28efa4c614cce3a4a470433b56cb3f3972474caa26b2cf12e82dcc9c698416fe
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.quaddicted.com/db/canonical/28efa4c614cce3a4a470433b56cb3f3972474caa26b2cf12e82dcc9c698416fe
28efa4c614cce3a4a470433b56cb3f3972474caa26b2cf12e82dcc9c698416fe
overall_rating
4.0
1
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.quaddicted.com/db/canonical/28efa4c614cce3a4a470433b56cb3f3972474caa26b2cf12e82dcc9c698416fe
The Quarter of Forbidden Prayers (mc_rj3_alexunder) is an excellent start: a medium-sized castle with real old-school vibes, which feels bigger than it is due to the interconnectedness. Lots of fun tactical combat, and just the right amount of getting lost to be fun without becoming bewildering. Also, rarely for me, I finished with all kills and all three secrets (despite not having figured out how the get the rocket launcher from the pedestal in the shambler pit).
The Stygian Aquifer (mc_rj3_caffeinefreak) follows the theme beautifully, sharing the same solid build quality and just-ambiguous-enough progression choices of Forbidden Prayers but in a very different setting, in which outdoor and castle areas are linked by (thankfully short) underwater traverses. The moment when you finally get the grenade launcher is very satisfying.
Questionable Wizardry (mc_rj3_detrohogga) continues in a similar vein, and is also enjoyable; but it has rather less sense of place than the first two maps, and the layout feels a bit too unrealistic for my taste.
Bricked Up (mc_rj3_doritos420) is another old-school hit, very much continuing the theme of Like ID Did It But Better. Nice progression, clever use of multiple silver keys, well-judged surprises: all very enjoyable.
I’m a bit torn over The City Of Bleak (mc_rj3_grue). It’s a lovely bit of building, with lots of outdoor village areas over slime pits, but it doesn’t feel to me like it gets much gameplay out of this setting. I’d guess it’s about the same size overall as Foggy Bogbottom, but contains maybe a quarter or a fifth as much gameplay. Now I know it’s not really fair to compare with Foggy Bogbottom, which is one of the all-time great Quake maps, but the thing is that the actual building here feels like it has the potential to approach that level. So if I seem to be judging harshly, it’s because I’m judging by the standard that this map aspires to.
As far as gameplay goes, I ended with only 89 of 104 kills, which is probably accounted for by 14 monsters hiding in the secrets that I missed (I only got 1 of 6) — plus a fiend who fell into the opaque slime and who I couldn’t track down.
The City Of Bleak was fun, in fact better than just fun; but I couldn’t help longing for the map that it could have been.
Pre-Paid Mobile Plan (mc_rj3_hole) is the first slight disappointment in what’s shaping up to be an excellent pack. There’s nothing wrong with it, it just a bit blocky and rather short. It would fit just fine in among the original Quake levels; but things have moved on, and that’s not been the standard new maps aim at for a long time. Anyway. It’s fine.
The Count’s Folly (mc_rj3_icoshee) is another success, again feeling very like ID but with a wider range of areas and environments than one would usually find in any ID level. It’s satisfying to progress from the village, via the indoor areas, to the castle forecourt and finally the mine.
(By the way, the doc file for this says “Enter a decrepit village and find our what sealed their fate”. I never did feel I understood what sealed their fate.)
I am running out of ways to say the same things about this remarkably consistent set of maps, but Castle of Nightmares (mc_rj3_ilike80srock) is another, if I can say it like this, unremarkable winner. Once more I enjoyed playing through, and found there was adequate combat and adequate exploration. But once more, this felt like only a slighty-better ID map. I’m about ready for something more ambitious.
Kopper Keep by Kaz115 (mc_rj3_kaz) is a nice riff on the old idea of opening successive bridges to a central island in a water area. It’s fun to play through, but not as immersive as it could be, and quite badly underpopulated. The map could easily accommodate many more monsters, maybe twice as many — and the Big Moments, such as taking the gold key, tend to be anticlimactic due to weak hordes that spawn in. Still fun though. Despite finding two or the three secrets, I ended up with only 67 kills from a total of 81, so I guess the missing secret was a big one!
I feel bad for Rite of Passage (mc_rj3_null) that I don’t have more to say about it than, once more, this is a pleasantly uncomplicated old-school blast which in places feels a bit underpopulated. Sorry, Null!
(I finished with 67/72 kills and 4/5 secrets. Maybe something game-changing was hiding in that last secret along with the last five monsters.)
UPDATE, the next day
I didn’t do this justice. The area near the start, with the buildings surrounding the big lake, is very nice, and some of the ways you come back to this area are satisfying.
Blueberry Fortress (mc_rj3_pulsar) is one of the more memorable maps in this pack, very much a tribute to The Ebon Fortress (e2m4) but better in every respect. I finished with all 114/114 kills, which is always satisfying, but only five of the generous ten secrets.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Scourge Bastion (mc_rj3_sndein) is an enjoyably retro map that feels like original ID but is somewhat better than its sources. This time you make your way around a castle moat before finding your way in and blasting your way up to the top. Good.
The Sluice Gate Complex (mc_rj3_textfish) is perhaps the most ambitious of the maps in this pack so far, with the possible exception of The City Of Bleak. It uses its space well, this passages and gangways that twist and turn through each other, and offers some nonlinearity while still always making it clear what you need to do next.
It has an odd mechanic that I’ve not seen before: taking the gold and silver keys activates the gold and silver floating platforms. I’m not sure that makes a ton of sense: it might have been better to have those keys unlock buttons that activate the platforms. Anyway, it doesn’t really have any effect on the gameplay, which is lots of fun.
I finished with 103 of the 108 kills, presumably missing the last five in the two secrets that I didn’t find (I got three of five).
As we approach the end of this pack, Down Deep (mc_rj3_warrenm) is among my favourites. Although it’s fairly small by modern standards, it packs of lot of different terrain into its area, every kind of monster (I think), and — cruicially — a wide variety of combats. One of my favourites from this pack, and one of the ones that does the best job of retaining that Retro feel while still playing in a more contemporary way.
Unusually, I found all fix secrets – yet still, somehow, missed five of the 70 kills. Rats.
Nebo’s Fortress (mc_rj3_zetabyt) brings the back to an excellent close, being one of the best maps in what’s a very consistent pack. This scores highly by having a bit more atmosphere than most of its peers, by offering a broad range of very different combats, and by putting the player through two brutal horde scenes at the end — which at first I thought were unfair, but then felt very satisfied when I found better ways to fight them.
I was pleased to finish with all 132 kills, but missed one of the five secrets.
Putting it all together, this one of the most consistent packs I’ve ever played. There is not a single bad map in it, and I was never not having fun. The less positive corollary to that is that no map was outstanding — perhaps something that was inevitable given the constraints of the jam. But the five that stood out for me were:
- The City Of Bleak for its visuals.
- Blueberry Fortress for its being so clearly a riff on a specific ID map and so clearly better in every respect.
- The Sluice Gate Complex for its complex progression.
- Down Deep for its variety of combats.
- Nebo’s Fortress for its brutal ending.
As a whole pack, this is very good, but not quite great, so I’m awarding four of the five available stars.
This is the Map-Center Retrojam I liked the most, most of the maps - if not all - were extremely enjoyable. Loved the theme too, I think it helped to create an amazing immersion. Five stars!
I just played PuLSaR’s map and what a beauty that was, so stylish and with super fun gameplay.