MRDR

[PALEMOON]

[Exüberance]

The level "Who are you, exacately?" is corrupted.

[MattKestrel]

Wow. This... is... epic! I liked the postmodern-ness and progression a lot, but the really postmodern maps less so. But overall, this is truly unique in how it's set out, and the gameplay is expertly crafted. So yeah, kudos. I'd say more butt...

[Exüberance]

Are the levels in the right order? The numbers kind of jump around. It's a little confusing.

[toasters]

I'd say more butt...

Is that a request?

[PALEMOON]

they are arranged in a special order. It should start with 00000 Power Button

[Exüberance]

Once You Collapse the Core is also corrupted. (NaN'd exit switch)

[MattKestrel]

I'd say more butt...

Is that a request?

Wait, what...

-_-

Yeah, definitely needs more butt, though.

[otters~1]

EDIT:


I really enjoyed this. About ten or so of those maps will probably end up in my userlevels, and the rest have a (cough) place in my heart. Seriously I loved the story aspect of it. That's not easy to pull off.

[Leaff]

Wow. These are great. I'm currently still playing them, I'll edit this when I'm done.
And the edit has come.
The progression between the levels is just AMAZING. Especially from 1: You Do Not Control The Wired and on through the end. They're all really stellar when put together, although some are just "meh" on their own.
Overall, this is outstanding. It'll stay in my userlevels for a while.

[yungerkid]

i loved the plot. it was very intriguing. the levels conformed to the plot very well. it had an interesting progression. great pack.

[toasters]

I've never been more engrossed in this game. The tiles, the atmosphere, the level progression, it's all so amazing. Individually some of the levels aren't as fun as one might expect from you, but the overall feel is fantastic. The plot is great too, simplistic enough to be represented through N, and yet it was tantalizing in a way that made my imagination go crazy. It's hard to explain, but it just seems like the storyline and this game were perfect parallels. I don't know how you manage to be such a prolific author and still produce such quality material. Awesome work.

[sidke]

I partook in this pack's beta.

11/10

[DW40]

Masterpiece. Amazing. This pack was so much fun to play. The cyberghost fight was epic. Thanks for that amazing gaming experience.

[a happy song]

This is brilliant.

[Amadeus]

It was similar to Metanet levels in that individually, the majority of maps are poor while when together, they form a decent pack. I really preferred LLL though, a lot of these levels just seemed, too...weird. They lacked the solid mechanics and aesthetics that many of your other maps have, and seemed to cling onto a clever storyline. Gratz for that, but I think the levels themselves just don't pull much weight.

[sheganican]

It was similar to Metanet levels in that individually, the majority of maps are poor while when together, they form a decent pack. I really preferred LLL though, a lot of these levels just seemed, too...weird. They lacked the solid mechanics and aesthetics that many of your other maps have, and seemed to cling onto a clever storyline. Gratz for that, but I think the levels themselves just don't pull much weight.

Thats why they're in a pack. Palemoon knows better then to post some of the filler maps on Numa. They're all here together to be /judged/ together, hence the plot and ongoing theme.

[KinGAleX]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this is the epitome of map creation for N v1.4. I've honestly never had such an enthralling game experience in my entire life. Something of this scope has been attempted in the past in, for example, The Epic, but anything with a real story or concept behind it, even other map packs with one unifying concept, has never come so close to what I desire for pure joy in my gaming.

We'll start with the story. I love stories. I'm sure anyone who knows about my music taste, the music I write, and the television shows, books, and movies I enjoy generally come down to some sort of a long, drawn out, overarching storyline or two. Basically the more epicker the betterer. MRDR, to me, was like a television show, in that you provided such small installments of the story every step, but it ended up spanning hours of screen time, metaphorically, to tell the whole story. I'd not consider this feature length: this is saga length. That's why I love stories; why I love this story is simple: it's an average bildungsroman artfully driven by technological concepts, and although the storyline is predictable and plot twists are quite natural and obvious, this does the pack itself justice, as the movement from one map to the next was a clear progression, and never jarred or wavered. It was consistent with narrative traditions that have been around for yonks, but in an entirely new setting and with an entirely new vehicle.

