Neh1m1: "Forge City1 - Slipgates" is mostly to set the scene for Forge City and tie with the starting cutscenes - indeed all three FC maps have recognisable areas from the cutscene, which is a great touch. It's a semi-realistic base with sleeping quarters, a destroyed corridor, guard stations, control rooms, and a cargo section for transferring crates. It's textured with a mixture of Id base textures and stylish metallic "Stecki" textures, the texturing can be scrappy as these two themes don't fit well together. Architecture is low-key and unexciting, though there are some good arches and hi-tech details. Progression through the map feels Half-Life-ish, with tasks to complete using crates and machinery, while gameplay is a harsh introduction to the new AI. Facing Grunts and Enforcers, it's most common to find them lurking in dark alcoves and shooting you before you have any time to react.

Neh1m2: "Forge City2 - Boiler", while retaining the semi-realism and mission-based gameplay, is a vast improvement in map design and architecture, though also a large leap in difficulty. Deeper in the bowels of the military complex, you progress from a typical warehouse through an "ambush alley" to a large boiler and two impressive lava / water pumping stations, with good sound effects. Texture is now more focused on the Stecki textures, which provides a more coherent theme, and buttresses, pillars, and large angled designs give consistently good architecture later on. You get also get some immersive features with troops on your own side. Gameplay is just hard, sometimes to the point of frustration. The auto-shotgun Troops are a nasty surprise and hard to deal with at first, while ambushes and multiple snipers show off the AI's reactions and movement all too well.

Neh1m3: "Forge City3 - Escape" leads you into a more "city" style, with outdoor areas and city buildings, and the first sight of the cool skyboxes. Unfortunately, the designs and architecture, though sometimes good, especially in the first outdoor courtyard with it's guard towers, don't live up to the theme nor splendour the city should have. The mixture of brick, Stecki, and other textures, doesn't work well together, and sometimes the texturing is plain too. Architecture is fittingly more "realistic", but the repetitive square rooms inside are too simple. Not bad but this style could be done a lot better. There's great exploration though, with all buildings open to explore at leisure. Gameplay is again very hard, with a particularly hideous section exiting a building into a swarm of Guards in a dark alley. Elsewhere more monsters in the dark cause trouble too.

Neh1m4: "Grind Core" (Speedrun demo in 0:26), is the first map that shows Nehahra's real quality, a huge leap in architecture, theme, and gameplay balance after the previous map. Realism is left behind as it reverts to a more traditionally arbitrary Ikbase theme, and replaced with consistently refined texturing and excellent architecture. Angles, pillars and heavy buttresses are used everywhere, and there are some splendid towers - cavern and outdoor scenes are done very well. Gameplay is also much better, despite lots of enemy, they are used in sparser groups - with better weapons, this makes a much more balanced experience. There's plenty of surprises, and the challenge is good, but fair. There's also some good secrets to find.

Neh1m5: "Industrial Silence" is another atmospheric and excellent map, which fades Ikbase style into a heavy waste style using the Rubicon (reviewed) textures. Architecture is more diverse in this map, with cool, original designs and a strong, though sporadic, use of curves that is most impressive. Particularly highlights include curving staircases beneath a large cylindrical window near the start, and a waste pipe that leads to large outdoor section with a great wrecked bridge beneath a spotlight tower. All very atmospheric stuff beneath a bleak grey sky. Architecture elsewhere is good too. Gameplay is fair overall, and the rocket launcher is a welcome relief, but the introduction of the lethal insect/human enemy, in an area where you go a *very* long way without any health is frustrating and badly unbalanced. Aside from that problem, it's good, but challenging.

Neh1m6: "Locked-Up Anger" is again diverse, atmospheric, and innovative in style. You travel from a good Ikbase section out into a bleak, spooky river, then down into flooded brick buildings, finally popping out into another well designed Ikbase section with some good underwater scenery. The map gives a strong feel of being on some deserted peninsula... Architecture is good, the Ikbase sections having the cooler designs, while the flooded sections are a novel touch with a good grimy urban feel. Gameplay is good and rather interesting: The start is a hugely entertaining scene, then exploration and sparser enemy allows the atmosphere of the map to shine, with the new amphibian monsters providing interest, and a good final combat too. It's quite fair and not too challenging.

