So i finally got around to playing some of this.
Not a fan of the changes on the first map, overall. I found it rather confusing to navigate around and i got lost frequently. I also don't like that it feels closer to the Slums in overall look and layout. The sort of bright, wide-open layout of the old map did a better job of differentiating it from the slums, imho. That and i've played this map for 10 years now, so it just feels wrong to see it changed, i guess. With that said, it does reduce the walking times significantly, once you start orientating yourself, and the map feels more alive overall. Small things like giving a "lights-on" texture to some of the apartment windows really makes the places feel alive and lived-in. The old map had really plain textures and made it feel much more barren than it should be.
Was making the quest-giving Firewall rather hard to find intentional? If this was my first time playing this map, i probably would have missed him. Might be just an artifact of the map being more confusing to me.
Then there is the Corporate district. Best change so far that i've played, as you've retained the basic layout and just added some visual flair to it. Tho i gotta ask, why remove the AMD reference building? Now that the Intel building is the only one there, it seems rather strange to me. The placement of both rival companies so close together was a nice artistic nod to the main story of the game, how World Corp and PDX are rivals as well, but now that reference is completely gone
Also not a fan of the new club. Again, it looks nice, definitely, but it just took me so long to go around it, talking to Mercedes, getting back up go get my reward for the basement quest, etc. Definitely would look better in screenshots, but wasn't that fun to around in. Tho, again, this might be because i am used to the old map.
And then new Hotel mission. I am repeating myself now, but at first, i wasn't a fan. It felt like it suffered for the Revision syndrome, where it looks nice, it tried it's best to look like a real place, but then navigating it was boring and uneventful. But then i found the various ventilation shafts, found some data-pads, started getting rewarded for my exploration and i finally ended up finding Bogie and reporting him to PDX. ANd i gotta say...WELL DONE! It all just came together and was a fairly decent little mission! The map managed to actually look and feel like real place, without compromising gameplay much at all, which i really like!
That's it so far, as this is all i've played till now. I've heard that the new AI complex is a pain in the ass, so looking forward to getting to it, i guess, lol.
