"Ever felt enchanted?....No?! Then read on."
Review by saka
October 21, 2004

DOM-DMP-Enchanted
by Sjosz

Unreal Tournament 2004 Double Domination for 8 players

Gameplay

Let’s start with the spawning gardens. To prepare for the fight Sjosz put 2 shields, a couple of minihealth, Adrenalinepills and a weapon locker in the garden. So, when you’re fully charched, got your favourite weapon unlocked and you are ready to go, run to one of the two entrances of the monument and jump into the action. To your left and right are the Domination points. To get there you’ll have the choice between multiple routes. Nice thing is that each team has an advantage of reaching the domination point on their left side first because of the entrance on the left side of the garden. This prevents one team dominating both points right away. If you’ve chosen for the smaller entrance on the left you will be closest to the left domination point and probably need to defend it pretty soon. By taking the main entrance you’ll receive more resistance from the other (defending) team. This map has a good layout, to reach the other Domination point you can take several routes on two floors. The DOM point room has four entrances so there are plenty of possibilities to attack the Domination point. When standing behind the Domination point with your back to the wall you’ve got an overview on all the four entrances. It’s easy to keep an eye out for attackers. This way you can defend the point pretty good. Actually there’s a real nice balance between attackers and defenders.

Construction

Lets again start with the spawning gardens. This is convincing. Trees with moving shadows, the monumental building is detailed and even looking ancient. Behind you there’s a wall with a closed gate and a custom made statue of some kind of monk. I do feel like I am in a courtyard or something. Now, let’s take a walk inside. First thing I notice are the custom made banners, statues and arches. Especially the banners. They are really cool. Moving on you will mainly see wood and brick textures. Nice tiles on the floor. Some broken scattered around.  
Damn, great job on the vaults. The ceiling used in the DOM point room caused my jaw to drop. Looking from the Domination point towards the ceiling is just beautiful. Everything is placed and aligned properly and the map has lots of detail. I can’t make much comment on the lighting. It’s superb. Main lighting is constant, Torches are nicely lit. For the sounds, Sjosz has chosen the Atlantis track and that fits the theme very well. Combined with some neat sound effects and ambient sounds you’ll get the feeling of an ancient enchanted place. Just for fun, walk over the planks. That’s what I mean with detail. I am very positive about the atmosphere in this map. Although this map has a high detail level it flows very smooth and will not cause problems on less advanced rigs. The map is optimized. Framerates are well above minimum.

Computer AI

So, what about bots and stuff? Well, Sjosz sure knows how to put some pathing together. You will not see bots wondering around the place or get stuck in weird places. No, they are all doing their job in giving you a hard time. They will defend, attack, pick items and try to score points like they are supposed to do.