mansion (author unknown)

Filename: psxmansion.zip can also be found at Kaiser's homepage

File size: 73k

Author: unknown, converted by Kaiser

Homepage: unknown

Other work: unknown

As I don't have a Playstation or PSX Doom, I don't know how good the conversion
is at all, and I am just reviewing this map as if it is any other.

This map is very nicely constructed; it's got a good layout and it's well
detailed. The map runs on map31, and the hellish sky associated with that
map gives it a lot of atmosphere. There's good use of heights in the map;
you travel up and down stairs at different points in the map, thus giving
the impression of a real building of this type. There seem to be a hell
of a lot of books for a mansion; I never knew that the upper crust
were such great readers....

The gameplay is not bad; there are, however, too many pain-elementals for
my taste. The map is a bit cramped in parts, and fighting can get very
tense in these parts. The hooks hanging off the ceiling can frustrate
with their tendency to obstruct. Also, there are some sections where
your goal must be achieved in a fairly obtuse and non-intuitive way.
The yellow key room, for instance; it is not easy at all to find the
key there. The hunt for the red key, with the sequence of squares
which must be walked over in a certain order, requires a lot of
trial and error for success!



The errors consist of a switch texture not working (so you can't see whether
you've tripped it or not), and a sprite glitch which makes operation with DOOM2.EXE
difficult. If you -append the wad with DEUSF, it will work with DOOM2.EXE.

The æsthetics are very well done - the choice of textures is convincingly
gothic and mansionesque, and as I wrote above, they are complemented well
by the hellishly red sky. There are some very good lighting effects - the
yellow key room with its gloomy flickering lights is atmospheric, as is the
brief outdoor section. It's all the more hellish for the fact that there's
not much light outside despite the glare of the sky.

The things are meaningfully placed. Occasionally, they can obstruct and be
irritating (especially the hooks on the ceiling), but aside from that there
are no major problems.

verdict