Last voyage of the Aqualus

Really an incredible map. Feels lived in and drips atmosphere. An eerily familiar yet very foreign land that begs to have every corner and inch explored.

Not only is the atmosphere imaginative, the encounters are clever and varied. You can choose how to approach each pending battle and even by exploring around and find another entry point.

Top notch stuff.

Wow, this was just amazing. The only thing I can criticize is that the progression was kind of confusing at times, which is the reason it took me so long to sit down and play through it, as I sort of gave up two times previously. But beside that, everything is brilliant: the visuals (I fell in love with the submarine!), the combat, the story, the sense of humor, the exploration (18/27 secrets). Best map of 2023 surely!

It was truly a 5-start adventure. Thank you!

what a map... thanks a lot to the author to give me the chance to play and enjoy so much an experience of 2h of gaming for me

I believe the map has some small exploration issues that make it a little frustrating. One of them is the lever in the squid room, which is very easy to miss and which makes you go back across the map to find out where the objective is. I also had a problem where loads took a long time, but it must be an isolated problem unrelated to the map.

Overall, excellent work!!!

Fantastic journey, it was a really memorable experience. Thank you for your effort.

Now some points of criticism, if I may:

* dismounting from ladders was really annoying

* some bits of progression were ambiguous for me, for example:

Fuckin' awesome. It won't be for everyone but it is great for what it is aiming at!

I was excited when I saw this was another zbidou72 "adventure map", and I think this one is up there with Temple of Teuthis ... really a pinnacle of this Big Damn Adventure style, rare these days.

There's a little bit of confusion/wandering in spots but not bad, and IMO a small price to pay. I ran across about half of the secrets just poking around normally, which seems fine... I don't really feel any need to be completist about those. Love the vistas, the variety of environments, the "flavor" books/journals, the assorted vehicles and other knicknacks made from brushes, and the entertaining combat in the final area.

Completed this with a friend.

Quick summary
+ Love the progression of technology and the story told by the notes
+ The locales are distinct and interesting
+ Love the shortcut portals.
- Secrets are a little same-y, but this is a small criticism
- Navigation can be cumbersome at times

That's it.
I liked all your maps, zbdiou, played them all mulitple times, it's fun to explore them.
It took long time, because I missed the right elevator.
Fighting and thinking. Science and fantasy in balance. Poesy of mapping.
What a wonderful world you create, it's art, really.
Secrets 17/27 in first attempt. and maybe it will be some more, when I play again and with more patience.

It is my dearest wish that at some point you remaster the maps in your expansive extended universe into a campaign or an AD style start map so people can experience and enjoy them together.

Slight issues with signposting, which is fine. These maps have that since they're sprawling affairs stuffed full of lore and fights and cephalopods (there is an area around a ladder drop that is actually a little hub so if you're lost, keep looking around there).

I love how you go from pirate ship adventure to
. Biggest tech issue is the lore gubbins around the laboratory area overlapping on one another and the text in all the lore gubbins hanging out for a hair too long on screen.

Really great adventure; recommended if you like more realistic style environments and large scale adventures.

An amazing map! I agree with the previous comment. And where did you get version 1.2.1b of the "Alkaline" modification? I had problems with displaying layers on the surface of water and lava on the "QSS" engine. I also found a place in the location (where you need to destroy 4 fuses and overload the generator) a pool of water, which is located under the generator, there are many layers of water and you can run in the middle of the pool without distorting the water and not choking. I also have buggy waterfalls when I look at them through the water column.

A really fun adventure with a couple of decently tricky encounters based around quite varied level geometry / topography. The 'complex' is also logistically sound with generous shortcuts. Visually stunning while maintaining a large scale as always. As it has been mentioned small gadgets and moving bits will never cease to amaze in Quake and it continues to do so here. The semi linear approach was fine, the thing that took a 1.5~ hour playthrough and turned into over 3 hours for me was finding that one thing in a sequence, a fuse box, a specific lever, you get the gist, it wasn't the end of the world but it left me circling back and forth a bit, classic adventure game-y feeling but not too obtuse, possibly caused by an issue of dark caves / moody lighting, but since verticality is made clear from the get go, the player is expected to look behind objects and climb / descend.

Now my question, does Ranger learn about the dark eldritch horrors of electricity in the Laboratory, or is it too tastefully thick?

Agree with ComfyByTheFire's review. This map is really nice to play 'most of the time'. One negative point for me was the lack of directions/hints, when you try to figure out what to do next or where to go next. This increases the time it takes to complete this map.
There is lot to explore and some nice secrets are hidden. Found 21 secrets.

Make sure you have some time if you want to play this map.

This map was wonderful! I love the continuous shared universe in zbidou's maps, and the secrets are always a lot of fun to find. The visuals are a treat, especially the distinct way that zbidou makes cavernous terrain, and the brine layers beneath the bodies of water were a nice touch. There are also a lot of little gadgets like forges/observatories/moving gears/etc. that are super cool to see. I did have some trouble finding my way at times, but it didn't bother me per se, and I had a lot of fun. Thanks for the map!