Today we’re covering a fairly small level, but it makes up for this with the amount of time you’ll be spending on it: “Glass Over” by Tahazzar, a very familiar name at this point.
You’ve probably noticed a pattern by now while reading these or playing Tazz’s map – the main focus is centring a level around one specific idea, somewhat similar to the official campaign maps, and this one is no exception.
In the beginning we’re presented with an opportunity to choose our own loadout without having to use the car, a feature that’s been present in a number of Tazz’s recent levels. It’s handy, because you certainly won’t have the time to casually select a weapon when the next level starts. Choose your loadout wisely, as you’ll want to be prepared for what’s coming next.
It’s a chase level!
With the Nightcrawlers breathing down his neck, the Reaper has to make his way out of this dangerous pursuit, all the while being outnumbered and outgunned. Thankfully, the lighting and cover placement seems to be fairly forgiving this time around, and the Nightcrawlers chasing you have a very limited firing range. Maidens, on the other hand, can shoot you from basically a mile away, so be wary of that.
Welcome to the Workshop Map Highlight #47, Initiate.
Your next assignment is “Cold Embrace”, a custom level created by Tahazzar. This level is built with a lot of verticality in mind, so be sure to practice your landings. As well as that, the level has a focus on a mysterious weapon of unknown origin.
The level disregards narrative and instead focuses on gameplay alone. Due to its vertical design, you should expect to be using both stairwells and ledges frequently to navigate, along with windows and even a ventilation system that will allow you to reach otherwise inaccessible areas.
Given the circumstances, you will have to exercise great caution and pick your targets carefully. Intel suggests that, while incredibly lethal, the aforementioned weapon has a limited ammo pool, and the majority of enemy operatives in the area will not drop their weapons when eliminated.
When taking the intel into account, the level indeed appears to be difficult, but the Moderator and his assistant found it enjoyable enough to be worthy of being covered here, as the level enforces practice in ammo management and strategic planning.
Now that the summer break has finally started, we... have been busy playing other games instead of writing these. Procrastination may have gotten the best of us this time, but we’ll get back into the groove of writing these consistently soon enough, don’t you worry.
Today we’re spotlighting “Revival Herbs” from LittleHorn’s “Something Strange” series. It’s a rather short map, but it’s got a cool gimmick at the end, which was executed well enough to catch my attention and deserve a spot on the pedestal.
We start on a relatively simple map with few enemies, in search of some intel. The path is fairly linear, but this aims to be more of an introduction to the second part of the map than anything particularly challenging. Clear the building (and burn their ash while you’re at it), pick open the safe, and be on your way.
As mentioned before, the map is petty short, with the second stage serving as the finale, but it delivers really well. Entering an eerily empty building, save for a couple skeletons, you’re greeted with… a boss fight!
Think fast!
You’ll be fighting a respawning General, along with occasional backup that just means there’ll be more bodies to revive as the fight goes on. You’re going to have to be quick to find where the General next appeared and dealing with him before he can get to any of the fallen enemies. Remember to keep a spare bullet or two, because you never know how close the General’s next spawn location will be.
Teach the General that he’s no match for you no matter how many times he comes back.
Hey everyone, apologies for the sudden (and rather lengthy) pause in your MotW intake,which you would be aware of if you were in our Discord server (wink wink nudge nudge), but anyhow, now we’re back on track and ready to go.
Today’s Map of the Week is “High Profile Club” by Loaf. As you can tell by the title, this is a high class event, so be sure to bring only your fanciest bullets when introducing yourself.
You should all know by now that I’m a real sucker for large maps, and this one is certainly no exception. It’s filled with all sorts of different areas, from vampire-infested bars to storage rooms packed with drugs, and all the while being beautifully decorated and intuitive to move around in.
As it’s a single-level map with barely any story to it, we'll unfortunately have to stop right here as there isn’t a whole lot to say about this that wasn't said in every other MotW, and besides, we don't wanna spoil the experience too much, so just be sure to go try it for yourself. We’re sure you’ll agree that it deserves this spotlight.
...phew, glad I finally took care of that.
Hello, everyone!
RoR 2 may be taking the world by rainstorm right now (and we couldn’t be happier for its success), but that doesn’t mean we’re forgetting about our fellow Reapos.
This week’s highlight is one of my personal favourites. I’ve been conflicted about covering this in the past due to its length, but at last here it is: “Hightower” by Lil’Leto.
It’s a rather small map (so much that there’s almost no horizontal camera movement whatsoever), but the small space is packed with enemies, opportunities for elimination, and rich scenery in return.
https://chrischristodoulou.bandcamp.com/yum
This level doesn’t make it easy for you, either, with plenty of hiding skeletons, traps, and formidable foes like Patriarchs, Bartenders and Nightcrawlers. Oh, and there’s also your target, Ibzan, located at the top of the tower.
