Escape from Alcatraz

Content - Quake - Quake Levels - Quake Single Player

Author: Tryann | Rating: 7.38 | Download: alcatrazgl.zip

This was Tyrann’s first ever released level. After playing this map, that seems untrue. This map is huge, one of the largest ever made at it’s time, using standard idbase textures. Very impressive because of it’s very large scale, but sometimes repetitive texturing.

Escape from Alcatraz stands up fairly well architecturally. Not anything ground breaking, hallways with nice ceiling detail, such as lights with wiring between them, and nice texturing to make it better looking than the build provides. Most rooms are large, with usually one bit of standout architecture to make it distinctive. Lighting I found to be too dark, which may lend itself to a problem I encountered game play wise.

The layout is good, you have to find two keys to exit the level, but original bits are added here and there to keep things interesting, such as a gold key in plain sight, but out of reach atop a crane. Although you do go back and forth retrieving keys and hitting switches, the layout is fairly linear, so getting lost remains a hard task.

Ah, but to the heart of the matter, game play. This level is a challenge right from the start, with grunts and enforcers attacking from the ground and from high above, which makes for some rough, but fun game play. I usually find the base enemies simple, but this map challenged me immensely, due to their good placement. Health is a little on the light side, so a careful approach is a must. Skill settings are in effect, drastically reducing the enemy count with each. ( I play on hard )

On to the part I did not like. There was a severe lack of ammo. I had to use my axe a couple of times, which sucks, but there were 5 secrets, I found none, maybe ammo dwelled within those. Although there were boxes of nails around, I never found the nailgun, which I think I missed because of the dark lighting.

To put things to rest, a quality map with challenging game play, original bits and best of all, it all takes a while to complete. Don’t deny yourself a good time, download this map.

-Edgecrusher