These, the setting and vehicle, were so easily translatable into the N Editor, in a purely aesthetic sense, as well as in a mechanical sense, impossible without the various objects and enemies that make up this fantastic game we play. The setting, obviously, is technology and ideas mostly related to computers and data systems, on some level, and the vehicle a strange sort of metagame, where you're being transferred from the computer world within the game inside the map pack, which you're playing with N, to the game itself inside the map pack inside your game. Blurring these lines creates a wonderful sense of surrealism for the player, as it's so much easier to find yourself immersed in the glorious world of MRDR, due to one's ability to draw immediate parallels with the ninja character (Westley), as well as the metaplayer (Fred Savage), the supposed entity controlling the ninja, only one level up from the story. Following on from my original point, the technological concepts explored are so easily translatable into both tilesets and objects, but never done so masterfully as the examples I see here. Themes, repeated often, but not too often, become apparent about a quarter of the way through the pack, and you start to get ready for the types of gameplay you can expect from the next title in the Cyberghost series, for instance. I could talk for hours about the way PALEMOON's tileset style lends him an ability to create exactly the right feel for the world he's created in this pack, but I think that can go unexpounded.

I strayed from the original point of that last paragraph too easily, showing even myself, writing of this pack, how well its creation combines story, gameplay, metagameplay, metastories, technology, and metatechnology; representations of every possible aspect of this pack blend together like bird shit and the roof of a white '90s Pulsar hatch, leaving me no option but to accidentally digress from talking about the use of concepts in the aesthetics to how this affects the gameplay and what that did to the story. And I mean this as an absolute compliment. For me to not be able to pick apart each individual component at will and bitch about what I didn't like about it, as I'm wont to attempt, is a godsend. I therefore cannot help but think that what really makes these maps great is the synergy created between all the aspects, down to the smallest of details, which really allows it to transcend a regular map pack's intentions and outcomes, and hit me so hard as a masterpiece.

On a base level, this is a collection of PALEMOON maps, made with some unifying concepts and an unwritten story hinted at by titles and possible interpretations of gameplay events. Maybe a seventh of the maps are throwaway garbage in any context other than that in which they are presented. You could look at the pack from an extremely close-minded point of view and say, "Hey, this is a bunch of generally white-aread maps with abundant chainguns and similar aesthetic stylings among them." That's a perfectly reasonable thing to say. But coming from my own point of view, where I'm personally interested in the grand scheme of this project, the concept as a whole, and the beauty in which it's been executed, regardless of whether I don't particularly love his aesthetic choices in general as a mapmaker, a moot point, since the brilliant construction of the pack outshines my need to nitpick, I will forever appreciate this as, I reiterate, the epitome of mapping for N. This is it guys. I am stating that, in my opinion, this will not be trumped. Fucking bravo, PALEMOON. PM me with your free Custom Title request.

[Pheidippides]

After reading KinGAleX's post, wow. I've gotta play this. Maybe I'll bring it on vacation with me.

[toasters]

I win.

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/9743/85966379.jpg
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9683/20939245.jpg
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/9052/33462583.jpg
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/646/92602249.jpg
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/5360/31165357.jpg

[mintnut]

: O

I don't see how I can ever make a map pack now. This thing is overshadowing everything like Sauron over Mordor. So so brilliant. I agree with KinGAleX.

<3

[T3chno]

After reading what KA said, I decided to play it. Jeeeesssuuusss man, this mappack is the shit. Two fantastic mappacks I've played in a row (yours and evil_bob's).

I'm definitely archiving this for future play.

[ChaoStar]

<ChaoStar> After playing MRDR, I have lost all faith in my mapping skills.

[ethel]

I dont have the patience to play through all these unfortunately. Although overall I think losttaters was equal if not better from what I played, certain maps are simply brilliant. I ask that you add all the BOSS maps to NUMA, since those were definitely my favorite. I also agree with KA that that's the coolest story ever achieved in a series/pack. You outdid yourself again bro.

[DarkN]

: O

I don't see how I can ever make a map pack now. This thing is overshadowing everything like Sauron over Mordor. So so brilliant. I agree with KinGAleX.

<3

Creepy.... I read that post just as I was watching LOTR.
But back on topic, I loved this. Far from what mintnut said, this has actually inspired me to try and tackle this on my own. Overalll, excellently done. I especially loved the progression of "you do not control the wired" onward, as Leaff said.
...Yeah, most of this has already been said, but I felt the need to reiterate. Awesome. \m/