| I first want to
apologize for not updating the Level of the Week last week. I had a
busy weekend and was bombarded with one of the most involved weeks
of work I've ever had! Ok, enough with the excuses, and let's get on
with the Level of the Week!
I saw the News Post on
PlanetDescent about this level coming out and I was like "Hide n
Seek, what the heck is that?!" thinking it was some new gameplay MOD
or something. Much to my surprise, it turned out to be one of the
most fun level's I have ever had the pleasure of playing! Not only
did I give the level a high playability rating, but I believe this
is the highest Overall rating I've ever given a level. This level
has become dramatically popular in the past couple weeks (to no
surprise to me;) ) to veterans and newbies alike. But the battles
always end up seeming quite balanced. That's one of this level's
most profound strong-points: it's something new for everyone!
As odd as this sounds, it seems to be a new breed of level. Now onto
why it seems that way:
The first thing is that the
designer, Diti, honestly seemed to have put alot of thought
and planning into making this level. I don't know how long it took
to create, but I'm sure it required many hours of designing and
layout. There's none of those annoying corners you always seem to
get caught in during the most intense of dogfights, there is plenty
of room for dodging, but there are also alot of tight corners and
bevels to duck behind just in time to avoid those incoming
homers. While on the subject of weapons, the weapon balance
(IMO) is quite nicely layed out. There is a wide selection of them,
and with the lightning fast changes in dogfights (due to the
unmatched variety of open/tight areas), you end up learning how to
quickly switch weapons according to the surrounding area, or you end
up Fusion Fodder quite quickly. ;) The mixture of tight and
large-open areas is (in this level) what really makes you stand on
your toes through the entire game! One second you can be chasin'
your opponent through a tight turning underground tunnel, just to
follow him up through a pool of water into a massive open area, then
to end up running from his Mega into the wild maze on the floor of
this huge room. The possiblities of dogfighting seem endless in this
level!
And all you Bot fans will not be
disappointed in this level, either. As shown in the screenshot, Hide
n Seek is far from dry when it comes to the wide-spectrum of enemy
robots Descent 3 holds. It utilizes the Bot's 'sneak attack' AI, and
quite honestly will scare the crap out of you if you're not watching
around every corner! And you cannot stay in one spot long because
before you realize it, you will literally be surrounded by hordes of
angry Robots! And it's not just these little Gyros either, there are
Tubbs, Tailbots, and alot more! I have to say that this level has
really changed my opinion in Descent 3's Robot/AI abilities. I would
definitely recommend not strictly playing this level for
multiplayer, but for the bot's too!
That is this week's review!
I really want to encourage you to get out there and play this level!
I've seen it up all week and almost 100% of the time it's been
popping at the seams with players! I am still working on the Level
of the Week dedicated server, but I suspect it will be up sometime
towards the middle of the week. This is Ixion signing off, have a
great week everybody, and be safe through the holiday!! |
