So, we’ve skipped an awful lot and we apologise for that. In our defense, we’re just a couple of teens who happen to be passionate enough about the game to receive moderator rights to continue keeping this game active (yep, we’re not hopoo, sorry to disappoint). We’ve still got all the life problems like finals and all that taking most of our time, so we couldn’t bring ourselves to get to work on MotWs. Not during that period of time, at least.
But now we’re back in action, hopefully with no breaks like this in the future.
To make up for it, we decided to pick a series of maps rather than one level.
This week’s… Series of the Week(?) Is “Warehouse” by Olyethan, which consists of 5 levels in total, so strap in ‘cause this is gonna be a long one.
This time, the player’s goal is to shut down an ash warehouse. In order to do so, the player has to infiltrate and scout the area, deal with some obstacles along the way and, of course, burn the warehouse to the ground. Or, at least start a few fires. The chain reaction should finish the job.
Our first objective is to infiltrate the warehouse itself – going straight in won’t do, so the Reaper decides to take the sneaky option, through the sewers. This stage is quite linear and pretty simple, so after reaching the opposite side of the tunnel you can go up an elevator and proceed towards the warehouse.
The second stage gets a little more interesting – we get to snoop around an apartment block, located close by to our primary target. Apparently, the warehouse is protected from both sides by gates set up at the apartment blocks, and a Maiden on the roof holds the only keycard for those gates, so we need to relieve her of that before we can proceed.
Out of things to commend here, I would pick the well-detailed interiors and the piping system’s layout, which opens up a small window for flanking the enemies or simply moving through the level quickly.
Just as we’re about to head for the gates, we’re fired upon by a sniper and forced to retreat in order to deal with them – this is where the third stage comes in.
There’s a nearby construction site with a good sightline on the sniper’s nest. It’s occupied by a large group of zombies, which you and a pair of candle snipers will need to deal with before you can eliminate the sniper. Once again, this level’s decoration is top-notch, with great half-built walls and a convincing construction crane.
With the sniper dealt with, we finally get to the warehouse. In order to shut it down, we have set fire to a few large piles of ash, which should spread to the rest of the drugs stored inside. Fight through a small building and a few doors, set the fires, and get out before it burns down with you still inside.
In the final portion of the level, the Reaper finds his car stolen, which he needs to get back to. I just had to include this part because of this sick-looking set of stairs.
Overall, it’s a great series of levels with incredibly detailed environments and fun gameplay in mind, even if the maps are mostly linear. I’ve had a lot of fun and honestly wanted to include it in a MotW at some point, but never quite got the chance until now.
Also, you may be wondering, “This series was uploaded ages ago, how come it’s showing up on Map of the Week now?”
Well as it turns out, MotW wasn’t just a weekly contest for the best map, but was instead a spotlight on whatever maps Hopoo found interesting, regardless of release date. So, we’ve decided to go back to this older format, starting with the Warehouse series!
This way, we’re less limited with our choices, and you don’t need to worry if your map was overshadowed by Sockpuppet by another map. Now, you’re always in the running for MotW!
See you next week, hopefully!
Map Of The Week (May 7-13, 2018)
Hey everyone!
Before I start with this week's MOTW, I would like to say that we officially broke the record - 20 maps released in a single week! That's astonishing!
There were all kinds of maps - short and long, hard and easy, ones that took use of the editor's mechanics and simpler ones where you merely had to kill stuff.
But alas, we can only show one at a time. It was hard to choose only one out of twenty, but here you have it.
This week's Map of the Week is "Out Of Time" by Puddin788.
The main feature of the map only appears for a few seconds at best - and that is abusing how the player entity in a certain state. I'd rather not spoil how it works, but it's pretty staightforward once you start the level.
The level itself is a nightclub infested with skeletons and freshly ashified vampires. With said vampires being dead, the level gives you a kickstart by offering powerful weapons, such as the Combat Shotgun and the 10mm.
Don't get too spoiled, though, for the level isn't getting any easier with those (well, maybe a bit).
After dealing with pesky Sergeants, Technicians and Grunts you reach the top and lockpick a safe. There's also an Old World Rifle in the same room, and trust me, you'll need it.
Once you lockpick the safe, you are greeted with grunts appearing out of thin air and backup consisting of Nightcrawlers and Generals coming straight at you.
