Rhen Var: Glacial Caves

Originally added 8-17-09

Tech: 8
Quality: 8
FunFactor: 8
Creativity: 8
Item Placement: 9

Overall Rating: 8.2

Description:

"Rhen Var: Glacial Caves," by Jaspo, is a small-sized map set in some icy caves on Rhen Var.

Unlike Jaspo's previous submissions, like Jade Moon or Star Destroyer, this map is very nice and compact. The small map size lends itself well to a quick, tight gameplay, and Jaspo's done a few things to make this map stand out from standard small maps. Most of the map is covered in destructible objects (mostly icy things, which makes their "explosions" in flame somewhat odd), many of which are just simple stalactites and stalagmites, although there are a few bridges too. It's the latter feature that has a neat effect on gameplay, as the author used some dynamic planning effectively to shift the AI paths around whenever bridges are destroyed. I know it's a small thing but I love seeing the extra polish like that.

Some things I would maybe make changes to were these: The AI were scripted to be more difficult by default, I do not think this was really necessary in the face of the number of AI present in the small spaces. I tried the map both with and without the AI's difficulty changed, and it was significantly better the second time around (with unchanged AI difficulty). In addition to that (or perhaps instead of), I might have lowered the unit count, as for such a small map, there were a seemingly-large amount of units to contend with.

All in all, though, it's a really neat map. Small maps almost always work out pretty well, and the author has done a nice job constructing a fun and unique small map here. Give it a try!

-Mav