Yep, after clearing out the small warehouse at the bottom of the map, we’ve got to climb a long ladder to reach the top of the building. Inside is a club/apartment, which is even less forgiving with the amount of enemies it packs into a small space. Still, no task is too difficult for a dedicated Reaper!
Overall, Hightower is a short but sweet experience, filled with interesting design choices and a lot of firefights.
As you may know, there's a downside to everything, and with DEADBOLT's success we sometimes have to suffer because of all the garbage we're sent to review. We were promised a free copy of RoR 2 and a pack of nachos for this though, so to hell with it.
This week’s Map of the Week is “DNA” "HELLO WORLD" by Alex Pine - a collection of levels with “checkpoints” in-between (no actual connection between levels is made) where users have to make choices in order to give up their privacy for data-hungry companies to determine what variation of a level they’re gonna play, though I haven’t noticed any differences between routes. So far.
The first level starts us off at a zombie hideout with both Roland and Puff on site. For a random douche whom I’ve never heard of, the level design is surprisingly nice, it ain’t too hard nor too easy, the decorations look pretty and the enemy placement’s fair. Also there’s a crane which makes it an automatic MotW material. In fact, it’s the only reason I’m covering this map in the first place. Free stuff aside, it wouldn’t be worth it without one.
The second level has us clearing a few vampire buildings, Madam Stela included, and for once the doors are all the proper height unlike what usually happens. Not much to say other than that, all’s fine and dandy here too. Some 4th wall breaking is cool every once in a while I guess.
Uh, anyway.
TH̹̞̘e thirddd level has us… clearing some skeleton hideO̷͂ͭ́ut? There’s an overwhelming amount of weaP̡͟͜҉̻͎̹͇̣onry on the lower floO̡͂̓҉r, which makes it a breeze. You gO̧̢͡ through the thing, pick a safe and ggggGggGg…
Hey, look, I know how you’re feeling. I wasn’t sure about this whole thing from the start, and many of our men are still worried about cooperating with creatures we didn’t know existed. You’re right to be creeped out, and you’re right to be unsure. But this is our only option!
What, you wanna wait and see as the reaper takes our men one by one? You wanna bet everything on a plan that might not work, that might make things worse? There’s nothing in this world for us. Everyone’s just cold. We all just want this to stop, and not just want, like really want, like every cell in our bodies is screaming for this to stop. This right here - this is our opportunity for something else. A whole new world. This might be what we need to make it warm again. To make it safe again.
Look, we’re running out of time. We’ve managed to communicate with the Candles, and it seems like the flames and Charon are in on it too, and they’ll bring friends. Everyone, with the exception of the offering, is being brought together in hope of fixing everything. The endgame is approaching. Everyone’s slowly come to the realization that it’ll be fine, except you.
Please, friend.
One sleepless night now, ain’t it? With Risk of Rain 2 getting released a few hours ago and this contest ordeal being held, it is finally time to reveal who’ll be spending the next few hours playing Hopoo’s latest hit.
This is the part where we fall into the more standard MotW formula, but hey, we gotta justify our choice.
To summarize, Puddin’s submission is a collection of trial-and-error-ish minigames with humorous remarks here and there and, even if the most frustrating, it is perhaps one of the better executed levels in terms of design and pacing, not to mention the obvious criteria – minigames being something out of the ordinary.
You’ll go through a mine-filled dropdown, a scavenger hunt and a trivia quiz, with questions of common knowledge and of concerning insight. I enjoyed it all the way through and was honestly surprised to see concepts like these arise in such a limited environment.
While we’re at it, let’s do a quick rundown on the honorable mentions – or, rather, the four remaining submissions, who’re getting away with a soundtrack code.
Honorable Mentions
Tahazzar's "Lost in Translation" is a puzzle that revolves around respawning with a different weapon each time, allowing you to progress further and further even when dying. The level handles this concept well, and only didn’t win because of its pacing - just as the most interesting part began, it was already over.
Classic_Cheese18's "In the Footsteps of a Reaper" is a heavily story-focused series of levels (six in total) with a bunch of different themes incorporated into it. Each of the gang-themed stages has you going up, down and inbetween two buildings and then lockpicking a safe. It is smart in terms of storytelling and shows that Classic_Cheese18 keeps improving in every aspect (decorations, overall ideas, just the levels being fun). It has some flaws like having too many enemies in a tight space and the fact that the keycard-based objective may get softlocked, but overall, it's so good it had me debating over whether to give this map the first place. Alas, while it does tell the story in a rather creative way, it's nothing super groundbreaking in terms of gameplay.
Again, a very promising concept with execution that leaves a somewhat unfinished feel, as so much more could be done with the “make your own level” gimmick in terms of variety and scale. Props for originality though – the approach was very clever and unique.
