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[26/40] Utopia - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... I think?

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Created 8 years ago
by Xperience
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zombie lover / beta tester in training / perfectly loved
Map: Utopia

This map was made by CanadianTyler


Courtesy of CanadianTyler

Setting: World War III is interrupted by a massive unidentified object colliding with Earth right off the coast of Indonesia. You and three men are stationed on an off radar island in the deep Atlantic. With the globe in mass chaos and tsunamis quickly covering the east and approaching the west side of the United States, you and your men are ordered to hold and survive on the island. But as wrecked ships swamp the island you have an eerie feeling your "paradise" won't be much of a vacation.

Positives: Utopia started out a bit slow, but as the rounds went on, I gradually enjoyed playing. When preparing to write this review, I thought about the pros of Utopia and couldn't think of many. For that reason, I appreciated many of the small things in this map that many overlook or take for granted when forming opinions. First of all, seeing any map with UGX Mod and a number of game modes is always great. Throughout my playtime I saw no bugs or glitches (expect a few corpses resting in thin air). The map wasn't overly complicated but had some cool (and potentially very useful) techy textures displaying computers and buttons (shown below), similar to the textures in Tyler's preceding map, Battlestar Galactica. My favorite features of this map were the pack-a-punch custom camos (shown below). The weapon choice was pretty nice too. As far as I could tell, there were an assortment of Cod4, MW3, and Black Ops. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Winter's Howl and Thundergun when rolling the box for the first time. Pack-a-punching the Winter's Howl turns it into the "HELLFIRE" (basically the opposite of the Winter's Howl), which I had a ton of fun playing around with. Not too bad for a 15 hour map.


The cool "techy" textures I was referring to before


The pack-a-punched Winter's Howl called the "HELLFIRE"


Pretty radical pack-a-punched Thundergun camo

Negatives: Now, when one makes a so called "15 hour map", one must expect criticism. Many would review Utopia lightly because it had little to no time put into it, but today I will be criticizing it as if it was any other map. The map was pretty small, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. In this case, Utopia actually had much more potential. I was expecting to open a door to an underground base (like Abandoned Rocket Base). When I found none, I was pretty disappointed. Also, a recommendation to all mappers... do NOT overuse grey textures in your map (especially when there's little to no detail. If this is the case, you might want to add some ;)). The combination of bland grey textures with no detail to unplayable areas really killed the look of the map, which reminds me, Utopia is the worst possible name for this map. Anyways, there weren't any great training spots either, not too big a deal. But if you haven't gotten the picture yet, detail is close to everything for me in a custom map. Seeing an awful map in the downloads section after two weeks of waiting for a new release is bad enough, but seeing a potentially great map go to waste is painful.

Conclusion: Thankfully, CanadianTyler is NOT finished with this map! I'm excited to see what Utopia becomes within the next few updates. More importantly, my bone to pick is not with the map but rather with the mapper himself. Tyler has lots of potential (as I've said numerous times in both this review and others). I really like his style and believe he can create some sweet maps in the future. if he spends more time on in and out of map detail. Gameplay for this map is solid. As for Utopia, it needs work, but for a 15 hour job, not too bad. Thanks to the mapper for creating another decent & relaxed map :)

Level of Detail: 5/10
Custom Content: 5/10
Fun Scale: 8/10
Replayability: If CanadianTyler continues to update this map, I'd give it a solid 8/10

Score: 26/40

Download Link: http://ugx-mods.com/forum/index.php/topic,10591.0.html


Last Edit: April 10, 2016, 02:59:47 pm by Xperience
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I haven't actually played this map, but 26/40 seems like a ridiculously high score? At least with what you're saying throughout the review.

All of the features (guns, PaP textures, etc.) are just default UGX mod features, and they're not even from the latest edition of the mod.  And the mapper apparently couldn't be assed to fix the shitty viewhands that make the PC look like a 90-y/o woman with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

If you haven't played UGX 1.0, then I can understand how the map might be pleasing to you, but for everyone who's already played the mod there's barely any incentive to go and play a map that looks ugly and has no real selling points besides the mod -- especially when there are better examples of maps that use it.

For the record I do think that this was actually a good, even-handed review, but it seems to me like you went "soft" (or maybe even flaccid) on the mapper because you think he has potential. Don't. Do the opposite: I would be disappointed as hell if someone I thought had potential shat out a boxy map in 15 hr. with UGX as its only real feature. You can only help someone improve by providing criticism when it's necessary, and at times like this, it IS necessary to be harsh.

