Title: Gangrel Haven by Day
Author: Unknown
Download: Here

When I first started mapping, shortly after getting Half Life, I made a map like this for Valve's FPS triumph. Like an idiot I released it and sent it to a review site for their "enjoyment" and the map recieved a rating of something like 22%. The moral of the story: never, ever release your first efforts at modifying any game to the public unless you've had some good feedback from peers in the community.

Unfortunately this map feels very much like someone's first attempt at mapping, or at least their first attempt at mapping with the notoriously hard to use Embrace.

What we have here is an underground Haven of some sort which is basically made up of some circular rooms and a whole lot of confusing, long square corridors. Sometimes the rooms have props in them sometimes not. The map also has an outside area but, seeing as the map is set during the day, taking your character for a wander outside is not suggested as this will happen.

This map uses mostly the same earth texture for nearly everything. The walls, the floor, even the doors use the same texture. This makes the map very confusing to navigate and it also means that you have to sweep the mouse around a wall to find a door. Very annoying for a player.

You start in a chamber which is linked to two circular rooms, one containing a table, the other empty. Each has a door which has to be hunted for due to the fact that it uses the same texture as the wall.

However once it is found you then make your way into a series of square tunnels that are very confusing and dull. This makes fiinding your way about the map a chore. Something else to draw the attention would have worked great here but as it is your mind does start to wonder what's for dinner while you explore this map.

The map also jumps time periods unexpectedly in a couple of rooms as far as props are concerned. One of the first rooms you encounter contains a dark ages dining table but later on whilst exploring I uncovered a modern day stash. Confusing stuff indeed.

For a cave it's also very well excavated and very well lit. I would have not problem with the lighting if this had a source, say from lamps or candles but this sort of no source lighting gets on my nerves. Lighting does tend to add to mood and atmoshere greatly and I would recommend that all mappers take note of that.

What I meant by "well excavated" in the previous paragraph is that, for a cave, this map contain a lot of regular shapes. It just doesn't look like a cave to me. Some work on this would have improved the map greatly.

Overall this isn't a map I would recommend.

Scoring -

Originality: 2

A gangrel haven/cave out in the middle of nowhere is something I think we'd expect, knowing the behaviour of that particular vampire clan.

Artistry: 2

Mainly a whole lot of primitive shapes are used in this map. The outside isn't bad, for all you see of it before you fry...

Authenticity: 2

Due to the fact that this level "jumps" eras a little suddenly I'd only really recommend it for a Modern ages set chronicle. However when you first enter the map it looks and feels like a DA map...

Technical: 3

Not much technically wrong with this map. No bugs, just too much ambient light for a cave.

Overall: 9

Extra -

Although this pack is available on it's own I would recommend getting it as part of one of the Maps Galore packs from Mod Haven.