I've played Red5 again, as I promised earlier. Well, here are my two cents:
1. The level is wonderfully crafted from the leveldesign perspective. It had a good construction overall, the shading was well done, had many eyecandy, etc. It clearly had a design of more advanced games like HL.
2. Despite all the good, there are minor flaws in this department: For example the typical "the less should have been more" can be said, especially for the spritework. I never liked the goofy colours, neither on enemies, nor on sprites. If you want the enemies look different, make them transparent or totally black. The sprites rarely need palette changes, and NEVER need to be flipped over. Sometimes I saw totally unrelated sprites on the walls with palette, transparency, and flipover. No need of that, less work, better result. Also, I always prefer the rule, that when you see a door, you should enter it somehow. Maybe not in the outside house (but why not?), but on the inside complex, no need of those phonies IMHO.
3. The gameplay was actually quite straightforward. Those newbeasts aside in that middle room the map didn't feel that difficult now. Although I can't say I was truly impressed by the battle intensity, it wasn't bad, it just did the job.
4. As for the puzzles: yes, the helicopter sequence was very, very well made, loved that scene (although the voice more like a Duke player's one, not a soldier's
). No frustrating puzzles, so I was wrong with this. I wasn't a fan of that big button puzzle though, it could have been a bit more simple, like the one in Area 51. One thing I hated though is those platform jumping from the water. I was n00bish falling back and cheated for jetpack instead of restart the whole rituale. This wasn't neccessary at all.
5. The sound effects were mixed bag: I think again the less would have been more. Waaay too much "fake" sounds, some of them were predictable and gave a very anti-climatic atmosphere. Since this level is far less darker then Red3, far less of these were needed. Sometimes it was very cool: I loved that when a metal door suddenly became broken, that surprised me. The vent thing with the newbeast head was cool, and obviously that bloody "surprise" room was perfectly timed and done. But again, it would have worked better with less of these effects.
6. And the ending: Sorry pal, but the whole thing was wrong, and left me unsatisfied (again). Obviously this is Duke3d, with it's obvious limits, but that cannon thing with those "paper" turrets looked bad, also the whole "shoot the enemy base" with it's uninteresting sound effect was a phony, along with the screen supported. Never felt anything special when did it. And if we talk about screens, I also think it's neccessary to tell the story this way, nobody reads it I guess.
What I actually don't understand what was the mood you set here: dark, horroristic like Red3, DP4, A Dream etc. or military? It was way too mixed to get the proper mood for the level. IMHO, aside from the vent area, it should have been a Military Madness type map with run and gun gameplay, although no overpopulated with enemies.
Final thoughts: I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the level, it had a wonderfully crafted leveldesign, great texture choices and some neat effects. But if I have to rate it in a point system, 100% for the effort and "production value" is deserved, but that aside I would give it around 85%. Still a hot map, but could have been a lot better.
