Hey everyone! Boy, I missed saying that.
Lots of things to recap, lots of maps to review! Alas, writer’s block strikes suddenly and without warning. So, let’s make up for lost time!
You may have noticed the title change – that’s right, these posts are no longer constrained by a weekly schedule! We believe posting on an irregular basis can help avoid future burnout and give us more time to pick truly noteworthy maps. Besides that, the premise stays the same – giving the maps that stand out the proper credit and recognition! Let’s get right to that, shall we?
(oh, and you might want to stick around for something interesting at the end)
King Goose’s “Shakedown at the Docks” can pride itself with being an inspiration for revival of this series. There’s something beautiful about its simplicity as a standard DEADBOLT level: apartment blocks, drugs to burn, and undead to reap. What made it stand out for me though, is that no space feels wasted. You’ll be visiting every room at least once to deal with enemies or ash caches, and the vents, though admittedly a bit over expansive, provide a plethora of opportunities for infiltration and flanking.
The variety also comes from the enemies - relatively close-ranged Sergeants and Succubi are accompanied by Grunts and Nightcrawlers with itchy trigger fingers, forcing you to constantly adapt to different situations and maybe look for better-suiting weapons. When the action stops, all sorts of viscera will end up decorating the walls of this building.
Oh, and there’s also a really neat dock with a boat. How the heck did King Goose add open water without any dock tiles?
There’s beauty in simplicity, and simplicity is one thing this map does exceptionally well.
And since you’ve stuck around till this bit, I bet you’ll be interested in a bit of a community recap? Three months have passed, after all.
The major news is that we’ve got modding now! It’s still at a relatively basic level, but there’s already pretty cool stuff, like fixed crossbow sprites and barebones controller support! The real highlight is the modded level editor, featuring unused objects and more options than ever before. There’s even a particularly interesting level that comes to mind…
For all modding purposes, check out the #modding channel in the community Discord server, with the pinned messages containing mods and other necessary resources!