East21v

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By Juha Koiste 10/6/98

DOWNLOAD NOW 542.kb zip

I don't believe I played the original OSA by Juha but he has included a good story with this one that fills you in well beforehand. The outdoors start area was uninspired but certainly OK. It just never had an 'outdoors' feel. Upon entering the Strogg Storage Area things took a turn for the more interesting with the architecture being very nicely built and perfectly lit. Even the simple areas were done with skill and the more complex areas had me looking with some appreciation.

The moving boxes are well done as are all the other warehouse 'systems' like the cranes . The large crane is a particularly interesting structure and was also useful for dispensing of a certain Strogg who was bugging me:] For realism's sake, I would rather have liked to see the tank come through the door rather than just materialize magically in thin air.

I found the monster placement to be very good and not overdone. Juha uses only a small selection of the Strogg bad guys but that is 'as it should be' because it suits the map well. If I really had to criticize I would say a couple Flyers added in the outdoor areas would have been a cool distraction [maybe there are some in skill 2?]. Perhaps a Flyer to bug you when you get to the top of the large crane structure and are otherwise concerned with the Tank? Speaking of which, the battles with the 2 Tanks I found particularly cool and challenging, each took me a couple tries yet weren't aggravating. The first battle was especially cool, I was leaping from box to box picking away at the Tank just below with my shotgun.. it was a lot of fun! On my second run I fought him down below and that worked nicely also. Juha has obviously put good thought into his monsters and their surroundings as the important fight scenes were perfect combinations of both.

Gameplay balance was excellent for me in skill 0 and 1. [I didn't test skill 2 as I am not a 2 player, too old and rickety I guess:] Combat was challenging and took me a few tries, yet not to the point of frustration. I found the item placement exactly fit my needs... but was rather 'contrived' in feel. It was as if the Strogg knew I was coming and had thoughtfully set everything out as and when I would need...mighty nice of 'em:] But perhaps in a small map that is hard to avoid? The only real surplus of items I experienced was at the end portal fight scene. I didn't need much of the items there... but so what?

"Even the simple areas were done with skill and the more complex areas had me looking with some appreciation..."
"The large crane is a particularly interesting structure..."
"I really liked the end portal... it wasn't extravagant yet rather neat in implementation.."

My advice to Juha [for what little it's worth] is to place your items as the Strogg would place for their own use.. it would feel a bit more realistic, and then to maybe place them a bit further along in the maps so that one always seems just slightly behind the items they could use. That was more evident in skill 0 though and who plays in skill 0 except me and grandmother?

I really liked the end portal... it wasn't extravagant yet rather neat in implementation and it certainly seemed like a portal to places unknown! Too bad the place unknown was a very well known, Base1.

OSA2 is a small map but the download is correspondingly small ...I'd say if you like your typical Q2 storage base type map with a few flares thrown in then you will like this one and find it worthy of your attention. It sports intriguing combat in well designed areas that lean to the small side. But what the hell do I know? Take up any beefs about this review with Igor who runs the Hotel and bushwhacked me into this review by his incessant whining...geez!

Neil Manke

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