Dead Memories by Scampie

It's kind of crazy that after all these years, this is actually Scampsp1. Perhaps the title is appropriate. Anyway, this is a fun little idbase map, with impeccable design. As you'd expect the texturing and lighting are all perfect, the design is great, with an enhanced-id-base or slightly hipnotic feel. The scale is fairly small, but there's always a couple vertical levels; in some ways the map is almost Doom-like (though I was most of all reminded of idbase maps by Willem or Biff Debris). All the usual elements are present: crates, floodgates, walkways, machinery, etc. The finale section leads to more of an ancient setting, again like Willem's base map. Nothing to fault in terms of design or looks, it's all great stuff, perhaps the best part was the flow of the map: everything is very well clipped and the layout progression is obvious and very fast. You can really blast through this map.

That said you might want to go too fast. Plenty of base maps feature a "slipgate section," where the monsters from Quake's domain spill into the human base. Often, that section is used for a climactic ending scenario: here, it appears right away - so just as you are getting used to mowing down grunts and rottweilers, a bunch of both types of knights, ogres, fiends etc all pours in. Later on the map stays challenging by featuring enforcers more heavily, and teleporting monsters in in its relatively enclosed areas. The base climax is a room full of curving pipes, where you get the rocket launcher (though wisely, not too many rockets). The very end of the map is a battle in an end.bsp -style cave, and when you win it a runic-styled hallway to the exit is revealed. Awesomely, after all the demonic monsters, including obviously Shamblers and Vores, this last hallway includes a rottweiler, which actually killed me on my first play through (I was down to 5 health). Overall this is small, quick map, but very well designed and lots of fun.

Score: 16.5/20