Kinetic Games has worked hard to improve the ambiance in their recent updates, including turning the Grafton Farmhouse into an absolute terror fest. They’ve expanded, hiring QAs and artists. The newer models are less blocky, moving more smoothly than before with extra spice given to their horrifying anatomy, and though it’s early days, it’s safe to say that Nell’s Diner is the best map.

It’s a smaller map with 13 rooms. Half the space is the diner itself, split between two areas (counter and dining area) which is mostly open despite the decorations on the walls; however, the few support structures up in the area are strategically placed to minimize how useful the lights are even when fully on. Stalls, cleaning equipment, and placement make the lights in the public bathrooms limited. The halls curve, making for fantastic dark nooks and crannies which help to build the unease.

Commercial kitchens are wonderlands for dread. Boiling oil, knives and clutter are everywhere. The storage and cooler are narrow with packed shelves, making it easy to miss bones. Any ghost tearing through either the storage / cooler area of the kitchen during a hunt has plenty to work with, and the layout narrows the workable space for equipment without making a full set-up impossible in any room. Just like with the main diner area, limited lighting and strategic placement of appliances complicates how light falls, leaving plenty of dark locations where ghosts could pop up when least expected.

Lighting alone doesn’t make Nell’s Diner the best map. The layout leads to pretty entertaining acoustics for in-game proximity chat and any singing haunting events. There’s also a number of fun things to play with which might just come back to haunt you, including a fire alarm that does not stop once pulled, two arcade games that you can’t actually play (despite a fun surprise awaiting in one), and soda machine offering background noise that can sound off when you least expect it. If you’re playing in a group, it’s a great way to troll your friends.

However, with the right code, you can actually trigger a fun bonus event and earn a few secrets by unlocking the safe in the manager’s office, bringing the card inside to the ATM to get money for the soda machine in order to get a coin for the game above. If you insert a coin, a green ghostly skull will pop out, and the big noisy giant below will haunt the rest of the investigation.

While their early maps have all been good, hitting the breadth of haunting cliches from family homes and campgrounds to prisons and abandoned buildings, Nell’s Diner shows a mastery of lighting and sound design that adds a layer of dimension missing even from the updated Grafton Farmhouse where they hit the disaster horror side but leaned too far into the lack of light to a mastery of anything.

The police car, which has the sirens still on in the parking lot, also raises the feelings of immediacy, matching the food left out and available in the diner in a much less staged manner than other maps. With the desert scene outside, it has all the markers of a mass abduction and more mystery than all of the rest of the map put together, telling an altogether creepier story.

Have you played Nell’s Diner? How do you think it compares to the rest of the maps? Share your thoughts and join the conversation on Boss Rush Network’s Discord and Facebook.

Featured Image: Kinetic Games

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