CS-Nation

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a lost temple worth finding
map review: a lost temple worth finding
It's been over a year since CS-Source launched, and yet the public beta seems only days ago whenever I find myself transported to poor de_dust. Ah yes, dust 24/7... for months! I recall it quite well indeed. For a week, we were captivated like Victorian children just by rolling a tire down the ramp, watching ragdolls spoon, and seeing for the first time, just how dusty dust was (83.4%). Then, like the inevitable restroom break after Taco Bell, simple pleasures turned to burning pain.

"Rush left.. for the love of god and all that is holy.. together.." was a radio command I began to sorely miss as each round began. On the CT side, a calming "ready to butcher the Terrorists, team?", would have worked equally well. Now, maps don't have to be balanced to be fun, but after four thousand rounds, players need to believe there are other routes and strategies that don't end with their brain juice on the wall.

And then.. November... Freedom. The SDK came out, the handcuffs came off, and like Rand McNally discovered meth we were flooded with maps. Many were — to be kind — so dreadfully constructed you wanted to find the maker, load up hammer, and then beat them to death with a hammer. But some.. some were.. special, they were playable, they took what was good and made it better, and some.. some were spectacular, completely new and original in design.

Now, a year later, there's a whole map-sack(TM) full of great custom maps out there, deserving of your attention and your playtime. To answer the call of that mighty sack comes CSN's new series of map review articles, where we appraise the best of the best, and in the coming weeks host them, should you be unwelcome anywhere else.

With this plethora of excellence however, came the problem of what to review first. Hostage or defuse? Fight yard or ..er.. surf? A ported custom from 1.6 or something entirely new? In the end, there was no right answer, so I picked one that reminded me of a vacation where I got lucky.

de_losttemple review
Created by Magikus & Stard00d
spawn points: 40
size: 26.5MB (uncompressed)

Bright. Very bright. That's probably the first thing you'll think when you spawn on Lost Temple. Of course, as almost everyone plays with the gamma correction set to supernova, you may want to revisit your settings before proceeding. Bright by design of course, because authors Magikus and StarD00d originally planned on a dust style map, before evolving the theme into something more tropical.

Set in an archeological site somewhere in South America, Lost Temple finds those crazy terrorists once more trying to blow up historic artifacts before the western school kids can get there and take rubbings. There may be more to the narrative than that, but given no one reads map plots anyway, I'll skip to the interesting stuff.

Once your eyes have adjusted, you'll be quickly taken in by how handsome this map is. Boasting 50 custom textures (about 70% of the total), every area of this map is a visual feast of Pavarottion magnitude. From Mayan etchings, sacred curses to Aztec calendars, there's always a pleasing cornucopia of ancient stonework to splatter your blood across. Ambient sounds too are well implemented (if mostly default), from the birds, insects and rushing water outside to the ominous breathing of the wind in the temples and tombs.

Truly it's a great map to take a stroll around, exploring the details and poking about the buildings. Unlike Aztec, which it will inevitably be compared with - thanks to the setting - you can access all the temples and even walk up the sides of them to a snipers delight. Of course, the map does indeed borrow from Narby's; the bridge is a descendant of the wooden version introduced in 1.6, and the swamp-like waterway is directly comparable to the source Aztec.

How is the map different from Aztec? Read on for more info and plenty of screenshots!