| The two "bonus maps" are remakes of Quake's e1m1: The Slipgate Complex (Sock's version is called Shadow Gate) and e1m2: Castle of the Damned (Sock's version is called Castle of Shadows). While e1m1 is obviously a base map, being remade as a medieval monastery is surprisingly effective here, with all of the map's features converted to make sense in this medieval world. The familiar secrets are all present, though the map's layout has been expanded some to make things more interconnected. The second map presents the idea that evil experiments are being done in this castle, which always seemed right to me when playing e1m2, perhaps because this is the first place in Quake you see the Ogre, who was partly inspired by Frankenstein's monster. So that's an atmospheric touch. Again, the layout and secrets remain the same but there are some expansions, and the architecture and texturing are both excellent and reflect well-considered ideas. My one reservation about these maps is the heavy fog: I feel like in maps on what is now a small scale (that is, id's original scale), heavy fog is unnecessary and it tends to obscure the map designs. I also thought the lighting should be darker, almost like the sort of lighting id used in some of its really dark maps like e1m6, to capture the sense of sneaking around in a spooky world. Overall, though, this is a unique and very well-executed piece of work, which also happens to resemble the first person RPG concept that Romero had for Quake in the first place. | The two "bonus maps" are remakes of Quake's e1m1: The Slipgate Complex (Sock's version is called Shadow Gate) and e1m2: Castle of the Damned (Sock's version is called Castle of Shadows). While e1m1 is obviously a base map, being remade as a medieval monastery is surprisingly effective here, with all of the map's features converted to make sense in this medieval world. The familiar secrets are all present, though the map's layout has been expanded some to make things more interconnected. The second map presents the idea that evil experiments are being done in this castle, which always seemed right to me when playing e1m2, perhaps because this is the first place in Quake you see the Ogre, who was partly inspired by Frankenstein's monster. So that's an atmospheric touch. Again, the layout and secrets remain the same but there are some expansions, and the architecture and texturing are both excellent and reflect well-considered ideas. My one reservation about these maps is the heavy fog: I feel like in maps on what is now a small scale (that is, id's original scale), heavy fog is unnecessary and it tends to obscure the map designs. I also thought the lighting should be darker, almost like the sort of lighting id used in some of its really dark maps like e1m6, to capture the sense of sneaking around in a spooky world. Overall, though, this is a unique and very well-executed piece of work, which also happens to resemble the first person RPG concept that Romero had for Quake in the first place. |
Easily install and launch Quake maps with the cross-platform