Vemork Factory Small is a heavy water production plant at Vemork in Rjukan, Norway, 1943. The fact that it has a historical link is really cool as more and more maps are getting away from those themes these days. The read me that comes with the .pk3 file is an example of a proper read me and has some background on this historical map worth checking out. This is the first map release by the author which would fool you since its so nicely done.
Presentation / Technical
As usual I like to go down the list of scoring and discuss each area. Texturing was applied with a great amount of detail and thought. I don·t know if any historical pictures were used as reference but everything seems to fit. I found several texture errors that didn·t hinder the score do the shear size of this map and the task of texturing correctly. The errors consisted mainly of misalignment above doors. Now on the interior rooms you can see it actually misaligned but on the same brush in the halls it appears to be that weird lighting issue that·s common to Mohr mapping. I found Z-fighting on the grate work and generators but only when played in SH not Mohaa. Now there is some debate as to the new DX9 shader rendering which has been known to produce a "Z-fighting" condition. Both of these phenomenons were dealt with lightly by the review marks due to no "real" answer on how to fix these (Upon further discussion with author the "errors" ARE simply lighting phenomenons since they are correct within the Mohr).
Lighting was adequate and fitted the theme. It really seemed to be perfect and REAL. Only issue was the weird issue above the doors but again due to a lack of documentation on a fix for it, that I know of, review points were not affected (Upon further discussion with author the "errors" ARE simply lighting phenomenons since they are correct within the Mohr).
Brushwork was overall basic when it applied to the layout of the building and rooms. On the other hand there area several areas that are deep in detail and I know that the author went to extra steps to preserve the detail and yet keep the performance up. The detail that I am describing can bee seen in the map screenshots I have taken for this review. I really can·t see adding anything to this map. Everything seems to come together perfectly which probably means good practice of working off of the grid I would imagine.
As far as Creativity and Theme are concerned again everything seems to fit like a glove. Some might say the historical picture in the loading screen doesn·t match the map and they would be correct. The author in his read me does state the do to the shear size of this map three levels had to be removed simply to keep you from getting lost. Creativity got slightly above average marks because this was not an original concept but by no means takes away from its true score I'm my opinion.
Playability / Game Flaws
This was the area I was really looking forward to see. After all, this is a very large map and since it consists of only one large building I already had it in my mind that in this area it would fail. Well then came time to play. A server had to be arranged since no other server had this map in rotation when I was looking for it. Yes this is the weak point of the map simply due to its shear size but I don·t think that it fails. Many players claimed the obj could be reached as quickly as in the original V2 rocket map but for new players across the screen would read, "I am lost". I gave it above average score based off my limited time playing it. I think with some time the obj game flow would come easier. I think playing on a server that allows all weapons would increase the variety of gameplay on this map since all styles could really take advantage of this. The server I was on only allowed machine guns and rifles which without getting into a large discussion takes away from this great game rather then the intent to make it better...like I say "if you haven't figured out how to play the game with and against ALL the weapons by now, your way behind"...lol.
Conclusion
So, even though gameplay, which should be weighted heaviest in scoring, was the lowest marks would I recommend a download of this map? You bet. I do really think that with time I would really enjoy playing this map. Once you realize that don·t forget that the brushwork is very clean and detailed yet the performance is still great. Server admins download this map for your large clans and keep it in rotation. It has many great features that tests ALL the different aspects that make up Mohaa.
