This map is definantly a lot of fun to play DM. I tried it last night on a friend of mine....

The level as far as I can tell has nothing to do with the name. It's sort of a city block, with some cars, and assorted buildings. Mostly you can just go onto the rooftops, and snipe, or go across into the center building by a rather well done zip line.

With a little more work the level design would be great, there are a few bad spots that could use some extra work. Also, as I mentioned in my last review, Quake + cartoon graphics = crap. Because of the dark atmosphere of Q2, it's very hard to fit cartoon graphics into quake. Because they are so bright. So in any darkened area it looks rather stupid. This map has done about the best job with cartoon textures I've seen though. But still. If I wanted to see that kind of textures I would be playing SHadow warrior and not Quake 2. Right?

The next problem. There are LOTS of little bugs. Now this is the first map I've actually seen this stuff on. But there are some walls I can see through, and if standing in the right places, I can even see into some of the buildings if I stand in certain places.

Also, I'm not entirly sure if it's a bug, but I can stand inside the trees, It's probably intentional, but a little dumb...

I would reccomend this map, because it's fun. And it does have the potential to become a great map if some changes are made, and bugs fixed.
-Talon

Review:
Well, I'm hitting the reviews after about 6 weeks or so, even though I really really wanted to review a lot more maps... but, school started. Woe is me... =b Anyways, onto the review:

Introduction:
Rail Station 2 is a map based on a train station within a small town of Norway, according to the author's text file description. The map fits the description, but lacks in several key areas I think should have kept it from getting into MapPack 2.

Structure and Design:
Well, no servers I know of ran this map (I am writing this the day after it was released) so I am going solely on my half-hour walkthrough experience. The buildings are your average joe structures- there isn't anything really fancy about the architecture, save the entrance of the rail station. It was kind of disappointed to see such a map take up 1.5 megs (compressed, not the full load), and have it made in such a messy fashion. Crates are lying all over the place (some sort of crate invasion, perhaps?). The fact that the rail station has only two entrances (one hidden) to it made me wonder why this level was even given its inappropriate title. One of these entrances is an elevator shaft that is build with a pulley in the middle. Now, from a realistic point of view, why would there be two wires and a motor jutting from _within_ the already-tight elevator? Not very well-crafted, if you ask me. But that is generally to the side... with the exception of the outdoor areas, the interiors of all the buildings are generally cramp, and uneasy to get around. Boxes are crooked and get in the way of player movement. The light poles are annoying not because you can climb them (which BTW, I thought was creative) but because you almost always can't climb up all the way due to the design of this prefab (it looks like one, maybe it isn't). Thus it renders their purpose useless as some sort of tactical advantage. I guess on the plus side, there is quite a bit of detail, but they serve nothing but to increase lag in this level. All I can do is look down and sigh in disappointment
[6.0/10]

Aesthetics:
Plenty of detail as I mentioned before- but too much! The worst is that it is mostly cosmetic, with a horde of ripped textures and no theme surrounding them. Granted, the selection is colourful and stays away from the gloomy Q2 textures, but the shear quantity is exhaustive. Another overuse is in the prefabs department... TOO MANY!!! I couldn't help but notice a whole car dealership in there that was seemingly ugly and bitten from Duke Nukem 3D. I hate to point this map out, but this is one example of where I think mapmakers should avoid using too many prefabs in their level. With them, comes unoriginality and freshness that ruins a potentially good level.
[6.0/10]

Weapons:
Like most maps, the weapons are generally placed away from plain view. It's too easy to find ammo, but you're going to have to go on a massive easter egg hunt the first few runs of the map to search for the actual guns.. One of the better aspects in this map that I believe makes pistol fights more crucial to survival.
[8.0/10]

Gameplay:
I haven't played this on the 'net yet... I haven't seen a server running it, and I haven't tested it out yet on my own server with my friends. All I can comment on in this section for the moment is that people with slower systems will want to either stay indoors or not even play this map, because from the outside, r_speeds get whacked up to as high as 800 or so. To me, an acceptable rate would be about 600, maybe 700 *tops.* There are other visual anomalies that accompany this high poly count (undrawn buildings still viewable, seeing through walls, etc.). The poor design complements the poor r_speeds. Anyhow, I'll leave it at a 7.0 for now...
[7.0/10]

Overall:
A map I think should NEVER have made it into the latest mappack. Rail Station 2 appears to be a disappointing hope of a realistic setting, with all the right elements in all the wrong places.
[6.5/10]
-Victor Chow (eLDeR_MMHS)

Review:
Ok First impression which makes alot of difference on a map is the load up. Got on qestion for people out there. How many professional maps do you see out there that have load errors?..... not many, you see scrolling errors on this map (RUSH JOB).

