Street a.k.a. Night Ride
by Squonkamatic

An reader wrote in last week wondering if I was going to review this level (as well as a few others), and I am overjoyed to fulfill his request/suggestion. The very thought that folks might actually be interested in what I have to say here with these weekly columns thrills me to no end. Film critic Roger Ebert once had me rolling on the floor with laughter in a negative review of some schwag movie, where he stated the ridiculously elemental theory that a film can only succeed if there is an audience between the projector and the screen. On the same note, a map level review is only worth it's salt if there is someone looking at their monitor screen when the page in question is loaded. I am honored to know that folks are reading these, so of course I will review the maps you suggest or request. Even the junkers.

Tatuone [or TNT], the author of Street, is one of those mappers who's work may not be as flashy as a Sock or a Spoon level, but nevertheless have a conviction and sense of craft to them that is way above average. Street is another one of the first addon maps I ever saw for SiN, mostly thanx to the legendary Snipers in the Dark server run by kAmAlA, where the Grapple Hook capabilities of his Basemod makes great use of the 'vertical' emphasis of the level's architecture. In the author info text included with the level [yes, I am such a dork I actually read the readme's] Tatuone even states that the map is a "SinCity like map but with night theme and lots of more roof based fighting" ... What makes the level so remarkable to me is that it is actually more interesting than SinCity in many ways, and shows the mark of a hand that is not only familiar with what that classic level delivered, but what SinEd -- one of the most notoriously tricky level editors -- is capable of. He didn't just re-hash SinCity, but used it's form as a suggestion of what to build and let his imagination and the capabilities of the editor lead him to the conclusions that he arrived at.

Enough theory. Street is like SinCity, but bigger. There are more buildings, more ladders, more guns, more little nooks and crannies to hold the melted butter [including a wonderful trash dumpster with a working lid], and, a touch I am always delighted to see, a match ending Intermission Camera that is an inspiration unto itself. Intermission Info Cams are one of those things that most mappers sort of neglect to add because they really aren't vital to the workings of a successful level. And when they are used they usually follow the classic Quake route of displaying some majestic, high overhead angle that a player could not possibly see from in-game. TNT took that idea one step further and even went so far as to construct a little 'cave' with a nicely flowing textured waterfall and splashing water sounds and plopped his Camera in there ... What does it have to do with the map? Absolutely nothing. But the fact that he had the presence of mind to construct it suggests and awareness of the game that goes beyond just giving people a place to run around like a bunch of Yayhoos while they blow each other up. I like seeing stuff like that.

The best thing that the aptly named Street has going for it is a well defined sense of place. I like game levels where I know that I am somewhere, even if that somewhere is a place completely out of the imagination of the designer. It may seem hard to screw that up when making a "city" themed level for SiN, but unfortunately I have seen a couple examples thereof, usually consisting of some anonymous looking structures textured to look like building facades, annoying elevators and poorly scaled fence segments, wide open streets that lead nowhere, and zero attention to ambiance or atmosphere. When I first saw the map's sub title of "Night Ride" it immediately made me think of the film The Crow [as well as the first Mad Max movie, which had a character named The Night Rider] and the anarchic scene where two of the bad guys grab "Road Smokes and Beers" and go careening through the city looking for innocents to pillage and murder. Sounds like a good idea for a shooter game level to me, and while Street lacks driveable vehicles [I would love to blaze around in this level on a killer Forklift and plow people over -- ha ha] it certainly suggests a night time urban setting for such barbarity through subtle use of flickering ambient lighting and appropriate sound cues.

SinCity actually established some conventions for SiN mapping, and Tatuone plays them like a fiddle. We get climbable fences, blasted up sidewalk sections, a feeling of urban funkiness that doesn't need to be explained, and a circular 3d construction to the map that requires a player to use the ladders to scramble from rooftop to rooftop in search of bigger, better guns. Ammo and health are in abundance, and the locations of the armor items is inspired and diverse. This is not a level that encourages camping; you need to keep moving and watch the other rooftops for snipers. I wish there were a few more structures up on the roof sections like SiN's air conditioner vent models to seek cover behind, but I think idea here is, almost like a Space Map, to keep the player exposed as much as possible, speed up the gameplay, and hit those fraglimits.

