Really great and very underrated map pack. All maps are really interesting to play, some better, some worth, but there’s not a single bad map. All interesting in some way. THANKS for creating it to all authors. And recommended to all!!!
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overall_rating
4.347826086956522
23
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I enjoyed 4LT’s untitled map (sm207_4lt), an uncomplicated progression through old-school combats culminating in a replay of Ceremonical Circles’ own climax. If I were to criticise it, I would speak of bland lighting and a sense of underpopulation. Fun, though.
Artistical’s Ruinous Redoubt (sm207_artistical) is slightly better for my money, though less like Circles and also suffering from that feeling of not enough monsters for the large spaces. Nice atmosphere.
I was a little frustrated to finish with only 78/89 kills, despite having found both secrets and killed everything. I thought it might be because, although I’d found the red armour, I’d not picked it up, saving it for later. But when I went back to get it, nothing spawned, so that can’t be it.
Also: there’s an immensely irritating elevator that’s supposed to take you back up from a pool room to the first big hall, but which is you don’t stand on it just right crunches you into the ceiling. And when you do on it just right, a trigger that’s supposed to open a door doesn’t fire and you’re trapped in a tiny space. I had to noclip out.
So I have quibbles, for sure. But all in all: fun.
Dante’s Cinnamon Twist (sm207_dante) sticks closer to the Ceremonial Circles script than either of the earlier maps, and is all the better for its swampy ambience and twisty paths. My only real criticism is that it’s so short: I was just getting into it when it ended. 27/27 kills but only 2/5 secrets.
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Ragin’ Rings (sm207_dumptruck) is the largest and most difficult of these maps so far — and, I think, the best. It takes place in a single flooded cavern with lots of towers and walkways above it, which provide varied combat situations and a couple of surprises. Annoyingly, I missed one secret and one kill, but the whole experience was pretty satisfying.
Perilous Pillars (sm207_greenwood) is similar in size and difficulty to Ragin’ Rings, and not too dissimilar in layout (although this time you start at the bottom and work your way up). Most importantly, it’s equally enjoyable. My only real quibble is that I finished on only 95 of 115 kills, and I never like to miss that much gameplay due to overlooking a secret (I found neither of the two). Oh well.
Ritual Rectangles (sm207_h4724) has a neat name, and is a neat level, too. It’s short, but well engineered to yield some difficult combats due to monster placement and lack of cover. Everything looks good, and feels suitably grimy. Tiny but lovely.
Ceremony in all three angles (sm207_hcm) continues the trend of each map being both bigger and better than the last, coming in at 199 kills (on Hard) and 12 secrets. It takes place in a properly grimy and baroque complex with lots of tactical combats and some re-use of earlier areas, with a progression that is not straightforward but is sufficiently well signed. Not long ago this would have been a five-star map all by itself — and not surprisingly, as for me HCM has established himself (herself?) as the most consistently excellent mapper currently active in this scene.
Sadly for me, I got only half of the dozen secrets, and — probably for that reason — missed out on 22 of the kills. Oh well: put it down to replayability.
Really really good stuff.
I don’t get it, how do I keep missing kills? Atavistic Angles (sm207_ionous) is another excellent map which makes the most of its relatively small area by bringing in new waves of enemies as you approach cleared areas from new directions. But at the end of it all, despite finding all four secrets and killing everything that moves, I had only 100 of 108 kills. How frustrating.
By the way, I like how the fourth secret is actually available right from the start if you know to look for it. Getting that secret early on would be a total game-changer, and I might play it that way just to have the alternative experience.
Central Silence (sm207_ish) is brutally difficult, but short enough that the difficulty feels like an interesting challenge rather than a grind. I did make it through will all 23 kills and both secrets, but not without a fair bit of Learning Through Death, especially as regards finding the very few more or less safe places to shelter. All in all, this map is a neat puzzle.
The aptly named Bad ass tribute (sm207_negke) is interestingly different, and is the only Quake level in my experience to prominently feature a gigantic butt. The progression is OK, but the map feels underpopulated to me, and could easily have accommodated twice as many monsters (with additional ammo to take them out with).
The unimaginatively named SM 207 (sm207_nyoei ) is a puzzling experience. Not because it contains puzzles, but because the layout feels so random, and the progression so arbitrary. It’s rarely clear what you need to do. There are some nice elements, but monster placement feels strange and unbalanced, and the whole thing ends up being unsatisfying.
The map-pack proper reaches its end with Cerebellum Circuits (sm207_otp), an atmospheric area where you start out having to fight for survival while stuck in a lake surrounded by monsters. There are some interesting moment after you climb out but that’s definitely the highlight. I finished with 52 of the 62 monsters, the other ten presumably being hidden in the two secrets I missed (I only found one). There’s a Shub at the top of the central tower: it would be nice to think one of he secrets contains a way to destroy her.
Finally, untitled memory story (sm207_quasiotter). As usual, I have no idea what Quasiotter is trying to lead me into. I love interactive fiction — I’ve been writing them since the early 1980s — but this? This I can’t follow. “Seek red”, it told me. So I found red, as was told “Societal hibernation”. Now what? No idea. I came out of the red area, fell off the edge of the world, and crunched into an invisible baseplate far below the play area.
I dunno, man. I am all for experimentation, but throw us a bone?
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So, a dispiriting end to the pack., but there are enough good and excellent maps here to make the whole download a five-star one, with HMC’s Ceremony in all three angles being the highlight for me.