fragport - stephen clark

Filename: fragport.zip

File size: 3.60MB

Author: Stephen Clark

Homepage:

Other work: 007 - A License To Spell Doom

I believe that this was the author's first major project, and therefore I will
will be nicer about it than I might be otherwise. (heh) The impression I had
from the first maps were that they were well put-together, with a realistic
sense of scale (a skill I only recently grasped), but they were very empty.
This emptiness persists throughout the whole set, with some notable exceptions
in the middle section. In a few maps, there are near-labyrinths of corridors
hiding not very much in the middle, which suggests some structural improvisation
and a lack of forward planning. On the other hand, a number of the maps (including
the (very hard) super-secret level) demonstrate thorough planning and care.
So all in all, a mixed bag.

Gameplay, on the other hand, does not disappoint; this is a side of the author's
skill which has always been present in liberal measures! Some very original ideas
are covered in the gamplay, especially in the very last level and the super-
-secret level covered before (both of these are quite a challenge.) There is
a "Phaser Quest" level about half-way through the WAD, which is indeed an
original idea - I've certainly never seen a map like that before - and it
is quite an accurate replica of the game on which it is based.



As far as I could see, the author kept this WAD meticulously bug-free.

There's a lot to say about the æsthetics, considering how varied they are. This is an
area well catered-for overall, despite the lack of detail in the early maps. The places
depicted actually look like what they say they are, including the mines early on and
the futuristic city later on. The middle section of the megawad is probably the
weakest area for æsthetics, as a lot of the maps look very similar. The quality of
æsthetics improves as you get nearer to the end, suggesting the maps were done in
sequential order. In the later maps, there are a lot of very large, bare and closed
corridors with little in the way of detail; these can seem claustrophobic (strangely
so, as some of the corridors are very high indeed), especially when the light (from
invisible light-sources) is flickering. But a good job overall - a lot of attention
was paid to the maps' look.

The things are well placed, but there's not many of them, are there? Also, the author
demonstrates through his cultural references that his origins lie on the same side of
the Atlantic as mine. And let's face it, only an Englishman could design a futuristic
spaceship and instead of marking the toilet as something like an "excrement disposal
device" (which would be a very anal thing to do), he put the sign in the screenshot
below on it.

verdict