GRECO21A - 67.9 - TWO-TIMER

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Review            : GRECO21A.WAD
Reviewed By       : Neal Ziring (nziring@aztech.ba.md.us)
Review Date:      : 10/5/94
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Title             : Greco 21a
Author            : Thomas E. Davis
Email Address     : tdavis@garnet.acns.fsu.edu
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**Play Information** 
 
Episode and Level #     : E2M1
Single Player           : Yes
Cooperative 2-4 Player  : Yes
Deathmatch 2-4 Player   : Yes
Difficulty Settings     : No
New Sounds              : No
New Graphics            : Yes (new sky)
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=== Scoring ===
===============
 
Scale each from 0.0 to 10.0...  (Obviously, 0 is BAD -- 10 is EXCELLENT)
 
Aspect                  Grade   Reviewer's Comments 
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1) Theme:               8.0    There are two visual motifs to this Pwad,
				a castle/dungeon kind of appearance for
				the part on the planet's surface, and
				and a high-tech kind of appearance for
				the orbiting space-ship.  The theme is
				that you are the single member of an
				away team investigating ruins on a 
				supposedly uninhabited planet when you
				hear the sounds of slaughter back on
				the mother ship.  The visual design
				and play sequence supports this theme
				pretty well.
 
2) Mood:                7.5     Pretty good.  There could have been a
				little more variation or variety.
 
3) Architecture:        6.5     Fairly conventional architecture and
				map layout.  The all aspects of the
				map are well handled, but rather plain.
				Doors were very plain - no doorframes
				or indicators of which doors required
				which keys, you have to use the map to
				find the doors.  Quite a few dark 
				tunnels, but enemy distribution is fair
				so that's okay.
 
4) Technical:           8.5     No HOM or Medusa effects seen.  Empty
				reject map, slowed play very slightly.
				This was a pretty fast-running map
				anyway, because the rooms are mostly
				pretty simple.  Texture matching is
				quite good.
				
5) Overall 
   Difficulty:          7.0     Mostly moderate, some little tough 
				bits, but nothing unreasonable.  There
				are some no-escape situations due to
				key usage that could easily kill a run
				half-way through.

6) Non-enemy 
   Difficulty:          5.5     Not particularly hard.  There are no
				real secret areas to find.

7) Creativity 
   & Inovation:         6.0     This Pwad includes standard stuff, no
				big innovations.  The planet/ship 
				theme was well handled, better than
				many two-area Pwads.
 
8) Level Logic:         8.0     Pretty good, I wish that the author
				had paid more attention to the doors
				and their keys.

9) RE-playability:      5.0     No really challenging enough to 
				warrent repeated play.  With the dark
				tunnels it might be good for 2-player
				deathmatch.
 
10) Enjoyability:       7.6     I enjoyed this little Pwad, it was
				okay.  The author might want to tackle
				a more ambitious project and show off
				some more original ideas.
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Sub-Total               67.6
		   
Bonus: (0.0 - 5.0)              0.3      For a couple of pretty well
					managed surprises.
			      -------------------------------------------
Total:                         67.9  << Wad-team review score >>


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=== REVIEW SUMMARY===
=====================

Greco21 is a medium-sized Pwad that is fairly fun to play.  It has
a nice new sky texture, and the early part of the game is all 
wandering through simple rooms under the sky.  There is a pretty
reasonable mix of enemies and ammo and health, suitable for the
player who has just finished the original ID missions.  The author
also recorded a LMP (for 1.2) showing where everything is.

The only real downside to this Pwad is the handling of the doors
and keys - many of the doors are just pieces of wall, and the only
way you can tell they are a door is by looking on the map, and 
there is no indication which key is required to open them.  Don't
play this Pwad with messages turned off.   Also, the doors down in
the lava pit require the yellow key.

The decor and layout of the map is pretty good, though simple, and
there are a few well-managed surprises.  


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Summary Rating:  TWO-TIMER (but just barely)
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