#2

I thought I'd starte a little subcategory to keep you nigs entertained. As I'm very much into mapping and map testing, I thought I'd tell you a little about maps that do not get the respect and the public attention they should get (ranging from few to no servers at all) which is very sad because all the effort that went into them is wasted by an ignorant community of idiots who somehow all seem to enjoy dust... I'll here review beta maps, custom maps and even official maps that go less played than they should.

Today, I will review cs_highsociety by Warbeast. Just as Meeedic, he is also German. A lot of great mappers come from Germany actually, but more of this somewhen else. To summarize highsociety: It's amazing. Nearly everything on this map is custom. The Textures are custom. The Sky is custom. The sounds are custom. Yeah, even the hostages are custom. Plus, it has got a good amount of gadgets. Obviously, it's a long load that fewest of players'd accept, where as they could simply change to 24/7 dust2 server. It ever has been a mystery to me why people take 20 Minutes to download a shitload of custom sounds, custom models, admin models and a shitty fy_map but don't want to take 5 Minutes to download a piece of pure amazingness.

APPEARANCE:
The Map plays on a Mansion (and I mean mansion, unlike cs_mansion) somewhere on Long Island. The custom sky provides you with an awesome view of Manhattan. The textures (which are included in the .bsp) tend to be amazing. The song that runs in the background may be a question of taste, it may become annoying after a while. But it builds up atmosphere. A lot of. Other builders include a couch crammed in front of the main door (making that route unusable), the giant spotlights at the CT Spawn, the Truck and the "Do not Cross"-Tape at the CT spawn, some birds in the air, Dead Security Guards, Weapon Crates at both spawns and a lot more. As said before, there are entirely new hostages, Security Guards to be more exact. You have to rescue two of them to win the map. Or prevent their rescue.

GAMEPLAY:
The map doesn't only look good, it also shines in terms of Gameplay. Just as with de_fang, I can imagine that map working very well in Clanwars, primarily caused by two facts. First of all, there's a passage which can be shut and opened from the inside. So if the T's closed that door, CT's must open it to use that route again.

The second fact is more important, and it causes the need for communication between the CT Team. By taking a little "detour" and under the fire of terrorists, CT's can COMPLETELY shut down and darken the Second floor. Night Vision is an unbelievable advantage there, although it does cost a lot of money. It also makes the map a little more CT friendly since a coordinated CT team will know wether it'll be dark or not. Shortening the buytime (so the T's can't later buy NVGs) will balance things out.

The CT's got multiple routes to invade; Two from the Ground Floor (one being the one shuttable). Then, CT's can go through a garage through an inner courtyard (with a balcony from where T's can attack them, however, a CT can go to a side building and fire at the balcony) from where they can climb up to the roof. From there, they can either attack through a roof window or jump down to the balcony from where you can cover the way where the power switch) and invade the mansion.
Coordinated teams are essential here.

Two things I'm sceptical about is the fact that there are weapons at the Spawns. Shotguns for the CTs and Mac10s and some Grenades for the T's screwing up pistol rounds and the hostage room which is very small, lets terrorists hide and is openable by a door. You can try shooting hiding terrorists through the wall though It and maybe, it will force CT's to buy a deagle in the pistol round too but I need to play that map on a real server to be able to judge.

Overall I'd highly recommend this map for being truly amazing in terms of graphics, gameplay and innovativity..
http://files.filefront.com/cs+highsoci etyzip/;6862903;/fileinfo.html

Screensll come later, kthxbai, READ AND COMMENT >:C