Now thats a really brainblender. Nice details as always, thank you negke.

Beautiful visuals and technically excellent, but the design just didn't gel with me.

Most areas felt very cramped for Quake gameplay and it's very easy to get frustrated due to the cryptic progression.

Beautiful map but it freezes even using DirectQ 1.8.8 (2), any issues?

My bad. It's actually version 1.8.8 patch 1 that works. The issue was introduced in 1.8.8. patch 2.

I have tried different clients and I'm getting these errors.
Error: SV_Error: ED_ParseEdict: parse error
Error: Hunk_Alloc: failed on 700384 bytes

What clients exactly did you try?

QW clients most likely. Those are all incompatible. And the Hunk_alloc error is because the engine's default memory heap is too small. Run with -heapsize 32000 or 64000.

I liked it.

RMQ works, but darkplaces crashes just after the thunder sound when a seal brakes.

oops, Darkplaces works 2012-12-22 version.
Too bad we are not allowed to edit comments.

Can this map be broken by certain tricks? I used grenade jumping and got stuck some time later.

No. Even if you use grenade jumping, you'll still need to find all four runes to open the final seal.

SPOILER: rune locations - http://www.celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=60905&start=23&end=23

Monsters can fall out of the map. It will be more playable with boundary planes around the perimeter.

Really nice map!

Darkplaces does crash if you use an older version...this map forced me to update it.

Wow that was cool! Best quake house ever! Still, I only give it 4/5 because:

Rune hidden on the "upper balcony in a secret stash" was neither on an upper balcony, nor a secret stash...it was in some little closet and was VERY hard to find. I would know, I've found every secret area known to man in every map I've ever played... even the easter eggs (noclip after finding the secrets is always a treat).

The overall style was nice but cramped. The way to get rid of the curtain was confounded by there being not one but two different books which was very confusing. Love all the hacks though.

Oh, and not giving secret credit for two, er, occurrences that should have been secrets...that's the main reason I docked a heart. Where's my tinkly secret sound???

First Quake map I've played in a while and.. ..enjoyed very much ! Negke, this is mapping style I like more: fresh, wide open, eyecandy visuals and aboveall not same ol' quake!

With unofficial glquake 1.13 (the best!) was a treat for my eyes with bumpmapping, shadows, smooth animations and fog :)

Warning: potential (vague) spoilers to follow.

Really enjoyed the cerebral, problem-solving gameplay, fitting for a map based on an Escher print. Visually, it is perfect.

The only problem I have (and the reason I give it a 4) is that the finale switches to a completely different style of gameplay, where suddenly the player is faced with large numbers of very powerful enemies, and the intriguing puzzles are replaced by standard running and gunning -- fine for action-oriented maps, but here it just felt really out of place and broke the flow of an otherwise outstanding map.

Small niggle aside, this is a wonderful map. Highly recommended.

Really nice idea but the execution is a bit flawed in my opinion. Still hard to judge since incorporating heavier puzzle elements in a game like Quake is quite the challenge in itself.

I enjoyed trying to make my way through the house and find the runes, I found thinking outside the box was expected and rewarded well. I didn't care for the Death Knight's idle sound constantly playing the entire time you are trying to solve puzzles. I realize this could be seen as chanting but it still started to grate on the nerves. A bit cramp in places, and the finale evolves into a rather large blast fest which sharply contrasts with the methodical slow pace of exploring the mansion.

Still a nice effort, and always nice to see these type of maps exist!

One of the coolest maps I've played. Very inventive gameplay and great architecture/mods. I've read that Quake was originally intended to be a cross between a FPS and an RPG. This map combines the two perfectly.

I agree with Daz and most other critics. What else to say? Though the exterior of the house is strikingly faithful to Escher's famous drawing (minus the parapet optical illusion, of course) and quite fitting to the Quake style, the interior is another story: it's technically very well done but I've never tasted much this kind of mundane, realistic environments in a game as surreal as Quake and I feel it contradicts Escher's purpose a little too much.

@JMP: RPG?! I don't see much RPG in this map.

bfg666-- Yeah, you're right, it's not very RPG-like. What I should've written is that it has puzzle elements that aren't typical for Quake maps.

Well, I'm not enjoying this nearly as much as all of you. I've opened the first two seals, but apparently I'm too stupid to figure out how to proceed from here... as far as I can tell, I'm supposed to be able to access "the attic" but cannot figure out how. Gah. Normally I love this kind of puzzle...

... okay, never mind. I'm am, in fact, an idiot. Carry on.

cool as hell. a nice change of pace.

Really inventive map. Recommended to mappers to check it out for sure. For players it may be not so fun. Anyway 5 stars