Once you deal with those, you're free to go.
And that concludes Out Of Time! Overall, it's a sweet level that focuses on gameplay, mainly with the game's neat unintended mechanic and a lot of strong enemies opposing you. Visually, it is also done fairly well and pleases the eye.
As a side note - the next MOTW will be a bit different, we're doing some minor changes aiming to manage MOTWs like hopoo originally intended.
I won't delve into details, but I'll just say that this new format will be far less limiting.
Map Of The Week (April 30 - May 6, 2018)
Hey everyone!
This week’s Map of the Week is ‘Ashy Intent’ by Mr.Machina.
It’s a pretty big but a relatively easy level populated with zombies and vampires. It has a style that really sent me back to the original campaign – it feels a lot like a Zombie Kingz map!
Oddly enough, despite the large amount of ash stored in the building, and the map title, we don’t actually have to burn any of the ash. Instead, the objective is to kill everyone in the building to retrieve some intel stored in a safe upstairs.
It’s filled to the brim with convincing decorations and details that really bring it to life. It’s a short, sweet map that anyone can enjoy.
Also, every map has a nice feature and this one's no exception.
This time - a peculiar set of stairwells.
Before we get started, I just want to say that I’m really happy to see new faces trying out the game after the coupons got sent out! This means more attention for our hard-working mapmakers and more activity in the community in general!
Also yeah, this one’s kinda late, but we’re catching up, I promise!
This week’s Map of the Week is “APartMeant for another map” by SockPuppet, a very familiar face at this point.
While the objective is just “kill all undead”, it has an outstanding concept that raises it above this week’s other maps – it takes away your ability to see all the rooms in the map. It achieves this by placing rooms outside of the camera’s range, to simulate entering rooms without seeing their interiors. The feeling of not knowing what’s to come, the fear of the unknown, is very rare in Deadbolt maps.
To see what’s inside a room, you need to enter it and react to whatever’s waiting for you, which may feel somewhat cheap, but this is balanced out by the level being on the shorter side, meaning you won’t lose vast amounts of progress should you die.
And as always, there’s backup, but any obstacle can be cleared with a large enough hammer.
As some of you may have noticed, all owners of DEADBOLT have received a coupon discounting Risk of Rain, and vice versa. This is a great opportunity to try out Risk of Rain if you haven’t already, and if you own both games, you can gift them to a friend!
It’s a little out of the blue, but who doesn’t appreciate discounts?
Given the chance, I'd like to remind about our Discord server, with all the cool things like custom emotes and whatnot. Join us!
Map Of The Week (April 16-22, 2018)
Hey everyone!
There weren’t quite so many maps this week, but we still had some good submissions.
This week’s Map of the Week is “Touching The Moon” by Puddin788.
Nothing terribly complex here, it’s a short, sweet map. You, a warehouse and a bunch of skeletons to reap.
This map makes good use of vent blocks – the further you progress up the tower, the more routes are open to you.
With a wide array of weapons, this level won’t provide too much of a challenge, but enemy placements still require some quick thinking to beat, particularly if the Technician gets alerted or the Generals start reviving bodies.
It’s a polished level with no unfair moments and enough enemies to make it a fun, if not particularly challenging, romp through the building. That ladder is tantalisingly close, though. Just out of reach… I’ve tried everything. What secrets could the top of that construction tower hold?
Hey everyone!
Yeah, we’re off schedule and there's no excuse for it. Sorry!
This week’s Map of the Week is “Curtain Fall” by SockPuppet! You may notice he’s been naming a lot of his levels after various theatrical props. I wonder if it means anything?
We start off in front of a huge building, where we can choose to enter either through the front or the back. This is a stage that requires careful planning and ammo conservation. Ammunition is scarce, especially if you’re going in with just the revolver, and alerting the wrong enemies will also alert the very mine-happy technicians near the top of the building.
The objective of this stage is to assassinate four elite undead on the top floor of the building, before making your escape and avoiding the intimidating amount of backup they send after you.
The second stage of the map, "The Tower", may be short and somewhat easy, but it’s still the most exciting and memorable part of the level. I’d rather not spoil this exciting experience, but I will show you this screenshot to give you a general idea of what to expect.
