Forum thread for shadowgl
a888d9625e2bb5e0a0860c79ccedaf46a4049620f555cba594597c11e5f942bd
overall_rating
4.171428571428572
36
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Good, well balanced map that holds up even today.
I played this recently for Scampie’s “Let’s Play” thread on Func_Msgboard, so this post is mostly an edit-down of my comments from that thread. I know I played this before, but probably back near when it was first released. So it’s been a long time!
Nice layout, just enough nonlinearity for a bit of exploring but never getting lost. I was vaguely expecting a streets-with-freestanding-houses environment (I might have been remembering some other map); it actually turned out to be usually more abstract and/or enclosed, but that’s fine too. Cozy-spooky in a good old-school Quake way.
The selected music track works very well. And a Lovecraftian atmosphere is always good when using the Quake assets; I particularly enjoyed Rescoe’s choice for the setting of the final few areas.
So: it’s a fundamentally good map! I noticed several clever bits in the encounter setups as well as the placing of weapons and powerups. The pacing was right, both the combat rhythm as well as the way that the map draws you through a variety of areas.
Rating a classic map is kind of an iffy task. I’m sure I would have given this “5 hearts” back in the day. Compared to all the Quake maps we’ve seen since then, this one doesn’t have the level of visual detail and polish that the best maps do. But on the other hand that helps give it a nostalgia boost, if you’re an old fogey like me.
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I enjoyed this, there is a real episode 4 vibe with this map that is missing from a lot of maps.
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That pyramid slipgating to the underground level is very Soul Of Evil - Indian Summer like.
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This is supposed to be some sort of “sequel” to Village of Dread by the same author and though it looks as dated as Village, it is superior in every other way. There’s no point in retreading what the others have said so I’ll just add that the final area is strikingly similar to my very first attempt at mapping, all the way back when. The difference is Steve Rescoe actually finished his map…
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Replayed this. I think it’s dated very poorly, with many of the combats feeling cramped and awkward. And so much reliance on bad guys hiding in the shadows. I suppose we shouldn’t judge 1997 maps too harshly, but the gameplay problems with this one are nothing that couldn’t have been addressed back then.
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Very much enjoyed the pulp-fiction feel and overall vision in this one. Dated for sure, with some visual glitches and, as mentioned, overuse of enemies in shadow. But all in all the use of water, traps and a few great vistas/spaces gave this a great speculative-fiction narrative where the designer repeatedly surprised me.
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