Neh1m7: "Wanderer of the Wastes" is done in a pure Rubicon style, and though technically solid, is a weaker map. Rooms are often simple and textures often repetitive in them, though angles and details are sometimes well used, and sealed off / broken sections are good. The best architecture lurks above the player in tunnels and corridors, and requiring a careful eye to spot. Lighting is a problem, being very bright and flat, and very out of place with the darker sky. A well built map but it needed much better lighting and better use of the good structures. Gameplay is sometimes tricky, but fair, the open sections are make it easy for both the player and - with the new AI - enemy to move around in, and the rocket launcher proves the weapon of choice against base enemy (!). Quite fun, but some sections could have had better fighting in, and the true exit is could be too hard to spot.

Neh1m8: "Artemis System Net" sees the dramatic first introduction of fog, and is a much more interesting map due to it, better lighting, and more variety in designs. It's Rubicon themed rooms set in caverns, with some good designs and decent rock sections. A wrecked tunnel leading off into a room/cavern with a cool tower is probably the best architecture, designs elsewhere are good though not spectacular. Later, the map leads down into a mine section, with rock walls you blow, and a nice, covert mausoleum that leads onto the next map. The very last section, like the previous map, is badly lit and far too bright. A small map, but there's a couple of offshoot areas to explore. Gameplay can be quite tricky against the base enemy, a patient approach is useful. You also meet the mages, who use a variety of spells with cool effects, making them interesting and fun to fight.

Neh1m9: "To the Death" is the final hi-tech map and is a strongly themed and atmospheric map, though with mostly simple architecture. Dressed in grimy brick textures, with lava, subtle grey fogging, nice lighting, rivetted metal trim and rusty metal pipes, this map has a good sense of place - in some sections very reminiscent of old, industrial architecture. The designs aren't spectacular though, although the map layout is fairly complex, pillars and some subtle angles / curves are the only visual highlights. Gameplay is is good, enemy are used sparsely but the occasional insect/human hybrids are tricky. The corridors are easy to move around and almost all combats are favourable to the player. There's some interesting progression above lava, 5 secrets, of which I only found one, and there's a good side area to explore too.

Neh2m1: "The Gates of Ghoro" is the first medieval map but not representative of the general quality and interest of the medieval maps. It's set in a series of large, quite simple rooms, connected by a few corridors and lifts. A more complex layout would be preferable. These rooms have have nice, stylish, curved pillars and dramatic lighting, but the Id textures throughout look quite inferior to the custom textures elsewhere. The most exciting design, an underwater section like E1M4 done in this curvier style, is hidden away in a secret, a pity as it's large chunk of map. Gameplay is fine, the medieval monsters are much better balanced than base enemy, and ammo is in fine supply. You also have the awesome auto-shotgun by now... There's an exciting boss combat against a fireball spewing Deathknight to finish, who takes some killing to, errr, kill.

Neh2m2: "Sacred Trinity" is a bloody spectacular map, a huge Q3A themed fortress set above pitch black chasms and supported by natural Unreal-textured rocks. When you pop up and see the awesome front of the fortress it's one of the most dramatic scenes in any map, elsewhere the large scale architecture is great, with curved designs, good texturing, gothic details, and an exciting atmosphere from the bottomless voids. Naturally the theme "out-Q3A's" Q3A =). Gameplay is also very good, the larger scale of the map allows for massed combats which are still fair and reasonable, and thus there are plenty of enemy, including some exciting ambushes. Ammo and health are well balanced. Progression around the map is good, exploring lots of areas at different levels, to find the 3 arcane keys needed to exit.

