Concrete Void
Concrete Void is r3tina's second CTF map which was originally designed for Nunuk's Geometry Competition 2, and thus r3tina's main focus was to create something that had an interesting geometry, but showed some interesting texturing as well, even though only a limit of 12 differend textures could be used. Besides that, r3tina also tried to keep the map as playable as possible so that it didn't end up as a showcase for his brush manipulation skills.
The map is set in a sort of base/bunker like atmosphere. It shows lots of concrete walls (hence the name) which gives the map a heavy and massive look. There isn't a single straight brush in this map, which creates a somewhat chaotic look to the corridors and rooms, but everything blends together pretty well. After all, the primary goal of this map was to create something visually interesting.
Besides the basic layout of walls, floors and ceilings, r3tina also did a good job adding detail work to the map. The jumppads and weaponpads are great to see and the central area contains search lights moving back and forth across the sky. Everywhere run metal pipes, lights that are fixed into the walls and safety handrails preventing the player from falling off higher areas.
Not only is the brushwork interesting to see, r3tina also succeeded in showing some pretty solid texture work. Using some blending techniques r3tina was able to show more visually differend surfaces than the amount of textures he could use. This way he had some space left for additional detail textures like the flares around the lights, which is quite a nice touch.
The layout of the map is pretty simple and straightforward. There are three ways into each flag room, two front entrances and one back entrance, and the center of the map are two bridges suspended above each other. You can jump from the lowest bridge onto the highest bridge with jumppads, through holes in the floor of the highest bridge.
The map plays surprisingly well and is guaranteed for a couple of hours of fun. Some corridors are a bit tight but this is compensated by a few larger areas which provide some three dimensional action as well, which is a good thing for a generally flat map like this one. The central bridges however, are sometimes hard to overcome if you run into a number of opponents who are packed with Rocket Launchers.
The bots play reasonably well, but I got bored with them pretty quickly. Best to play this map against human opponents. The bots also seem to be unable to pick up the Quad which spawns above one of the holes of the upper central area bridges.
All in all, this map has some stunning geometry, some solid texturing (for a map that can only use 12 textures) and it plays as good as if it were a regular CTF map.