The third and final stage of the level, "Storage", consists of a small building with a phylactery inside, referred to as a “heart”. You’re given weapons and a task – shoot the heart four times to destroy it. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, there’s a catch. With each time you hit the heart, a progressively more difficult wave of enemies spawns. It’s definitely rage-inducing.
Believe it or not, but I actually ragequit at this point once!
And with that, the level ends. While not standing out visually, this level had very interesting ideas that served it well gameplay-wise. It keeps you on your toes and forces you to think before jumping into the fight. You can’t run and gun this time!
…I mean, you technically can, but is it really worth the risk?
Not gonna lie, this week’s entries were pretty great and it was rather hard to choose between all of em. I’m liking this kind of activity, so keep it up!
This week’s Map of the Week is ‘Compound’ by Fry.
The level starts you off at a small bar filled to the brim with skeletons, and you can tell just from the first stage alone that this isn’t gonna be an easy level.
Fry makes the player go through the entire building by having a phylactery on the top floor tied to a bartender located at the bottom floor, forcing the player to use most of their ammo by the time they reach the top.
Which is where backup comes in.
After making it out alive, the Reaper proceeds to the address found in the previous stage, arriving at a large and complex warehouse with a lot of different approaches to take, with the ludicrous amount of vents and stairwells providing many possible routes.
You’ll contend with skeletons, a lot of demons, and even a few hellhounds. All of the enemies are absolutely lethal, and they don’t hesitate before pulling the trigger, so your best strategy would be to stay in the shadows and avoid direct combat as much as possible.
After clearing the building along with even more backup, the player takes the elevator to the level’s final stage.
This ash factory is made up of uniform, blocky rooms and filled with trigger-happy skeletons. As with the last two sections, you kill everyone, burn all the ash (we’re here to put a stop to the factory, after all). After this you’ll have to fight your way back to the top of the facility to escape in the same elevator you came in by.
What I liked the most about Compound was its difficulty. The stages are rather long and have enemies at almost every corner, so the level is certainly frustrating. However, this just makes it so much satisfying and rewarding when you finally do clear a stage, and, to be completely honest, this level gave me the most exciting “holy shit” moments that I’ve ever experienced in this game.
Oh, and remember how I mentioned there being a lot of enemies in a small space?
Beautiful, isn't it?
First thing’s first – yes, we did skip last week’s MotW. There were only two maps released, and only one of them was any good (made by SockPuppet, who’s already been awarded MotW several times)! I write these during my spare time, and it just didn’t seem worth it to write out something just for that. I hope you understand. Of course, if you’d rather we not skip future MotWs whenever possible, yell at us in the comments and we’ll look into it!
Anyway, without further ado…
This week’s Map of the Week is “A Theatre’s Props” by SockPuppet! Yeah, he won it anyway, who saw that coming?
This map deviates from the usual formula – for one, it’s not a standard “kill the undead inhabiting a building” design that’s so familiar at this point, but rather is more of a puzzle (you still kill undead though, otherwise it wouldn’t be a DEADBOLT level). Puppet uses all of his editor tricks and knowledge to make some rather creative puzzles, with elements such as invisible floating mines and an enemy that has to be shot from a specific spot to survive.
I found the stages to have a unique look that, while nothing particularly beautiful, caught my eye and remained memorable. As always, there are secrets hidden at the boundaries of the map. I wonder where they’ll lead…
Oh, and I would really advise you to watch your step.
Overall, a short but unique puzzle level that’ll definitely take some time to solve. That’s where the fun is, of course.
You may have thought we’d forgotten about MotW, but you’d be wrong! We’re just really good at procrastinating, that’s all.
This week’s Map of the Week is “Long night” by Fry.
As the name implies, it’s a long level. Or rather, a long set of levels, each boasting a familiar aesthetic of their own – a zombie apartment, a vampire nightclub, a Dredged construction site (with a very nice looking crane), and a demon garage. I’m sure you’ve gathered what the theme is.
Another noteworthy feature of this level – an optional hard mode. Red lights, more enemies, and much more backup.
It may not be anything groundbreaking, but I found myself enjoying the level more than any of the other levels submitted this week. It was well balanced, and a good challenge – I don’t often find myself getting frustrated playing this game.
Each section is packed with enemies and a good amount of branching paths to take. Buckle in and find what strategy best works for you!