Neh2m3: "Realm of the Ancients" is merely a transition map, yet is one of the highlights of the pack: An eerie, isolated mountain peak, surrounded by grey fog, provides a very atmospheric scene. The peak is well designed to give a natural feel, and texturing is good, though the snow texture is a bit crude. There's only a few enemy to face, though seeing the wraiths for the first time enhances the spookiness, and the path up the mountain is atmospheric. There's an exit to a secret level, which I didn't find - in fact it seems specifically designed so that players won't find it. (Speedrun demo of the secret level: Nehsec in 0:17).

Neh2m4: "Temple of the Ancients" also provides a good contender for the most dramatic introduction to a map, exiting a canyon to see a splendid temple facing an inspiring sundrenched mountain vista on the skybox. With wraiths floating across the scene and exotic sound effects, it's quite magical. Inside the designs aren't as exciting, though still stylish and strongly themed, with good, subtly coloured temple textures, and a solid use of curves and great arches. Gameplay is somewhat focused on trickery and traps, and a puzzle early on took me a *very* long time to solve (with map quality these days, strong sourced lighting is taken for granted!!). The traps add nothing to the map, but the combats are good and well balanced, with a good, sustained ending - and a bit of nice exploration into a bell tower. The final exit is fittingly atmospheric.

Neh2m5: "Dreams Made Flesh" (Speedrun demo in 1:14) is an exceptionally well made and themed map, with very good fog. Starting in a cavern, you enter a large hall, then descend to explore arcane sewers. The texturing is excellent, so crisp you could reach out and scrape your knuckles on the walls, which are slightly coloured bricks held together by ribbed metal supports, with glowing yellow runes. Only the water is inferior. Architecture is very good, though the sewers are slightly repetitive, the great curvey, arched style is impressive throughout the map. The fog and good lighting give a strong "sewery" vibe. Gameplay is very fine, and starts to feel more Quakey with lots of monsters and lots of supplies: big, butch, ambushes and gang attacks, but all well balanced with good health and ammo, and no awkward combats.

Neh2m6: "Your Last Cup of Sorrow" takes the same strong style, excellent textures, and professional quality of the previous map, and spreads it over more diverse and exciting architecture (though the transition to no fog is too abrupt). Set at night, it's a huge, sprawling, arcane complex, that includes a variety of great designs: multi-level arenas, stylish passages, cathedral-esque buttresses, pillared rooms, courtyards, even a library and a small maze. Angles, curves, and good lighting enhance the architecture, and the final arena is most impressive. Gameplay is equally impressive, and includes both hardcore combat and some nice progression via breaking walls. Lots of medieval monsters, lots of massed ambushes - all areas have combat and all combat is good, and fair thanks to plentiful ammo. The exciting climax has multiple enemy attacking and or/sniping from all directions, balanced by a useful Quad.

Nehahra: "Nehahra's Den" is a boss map and unfortunately it shows, being an entirely arbitrary arena who's sole purpose is to hold a big monster for you to fight. Very cliched. However the map is good before the arena: Firstly great temple-esque islands floating above a volcanic sky box, then a large temple room with obscure machinery, cool stuff. The arena itself has nice pillars, but it's just a simple room, and the walls are ugly. Waiting for the machinery to open the passage to Nehahra takes too long. The gameplay, well it's a boss combat, Nehahra is a huge monster that takes a lot of killing, but does have area damage. His first actions are entertaining, after that it's a very typical matter of circling and dodging until he's dead. A disappointingly normal combat but the death sequence is cool.

Nehend: "Quintessence" is, another boss level, different in style, but again a purposeless deathmatch-ish map which exists only to hold a boss, and thus has little atmosphere nor sense of place, except for the final post-combat area with it's great skybox. The level is quite stylish, with grimy bricks and metal trim, and slit windows are a nice touch, however architecture is pretty simple and square, and though the design is complex, little catches the eye. You fight a smaller, manouverable boss whom you must kill several times. Respawning ammo and power-ups, with (hopefully) health regeneration, help you. It's very like botmatch, hunting the enemy around the level while collecting items, this might interest people who have never played botmatch before, but I found it unexceptional - a more spectacular level would have helped, like the cool gothic mansion shown in the end credits.

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