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06c39be7886934d4d94d517de0a8428525cc0d436a7ec91ba142ece3fdae3cdc
overall_rating
4.379310344827586
29
Some maps in here that I love, some that I don’t get on with at all, some that are nice little debuts.
I’ll just post a few comments about some of my favorites as I go through… this doesn’t imply that I’m necessarily “subtweeting” all the ones I don’t mention as being bad. 
I think DragonForLunch’s map was the first I played. It strongly reminded me how much Alkaline can be used to create a great coherent atmosphere that is a blend of the best bits of Quake and Quake 2. A solid chunky basemap construction with well-considered touches of color.
I loved the progression in this one, the music, the use of NPCs… and DFL shows a good feel for just how to best use the boots for some mild platforming challenges, combat variety, and exploration. It sets a pretty high bar for the rest of the pack!
I got stuck on GW_X9’s map pretty early. A hint from Greenwood got me moving again – it required a “precision” jumpy thing which I would characterize more as a barely-functional janky move… hmmm. Turns out it was not the last instance of progress being blocked like that.
But after finishing the map I’d say it’s fantastic in a lot of ways. I loved the feeling of mastering the place, and there’s good pacing with alternation of exploration and frantic fights. Neat tableaus and setpieces too.
I think it suffers from being a jam map in a few ways:
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Some of the progress-blockers need more polish and playtesting. In some cases even just better lighting would help see what to do. But I think it’s a particular issue when you have to do a kinda janky barely-successful thing to progress: first it can be difficult to tell if that’s actually the intended way, and then if it turns out to work you start thinking that you should try other janky moves in the future – which can cause frustration when 90% of those turn out to be not the thing needed.
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The experience on this map really benefits from a certain patient mindset to poke at and revisit everything. When you’re in the middle of rampaging through a bunch of jam maps it can be hard to “put on the brakes” to do that.
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The last fight on skill 2 was just packed too full of big baddies. The only strategy that presents itself IMO is to cheese it with some hiding/sniping, so I did, but that didn’t feel great for the climax of the map.
But it’s impressive that this map was cranked out so quickly. And is this a debut map too? I’d love to see what GW_X9 could do with a non-jam-map project.
Juzley’s grand collect-a-thon is a trip. Great execution of a scavenger hunt: interesting areas to uncover, good player-leading, just enough backtracking on getting new jump-boot levels. Something like this could easily have been an aimless and frustrating exercise in re-rinsing previously visited areas, but (for me) it wasn’t! It all flowed very nicely.
The pickup messages for the macguffins are some perfect low-key comedy writing too.
I admit I didn’t choose to go look for the last 5 boards I was missing to unlock the last bonus/secret thingy, but that’s fine.
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Great execution of a Giger-esque theme from Omni. Seems like it could be difficult to make a map like this be readable and navigable, but Omni mostly pulls it off. Nice use of escalation in jumpboot levels too.
Paul Lawitzki’s series of jump challenges was a neat thing to have in the pack! I did this on skill 2 BTW although I don’t know if that affected the challenges. Lots of fail-and-instantly-restart-while-gradually-getting-better fun. (The setups and signage reminded me a little of the movement tutorial challenges in Quake Live.)
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Love the alkaline mod, and some super great maps here as well. However since I’m not big on platforming, some of these maps that rely heavily on it like yellow line, the shadow and the flame or ternate sufferance have been quite frustrating. I like to kill monsters, find secrets and get a flow going, but if you like jumping around, this is the pack for you for sure! Favorite by far, early bird, 2nd favorite murder ball. Use more scuba divers guys, they’re fun
Too much platforming and some maps, like Toxic Point, are under balanced when it comes to ammo in hard skill. This makes some of the maps feel not Quake like but more like TombRaider like.
Don’t get me wrong, the deign and architecture of these levels is superb, but like I said, so much platforming and lack of ammo rendered some of these not that fun to play. As a Quake enthusiast that is.
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Is it really possible to make the jump at the beginning of jjj2_plaw with the three jump boots findable until then ? or is it another way ? I can’t make the jump.
Cheers!
ludicrous
Maybe I’ll play jjj2_juzley again this weekend. For me the best of all these maps.
But: was anyone here able to locate Fromitz 50?
Cheers! ludicrous
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ludicrous: yes, I was finally able to do it. Unfortunately it’s hard to explain where to find all the boards. It was a fun surprise, but I wouldn’t recommend spending too much time on it. You are not going to find yourself in some brand new huge area to explore as I had hoped.
Thank You, Gioyo3aa. But: that’s it, with these secrets. The way is the goal 
I played the map again, until I got the double jump boots. But it’s the same as before: I can’t make a rule with these little round floating structures in the outer area. Not possible to get the second pair of jump boots, the one that’s farther away … I think it’s a matter of time I spend.
Cheers! ludicrous
Got it. Fromitz 50. I really can’t find another secret in the fun surprise area, but that’s okay with me.
I’ll give this map a year, maybe, until I play it again. And, perhaps, it will be difficult then to find it again, because I didn’t really understand how I found it now …
secrets 14/20, by the way.
I’m fully satisfied now. Cheers! ludicrous
Here I come again, waaay behind the cutting edge, reviewing a map pack that everyone else has moved on from! We start with Jump-action Shotgun (jjj2_dfl), and what an excellent start it is. Some interesting novel mechanics, some snipey combats and some brutal, and a lovely Portal-ish atmosphere. Great stuff.
The Yellow Trail (jjj2_plaw) is a series of very difficult-to-execute jumping puzzles. It’s very clever and absolutely no fun whatsoever. Long before the end I went into fly mode and found even that insanely difficult. In the end, a combination of fly, god and occasional noclip got me through to the exit. My hat is off to anyone who can complete this level legitimately. I have neither the skills nor the patience to even make a serious attempt – not where there are so many fun maps to play.