Mainframe Mayhem by mfx

  • Not available at Quaddicted yet because we are waiting for the bug-fixed release

MFX's latest Q1SP is a large new base map for Quoth. While the ranks of Quoth base maps may be fairly full, there's always room for more, and this is a worthy addition. It combines a modified idbase texture scheme with a gloomy, foggy canyon environment, and does significantly more than most base maps to seem like a functional facility. Some examples of this are the cranes that are used to move crates around, caution tape around broken areas where lava has melted parts of the floor, and my personal favourite detail, small corridors (some possibly air ducts?) that you use to get around the main corridors. The reason I say this, is that going through missing panels into such passages in order to grab keys, it actually feels like you are stealing keycards to gain access to other parts of the base, whereas in most base maps a keycard is just sitting there in the open, albeit surrounded by crates and monsters. So in terms of functional details, and making it seem like the player is breaching security in an actual base, this map sets itself apart in a really cool way.

It's quite a large map, as well, when the whole base and surrounding canyons are taken into account. While there are some fun ambushes, for the most part it's a steady stream of base and Quoth monsters that slowly increases over the course of the map. Near the end you have to face a whole bunch of enhanced enemy soldiers, so I died a few times there (one criticism is that there could have been more armour in the map, or maybe I missed some). There is a good quad run near the end too. I didn't find many secrets but given the attention to detail and all the little corridors that connect the different areas, I probably should have looked more! As you would expect given the designs elsewhere in the map, it ends when you exit through a particularly cool slipgate. Overall, this map does enough that is new to make it distinct from previous base maps, and it's a good solid challenge even if the end might be a bit too difficult.

Score: 18/20