Bastion of the Underworld

Author: Ben “Kinn” Wooding | Rating: 9.00 | Download: kinn_bastion.zip

As far as I know, this is Kinn’s first Quake 1 map offering, but he is certainly no amateur. “Bastion of the Underworld” is one of the best Quake maps I have ever played. Large, Immersive, detailed and challenging, this is another singleplayer quake map you absolutely have to play.

Bastion’s action takes place within the confines of a mighty stone citadel. The textures used consist mainly of modified ones from Quake 3. The same stone texture used extensively in Kona’s Ultramarine predominates here, but is a salmon pink instead of blue. These textures are complemented by the use of sedate browns, mottled greens and purple textures as well. This color scheme might sound a bit garish, but it works really well and creates a much more upbeat tone than is found in your standard quake 1 citadel/castle map. The strongpoint of the map is its epic architecture. The bastion is quite large, but not sprawling. Like a real citadel would be, floors are stacked on top of each other, connected by spiraling staircases, with an lava filled, mossy catacombs on the lowest floor to massive open air courtyards on the highest floors which would make good deathmatch levels in their own right and serve as the locations of massive battles. As the map progresses you work your way higher and deeper into the Bastion. Your progression will be thwarted by locked doors and grating which require you to find keys or hit switches and then backtrack. This creates a nonlinear flow to the map that complements its complex layout. While this backtracking could become a bit annoying, if you remember where the locked doors and gratings are when you first pass them then you shouldn’t get lost.

This level will likely take a good amount of time to beat. “Bastion of the Underworld” is simply big to begin with, but then there are also the 300 enemies to contend with on normal. Yes, I said 300. Enemy selection consists mostly of fiends, shrapnel ogres, knights, death knights, and a fair number of shamblers. Flying gargoyle enemies also appear to lob fireballs at you. The most fearsome new enemies are several varieties of minotaur creatures that charge you at high speed (much faster than you can run away) and can shoot flaming projectiles at you from a distance. Also making an odd guest appearance are chaingun Strogg from Quake 2, whose obscenely powerful chaingun fireball attack make them a real blast to fight. While there is a constant strong level of challenge, there are several especially tough fights, including a huge one in which you face multiple shamblers, death knights, and fiends followed by a wave of several minotaurs. I died a lot on this fight and had to save mid battle several times to make progress. The difficulty of this fight is indicative of the map as a whole. It’s tough on normal difficulty and can be quite a pain to beat.

Ammo and health supplied are sufficient, you will need to utilize all of your weapons to win, which adds variety to the combat. I’ve never had to use the lightning gun so much as in this map. On the negative side, you’ll likely find yourself having to backtrack through the massive level to scrounge for ammo that you didn’t need when you first passed it. There are several secrets in the map including an important hidden quad damage near the end that you will definitely want to find.

“Bastion of The Underworld” is a great map and an amazing first release. It has that rare epic quality that makes it feel like an episode all by itself. Get it, you won’t regret it.

- Marius