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Good review man.
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I haven't actually played this map, but 26/40 seems like a ridiculously high score? At least with what you're saying throughout the review.

All of the features (guns, PaP textures, etc.) are just default UGX mod features, and they're not even from the latest edition of the mod.  And the mapper apparently couldn't be assed to fix the shitty viewhands that make the PC look like a 90-y/o woman with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

If you haven't played UGX 1.0, then I can understand how the map might be pleasing to you, but for everyone who's already played the mod there's barely any incentive to go and play a map that looks ugly and has no real selling points besides the mod -- especially when there are better examples of maps that use it.

For the record I do think that this was actually a good, even-handed review, but it seems to me like you went "soft" (or maybe even flaccid) on the mapper because you think he has potential. Don't. Do the opposite: I would be disappointed as hell if someone I thought had potential shat out a boxy map in 15 hr. with UGX as its only real feature. You can only help someone improve by providing criticism when it's necessary, and at times like this, it IS necessary to be harsh.


Hahaha thanks for the consturctive criticism, ragtime! I will keep that in mind when writing my next review. Thanks for the tips :)
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wait are u saying the guns were a pro cause that was the old ugx mod in use there
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wait are u saying the guns were a pro cause that was the old ugx mod in use there

Yes, ahh I see where you guys are coming from. I haven't done enough work with the UGX mod yet. The UGX mod isn't in a lot of maps I've played, so I always list it and its features as a pro. And for the guns... I mentioned they were a pro because they weren't WaW weapons (and I liked the wonder weapons). Not too big a difference. Overall, the map wasn't great, but some pieces of the map were decent. To be 100% honest, I gave this map too much credit, and if I had to redo the review (knowing what I know now from you both), I would rate the Level of Detail: 4/10 and the Custom Content: 2/10. Thanks for informing me, I'll remember these tips when I write my next review :)
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And the mapper apparently couldn't be assed to fix the shitty viewhands that make the PC look like a 90-y/o woman with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

I'm sorry but I just find this hilarious XD

Good review ShotgunRagtime! Although I would maybe have said a 21/40 because let's face it, it's just the regular UGX mod that was just slapped onto the map like many others so it's nothing new or special.
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Nice review! Quack  ;)
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Aye mate you don't know me so y don't you shut tf up ok buddy :)

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I'm sorry but I just find this hilarious XD

Good review ShotgunRagtime! Although I would maybe have said a 21/40 because let's face it, it's just the regular UGX mod that was just slapped onto the map like many others so it's nothing new or special.

Huh? Xperience wrote the review.

Nice review, map is nicely done but the inclusion of 1.0 instead of 1.1 just brought it down a bit for me, but hey, at the end of the day, we're still killing zombies, with some nice killing machines. :D

I haven't actually played this map, but 26/40 seems like a ridiculously high score? At least with what you're saying throughout the review.

All of the features (guns, PaP textures, etc.) are just default UGX mod features, and they're not even from the latest edition of the mod.  And the mapper apparently couldn't be assed to fix the shitty viewhands that make the PC look like a 90-y/o woman with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

If you haven't played UGX 1.0, then I can understand how the map might be pleasing to you, but for everyone who's already played the mod there's barely any incentive to go and play a map that looks ugly and has no real selling points besides the mod -- especially when there are better examples of maps that use it.

For the record I do think that this was actually a good, even-handed review, but it seems to me like you went "soft" (or maybe even flaccid) on the mapper because you think he has potential. Don't. Do the opposite: I would be disappointed as hell if someone I thought had potential shat out a boxy map in 15 hr. with UGX as its only real feature. You can only help someone improve by providing criticism when it's necessary, and at times like this, it IS necessary to be harsh.

Maybe that's his, ahem, style, you know what I mean? :)
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Maybe that's his, ahem, style, you know what I mean? :)

Oi m8.



Ain't got nothing against Xperience's style, as I said I like the review, BUT I wanted to suggest to him that it seemed like he held back on the harshness... restricting his own style possibly. I used to do the same in my early reviews before Tom sorted me out, so I figured I'd help out Xperience, if I could. So we're chilling fam  ;)

Also:

Huh? Xperience wrote the review.

Hmmm, how do you know it's not me who ghost-wrote this? Loominarti cunfirmed?
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I generally lean towards a positively written review and tend to be a bit generous, but I appreciate Ragtime's constructive criticism. It's insightful even if I choose not to change my style :) Thanks for the kind words all.

I can neither confirm nor deny that Ragtime ghost-wrote this review. :poker:

 
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