File:DMAS07 - Gavin's Courtyard

Description
Leaving the Gregory A. Macmartin series of maps, we find ourselves in a place of lesser quality. The level is dark, weapons are thrown about in random corners, and there are entire sections pointlessly thrown on the map.

I apologize if it is hard to see at various points in the video. I would consider putting light_bright on, but then I start believing that it is for the best that I play the level in the way it was intended. It was apparently intended for you to see very little, similar to stuff we saw back in Dark Hour. Actually, this entire level is basically a calling back to Dark Hour, being rather simplistic and crude compared to what we have seen in Aftershock.

If you were hoping that weapon placement would be better, you would be quite mistaken. Almost all weapons are placed in corners and are barely visible among the sharp textures and the darkness. The Double-Barrelled Shotgun is placed in the "courtyard" and thus the hardest weapon to obtain. Of course, getting the Nailgun could be a challenge due to only one door existing (basically, running through the courtyard after getting a weak Nailgun isn't exactly ideal). All of the good weapons in the map are in one room, two in corners right next to each other. The roof is accessible by going through a teleporter that is invisible (I guess it is intended to be a secret area, though that is kinda ruined by the spawn locations up there). With both Powerups up there and a Rocket Launcher on the pathway to it, there is little reason someone couldn't dominate this map.

Perhaps placement would have been better if the designer used the entire length of the map. The Nailgun room, beyond the Nailgun, is extremely empty and almost pointless to go in due to only having one exit. A powerup in this room probably would have been a smarter choice than throwing both on the roof, thereby encouraging players to enter this room. The courtyard itself is pretty empty past the ramp leading to the Teleporter, having nothing but windows looking into the useless Nailgun room (it is a lot easier just to step in the doorway or just snipe from the roof when they try to leave). Almost all of the good stuff in the map is thrown in a tight area, while the rest of the map has little encouragement.

The most interesting thing about this level (probably the only interesting thing) is the level exit that appears to be exclusive to this map (unless more examples come up later). It is referred to in-game as a "End Pedistal". Basically, it is a pedestal with a missing statue that instead allows the player to leave the level for some reason. How this exactly works in lore logic is not really clear, I guess it goes well with the invisible Teleporter. I am quite interested in the original object on the pedestal, especially as there don't seem to be any ruins. Also, the level exit is misspelled "Pedistal".

Definitely not a keeper, probably not even a memorable map. When playing a bunch of shovelware, you have to keep an open mind and be happy for the small things such as a creative level exit. Then people wonder why I am crazy enough to play hundreds of shovelware levels over the stuff that is considered by the community to be good. These types of levels don't exactly help my argument.