GRECO21A - 67.9 - TWO-TIMER

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Review            : GRECO21A.WAD
Reviewed By       : Neal Ziring ([email protected])
Review Date:      : 10/5/94
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Title             : Greco 21a
Author            : Thomas E. Davis
Email Address     : [email protected]
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**Play Information**

Episode and Level #     : E2M1
Single Player           : Yes
Cooperative 2-4 Player  : Yes
Deathmatch 2-4 Player   : Yes
Difficulty Settings     : No
New Sounds              : No
New Graphics            : Yes (new sky)
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=== Scoring ===
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Scale each from 0.0 to 10.0...  (Obviously, 0 is BAD -- 10 is EXCELLENT)

Aspect                  Grade   Reviewer's Comments
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1) Theme:               8.0    There are two visual motifs to this Pwad,
                               a castle/dungeon kind of appearance for
                               the part on the planet's surface, and
                               and a high-tech kind of appearance for
                               the orbiting space-ship.  The theme is
                               that you are the single member of an
                               away team investigating ruins on a
                               supposedly uninhabited planet when you
                               hear the sounds of slaughter back on
                               the mother ship.  The visual design
                               and play sequence supports this theme
                               pretty well.

2) Mood:                7.5     Pretty good.  There could have been a
                               little more variation or variety.

3) Architecture:        6.5     Fairly conventional architecture and
                               map layout.  The all aspects of the
                               map are well handled, but rather plain.
                               Doors were very plain - no doorframes
                               or indicators of which doors required
                               which keys, you have to use the map to
                               find the doors.  Quite a few dark
                               tunnels, but enemy distribution is fair
                               so that's okay.

4) Technical:           8.5     No HOM or Medusa effects seen.  Empty
                               reject map, slowed play very slightly.
                               This was a pretty fast-running map
                               anyway, because the rooms are mostly
                               pretty simple.  Texture matching is
                               quite good.

5) Overall
  Difficulty:          7.0     Mostly moderate, some little tough
                               bits, but nothing unreasonable.  There
                               are some no-escape situations due to
                               key usage that could easily kill a run
                               half-way through.

6) Non-enemy
  Difficulty:          5.5     Not particularly hard.  There are no
                               real secret areas to find.

7) Creativity
  & Inovation:         6.0     This Pwad includes standard stuff, no
                               big innovations.  The planet/ship
                               theme was well handled, better than
                               many two-area Pwads.

8) Level Logic:         8.0     Pretty good, I wish that the author
                               had paid more attention to the doors
                               and their keys.

9) RE-playability:      5.0     No really challenging enough to
                               warrent repeated play.  With the dark
                               tunnels it might be good for 2-player
                               deathmatch.

10) Enjoyability:       7.6     I enjoyed this little Pwad, it was
                               okay.  The author might want to tackle
                               a more ambitious project and show off
                               some more original ideas.
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Sub-Total               67.6

Bonus: (0.0 - 5.0)              0.3      For a couple of pretty well
                                       managed surprises.
                             -------------------------------------------
Total:                         67.9  << Wad-team review score >>


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=== REVIEW SUMMARY===
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Greco21 is a medium-sized Pwad that is fairly fun to play.  It has
a nice new sky texture, and the early part of the game is all
wandering through simple rooms under the sky.  There is a pretty
reasonable mix of enemies and ammo and health, suitable for the
player who has just finished the original ID missions.  The author
also recorded a LMP (for 1.2) showing where everything is.

The only real downside to this Pwad is the handling of the doors
and keys - many of the doors are just pieces of wall, and the only
way you can tell they are a door is by looking on the map, and
there is no indication which key is required to open them.  Don't
play this Pwad with messages turned off.   Also, the doors down in
the lava pit require the yellow key.

The decor and layout of the map is pretty good, though simple, and
there are a few well-managed surprises.


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Summary Rating:  TWO-TIMER (but just barely)
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