Happy hopooween! If youve grown to like levels with branching narratives and paths, then todays your lucky day, because this week were highlighting the final level in SockPuppets Residue collection No Strings Attached! A teeth-clenching map that rewards those who go off the beaten path and look for secrets in more ways than one. You may think that reviewing the finale of a series out of nowhere is a bit odd, but weve actually covered a couple of maps from this series in the past, if you want to check those out.
Maps in the Residue series are heavily connected to one another, and this ones no exception. Right off the bat, youre presented with two paths depending on your actions in One Trick Puppet. Of course, youre also free to just try every possible outcome, like we did.
Depending on the path, the difficulty will vary greatly youll either get a series of relatively difficult stages or some completely unreasonable stuff, with the latter earning this map the reputation of being one of the worst cases of enemy spam.
With that said, the levels are never impossible Sock leaves plenty of ammunition and weaponry to be found, either lying on the ground or dropped from specific enemies. There are often plenty of vents that can get you almost anywhere, letting you flank or retreat as necessary. Not only that, but the harder parts of the level also prove to be the most interesting or visually appealing areas detailed nightclubs, invisible traps guarding a Lich Arm (thankfully with graffiti to show their positions) or even a hideout of zombie looters which also has a nice window that you can smash on your way through.
Being a SockPuppet map, secrets and mysteries are a given, but in this one he goes above and beyond, ranging from small easter eggs to fully fleshed-out endings full of oddities and interesting scenarios. The ways of getting them are rather unique too, as you arent just running off the sides of stages looking for hidden cutscenes. Be sure to take some time to think about where or what these secrets could be.
alright, theres, like, one joke-ish ending.
All in all, its a fine exhibit from the golden age of DEADBOLT mapping thats well worth your time, even if the difficulty of these maps can get a little over the top occasionally. Play it now! Oh, and if youre ever feeling like flexing your level design muscles on a smaller scale A member of our community, LittleHorn, is making a campaign of his own, and one of the cooler features is having a room contest thing, where you get to well, design a room! Contests, even. So, if you feel like youre up for the task, join here. The contest shown here is over, we're just showing it as an example of what to expect:
And while were at it, dont forget that we (the DEADBOLT community) have our own official Discord! The invite URL can be found in the Discussions section, but we'll link it here as well.