Underworldfan's Single Player Map Reviews

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## Reviews: 11th May 2008: Review 1 [Reviewed by Tronyn]

SUMMARY
Game: QUAKE
Map - base_debris: Fort Ratsack
by: biff_debris
Download: base_debris.zip

FULL REVIEW:
This is a medium-sized, modified-id Base map. The layout generally consists of squarish rooms connected by corridors, but the architecture is smooth, detailed, and angular, generally masking this fact and making each area look pleasing. Very clean lighting helps. Most of the rooms have two floors, occasionally a perch for monsters, so you never know where enemy fire is going to come from. This, along with the use of Quoth Base monsters, makes the map an enjoyable challenge.
There is plenty of health and ammo, and some large secret areas. Weapons sometimes require slight sidetracking to get. The corridor combat is fun, but don't get ahead of yourself. There isn't much armour, meaning you have to play more cautiously. The rooms with 2 or 3 angles of upgraded enforcers shooting at you, can be difficult. There isn't much cover aside from the occasional crate, and the scale is medium-small, meaning there really isn't anywhere to run either. The enemy grenades and plasma are tough, but it's the shotgun blasts that killed me twice.
The best thing about the visuals, apart from the usual smooth architecture one would expect from this author, is the ceiling detail. It's consistently interesting. The map's use of new, tougher base monsters means you can't just run around blowing away grunts as you could in old base maps. The new, more lethal soldiers make this map a refreshing challenge.

overall score: 16/20

## Reviews: 11th May 2008: Review 2 [Reviewed by Tronyn]

SUMMARY
Game - QUAKE
Map - Slave: Slave To A Machine
by - RickyT23
Downloads - slave.zip

FULL REVIEW
Here we have a very Doom3 style map, with dark indoor areas and small, red rock canyon areas. However, unlike Doom3, this map is built around a central layout, involving a main area and several side areas (Doom3 maps were painfully linear). It also has multiple floors, something that they never seemed to figure out for Doom3. Essentially, it has a visual style similar to Doom3, but is set up like a Quake map. This is very good.
Lots of converted textures and subtle coloured lighting make the map look very unique and interesting. Quoth2 features are used throughout, with breakable crates (break too many and you might get packet overflow though), animated machinery, and of course, tons of new monsters. In addition to the new mechanical Ogre and the upgraded enforcer, Hipnotic's Centroids make an appearance, which is cool. I've always liked them as a monster. Throw in usage of many of Quake's original demonic monsters in addition to the usual base enemies, and this map has great varieties in enemies and combat. There are some tense moments with fiends in dark areas.

The map has only two drawbacks. First, it is (or appeared on my system to be) extraordinarily dark. While this is fine in places - it's cool walking down a pitch black tunnel and seeing only the light at the end - it can make navigation difficult. The other thing I found, is that even though the areas are labeled, the dark, twisting layout can be problematic. The messages aren't very specific, and sometimes it's not easy to find where you're supposed to go next.
I think the player's enjoyment of this map is totally related to whether they find the progression intuitively. For some players, the experience might prove frustrating. The map is very well-constructed, with great lighting, texturing, and detail. The combat I consider quite hard throughout, and so basically this is a very good map.
Underworldfan's notes: Finally got around to playing this, turns out to be another excellent map from the author with great looking architecture and layout complemented by fast moving and intense gameplay. Placed in Hall of Fame 2.

Overall Score: 17.5/20
This map enters the Q1SP Hall of Fame 2 at position 14 in Q1SP single Maps.