Title: Mantucha
Author: Unknown
Download: Here

This maps drops you into darkness, almost pitch black darkness on Vampire's normal brightness setting. The only things that could be made out were a lantern in the distance and the outline of some trees. "Great," I thought, " where the hell am I?"

After turning up the brightness to full I discovered I was in the forest outside a city and the lantern appeared to be part of some camp that had been made just outside the town. It was still very dark though and I was confused as to where I was supposed to be going.

Once I managed to fumble through the trees and enter the main gate of the city I found myself in a kind of courtyard and foolishly turned down the brightness on Vampire back to normal. I'd curse myself for this later.

Just as I came in the courtyard I noticed that there was a small door to my left, upon entering it I discovered what looked like a store, however after shifting some boxes aside I found a Vampire's secret haven, pretty cool stuff I thought. Secret rooms seem to be a motif for this map as there are a few of them dotted around.

I then proceeded to the courtyard, after scooping up some rats for a mid-review snack of course. The courtard mainly consists of some trees, a fire and lots of darkness. Darkness that in fact obscures some more detail which I only discovered by prowling the area, torch in hand. I grew quite attatched to the torch over the course of the review it comes it extremely handy over the course of this review.

Alright enough of the guided tour. I think you get the point I've been trying to push across, and that's the fact that this map is extremely dark which is very annoying due to the map being well executed otherwise.

It's so dark that sometimes you get confused or lost within it and have to run along walls with a torch to find a door. I know vampires don't like light but that's natural light, some torches here and there would certainly help out.

This is the major problem with the map and it's a shame as the author has obviously put a lot of work into this map. Most of the house have interiors (although they are a little cramped) and the construction of the map in general is really good, if at a slightly smaller scale than normal, which makes the map seem very strange at times.

There are a whole bucket load of cool little touches like the forge type device in the Western Gate section of the level, the fountain in the Market, the dock in the East Port or the church-like house also in the East Port which make this map really stand out for me.

The whole level could be a small but prosperous dark ages village which is unfortunately being preyed upon at night by a lone vampire which the locals have to sniff out. The vampire would just need really good night vision that's all...

Currently I find myself deliberating as to whether or not to give the map a Mark of Distinction. On one hand the map is the very well done without any noticeable errors and it is executed with a bit of flair and style but on the other hand the level suffers greatly from being just too dark for it's own good with some strange not-really-the-proper-scale shenanigans going on that leaves me conflicted.

Sometimes you just know when you look at a map that it's a great map, others you really have to considers the pros and cons and Mantucha is one of the latter, which makes my job all the harder.

I do believe however that the pros do out weigh the cons and as such I'm going to give this map a Mark of Distinction. Just some friendly advice when playing this map though: Turn your brightness up.

Scoring -

Originality: 3

There are some clever touches in this map, however it's just a generic dark ages town, like Prague which shipped with the game.

However some of the touches I've mention above, like the forge, the fountain and the various secret rooms do make it quite original in some ways.

Artistry: 4

The author of this map really knows their stuff. The map looks great (if you've got your brightness up) and their isn't really a section of it that lets it down on the eye candy front. Good job.

Authenticity: 3

Basically this is a dark ages village. Period. I can't see it being used for much else in all honesty.

Technical: 4

There are no errors in this map, simply put I could not find one texturing error, no-source light or bug to complain about. It's still very dark though.

Overall: 14

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.