Connecting maps into logical progression is an important task - haven't you complained about confusion some posts ago?
Short junction maps are also completely inoffensive in terms of confusion and copypasta.
Perhaps, but in a game as narrative-lite as Unreal, it's not really needed at all, and most of these felt like wastes of time. You can accomplish these transitions using maps with actual, you know, decent gameplay, or better yet, forget them and just build short transitions sections into existing maps.
Also, how is Noork's any different for Trench or Velora Pass?
As I recall, that one at least had some stuff to do in it. But maybe I'm mis-remembering.
A lot of RTNP levels are repurposed outtakes. Towards the end you may also appreciate those short junction maps and keeping narrative together as after the wreck RTNP just falls apart in this regard.
To be honest, I like the expansion. There are a couple of weaker levels and the voice-acting and story stuff is fucking horrid, but the levels are pretty enjoyable and lack any obvious bad bits. I like the return to non-linear exploration throughout, and most importantly, divorcing it from crappy switch-hunting puzzles. I really don't give a toss about the useless transition levels, as I said, which could have been turned into real levels otherwise.
Also, as an antithesis of interesting shooter I'd like to present Quake "I want to be a spazzmehreen" 2.
To be honest, I like Quake a lot, because in my opinion it did the "dumb corridor shooter w/ key hunt" thing rather well. I also found the enemy and weapon variety more enjoyable than in Unreal, even though technically Unreal is more creative in this respect. Quake just
feels a lot more fun to play, less floaty and more grounded, and it shares a lot with Doom as far as interesting enemy composition is concerned (something Unreal lacks, as it feels like many areas are built around fighting 1-2 dudes at most).
Blood is great, but I wish someone could port it to the EDuke32 engine already.
I can't remember if I ever beat Quake 2, but I did get pretty far in it. From what I remember the game is pretty decent, and was one of the first to have enemies with more diverse behaviors and "believable" AI. I think the grimdark aesthetic just got to me after a while though, it was dreary and somewhat repetitive in terms of level design, especially next to Quake 1, and lacking Quake 1's slightly quaint gothic charm. It's nowhere near as good as Quake 1 but it's not bad or anything.
Quake 2 had excellent level design, but suffered from combat not being as fun as in Doom, due to less interesting enemies and weapons. When playing Quake 2 I felt like it was possible to complete the game without ever getting hit. No other FPS has given me that feeling.
I think the problem is that in Quake 2 the enemies take way too long to actually start shooting at them, so you can get away with just running past all of them. But you'd be surprised how many shooters you can beat without actually shooting anyone - Half-Life is an especially good example of being winnable just by running past everything.
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