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I don't have much spare time for playing nowadays but was intrigued by this, played it over the last couple of nights whilst under the weather.

Elders1/Elders2

These were neat and fun to play. A bit offputtingly similar to E4M1/E4M2 in places though; I expected the odd E4 homage but it felt like entire sections were lifted for these two.

Elders3

This was great. It felt more like an original map inspired by the general E4 vibe rather than a straight copy. Yes, one room was obviously taken from Azure Agony but there was enough of a twist on it to make it its own, particularly the
upside down bit
, which I loved. Very innovative use of water for progression. I died in a crusher trap once but was OK with that

Elders4/Elders5

These felt like a big flip stylewise, they reminded me more of E4 themed amateur maps from cdrom.com in the 90s given the cramped, cubic and occasionally cluttered design. That's not to say they are amateurish; it felt like a conscious style choice and quite well designed overall, but it occasionally led to frustrating gameplay when I'd get stuck on things or set rockets off in my face. The ending of elders5 was especially cool

Elders6

This was insane, totally unlike anything else I've ever played. There was an incredible atmosphere and sense of mystery, very easy to get lost but I didn't mind that. Given the large monstercount it felt sparsely populated, which not only says a lot about the scale, but the quiet parts played a huge part in setting the mood and adding to the tension. I only actually managed about 60% of the kills and I think one secret in the end, so there was obviously tons more of the level to explore even though I'd killed everything in sight.

Elders7

It was only after finishing I realised this level borrows much of the layout from The Palace of Hate; as with Elders3 though it felt very much like its own thing with its own style, so this wasn't an issue. The lightning traps were cool; I was not a huge fan of the turret use in the episode in general but these ones worked because (a) they gave an audiovisual warning before firing and (b) they could be disabled. Really neat idea for the end battle

Boss map
This was OK but I wouldn't say it went down as one of the best boss fights ever. I didn't take much damage from the king at all as the map was big enough that I could always keep far enough away. Maybe it would have been better spawning him early and having him fight alongside the other monsters (with infighting disabled)

Pleased on the whole, definitely a worthwhile couple of hours. Thanks for sharing guys!
Great fun. Absolutely loved the start map — mysterious progression that was fun to come back to in between levels.

Like Esrael says the enemy ambiguity was great. Quad dog!!

Rott Pak was technically intriguing — being able to notify quadrants as cleared was interesting.
This is the best map I've ever played. Every time I wake up, I play this map instead of having breakfast to start my morning off right. I have a framed picture of this map on my desk, so whenever I'm feeling down, I can look at this masterpiece, and know that everything will be okay. I've started sanding my feet in real life too, to bring me closer to this map. It hurts - I've lost so much blood, and my family has called the police on me 37 times, but they don't understand. They'll never understand. I heard that if you play this map for long enough, it lets you out, but I've never left. Why would anyone want to leave? I love you Sandpaper. I want to be with you forever.

1/5 stars
I got the bad ending 😔
This is great! Got 100% (although didn't get the LG until after i completed everything else). Some areas were a little dark, but overall, great secrets and fun quad runs. Looking forward to your future maps.

Thoroughly enjoyed this! An interesting romp through IDsoft+ detail levels of maps. The start map was unexpectedly complex, quite interesting!
super creative encounters & phenomenal brushwork
Really liked this retro-style map, it seems it was as much of a joy mapping it as it is playing it. Exploration is fun and progression is not tedious, although I could only find 3/9 secrets on a semi-rushed first playthrough. Main thing to note is that some corners are very dark and could have possibly used the tiniest bit of lighting. The quad runs also feel good to go through. For a first release this is honestly great, geometry is mostly good, not many places to abruptly get stuck on. I think some slipgate textures are possibly missing. In most places damage is not taken when falling through one, except for one place you do which is just a little inconsistent. Eager for future releases.
A complete newcomer to Quake modding - haven't played the game since childhood - I found this lots of fun!

