Rui's review for "Reaper's Hollow", a melee map by Ogre_Bob
This is yet another quite decent melee map, I'm pleased to see people are still creating these.While overall fair, I must point out a few things that bugged me.
The landscape was well terrained. As I always say, I have seen worse, but to be honest, this terrain is pretty acceptable; the way the terrain turned out is okay, structure-wise.Even though, the variation of the tiles was not so pleasing to see. The author did vary the ground textures; you can see a light dirt path, with frequent "feathers" of rough dirt in its center, and grass in the periphery. Not bad, but it turned out monotonous and predictable. On top of that, there are places where the mass of grass does stand out, and not in the positive way. To finalize, I think a more frequent use of the Grassy Dirt tile could be in the order.
When I play melee maps, I'm always expecting to find unsuitable drops. Fortunately, not all melee map creators set wrong drops. Such is the case in "Reaper's Hollow"; all creatures drop more or less reasonable items. The only set I didn't find adequate was that of the Ogres and Trolls expansion: two Ogre Warriors, a Magi, a Forest Troll Berserker and a Trapper dropping a lvl 4 permanent and a powerup. We're talking about +6 Strength/Agility/Intelligence items or aura items. Definitely too high for such a relatively weak group; on "Full Scale Assault", a similar group, composed of a Troll High Priest instead of the Troll Berserker and one less Ogre Warrior drop a lvl 3 permanent, plus, this High Priest is the Ice Troll variation, which possesses the significant Frost Armor spell, combined with Heal.
"Reaper's Hollow" possesses all the neutral buildings you'd expect to find and they're placed at appropriate locations: Taverns, Goblin Merchants, and Laboratories and Fountains of Health not far from the players' bases.
Now, the thing that bugged me was the blight. It grants an advantage to Undead players when creeping. I'm not sure whether it should be there or not. Personally, I would have taken the safe course and placed dirt instead.
My rating for Ogre_Bob's "Reaper's Hollow" is 4/5 (Recommended). The map is set to Reviewed status.
Approved
