Fhtagn-Nagh

Tremendous map with an imposing, hostile, and otherwordly atmosphere combined with appropriately challenging combat. The sheer amount of Scrags makes some outdoor ramp sections a bit grindy (especially with Copper 1.30's beefed-up Scrags on Nightmare), but there's enough RL ammo to blast them to bits reasonably quickly. I loved the combat otherwise.

I'm not much of a secret hunter at the best of times, but I'm glad I persevered here. The bonus fights are all very enjoyable, although the super secret Chthon fight did feel a bit easy. I appreciated that the secret hints all switch to English once you reach the top; I wouldn't have figured most of them out otherwise.

The soundtrack is something special, too. Pantheist are an excellent band, and the music fits the level perfectly. I just wish Quake didn't restart the music every time you reload a save!

Really impressive in scale, and remains engaging throughout - even when one would think the spiral ramps would get repetitive, there's something about this map that makes progress so satisfying. It is suitably generous with weapons, which I find really important for making this sort of thing work.

I found 18/21 secrets. Some were interesting, but there was a great deal of ramp jumps, drop-downs, and illusionary walls. The rewards were usually extremely satisfying regardless, especially the secret fights on the additional islands, which play more like traditional Quake dungeons than the main one.

This might not be for everyone - I generally prefer small maps to this kind of indulgence, although I did enjoy it a lot as I've suggested - but it is the perfect and final encapsulation of the specific otherworldly awe that Koohoo alone can evoke.

Ionous is one of the best mappers around. In my opinion of course. He's the master of spirals & circular layouts, and this map is no exception in this regard. But what makes Ionous truly standout are secrets, because they're not just hidden goodies, but whole playable areas. In case of this particular map - around 60% of it are hidden in secrets. Like a bunch of maps hidden within a map. Underworld. With such an approach everything feels like an adventure, like some Indiana Jones search for the lost ark. Very cool feeling if you invest your time and search for secrets. In this case it's more of a Frank Pabodie story than an Indiana story - illfated Lovecraft hero & researcher. Yeah, this world is hostile & alien. The world of Elder Gods and the scale of everything around is corresponding. One of my favourite Ionous maps is "Roba El Ehaliyeh" out of Xmas 2019 Jam. It's a derelict castle crumpled into tiny 1024 cube, everything is shallow & claustraphobic. This "Fhtagn-Nagh" map is its antithesis & opposite - everything is wide & open; even a shambler is tiny out here

Quite an experience! I'm glad you put a bow on this and released it. The mood from the visuals+music is spot on. Some neat exploring too... it's a bold choice to put that much of the map behind secret doors, but I'm here for it!

I found maybe 14 of the secrets, but I don't feel the need to be completionist there. A few neat designs among those... I'm thinking in particular of one secret-combination where one message-from-a-dead-ranger hints at a destination, a different message hints at how to get there, and then the solution to that hint also clued me in on ANOTHER secret that helped me unlock a door at that destination. (Sorry for the vagueness but spoilers I guess.) Nice setup.

There's some pacing problems I think, e.g. quite a bit of toiling up long big ramps taking potshots at 1 or 2 scrags. But overall a must-play.