[ Reviewed by: Calyst ] - [ Date: Tuesday, 2nd October, 2001 ]

 

In a long line of singleplayer Quake I and II releases comes Satyr, Alk14 for Q2. Kona's experience keeps growing and it truly shows here; Satyr packs excellent design and combat in a new map dressed in medieval, stone, and wood overtones, including a bit of IKBASE (likely unknowingly on the author's part), making the overall visual presentation one of the most diverse ever seen in a Q1/Q2 map.

 

The quality of the level design is quite impressive with the aforementioned styles meshed with one another in a theme that may seem trivial at first but truly adding to the effect of the story. While Quake maps don't need a story to thread gameplay, the effort towards explaining the situation is definitely appreciable. As for routing, the layout slowly leads through the vertical component, passing by some impressive architecture and neat designs (although the level of complexity is somewhat mid-range), through a variety of intelligently-placed staircases and ramps, ending in an arena with just enough room to make the final fight challenging but not so much as to make it too easy.

 

Featured here are 197 enemies, but fortunately they're not all immediately spawned; only a fraction of them are, with the majority of them teleporting in. Most of the Q2 enemies make at least one appearance but are sorted out and placed in optimal position so as to evoke plenty of out-of-seat moments, keeping combat fresh and consistent. The intertwined layout lends itself to map-crawling, guaranteeing new suprises in old places, thus rendering consistent pacing. And the pacing is fast and furious, starting heavy and ending even heavier, but still very feasible on Hard.

 

Although the lack of good lighting makes certain fights tricky, Satyr is without a doubt among Kona's best and most polished releases all things considered, and is most definitely recommended.