While the level itself is pretty neat and the general idea of making a level that's level design is sort of expanding upon the idea of Madam Stela's level is cool, there isn’t actually much that breaks the boundaries or blows one’s mind. The vent system is great though, and it's one of the small number of submissions, so the level gets to be highlighted.
Aand that's it! I know, five submissions isn't a lot, but hey, it's a small community. Thanks to everyone who participated and even to those who were planning to but didn’t make it in time! It was like a breath of fresh air to see all the crazy stuff that you’ve managed to come up with.
Winners will be contacted shortly about receiving the rewards.
Contest Submission Time Extension!
Hey folks!
After giving it a bit of second thought and realising that we might've underestimated the hardships of real life, we've decided to prolong the contest until March 28th (same time, 12pm PST).
If you haven't started working on a map yet, then now's the time, and if you have - you can now spend more time on polishing.
Today marks three years since DEADBOLT’s release, and for a relatively unknown videogame, I'd say keeping its players for so long is a pretty good record.
Last time we hosted a Q&A, and while that was interesting, it felt like we could have done something that involves the community more, so we’ve decided to up our game with…
A mapping contest!
The difference between a regular MotW and this contest is that here you’ll get actual prizes as opposed to just a writeup about your map and a unique role in our Discord server
EVENT
The contest’s submission period will last from March 14th, at this very moment, until March 21st, 12pm PST. (or 12:00 by the 24 hour system)
Much like DEADBOLT was Hopoo's attempt at creating a very different experience to Risk of Rain, this contest is focused on creating a level that deviates from the usual standards of level design: turn the Reaper upside down, emphasize verticality in your design, create a devious puzzle – go weird, go wild, and unleash your inner chaos to create something that truly stands out from DEADBOLT’s usual gameplay style of shooting dudes in buildings.
The rules are as follows:
You are allowed to edit .nc files via text editors.
If you own the GOG version or cannot use the Steam workshop for whatever reason, you can join the Discord server and submit your level in the dedicated channel titled #contest-submissions.
If you’re uploading to the Steam Workshop, be sure to put "DBMC” (short for “DEADBOLT Mapping Contest”) either in the title or the description so that we could find your level among those that are not participating.
You may submit only one workshop item into the final pool. Creating multiple maps (not a series in a .zip) is allowed, but as we said, only one submission actually participates in this.
If there’s any confusion, be sure to contact JAG or Square_Rabbit on the Discord server to clear things up.
PRIZES
I’m sure you’re eager to hear why you should bother entering this contest, and you have good reason to, because the first place winner will receive a Risk of Rain 2 Steam Key!
We'd like to note that you'll only get the key on the release date, so you'll have to wait a bit after the contest ends.
We’ve also got 5 codes for the DEADBOLT Soundtrack, redeemable at https://chrischristodoulou.bandcamp.com/yum for runners-up.
If you’ve reached the end here, you’re probably eyeing that Steam Key, huh? Either that or you just really like reading our posts, in which case, thanks! Whatever it may be, you now know that you’re one weird level away from nabbing a free game, so be sure to make us question your sanity with whatever you come up with.
May the weirdest win!
Map of the Week #42
Hey there, folks!
Today’s map had the potential to be featured much earlier as a MotW, but sadly never got the chance, and was forgotten, abandoned by the cruel march of time… until now, that is! This week’s Map of the Week is “Through The Looking Glass” by SockPuppet, though it doesn’t seem to have much to do with Lewis Carroll’s creations, despite the name.
This level may seem like it’s a remake of Vall when you first load it up, but it’s different enough that it’s more a reimagining than anything. It’s much harder than Vall is, with fewer weapons and a wider enemy variety. Nothing’s stopping you from bringing your own guns from your car, though. All the while, a sniper is taking potshots at you, so you know the drill. Stay out of the light, time your movements to throw off their aim.
Going up the elevator, you’ll fight more enemies guarding a sniper rifle that you can use to retaliate against the marksman who’s been harassing you the whole way up.
Once you go back down, however, you’ll find you have the option of going over to the sniper’s nest in search of information, where you’ll encounter a large group of zombies interested in scavenging the place now that you’ve taken care of all the threats present inside.
Yes, the real meat of this map is choice. Keen-eyed players will notice the level transition to the right of the first stage, where you can go to the sniper’s nest early and take them out up close and personal. She’s lost track of you by the time you arrive there, thankfully, so you’ll only need to contend with the guards you were sniping in the other available route.
Having the choice between taking on the enemy from range or up close is pretty cool, and being able to visit the area after you’ve sniped it is an interesting concept. Plus, lazy reapers can just snipe the target and leave right after. Score!
Oh, and also, I just have to mention my appreciation for the level’s name. Through The Looking Glass, as in a sniper scope! SockPuppet should write a joke book or something.
