Finally played Tronyn’s map. The last one alphabetically, and very much the pick of the bunch – a beautiful, vertiginous climb with perfectly balanced gameplay nd nicely judged weapons. Truly lovely to look at, truly brutal to play.
I finished with 196/197 kills (on hard) – I wonder where the escaped monster was? Also, 7/9 secrets, most them quite satisfying.
Anyway, despite some disappointing levels it would be churlish in the extreme to give this pack less than the full five stars, so I will. But for my money, jam1 was more consistent.
I’d dlike to play all these recent mappacks on my beloved P2 400 (yes it’s old I know but served me honestly for many years)… do ya think it’s enough ?!?
Surprised only one other person mentioned skacky’s map, which is my favorite of the four I’ve played so far. mfx’s and Tronyn’s maps are very good, though Tronyn’s feels a bit easier than normal for him—I got through it without much trouble on hard, and I normally have trouble with Tronyn on easy! Both of them are very pretty and fun, if unpolished seeming. I played the reworked version of sock’s map, which is great of course.
Based on just those four maps I’ve giving this a 5, but I plan to play them all once I give some other mapjams a try.
Scampie’s map is awesome fun on skill 2. Most fights come in waves and they start out kind of slow, and by the big arena where you get the silver key they’re coming at you really fast! Then a great change of pace as it starts to rely more on bigger monsters rather than hordes of smaller ones. All of these jam maps I’ve so far have been visually stunning but Scampie’s seems to be particularly good from a gameplay standpoint. (I’ve been playing them all on skill 2 btw.)
Just to say I replayed MFX’s map, and finally found the legitimate (non-rocket-jump) route to the super nailgun. Hurrah! (Still only on 8/10 secrets, though, and I have no idea where the last two might be.)
Packs like these are the reason why I always keep a copy of Quake installed and ready to use on my hard drive. You never know when gems like these see the light of day.
The oriental touch in these maps are a welcome change compared to the usual cave/dungeon/techbase settings. It’s hard to pick a favorite here, simply impressive architecture - even in the maps that only take a few minutes to complete. Wished there was a coherent episode with levels showcasing the ikwhite theme. This is the modern face of Quake!
Not one FPS in the last 10 years had as beautiful and inspiring levels as this mappack. Overall quality is unbelievable, from socks rather small map to scampis hell of teleporting in monsters.
Well done!