NO_REST - 73.1 - TWO TIMER

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Review            : NO_REST.WAD
Reviewed By       : Neal Ziring, [email protected]
Date of Review    : 9/24/94
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Title             : NO_REST - No Rest for the Wicked
Author            : Boomer T
Email Address     : email thru [email protected]
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**Play Information**

Episode and Level #     : E2M1
Single Player           : Yes
Cooperative 2-4 Player  : No
Deathmatch 2-4 Player   : No
Difficulty Settings     : Yes
New Sounds              : No
New Graphics            : No
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Aspect                  Grade   Reviewer's Comments
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1) Theme:               7.5     The author states that the story of
                               this pwad is the Deimos Rest & Rec.
                               center, overrun by demons.  The theme
                               is mostly visual, and works out pretty
                               well.  The rest room/shower room is
                               quite good.  The courtyard also helps.

2) Mood:                6.0     There is not a great deal of mood to
                               this pwad.  What there is seems to be
                               mostly the contrast of light and dark
                               areas, and contrast between small,
                               confining rooms and larger open ones.

3) Architecture:        8.5     The construction of the rooms and
                               props in this mission are very good.
                               Windows and walls are good, and the
                               author went to great lengths to make
                               furniture and furnishings out of
                               well-crafted sectors.  Some of the
                               doors and stairs could have been
                               better.

4) Technical:           9.6     I saw no problems or bugs in my three
                               run-throughs.  A couple of textures
                               ended abruptly in doorways, detracting
                               slightly from the otherwise excellent
                               handling of texture positioning and
                               alignment.  The author included a demo
                               in the Pwad for Doom 1.2, which required
                               special handling when using 1.666.
                               (To be honest, I think this Pwad does
                               predate 1.5, so...)

5) Overall
  Difficulty:          7.0     Reletively easy.  About as difficult as
                               an ID mission in Episode 1.  Ammo was
                               adequate but not oversupplied.  Health
                               same.  Could maybe have used more
                               enemies in UV setting.

6) Non-enemy
  Difficulty:          7.0     Reasonable level of non-combat difficulty,
                               except for a key hidden in a secret
                               area -- that's not quite cricket.  Much
                               of the non-enemy difficulty is finding all
                               the secret areas.

7) Creativity
  & Inovation:         7.0     The creativity in the handling of windows
                               and especially the furniture was quite
                               good.  Similar to some parts of FOREST21
                               only better.  The game-play was fairly
                               conventional except for the use of very
                               many sectors with flashing light levels.

8) Level Logic:         7.0     For the most part, the layout and the
                               placement of items was fairly good.
                               Hiding a mandatory key in a secret area
                               was not good, although the demo does
                               show how to find it.  Placement of
                               secret areas was fairly conventional.

9) RE-playability:      6.0     I would play this one a few times, but
                               the excessive number of flashing sectors
                               detracted from the re-playability.  Also,
                               it is not quite difficult enough to
                               constitute an on-going challenge
                               (like, say, NIGHTFAL).

10) Enjoyability:       7.0     I very much enjoyed looking at the
                               furniture and decor in this Pwad.
                               The rest of it was conventional but
                               well executed.
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Sub-Total               72.6

Bonus: (0.0 - 5.0)              0.5       For the auditorium...
                             -------------------------------------------
Total:                         73.1  << Wad-team review score >>


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=== REVIEW SUMMARY===
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  Basically, this was a pretty good conventional Pwad of medium
  size and modest difficulty.  The only thing that sets it apart
  from the crowd is the attention paid to making props and stuff
  from sectors.  Here is a partial list:

                       - desks and chairs
                       - benchs
                       - sinks and commodes
                       - planters

  The map was quite cramped in many places, especially stairs and
  hallways, which was somewhat distracting.

  I think this was the author's first or maybe second Pwad.  He
  shows a great deal of promise and I look forward to his next
  effort.

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Summary Rating: TWO TIMER

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