I'm going to get right to the Gripes Department because one can only sing so much praise of a form before it becomes patronizing, and while Night Ride's construction is impeccable, there are a couple of things about this level that annoy me. Number one is that some of the health jars are just kind of strewn about here and there, especially down at ground level. Most of the weapons, ammo and armor placement is pretty dead-on and shows that TNT had a specific vision for how they would appear in the game [lying on their side, leaning up in a corner, etc], but his health placement is a little uninspired. There's just something about seeing yet another batch of 5 point health jars lined up in a neat row next to a wall that makes me wonder, Gee, couldn't he have thought of something a little more interesting to help us juice back up with? We see it time and time again in map after map -- little rows of 5 point health jars, and I don't understand what the motivation is when you have so many interesting nooks, ledges and corners to stash a goodie near, behind, or under. Then again, almost all of the Ritual designed SiN levels contain this little nitpicky geekazoid mapping nerd Pet Peeve of mine that nobody else on the face of the planet would even think twice about -- I mean, They're just health jars, Skwank old buddy. But I'm hopeless.

The other thing that makes me scratch my scalp in wonder is the little room most players may not be aware of, located in one of the buildings adjacent to the dumpster. I only stumbled upon it because I was "noclipping" my way around the map in spectator mode trying to find the cave he made for the Intermission Camera, flew inside of a building and all of a sudden I was in a small hallway with a 100 point Medikit and a nice stash of each armor item. Huh. Well I rejoined the game, scrambled up to where the doorway is [look for it tucked in a rooftop corner underneath a nicely used patch of Ritual graffiti], and found that not only was the door locked but you need a KeyRing item to get in. What is so bizarre about this is that I CANNOT FIND THE KEYRING ANYWHERE. It's not even in the map if you load it up in single player. What gives? Did he just forget to add it, or is it supposed to be another "Teaser" like the Intermission Camera cave?

Search me. But as with the hidden basement room in SinCity, the map plays out just as well even though players can't get in there. Sure, SinCity's basement has the Bio Shield powerup and helps to create the illusion of entire buildings [I always used to wonder, on a rhetorical level, just what is inside of them?], but I have played the demo version of SinCity against total 'newbies' who don't know it is even present and had a ball without anyone ever going down there. So I guess I'm not really "complaining" about the locked door as much as pointing out that it is there, and wondering why if there is no way to get in. That's valid, and as usual feel free to email me if you can shed some light on the mystery and help me sleep better at night. Then again I may just be too stupid to figure out where the damn KeyRing is.

But it really doesn't matter, and might even be seen as yet another example of why Tatuone excels with this map if it is in fact a Teaser. You can't really make a good level for a game unless you enjoy playing it, and Street is a total SiNners map, obviously made by someone who adores playing the game and is aware of what it's potentials are. I love the little "tunnel/underpass" segment below one of the buildings, the Riot Helmet smack dab in the middle. Streetlamp and barricade models are used in ways that look real. His little scripted dumpster is a joy and inspiration to behold, making me wonder how I can work a dumpster into one of my own levels [hint to server admins -- make sure you install the map's script (.scr) file so that the dumpster lid will work ... duhh]. The buildings themselves are all perfectly scaled, looking like buildings, where even in SinCity and my beloved Skeen some of the structures tend to just look like huge textured blocks. I also get a kick out of how he made the little section of busted up sidewalk, with a perfectly aligned slab of the stuff leaning against a wall and a health jar tucked underneath -- NOW THAT'S THE SPIRIT!

The bottom line in assessing any game level is the most basic question of all -- is it fun to play? Night Ride is a riot, and as well suited for 12 players as it is 2. It's also a speedy download on even a modem, and was so expertly compiled that there isn't a 'slow spot' in the whole map where framerates get chuggy, even though it is essentially just a huge box. Like SinCity, there are no Dead Zones where nobody ever goes, you never spawn further than five good bunny hops from a weapon of significance, and it's basically impossible for even the most completely brain dead Quake III playing idiot to get lost in the level's self contained world.

Touchdown.

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

SQ061702

email: squonkamatic@excite.com

You can access Squonk's archive of SiN: Gold Map of the Week reviews over at Macgamer.com by clicking here, and don't forget to visit his multi platform friendly SiN site for custom map and skin pack downloads and other goodies at http://www.squonkamatic.net/sin.

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· Ritualistic's Sin Section
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