Jam Coppertone Summer Jam

An open community project that typically includes maps created within a period of time.
A delightful set of maps here with satisfying combat encounters (and a lot of enemy surfing), clever design choices, and some very satisfying Quad Damage action. I especially loved JCR, Ionous, Juzley, Markie, and PoolboyQ's maps, all of which I think are easily 5/5s. But everything else here is great, too, with Artistical, H4724, Greenwood, grome, Lunaran, and RadiatorYang's maps probably being "the best of the rest" in my book.

I really appreciated RadiatorYang and Artistical's maps. RadiatorYang got good mileage out of a basic (but visually impressive) map, while Artistical managed to nail a special sense of abstract "otherness" that I found very compelling.

Minor quibbles: Newhouse's Utopia has fun encounters but perhaps doesn't quite feel like a cohesive level, IMO. I also wish grome did more with their level's signature mechanic, as I didn't feel it drastically impacted how I played the level.

Definitely a must-play map pack in my book. Great stuff.

For anyone wondering: Copper 1.30's Nightmare changes work fine with the maps, although the improved Vore tracking makes some of the Vore setups across the maps much less forgiving. The respawning Zombies can make some areas slightly too hectic, too. Nothing insurmountable, but worth mentioning anyway.
This is the first Quake Jam i have never played, being mostly used to episodes and stand alone maps. I played through it single player using the Ironwail source port on the Normal Skill level.

Overall the map sets has a huge variety of map styles and difficulty levels, with the common theme being the use of the Copper Mod.

I must say i am impressed. Most of the maps are quite good, while some others feel a little strange.

My favorites in no order:

- The Pumps of Dagon. Nice retro level that reminds me a little bit of the Shadows Over Innsmouth. Cool romp on an small coastal ruin.
- Dies Irae: linear map set on arabian style temple. I am sucker for this kind of architecture. The levels ends on a bang with a huge arena and an infite ammount of quad damage power ups.
- Primordial: huge level set on the remains of temple consumed by lava.
- Blue Brawls: an adrenaline shot from start to end. Loved it.
- Grim Gallows: probably my favorite level of the set. Nice balance between combat and exploration plus a gratious ammount of carnage during the last stretch. Loved it and played through it at least thrice.

Least favorite maps

- Beneath An Ivory Facade, It Watches You Writh: very confusing abstract map. Kept running out of ammo, but managed to clear entire rooms by monster infights. Had to no clip near the end as one door bug out on me.
- Utopia: action packed level set on an almost entirely black space. Good fights, but felt a little gimicky.

All in all, loved playing throgh this. Will probably play through the sequel soon enough.
This jam has some really strong maps standing out above a baseline that's pretty good as well. The Copper mod of course does wonders both for the moment-to-moment level of fun and also the potential for mappers to create original scenarios, with quality of life that helps get the most out of the time available. Mapping for this jam certainly sold me on the Copper mod for life.

The Dismal Omlette by Juzley, which instantly made me a fan through cleverly layered combat with hidden enemies, serves as a precursor and teaser for The Punishment Due. Grim Gallows by Markie is what really solidified his status as a legend of detailing, storytelling, and fun-first gameplay early on. Primordial by JCR is still one of the all-time peaks of exploration gameplay in Quake, even among fierce competition from JCR himself.

Just slightly below those three in my estimation, you still have some very enjoyable maps like Lunaran's Quad is a Four Letter Word squeezing the absolute most out of a tight vertical layout as well as Copper's own changes; Dies Irae by PoolboyQ providing scale and adventure to the ikwhite/lava combination pioneered by Lunaran in Func Map Jam 2; and Sunscorched by Grome introducing a new and thematically appropriate mechanic, though not quite giving it the full conclusion it deserved.
Absolutely fantastic pack here. The standouts to me are Markie's fantastic singleplayer rendition of Grim Dungeons (q3dm14), JCR's wild nonlinear beautiful lava cavern, and Juzley's map which feels like it could've fit right into The Punishment Due (which is one of my favorites!).

A must play.
So many bangers in this jam.

Juzley giving us what would end up as the precursor to Pun, JCR's crazy nonlinear lava caves, h4724 and PoolboyQ coming out of the gate with a splash, Newhouse taking their brand of eclectic hostile-to-player design to crazy places. The list goes on and on.

This is one of my favorite Jam releases to date, if not my absolute favorite. Not only is the quality on point, but the diversity is there to back it up.
Great set of maps in general. Some better, some worse, but all interesting this way or another. Personally for me Lunaran and Markie maps stood out. With Lunaran's I was highly impressed (and inspired) by that tricky layout with elevator in the center; really inventive. With Markie's I loved its secrets and visuals, up to date it looks as most hostile dark fantasy as I know among his maps - love bloody gloomy visuals. Also it's huge! For 20 minutes no less. Anyway all maps are great. Ionous, Newhouse, Com.Beep... etc. great company of heroes!