Very unique and atmospheric. The two grunts near the start were out of place and the ending was a little anticlimactic, but other than that, you can't really fault this map.

Gameplay is a little simplistic, but I think it goes hand in hand with the theme and the great atmosphere.

Competent but tedious. All the schlepping back and forth after the gold and silver keys was particularly ho-hum. Apart from the novelty of the setting itself, no surprises at all. Sorry.

love the idea, but: i had to stay on the path for the map to function correctly. the fiends were stuck in the ceiling. i use the reQuiem engine these days. haven't tried any others. the key searching was a little tedious. but i guess that's what happens when lost in the woods.

i loved the atmosphere. if it were built a bit more like the forest map from 'the demon king' (https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/tdk11.html) it'd be much more enjoyable for me. 3 plus.

I thought this map did a lot of cool things for a custom map back in 1997. Watch me play it here: Dark Forest on The Quake Grave

Thank you, dBAudio, your comment really helped me (the fiends were stuck for me too, in regular winquake).

The map is pretty original and unusual, but this mistake with fiends, and a bit rough design and gameplay won't let me to give more than 3/5. It just could be done better.
And why water in the swamp does hurt the player? This is illogical.

A short map with great ideas (traps, forest setting) and atmosphere, and with a simplicistic design

Tip: Shoot the two floating Fiends above the area where supposed to be a key (at least they float in my QuakeSpasm)

VEEERY NICE !

This is the style of mapping I like: wide, open spaced, imaginative theme !

Is the author Tobias Reichert or another Reichert ?

Visually, this map ranges from passable to creative. It's a pretty good attempt at a "forest" environment that works within the limitations of the engine, and small highlights of detail almost make it feel like a more modern creation. Sadly, for as good as this map looks for its time, it really doesn't play well. Glitches aside, the layout of the level lends itself to boring, repetitive play and long stretches spent walking from essentially one end of the map to the other in search of keys or trying to connect said keys to a door.

Attempts to repopulate the map are few and far between, with the most interesting being the addition of some zombies towards the end of the map. In other cases, it seems content to simply reintroduce the same enemies as before, which is rather disappointing.

Oh man, first time I saw the zip title my brain read "darkfist"... xD I might play this at some point but judging by the comms, I'm in no rush.

The concept is really cool, but the gameplay is so-so. There are a few insta-death traps that are really irritating and collectively killed my enjoyment of this map. In particular, there's one trap in which an invisible force pushes the player toward a guillotine. There's no warning this will happen and no way to avoid being decapitated except luck.

There's also only one secret, which occurs early in the map and is relatively easy to discover. Given the surreal setting, the lack of secrets is a missed opportunity.

There are two points at which fiends leap out of the shadows and attack the player; these IMO are the only legitimately thrilling moments in the map.

FWIW I played this in Winquake and had no problem with the fiends being stuck in place.

Boring gameplay, extensive backtracking, unmarked key doors, illusionary instant death traps, enemies stuck in the ceiling... Pretty much everything that could be done wrong was done wrong. The bridge / boat section was a little impressive though.

interesting concept for a quake map that has a unique forest setting with interesting traps that has not been seen in other quake maps such as the gullentine and rising spike trap. However there are also certain things which were not well implemented such as the fiend ambush before grabbing the gold key as the enemies seem to float in the air. I also found much of the backtracking within the map to be tedious as well and the architecture of the woods to be too simply built. I would give this quake map a three out of rating and would rate this map as being average as well.

Just replayed this. Didn't remember it at all, but I enjoyed it. Considering the limitations of the hardware and editors in 1996/97, the design is a real accomplishment. I agree with "Icantthink" that the map's main section is quite atmospheric while the beginning and end are somewhat weaker.

Contra my previous comment, it's possible to avoid the guillotine. By holding the back-arrow key, the player can resist being pushed toward it and thereby wait for the right moment to run through.

Engine: QuakeSpasm Mod: Copper Difficulty: Nightmare

The Pros: - true retro (1997) - thriller - exploration

The Cons: - 1 spawn bug - encounters difficulty is hit-or-miss - traps insta-kill

@TheSolipsist playing custom maps with a mod they weren't intended for leads to a playthrough which will be bugged or changed, where some of those cases will not be evident.