Flameorama
by Squonkamatic

This should be quick ... one of my former cohorts at Macgamer.com quipped once that my review of OilRigDM when doing the SiN map of the week series there was "really long". Well, I answered, it's a big map. Does that mean a "small" map would get a shorter review? Depends on what there is to say about it, I replied. The reviews are no longer or shorter than they need to be, ever. Here is an example of that theory.

Flameorama is an amazing little level for Wages of SiN that I stumbled over one day half by accident. It's another one of those "Now where the heck did I find this one?" levels that has produced hours of side splitting laughter while hosting it for unsuspecting players. I say unsuspecting because in many ways Flameorama qualifies as a "Cranky" map entry, but is so stupid that it actually works. Allow me to explain.

As I pointed out in my soon to be Pulitzer Prize nominated review of Hunter, there are a couple three different kinds of mappers. You've got your consummate craftsmen [Id's Tim Wilitis], your mad visionary experimentalists [Levelord], average run of the mill bumpkin wannabees who have managed to get their hands on design tools but couldn't map their way out of a box with three sides [me], and then The Jokers. The Jokers are folks who actually have competent skills and insight into the game and the tools, but choose to go about making their creations in an offhand way that eschews traditional esthetic concerns [setting, texturing, atmosphere] for some gimmick or angle that is so stupid it makes sense and ends up being fun.

Wicket is such an author, and Flameorama is his masterpiece. Made for Wages of SiN, the level is, just like the equally brilliant Jump, all about one thing: the Wages of SiN Flamethrower. I must agree that upon first inspection, the Flamethrower was my instant favorite WoS device and that a map that showcases it's singular function to the exclusion of all other play considerations is a worthy endeavor.

Just like with Jump, the idea is to keep focused on the Flamethrower. No other weapons are employed, and there isn't even any Magnum ammo for your default pistol. No armor is needed since the idea is, quite simply, to fry your opponent as quickly as possible. Since setting and place aren't important, texturing choices are arbitrary, and again as with Jump can be used just for comic effect. Some health jars are neatly lined up in the middle of the four "rooms", the hallways leading into them and the middle of the central chamber, and that's OK -- health is kind of a given, and can make the game more dramatic as injured players scurry around looking for some juice.

That's about it. Since the focus of the play is just running up and frying each other, the architecture and geometry is wisely kept to just the walls of the rooms and the hallways connecting them. No need to fiddle-faddle about with stuff like doors, control consoles, naturalistic terrain or even lighting, though Wicket was generous enough to his players to mount a series of nice little gun racks on the walls of the four rooms with the Flamethrowers perched on them, a detail that he didn't need to include but did anyway because they were part of his vision for the map. And that is what I like the most about it; He Had A Vision [Butthead voice plugin], stuck to it, I admire Wicket for his single mindedness.

So what if the giant, supersized computer circuit board textures look ghastly: once you think about it, you really are just running around inside of a game program running on your CPU, so what you see in the map is essentially what is going on in reality. You are running around inside of a game engine trying to fry your opponents with a bleeding Flamethrower; why not make the game level itself look like, well, that? Brilliant! It is maps like this that make me feel like I'm not thinking when planning out the death bogs, swamp boxes and preposterous temple construct I am currently working on. We have been working on that fricken temple since February and I still haven't played a game in it. Wicket was done with his map in 20 minutes, and it is perfect.

Owned.

And article concluded. Remember, you will need the Wages of SiN expansion pack to run this map, unless running around inside of a big computer chip boxing with someone after you both run out of ammo is your idea of a good time.

Download Flameorama from Ritualistic's stash of SiN files at 3ddownloads.com by clicking here.

SQ100702

email: squonkamatic@excite.com

Visit Squonk's SiN website for downloads of map and skin packs, and other goodies, at http://www.squonkamatic.net/sin.

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