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63b889e609f2ed6b8e2eeb58459aea078b61d0b56d66c4f66e117b243506b44c
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4.153846153846154
26
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Another awesome community pack! I thoroughly enjoyed every map as usual.
Thanks for sharing with us.
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Off to a good start with the enigmatically named Iitu Emzyks (sm221_alekswithak). This recalls The Dismal Oubliette (e2m6 from the original Quake) in its central area of raising and lowering bridges radiating from a central island, and offers satisfying combats in a properly gloomy dungeon.
Grand Bridge of the Abyss (sm221_chrisholden) is utterly beautiful to look at and to inhabit, a gigantic multi-span bridge across a wide chasm, connecting two castles. The only thing that could make it look better would be if the supporting columns disappeared down into mist rather than just stopping.
Unfortunately, the gameplay doesn’t come close to matching the lovely setting, with a sequence of relatively mundane combats on the successive spans of the bridge, and virtually nothing at the far end. Also, we see so much architecture (in the castles at the start and end) that we never get to visit, and that’s always frustrating.
I’d love to see this reworked, with more gameplay in the existing areas and something added at each end. For example, there might be an exit door right at the start, but to open it you need to cross the bridge, find a key in the distant castle, then return across the (repopulated) bridge.
This is on the way to greatness, but not there.
The Radiation Complex (sm221_colossus) is fun, because it’s always nice to experience a reworking of our old friend E1M1, but it doesn’t really do anything especially exciting or innovative with the format. The most interesting challenges came near the beginning, when tactics were needed to beat a couple of turret-like enforcers shooting down a long, straight corridor-bridge.
Tree Village (sm221_gnemeth) is an enjoyable climb up and around a group of tall trees — a setting that I had never seen before in Quake until just a couple of weeks ago when I played Breakfast Under The Balloons by radiatoryang (ctsj2_radiatoryang) in Coppertone Summer Jam 2 v1.2. The present map inevitably suffers in comparison with that one, which is a really lovely piece of work, but it’s not really fair to condemn Tree Village for that reason. It does fall down on its own account in several ways — not least the blockiness of the design and the over-reliance on teleporters. But it’s redeemed by a fun ending, and really the whole thing is a pleasant play.
Volcanic Panic (sm221_greenwood) is small, but essentially perfect. It’s in effect a coagula map, except that it takes place over a lava lake rather than an infinite void, and its sequence of spawned-in monsters is nicely judged to provide a challenge at every stage but never one that feels unfair. There is plenty of scope to use the various platforms as cover to fight tactically. It also features the most narratively inevitable shamber imaginable 
A lovely piece of work, all in all.
Half way through Ranger on the Big Bridge (sm221_hcm), and I can’t figure out a decent tactic to kill the annoying bouncing shambler while all the knights swarm around me. Is there a trick to this, or do I just need to move to a computer with a mouse and do a lot of good aiming?
I got bored and god-moded my way through that bit of the map. On to more enjoyable areas!
Well, I finished Ranger on the Big Bridge (sm221_hcm) with eight of ten secrets and — infuriatingly — 649 of 650 kills. And apart from that bouncing shambler in the middle, I loved it from start to finish: proper Doom-style horde combat, but with lots of opportunities for clever tacts, and especially for creative running away. Deeply, deeply satisfying. If it were not for the silly mid-level boss, it would be among my very favourite maps. Highly recommended.
Run Rabbit Run (sm221_lzj124) is a little anticlimactic after the epic scope and frantic combats of HCM’s map: leaping around rooftops and shotgunning grunts and the occasional knight. I feel like the is a better map waiting to be built on this foundation, with alternative weapons turning up along the way, escalating monster difficulty, and some combat set pieces. Nice start, though.