a tiny Bus Depot area to lure you in under false premises. It’s like getting catfished, and trust me, I know a thing or two about that  ! Nonetheless, I’m glad I wasn’t relegated to playing in another pure remake map.

What else? The detail was good, the areas were interesting, and there are some fun toys to screw around with. Again, the main flaw of this map is just how boringly easy it is. However, if you are a new player, this is a great map to learn zombies on while testing out all the latest and greatest features the custom scene has to offer.

Oh, wait…

I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THE FUCKING SOUL BOXES. GODDAMN.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE STOP WITH THE SOUL BOXES ALREADY. THEY AREN’T FUN, THEY AREN’T INNOVATIVE, AND THEY RESTRICT PLAYER FREEDOM.

-1 point on Custom Content for Team Gryffindor. And yes, I will continue to subtract points from every map that includes these damn boxes.

While they are optional, the fact that they block the player from a WW until they are completed is gating off content using them in my eyes, and will be treated as such. Hence the loss of a point.


UPDATE V 1.1:

RichGaming has made very laudable efforts to make Bus Depot's gameplay more intense and responsive with the latest patch. Essentially, the update is an extensive rebalance of several aspects of the map.

For starters, the wall guns are no longer absurdly strong. This is a pretty big deal, as wall guns are what you might be using up till at least Round 7. They are also interesting choices now, such as (everyone's favorite) the SMR and the SVU-AS.

An even more important change is the massive rework the Depot area got. While it used to be open as all hell, the latest patch added more debris to the area and, most critically, improved the spawn zones so that zombies start much, much closer to you. This is a marked difference over 1.0, which saw training turn into an exercise in sniping.

Additional barriers in the Nacht part of the map open up the possibility of camping there -- adding some more replay value to the map.

Now, there are still some things I'm fundamentally against. These include the soul boxes, Double Tap 2, and scavenger hunting, BUT, if one wishes, these things can be avoided to raise the difficulty: although I wish this was done more effectively by the map itself.

However, Bus Depot is a significantly more fluid and challenging map for the rework it got. I look forward to future updates... perhaps a "Hard" mode with Verruckt sprinters, no WW's, and weaker perks? Whatever the mapper decides to do next, Bus Depot will remain a good map nonetheless.

REVISED SCORE:

DETAIL: 8/10
CUSTOM CONTENT: 8/10
FUN SCALE: 8/10
REPLAYABILITY: 6/10

OVERALL: 30/40 -- Excellent





DL Link: http://ugx-mods.com/forum/index.php/topic,10658.0.html

I enjoy new map reviews but i don't think the soul boxes are a problem. They're an option to use or not and in my opinion, doesn't restrict player freedom. In short, they optional.

I enjoy new map reviews but i don't think the soul boxes are a problem. They're an option to use or not and in my opinion, doesn't restrict player freedom. In short, they optional.

I would agree with that statement... but...

The soul boxes are the only way to acquire one of the map's WW's. As far as I'm concerned, that's gating off content, so yeah, I will take a point off for that.

I would NOT take a point off if:

1. A map's soul boxes look aesthetically pleasing (this one's do)

AND

2. The boxes hide no reward, ie. they are essentially "for fun" only

THEN I would consider them fine, I guess. It's my bad though, I should mention the above in the review.

It’s like getting catfished, and trust me, I know a thing or two about that  !

Sorry about that again. I just thought my hips were feminine enough that this could actually last. I still love you, my RaggedyShotgun 

Lol noice review.

Real shame you didn't like the map. Thanks for writing a review though.

Sorry about that again. I just thought my hips were feminine enough that this could actually last. I still love you, my RaggedyShotgun 

Lol noice review.

Thanks!

Real shame you didn't like the map. Thanks for writing a review though.

Thanks a bunch for giving this a read -- a huge motivation for me to write these is so that mappers can get some in-depth feedback on their work.

I did like the map: I enjoyed exploring, trying out the weapons, and checking out the scenery. Again, the only problem for me was the difficulty, which might not be a problem for some people.

I don't consider 24/40 is a low score in my book. It's a good bit above the "play recommendation mark" (20/40) I personally hold. When I get home I'll add a bit more to the summary of the review to explain this to readers. Also, I always update my reviews with map updates, so if something like difficulty options were added, the score might get raised. Or lowered, never know 

I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THE FUCKING SOUL BOXES. GODDAMN.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE STOP WITH THE SOUL BOXES ALREADY. THEY AREN’T FUN, THEY AREN’T INNOVATIVE, AND THEY RESTRICT PLAYER FREEDOM.

-1 point on Custom Content for Team Gryffindor. And yes, I will continue to subtract points from every map that includes these damn boxes.

???


Good reviews though.

I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THE FUCKING SOUL BOXES. GODDAMN.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE STOP WITH THE SOUL BOXES ALREADY. THEY AREN’T FUN, THEY AREN’T INNOVATIVE, AND THEY RESTRICT PLAYER FREEDOM.

-1 point on Custom Content for Team Gryffindor. And yes, I will continue to subtract points from every map that includes these damn boxes.

FUCKING THANK YOU. Awful feature in most maps.

FUCKING THANK YOU. Awful feature in most maps.

They are optional though? You don't have to do them to change the game. Mine arnt like the ones in most maps either as they are the proper origins ones and not Blunt's ones. That's not been seen in many or any maps as far as I can remember?

They are optional though? You don't have to do them to change the game. Mine arnt like the ones in most maps either as they are the proper origins ones and not Blunt's ones. That's not been seen in many or any maps as far as I can remember?

I'll be honest, I haven't played your map (I don't really play many maps any more), I was just agreeing with his point in general.

They are optional though? You don't have to do them to change the game. Mine arnt like the ones in most maps either as they are the proper origins ones and not Blunt's ones. That's not been seen in many or any maps as far as I can remember?

I wrote a little something about this, in answer to another comment before you posted yours. It's up above in case you missed it, and basically gives my outlook on the matter. I may have to add it to the OP also so nobody misses it.

Awesome review as always. Your review made me feel how boring it is to play the same old way again and again

They don’t EXCEED my standards though, mind you -- I set them a bit too high for that

Huh, then what are your exceeded standards?

They are optional though? You don't have to do them to change the game. Mine arnt like the ones in most maps either as they are the proper origins ones and not Blunt's ones. That's not been seen in many or any maps as far as I can remember?

well let's just point out there it is still stuffys script

Soul cheats should really be seen as a "norm"

They may not be new and fresh - but there's nothing "wrong" with them and the map wouldn't be made better by removing them

Hell to this day treyarch have used "kill X zombies in this area" even in the dlc on bo3 - the aim of the game is killing things, forcing people to stay in more difficult areas to meet the requirement is a game industry norm

well let's just point out there it is still stuffys script

Soul cheats should really be seen as a "norm"

They may not be new and fresh - but there's nothing "wrong" with them and the map wouldn't be made better by removing them

Hell to this day treyarch have used "kill X zombies in this area" even in the dlc on bo3 - the aim of the game is killing things, forcing people to stay in more difficult areas to meet the requirement is a game industry norm

i think they are bobbyszbegins scripts is what he is saying, he is the guy who released all those models without giving credit to the site he got them from t3mdm or something