Return to Eclipse

Back before time began, there was Natural Selection. Created by KungFuSquirrel, Eclipse was one of the Halloween 2002 launch maps, and went on to become one of the most popular scenes of battle between Kharaa and Frontiersman.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w306WXduiqk

Earlier this year, a player named Remedy started work on a remake of Eclipse for Natural Selection 2. He used the Refinery art set to create the layout that we all knew and loved.

So impressed was Unknown Worlds with the idea of a return to this iconic facility, that we proceeded to take on the map as an official project.

Enter Jake, Oli, Michael, Marc and Andrew from the UWE mapping team. Over the past few months they have been carefully, lovingly and painstakingly crafting the corridors, rooms, ventilation shafts, hidy-holes and iconic spaces of Eclipse.

Excruciating levels of detail are going into the props, geometry and layout of Eclipse. Cory has penned a unique and striking art style for the map – A yellow and blue-grey palette results in scenes that cannot be mistaken for any other NS2 environment. Landmarks that were only ever alluded to in the original NS map, such as Keyhole’s ambiguous electric blue light-show, have been fleshed out in stunning depth.

The theme of the space has been re imagined, as an Alterra Corporation weapons testing and phase technology research facility.

Running through the corridors and spaces of Eclipse, memories come flooding back. While the map may now be realised with an order of magnitude more detail, the layout and spaces remain the same. The fights for Triad resource node, punctuated by marine rifle fire from the balcony. The furtive, tense moments spent Skulking below Keyhole, as marines attempt to take position to destroy Maintenance. These are the experience that shall return in late 2013. Prepare for battle.

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