Of what I've played through so far, I particularly enjoyed There's A Certain Slant Of Light, the way that map looks and the way it opens up as you explore. And Peculiar Investigation, which came as a surprise to me.
Aesopolis, A beautiful environment with so many cool details that I spent ages just wandering around looking. The introduction of the music once the first puzzle is complete is just perfect timing because the vista is breathtaking. The free form routing can be disquieting at first, but its something I really appreciate and gave me time to explore the layout further instead.

alexUnder, The vista once you leave the cave is just amazing, probably the best looking in the pack. The giant's causeway style rockwork lends itself to Quake blocky-ness and the presentation of different movement puzzles is perfect. I especially liked the re-use of space with the player going through and over moving obstacles. My only problem is the chain/ladders and I wished they were presented beforehand so that I could understand them better before the deathly slime pit incident!

bizzozeron, I can appreciate the vision and movement tricks that are required for this map, but it feels like it needs less rough edges and more testing for idiots like me. I especially liked the giant brushwork hands high above the ceiling, very creative idea.

brain, I saw someone complete this map on twitch and its a masterpiece of movement and Quake tricks. I just wish the first jump was easier, so at least I could make some progress into the map. The initial skill wall for this map is too hardcore for my old hands.

Colossus, The opening sequence is amazing, especially when the player is presented with this gigantic playground of shapes to explore. I loved the use of the ghost knights to guide the player and the runes being something obvious to collect. My only problem was the first rocket jump across the broken bridge, its such a great distance that I was wondering if it was the correct route to go. I assumed it would be a much easier introduction to rocket jumping for less skilled players like me. The most sublime part to this map is the Death Knight walking into the sun, pure visual masterpiece!

CommomCold, Such a good intro sequence presenting a dystopia city landscape. I loved all the different NPC's around the city to talk to and the way the story develops is very cool and unexpected. I wish CC had used the map variable system for the NPC conversations instead, its very easy to break the dialogue which is probably why there is warning messages very early on.

iYago, A Sauna, A Tavern and a Mountain, what else could you ask for! Such a perfect place to rest, chill out and catch some snappy conversations. Especially loved the giant sliding patio window for some reason! :p

Konig, This is a very cool homage to an ID map which changes into something else towards the end. I just wish the map was brighter, I had to bump the gamma/contrast up really high to see where to go. I wish it had more spooky environmental events, turnaround triggers and maybe some jump scares.

MadScientist, It was cool to see a low gravity map, they don't often happen from the community. Though I wished their was more gravity changes with different sections using different strengths and more options to climb using only the gravity jumps. The puzzle cube was cool, though the button part was confusing at first for me.

Rabbit, Such a masterpiece of movement puzzles, with easy jump sequences for unskilled players like me, to legendary sliding puzzles for the gifted movement players to enjoy. The visuals are top notch and everything feels so professional presented and well balanced. The sneaky puzzles linked to the rotating centre is Jonathan Blow level stuff. I especially loved the shambler shop for progression and the icing on the cake being the counter underneath!

RecicleDoj, Probably my favourite map of the pack because the architecture reminded me of the game Sin (Evil Corporation vibe) and the sound track was just pure Markie level legendary-ness that it brought the map to life. My only problem was the initial jump into the complex, I thought it was so confusing because it felt like it should have been from the giant crate not the ledge. The progression and HL style (vent) exploration was awesome and the executive suite at the top with the 45 degree angle windows, just sublime.

Sock, Its unfortunate that the start map has so much mirroring of architecture that it reduces the uniqueness down to 1/4. If there was more time I would have loved to add more NPC's to bring the place to life. Unfortunately the map name expresses my feelings for the final result. The puzzle maps were fun to create and I loved the circular layouts opening up with each new block to push around. I thought the YT links on the books would be more fun, but alas it turned out to be a disaster, a lesson learned.

