ef69df6b88e9038bf04e47c57434a68c9165ea60603ad25f1be8da166a2971a2
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.quaddicted.com/db/canonical/ef69df6b88e9038bf04e47c57434a68c9165ea60603ad25f1be8da166a2971a2
ef69df6b88e9038bf04e47c57434a68c9165ea60603ad25f1be8da166a2971a2
overall_rating
4.5
2
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.quaddicted.com/db/canonical/ef69df6b88e9038bf04e47c57434a68c9165ea60603ad25f1be8da166a2971a2
It would be cooler if the levels were connected episodically by some idea. But it’s still cool
Nailed to the Rock (mc_rj2_caffeinefreak) is a good start, with a properly difficult map that left my low on health and struggling to avoid zombies until the launcher, teased early on, finally became available.
In a few places, progression was not at all clear, and only really discoverable because the small size of the map made it not too hard to check all the possible places. That is to some extent a consequence of the fairly novel mechanisms used here, which is to be applauded, but the still could have been better signed.
I’d also criticise an over-reliance on monster traps where multiple monsters spawn right on top of you, and quibble that since I wasn’t able to find any of the five secrets they may have been too obscure.
Good stuff, though, and I really enjoyed the sense of jeopardy.
I liked Librarian Deception (mc_rj2_chnuckierdbeer) although it was fairly small and a bit primitive. It fits a lot of different stuff into its restricted space. But even having found all three secrets, I only located 34 of the 43 kills for some reason.
I liked Ruin’s Throne (mc_rj2_cliff) a lot, despite the blocky weirdness of a lot of the scenery. I found it easy to overlook that because this was a map that just kept coming, throwing different kinds of challenge at me. It’s maybe a bit spoiled by the overprovision of health and (especially) ammo, but that’s not fatal. I missed one of the five secrets, and (probably as a result) got only 166 of the 171 kills.
Hypnotic Greenery (mc_rj2_detrohogga) is my favourite map of this pack so far, with so much invention and such a prodigality of different combats and progression mechanisms. Of course it’s blocky and blandly lit, that goes with the territory in a retrojam. But this feels very much like what ID could have done back in the day if only they’d built up their mapping skills to the requisite level.
I finished with 112 of 118 kills, but only 4 of 7 secrets. One of them, I imagine, contained the SNG. Rats. I love the SNG 
Faceless God (mc_rj2_deviltower) is definitely my favourite so far in this pack: the kill count of 133 is not especially huge, but the map feels like an extended and testing combat despite this, due to well-judged horde attacks. The difficulty of these is made up for by very generous over-provisioning of ammo.
It takes place in a sprawling, irrational cathedral. None of it makes a ton of sense, but on this occasion I’m OK with that. My one big disappointment is that, after opening up the room behind the altar and finding the three teleporters, only one of them led anywhere interesting.
I missed three of the kills and only found two of the seven secrets. Crucially, I never got the rocket launcher. I know where it is — behind a metal panel at the bottom of some dead-end stairs — but I never figured out how to open the panel.
This pack just keeps getting better and better. The Lost Bastion (mc_rj2_eltangente) takes the not-very-prized Favourite So Far crown. It’s not as big or brutal as Faceless God, but it’s more beautiful and consistent to look at, and has a beautifully designed gameplay structure with successive more-or-less separate areas that each have their own character. My only real complaint is that it would be possible to easily jump across to the gold key early on, were it not for an invisible wall. That’s such an inelegant way of preventing such shortcuts, and it would have been so easy to do this in a different and better way.
67/70 kills (hard) and 4/7 secrets.
Cavern of Lost Souls (mc_rj2_icoshee) is short and sweet. Everything it does, it does well, but it doesn’t last long. (There are 62 kills, but they mostly arrive in four hordes, so they’re dealt with fairly quickly or not at all.)
Caerllan Castle (mc_rj2_kaz) about as short as Lost Souls but not quite as sweet. A succession of low-powered enemies in small rooms means that the level never quite gets going. It’s competent, but I think the author is capable of being more inspired. I missed two of the 44 kills and one of the three secrets.
2/3 42/44
The Terror Former (mc_rj2_programme) is another shortish map that squeezes a lot of ideas into its space. Promising. (38/44 kills; found the single secret).
Templum Exsilli (mc_rj2_tonhao) is a step up from the last three maps — about the same length, but with everything more carefully thought through and the combats better tuned. The only things I didn’t like were the nail trap — those are never fun, ever — and the massive overprovision of ammo and health in the penultimate room.
Lots of fun with Burgh of Blight (mc_rj2_niccolicious), which gives you the grenade launcher early, and expects you to use it a lot (due to the relative paucity of non-explosive ammunition). That gives it a pleasantly distinctive feel, so that even if it’s not necessarily better than other maps in the pack, it stands out more and is memorable. Nice work.
Extremely Poor Impulse Control (mc_rj2_rj) is another example of how a relatively small map (67 kills) can be excellent. It offers the classic choice of taking the silver-key or gold-key route first; either approach works, but they give you different weapons. Both sections are neatly executed and offer some moments of pleasurable difficults, and the whole map has a unity to it.
I got all the kills, and three of the five secrets.
Happily, I didn’t realise Devil’s Bridge (mc_rj2_sock) was the work of Sock until after I’d finished it, meaning that I was able to experience this neat little map on its own terms rather than holding it up to unfair comparisons with the great man’s more ambitious works.
It’s close to perfect for its genre — small vanilla map — and I have only two complaints, really. One is that I found two secrets, presumably of the shoot-the-wall variety, completely by accident. Before I even knew they existed, the wall had been shot or exploded or whatever, and there were the first megahealth and the quad, free for the taking. My other quibble is that, despite the map’s name, there is no bridge.
(I got all 42 kills on hard, and five of the six secrets, plus the secret ledge that doesn’t count towards the total.)
Aquamaniacal Necrotorium (mc_rj2_thundergoose) is among the best maps in this pack, beginning like a riff on e1m2 but quickly developing in different direction and spending most of its time in a more e1m3-like area. There’s lots to explore and a good variety of different combats, culminating in a properly difficult arena battle that allows scope for some tactics. Excellent. (117 of 132 kills, 1 of 3 secrets.)
More good fun to be had in Northern River Reversal (mc_rj2_alexunder), which is based around a sequence of rooms with canals running through and under them. This provides two options for how to explore, and at some point I may go back and do a canal-centric run-through. The combats are mostly a bit on the mundune side, though.
It was a nice change for me to get all 59 kills and both secrets (though to be fair they were pretty easy!)
(Me again, leaving a comment from a second account so this board no longer prevents me from continuing to reply to my own thread.)
Mouth Full Of Nails (mc_rj2_grue) starts strongly, with a classic Quake-map opening: an underground cave that leads through a passage to an open area with a castle on the other side of moat — as for example in The Ogre Citadel (e2m2). The next few passages are difficult, but in a way that feel legitimate. Unfortunately, once past the first shambler everything gets much easier, and in the end the map all but peters out. It’s as though Grue lost interest a bit.
I got 74 of 76 kills and 4 of 7 secrets.