View source for Lack of landmarks

= <center>Unreal Tournament 1999</center> =

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<center>''DM-Tempest''</center>
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<center>''DM-Tempest''</center>
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<center>''DM-Tempest''</center>
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<center>''DM-Tempest''</center>
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<center>''DM-Tempest''</center>
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<center>''DM-Tempest''</center>
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It's hard to navigate this map. There are no landmarks and clear paths. In spite of the colored lighting it's easy to get lost. The same textures were applied everywhere. With too many entrances, exits and passages it's hard to guide oneself. Imagine that player A went after a weapon and player B went after a medkit. Both A and B have to have memorized a path to what they are after. Now comes a player C that is hunting either A or B or is running away. With so many routes to follow in this map, players A, B and C have a hard time navigating through the level.

Other maps such as Codex, Curse][ and Grinder also have repetitive textures but that is offset by good architecture, which prevents the players from getting lost.


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<center>''DM-Grit-Tourney''</center>
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<center>''DM-Grit-Tourney''</center>
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This map is one of the most confusing of the game. The textures are all the same everywhere. The lights are the same everywhere, white and red. There are no landmarks to follow. It's a maze. It's very hard to memorize your way in a map like this. The teleports having the same color doesn't help either. The floor texture helps to distinguish between the level's floors but everything else helps to confuse the player.

Not surprisingly very few players play this map.


= <center>007 GoldenEye</center> =

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<center>''Complex''</center>
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<center>''Complex''</center>
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<center>''Complex''</center>
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<center>''Complex''</center>
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<center>''Complex''</center>
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Same comment about Grit Tourney. There are some landmarks such as the walkway with a "V" shape, a ramp with a yellow light and a corridor with a blue light. However, the texture is pretty flat and all corridors look the same, making the whole place a labyrinth. The corridors always have sharp turns to the left and to the right, which makes the player lose his sense of direction.

Were you in a place like this, how would you give directions to somebody else?


= <center>Halo: Combat Evolved</center> =

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<center>''Credits: LongplayArchive''</center>
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<center>''Credits: LongplayArchive''</center>
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<center>''Credits: LongplayArchive''</center>
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<center>''Credits: LongplayArchive''</center>
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'''Mission 5.''' This games suffers from poor level design. The open locations are well made, but the indoor locations are confusing and repetitive. The same geometry and textures were reused everywhere. Every corridor looks the same. The player becomes lost and can't recognize where they are or what the place is. The spacecraft's interior is filled with corridors with no care taken to make distinguishable areas with different functions. The holo panels don't look like interactive panels. The player can only recognize the holograms as interactive objects because there is a red sign pointing at it.


= <center>Dark Forces</center> =

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<center>''Naar Shaada mission''</center>
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<center>''Naar Shaada mission''</center>
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<center>''Naar Shaada mission''</center>
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<center>''Naar Shaada mission''</center>
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In the beginning of the level the player can see a bridge in the middle of the chasm and the player should feel compelled to go there because it draws attention. There are even some enemies there to reinforce that. The goal of the level is there. The problem is that although the level has a landmark and while the player can see it from different angles, more than half of this level takes place in a maze with many narrow corridors, buildings and with no windows facing that chasm from the beginning at all.

Compare Nar Shaddaa from Dark Forces to Nar Shaddaa in Jedi Knight 2. In both games the level design did a pretty good job in capturing the feel of a city filled with smugglers, black market, tall buildings and chasms. However, in the older game they focused on a maze like construction that makes the player feel lost. In the latter game they made a level that is much easier to navigate while still retaining the same feel of a city with terrifying heights.


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<center>''Research Facility mission''</center>
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<center>''Research Facility mission''</center>
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The beginning is a series of chasms and a maze of narrow passages and stairs. Everything is white and there aren't any landmarks to guide the player. It's hard to find the entrance to the facility. Inside the facility there are many spiral staircases and "U-turns or S-turns" that really confuses the player. This game has an automap feature but even then it's very easy to get lost. Many corridors lead to dead ends with nothing, maybe some ammo or shield, which also doesn't help navigate the place.