Spootnik, A giant lava soaked cavern full of hazards, tiny ledges and tricky jumps. Very cool progression though I did struggle to find the GK (at first) at the end of the lightning death corridor. I wished the vania style items did not expire so quickly as I wanted to take my time to explore the map more. In the end I felt pressured to complete each area in order to survive.
For Terra in Mods
😊 The demon is your friend!

I'll pile on, this is great. Played through the Ironwail mod download list.

Witch House Mixtape is one of my favorite maps and Sentinel Rave is a great ending level that isn't Cthon again or something obnoxious.

Sentinel Rave especially impresses. The atmosphere going into the first part, the wild architecture, the chains, all of it. The slaughter fight at the end is my favorite end of any campaign I've played and I wish it was packaged as it's own map.
This is a pretty good map, although as others have noted, it's much harder at the start (that ambush is deadly) than it is towards the end. The detailing and puzzle design is nice - although I think the "detonator plunger" is distracting (I wasted - as did others on playthrough - some time trying to work out if I was supposed to hit/jump on/shoot it to "blow up the wall"). I also found, as someone who's not good at jumping, some of the puzzle flow unintuitive - I spent some time trying to work out how to get the second two "red pillars"
before I realised you needed to do trick jumps to get to them and the nailgun.
. Similarly for parts of the later jumping puzzle, where it wasn't clear to me if I was "supposed to be able to do this jump".

I liked all the secrets, and the use of destructible terrain in general.
For Terra in Mods
Completely forgot to rate this. Loved every second of it. The final map was a bit of a shocker + broke the pace a tiny bit with how large / expansive it is compared to the quaint nature of the other maps, but it's a fitting sendoff to a legendary pack.
As always, "non combat jams" are a sort of mixed bag for me - I'm not good at traversal in Quake in general (and certainly can't do advanced movement tricks like circle jumps, let alone the kind of super advanced power bunnyhop into surfs stuff you see in speedrunning). And Explore Jams tend to have maps on a continuum from "here's a beautiful map I made with some light traversal" to "I made this map so you can only complete it with microsecond reflexes and millimetre precision using advanced speedrun techniques". Obviously, one end of the continuum here is more open to "general consumption" than the other (but it can be extremely challenging to make niche speedrunning technique maps, of course).

This is confounded by a tendency for some to consider "difficulty levels" to only be concerned with combat difficulty, and not challenge in general. (Meaning that some maps here do change between skill 0 and skill 3 - spootnik's certainly does - and others remain identical on all skill levels.)

Maps I completed: Aesop's (beautiful and expansive map, only really confusing at the start because the player isn't sure how hard the map is supposed to be, rather than anything intrinsic about the map itself), AlexUnder's (Alex, you undersell this map, it's good and contains a lot of accessible challenges), iYago (very much a "interact with this setting" map, but it's fun), Konig (a very creepy setting, mostly a tone piece which works well), Madscientist (I sort of think of this as built around the moving puzzle setpiece which I really enjoyed), Sock 1 & 2 (youtube link injokes, push block puzzles which were engaging - slight physics jank is really just a Quake limitation), CommonCold (somewhat trippy and atmospheric, bonus marks for "conversation" system), Spootnik (very much at the limit of my traversal ability even on Easy - I did have to noclip towards the end because I just couldn't quite complete something before the powerup ran out, but fun non-the-less).

Maps I didn't quite complete: Colossus (I actually like this map's openness, but I also felt like it didn't help to have less direction when I'm not that good at rocket jumping - once I got past the "obviously directed" bits, I felt a bit like I didn't know what was supposed to be possible for me to get to), Recycleddoj (I did actually complete this, but I needed to noclip a jump near the start to get into the main building - unless I'm missing how I'm supposed to do that. The rest is a lot of cool "puzzles to circumvent the obstacle" setpieces).

Maps I am never going to complete in a million years;: Brain (but he knows this), