Coming from Clandestinum Gloriana, which is probably my favorite post-release map in Darktide apart from some geometry issues, this new map feels incredibly poorly made and rushed.
I’ll list some criticisms that make me feel that way:
- A majority of the map is basically just corridors and rectangular boxes. It honestly feels like a fan map that an inexperienced modder made, layout wise.
- In the few spots that arent just a rectangular room or a corridor, the design makes relatively little sense. Some corners of the map feel incredibly unfinished with no reason to ever tread through, such as some of the side paths in the dark cellar or the sides of the church near the end.
- Gunners and shooters often stay on ledges instead of coming down which is annoying. Other maps don’t have this issue that much, here it’s common.
- Many of the sightlines and aggro mechanics seem downright nonintentional. At the bridge part, you can throw a grenade or take some potshots up to the bridge and you’ll funnel every elite and enemy on the bridge through a single walkway (they can’t seem to enter the middle one? at least they don’t do it voluntarily) and can just mow them down, while specials drop into the same stream and get mowed down too
- The mid event is literally just a mauler voice line playing and then a poxwalker horde and a couple bulwarks and specials spawning. Cmon, I appreciate the ambush idea but this isn’t a real event so don’t make it take as long as one. Even on histg it’s way boring.
- The finale cutscene gets you killed by enemies because they can still move towards you and kill you while you’re immobile
- the finale itself is a neat idea, but the execution is really really poor. You basically just run around a circle and smack these summoners, and nothing interesting happens, just some poxwalkers and specials spawn, it’s a way boring finale and it’s totally free
- the effect of the shields phasing out feels WIP. They literally just blink a bit like a mario pickup before disappearing.
- the actual mechanic of the event itself is really boring. I said it before but you just smack those summoners. When you do, nothing in particular happens. When you smacked all of them, nothing in particular happens. When you kill the 3 tanks in the middle, nothing in particular happens. It’s literal square peg into square hole gameplay. Come up with something interesting, like maybe a set order or a killing-summoner-causes-spawnwaves mechanic like was utilized on some VT2 maps?
I’ll also list some pros that I really liked about it though:
- The environments are really nice looking
- the dark cellar is a really cool idea. Not quite lights out dark, but dark enough and a cool change of pace
- The boss after the ambush is very cool, reminded me of against the grain
- The name is good, unlike most other names I can for sure remember this one and it’s actually related to what’s happening in the mission, making it an even better name
Hope this one gets major overhauls, the potential is there but it feels extremely slapped together and barely tested.