I am a mapper myself so I know basically what goes into a map. The first thing I see when I load is a backwards texture that is suppose to be a sign... It reads backwards now.(RUSH JOB)

There is alot of miss aligned textures and wrong textures which are really noticeable and take away from the realism.(RUSH JOB). Weapons placement is not bad works out for the map. Frame rate sucked I had a terrible time running this map smoothly on my 200 64megs of ram and voodoo 2.

All and all the impression I got from this map is that it was a rush job to get into the mappack which is ashame becuase they asked for unrushed maps and still took one. The map has good potenial with some TLC.

But I am left with a bad taste in my mouth on this one.......
-Goose

Review:
I know I don't do many reviews anymore. It is because a new line of people have taken over the biz. Oh well! to start off, the 1st thing I noticed about this level is the similarity to Duke3d. I think some textures are from good old Nukem. The fire truck layout reminds me of a 3rd Secanario level, and the hotel place has a sign which looks oddly like the one for a bank. Wierd. Well, I LOVED Duke3d! STILL play it over LANs and modems. Even bought the 500 level CD, which says more for Duke then any other game. But on with the show. This map is so cool, I just have to say that. I espically love the cool fire poles and the line running from one building to another. The effect of having your feet in midair seems so...I dunno! I feel like I'm gonna fall but I don't! Plus there is some nice small areas to fight in the buildings. The only thing I have trouble figuring out is the magic button which drops the floor. What is it for? I die if I try to get down there, and there seems to be a door of some sort! Dang it! Basically I thing this level is a great addition to the map-pack, and I can't wait to try it on a LAN or internet high-ping connection! yes!
-Moose

Review:
First things first. The backwards texture. How do you miss something like that? Did he not bother to test this map at all?

Secondly. After a while of wandering around the level, I had yet to find the railway station. I found a parking garage and the M4 clips in the bushes and stuff, but not the rail station. What I had found was a huge whole in a roof that could be opened with a switch, but the fall kills. Pointless.

There is one redeeming feature. Originality in the case of the trees! You can actually enter the bushes to snag the ammo there or just hide. I don't know whether it actually *works* (not having a chasecam in AQ) but it's a good idea. Gives whole new meaning to the phrase "hiding in the bushes".
-GuppyShark

Review:
Overall this map has a decent concept to it. It fits the action theme pretty well by using a very real to life atmosphere that could be found somewhere in a city. A few problems that I did see that kind of made me wonder were:

-Some/Most of the doors were already open and were not able to be opened wit the opendoor command.
-A few pictures/signs on the wall had the writing backwards.
(Again nothing major, but a little something that I look for when I review a map)
-I noticed that when I climbed a lightpole to jump on top of a tree I fell through the tree, weird.
-The map did have some bright textures but they were displayed pretty well, unlike some other maps I have viewed.

Aside from these minor quirks I think this map is very fun to play and is very playable for DM. Teamplay is probably not a good idea on this map though I did not try to play teamplay on it yet. Overall its a great map and I would recommend that it be downloaded.
Score: 7/10
-Chance

Review:
This map just plain owns. It is basically subway, actcity2, and blockwar all rolled into one, but better than all 3! This thing has great lighting, original design (fire trucks, etc), and is just plain fun to play in. I love that little cable that lets you climb accross the street! This map is just great - i'm at a loss for words. The lighting is superb, but the only thing I don't like is the fact that you can't get in the sub car (but on top of it). This is one of the best actionquake maps i've seen for a while, great job Lantz and SLAT Software!

I really disaggree with Goose, this map was not a RUSH JOB and I experienced NO ERRORS. Goose, if someone could do this rushing, then they would work for id software..come on. I noticed no misaligned or backwards texture (although my vision isn't the greatest :P). I kind of disaggree with Talon also, he has obviously not fooled around with the noclip command or extensively searched many maps. If you stand in the right places on MANY maps, you can see into other rooms, and see this wierd doubling up effect (Once you see it you'll know what I mean). Alternatively, if you don't want to go find the places on many action (and non action!) maps, just use the noclip command in single player and go higher than your supposed to (before you see all orange) and you will see into other rooms. That plagues almost every map Talon, and it was silly of you to point it out in this map alone. I have noticed it in MANY actionquake maps(which I won't name, contact me if you disbelieve me that much and want me to waste my time finding and naming all of them). Anyway, thats my 2 cents, I didn't see the backwards texture, so chances are if your looking through the map THAT carefully when your playing, you won't be doing too well. I give this map a 9/10, it would take an incredible map for a 10/10.

I'm running a pentium 2 266 with 96 megs of ram and voodoo2 (NOT high end in this day and age) and Goose complains about framerate? All I can say is, my framerate was fine. Victor Chow whined about lag, yet NEVER did a review of the earlier actionquake maps(the first 3 ever) which were plagued by lag problems, but were still fun as hell. Another note on that zip line...its DAMN COOL. You can sit there and snipe/camp!** **Yes, you can look down or anywhere without falling!

The lamp post are not prefabs, considering they are all different (and some have some missing lights and are crooked and misaligned, yikes!) Basically the most enduring quality(pardon my enthusiam at the beginning of this review) of this map is the fun factor.
-Scottee

Review:
I read the other (mostly unfavorable) reviews for this map before actually playing it, so I wasn't expecting a lot - and while it *does* have a number of rough spots, I think it also has some good ideas, and overall has the potential to be a fun map with a little more polishing.

In general, I like the layout; there's a nice balance between indoor and outdoor areas. The rooftop areas lend themselves to some nice fights, and the underground garage is well-suited to lots of ducking behind & between vehicles. I also like the fact that the map offers visual "explanation" for the borders of the map; rather than just building a high wall around the whole area, there is a tunnel blocked with wrecked vehicles, a pile of crates blocking the subway train, etc. Frame rates are slightly jumpy in places, but not to an extent where it hampers play.

I have two main criticisms of Railstation. The first involves the textures. Let me go against the grain here and say I usually *like* cartoonish looking textures - maps like Colt and Actcity2 are two of the most visually pleasing AQ maps out there in my opinion. But Railstation just goes overboard in the number and brightness of textures. Some areas, like the lobby of the train terminal, look like something out of "Pee Wee's Playhouse", and there are places (espescially the street area) where it is difficult to pick out other players at a distance, because the terrain looks so busy. Using less saturated colors would probably improve the appearance of this map, as would using *fewer* textures in places (which might also help with frame rate).

My biggest problem with Railstation, however, is the poor placement of respawn spots. One of the respawn spots drops you in midair, at a height where you are guaranteed to take 10-20% damage and a leg wound as soon as you enter the map! Another time I respawned halfway inside a tall tree, and even the 'unstick' command would not free me - I had to wait for several seconds until someone came along to shoot me. This kind of poor planning makes it hard for me to take this map seriously as a finished work. The Mine map, also by SLAT Software, suffers from poorly-chosen respawn locations as well, so this is an area which should be given serious attention on future maps they attempt.

RATING: 5.5/10

-Dr. Happy

Review:
Let me start this review with a nice comment. This map is no longer taking up precious space on my hard drive. This is one of the worst maps I have ever played. It's sad, because the author is capable of so much more.

Structure and Design: Pathetic. The whole map is far too dark. The one building in the middle of the map is much too cluttered. The tunnel below is alright, but the many trucks and cars get in the way. The rooftops are good, but are too dark also. I feel clausterphobic everywhere on this map.

Weapons Placement: Good. Everything is where it should be. The author knew what he was doing here.

Gameplay: I quote the movie Tommy Boy when I write this, "...and the medic gets out and says, OH MY GOD! New guy is in the corner puking his guts out. Blech! Blech!" Lantz must have a 450 PII with about 24 Megs of Voodoo2 RAM, because this map runs as slow as molasses on my computer (200 Pentium, 32 Megs Ram, Monster 3D card). I would have thought this was an average map if the speed was better. Alas, the speed is sickening and therefore I consider this a "crap map." The speed is slow enough that it hinders gameplay. All the action takes place on the rooftops and on the street, I have yet to kill someone in the building or in the tunnel. What the heck is that trap door on the roof for? I have never tricked someone into falling into it and I have never survived a fall to see what is down there.

Framerates: Read the Gameplay section.

How it looks: This map does look gorgeous. Once again, the only problem is lighting. Which happens to be a big problem.

Overall:
Structure & Design: 4/10
Weapons Placement: 8/10
Gameplay: 3/10
Framerates: 3/10
Looks: 7/10

Overall score: 5/10

Could have been an alright map, but is far too slow on normal computers. Choppiness killed this map.

-Cheese