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 (Size: 1.48 meg. Alternative downloads: LS / LS) Speedrun demo: 0:46 
 A very new and very large map, done in a variety of metal and gothic styles, and with a fairly "old skool" feel. The style and theme is both good and not so good - on the good side, there are some cool styles in the map - some standard metal styles, some very detailed metal styles, and some original and impressive arenas. On the downside, there are some other styles that are are rather gaudy styles (the blood soaked walls), but the main issue is that the varied styles don't link well together. They don't look totally out of place, but there are some areas that are quite disparate - more consistent texturing would have been better. The actual architecture doesn't suffer as much as the textures do from this problem, and is generally good, great in a few places and plain in a few places. As said, there are some impressive arenas (the scale of the map is definitely large), and some areas that have plenty of well done metal details. There's a good use of angles and decorative touches too. However, the lighting does let the architecture down a bit - it is realistic, but too contrasty, with fairly bright and pitch black areas, which does tend to spoil the lines of the structures, making them hard to make out. Another lesser flaw is that the details can inhibit movement in a few places - recessing details into floors and walls, and smoothing things off with clip brushes would have improved this. Overall, the architecture is good, with some good designs, but it could have been great with more consistent textures and styles. There is also another issue related to the design - a few designs are *very* reminiscent of other maps: specifically, the start reminds me of Grc4beta, there are pillars identical to those in Sgodrune, and a lava "pseudo-trap" identical to that in Mexx8. Whether this is intentional I don't know, but I don't think it's good to include designs that can be recognised from other maps - it wouldn't take much to restyle them to look original. Being an old skool style map, there is a no exploration, it's just a "kill monsters, move onto next area" type map - well it is Quake after all =). There is certainly a lot of killing to be done, with 125 monsters!! The gameplay style is that you get a few weapons (double shotty and grenade launcher), and wade through a lot of medium monsters (Ogres, Scrags, Fiends, Death Knights). The monsters don't appear in overwhelming numbers, but they do tend to *appear* - i.e., there are LOTS of monster surprises - in fact every main area has at least a few teleporting monsters. And hey, it's cool - some surprised me, most didn't, but it's fun to get your reactions tested (mine usually involve running to safety :P) - though it wasn't as dramatic or scary as Sgodrune. The challenge is quite high overall, not because of any particularly hard combats, but just because you have few weapons, the combats require good reactions and movements, and each one takes it's toll. The final battle is quite fun too - not really harder than anything before, but a nice combat to be sure. There are a few flaws - in a couple of places it's easy to fall in lava without realising, the combat can get repetitive as there is a lot of the same style of combat, and also there is no skill settings meaning players who find it too tough don't have an easier option. Overall, a good challenging map, with some impressive styles, that would have benefitted from a stronger theme. (Did an Easy speedrun in 0:46 with a huge shortcut.) - - - - - -  |
