CS:GO maps… but they’re overgrown. That’s the idea behind Bars’ map series,
which pictures these maps as they’ll be in 2055. So far, he’s done Mirage, Overpass,
Inferno and Office. And I guess, with the Cache remake, that one’s also done. And
what a great idea for a series! We all know these maps, which makes us naturally curious
to know how they might look at some point in the future.
So my thoughts on this series of maps was firstly: ‘Oh cool, that looks great’,
then after I load them up I changed to ‘oohh… maybe these look a little bit messy looking’,
which was then followed with awe at how many maps this guy has made in the last year.
It looks like he gets one of these maps out every 2 weeks! But on top of this, he’s
making other types of maps as well! He’s made defuse maps. He’s made aim maps. He
makes MAPS! And he keeps them updated. I love seeing this sort of enthusiasm and passion-
it absolutely puts me to shame to see how much he’s achieved in such a short space
of time. And it’s doing a disservice to his maps
to call them messy. Because, let’s face it, if you can get away with mess anywhere
then it’ll be with overgrown maps. And given that he’s swapped out virtually EVERY texture
in this map, they come together impressively well. And one by one, I started noticing extra
little details. Stuff that he didn’t HAVE to do, but that makes all the difference to
the map’s feel and quality. These little touches make his maps charming.
And imaginative. And a joy to explore. I love the collapsed bridges on Overpass, and the
train wreck and crashed helicopters. When walking through party I heard a roar, looked
up and saw some lions there! It’s so creative, and resourceful. I recognise the dead cow
from Left 4 Dead, but the lions are probably from somewhere else. I suspect he’s borrowed
from many sources to create these maps. Over on Inferno, and I’ve got to say, it’s
aged a lot in 30 years! The central tower has collapsed into the houses opposite. And
some of these trees appear to have been fed wonder growth.
My one gripe is the fade distance on the props- it’s common for grass to ‘pop’ into
view quite close to the player. But I have a solution: a while ago, it seems like Valve
got fed up of me doing flybys of their maps which showcased pop-in and I got a message
from them featuring a load of console commands which will prevent this from happening. I’ll
put these in the description, too. Just be warned that they will lower your framerate.
And can only be used offline.
This series of maps is an excellent example of how much you can get done if you get on
with it and don’t mind sacrificing that final layer of polish. That large boulder
outside church on Inferno? It’s there to cover up a root from a tree model. It’s
there for a reason. I think this kind of problem solving sums up his approach to these projects
as a whole. He knows what he wants and he isn’t going to waste time searching for
a tidier solution. They’re obviously not geared for competitive
play. There’s tall grass everywhere and something tells me the green scenery will
cause visibility issues. But that isn’t why I like these maps. They remind me of a
more playful time, when people made maps because they wanted to. Bars told me these maps were
easy for him to make- he could envision how he wanted them to be in his head and then
just had to edit the scenery and find the props to support it. The HARD part, he says,
is in striking a balance between beauty and stable FPS!
While he gets a LOT of maps out in a short space of time, he doesn’t forget about them.
They’re still being updated, months later. He doesn’t consider these finished just
yet. But once there are no more error messages and no more serious FPS drops, that’s when
he’ll be happy. I moved on over to Mirage. Virtually everything
has changed, bar those rags in bombsite B- which suit the apocalyptic feel surprisingly
well, I might add. Curiously, the fan in kitchen still works. He’s used Aztec props on the
towers to make them look more aged. I wouldn’t even have thought of doing that! When Valve
posts a new map, with new assets, you imagine they’re to help mappers to make new competitive
maps- but maps such as these also benefit from the larger asset base.
Now onto Office. For this he had to do a bit more work, removing the snow and envisioning
how the place would look after global warming. Again, the map holds a reasonably high standard
throughout and… are those crocodiles in CT spawn?!
Him being Russian, there was a language barrier when we talked to each other. He’s still
studying at the moment, but has a passion for mapping and is dabbling with 3d modelling
as well now, too. He’s working hard on improving his own ability in Blender at the moment,
which should greatly help him with these sorts of creative endeavours!
Of all his maps, he’s especially proud of Karrida, a wingman map that’s completely
his own work… just in case Valve approves it. This is a rather old map of his, having
been made over 2 months ago now! I asked him why he thought all these places
would be abandoned by 2055, and he just replied saying he figured players would finally be
bored of them by then. Quite aptly for this project, he’s looking
to the future and hopes to make Nuke or Vertigo next. But says he still needs practice before
he can make the map of his dreams. I’d say, at his current rate… that’ll be about
3 months! Play on these maps on my servers, links in
the description, along with workshop links for you to download his maps directly.