A nice, albeit flawed, map.

I liked the puzzles/hidden progression and the compactness of the map, which is a welcome change from the general tendency of recent releases to be epic behemoths with gazillions of monsters. Not that I dislike large and long maps, but sometimes it is nice to play something shorter and more manageable.

The map has its issues, though -- probably mostly as a result of its being a speedy release with no playtesting. What I found most frustrating were jumps that required a lot of precision to execute (although highly skilled players will probably not be bothered by this). It was fun to figure out where I had to go, but actually getting there was often a bit of a pain.

Still, overall I enjoyed it.

metlslime's comment on the Func_msgboard release thread (post # 8) sums it up perfectly, I think.

I think an average rating of 3/5 is probably better than it deserves. :P

Oh come on, its funny somehow. You know what would have made vertical progression more satisfying and rewarding? Those shortcut lifts! Just my 2 cents..

Absolutely loved this.

It isn't a straightforward map so it will have lots of detractors as usual. But if you can bypass prejudices, you get a very good short map.

Balanced in terms of amount of combat, breathers, and jumping. The brushwork is more than decent for a map this small, good lighting, almost perfect placement and choice of monsters, difficulty about ID maps hard level.

But above all i liked the fact how well are done the routes while jumping, not obvious, not hard to guess. Also, there is at most only one jump that needs a minimum of skill, and no trickjumps required, so having to repeat it doesn't get annoying.

As a jumping map it is very easy, and i am a guy that doesn't know a thing about trickjumping. But as a whole is good in terms of difficulty.

Impressive, but not much actual fun. I found one of the jumps just too hard (unlike Cocerello, who is evidently a bit of a wizard), so I found myself cheating. The combats are quite jolly, and some of the puzzle solving is amusing.

Oh, one other thing: I do find it disconcerting to see rooms full of bright red runes, and none of them are (pressable or shootable) buttons. Just feels wrong to me.

I can't climb the ladder...

LanceCharleson, have you run the map in Quoth?

MykeTaylor, as far as i remember all the maps in Quake's episode 3 use those red runes textures as just decoration. Its something common.

It's true that red-rune decorations are not unprecedented. But they're particularly unhelpful in a problem-solving level where finding buttons is potentially a major part of progression.

MikeTaylor, for what it's worth, I had a similar experience with the red runes. I guess it's partly a matter of placement: as I recall, when I played the map I did not assume all of the runes to function as buttons, but the ones that were half-hidden behind crates and such did seem like they should be shootable or pressable.

Cf. metmon1d, which uses the same texture extensively, but where it is obviously decorative (probably because it is repeated in a regular pattern).

In case this sounds too negative, let me restate that I really did like this map despite its shortcomings (even if I am not as big a fan as Cocerello).

A slope jump on a very tiny bump required for normal progression is a no-go for me. It's fine for secrets but not for regular play. Combat is a little unforgiving on skill 2 - harder than id1, contrary to Cocerello's claim. Otherwise, the map itself is decent enough, though a couple secrets would have been nice.

Just average.

2/5 stars.

Just average.

2/5 stars.

Liked the map. The jumps weren't a concern. Maybe the elevators should be like if you stand on it for a period of time, it goes down.

I managed to squeeze by the first set of lasers without finding the button to turn them off. Only when coming back down I realized I missed most of the first floor.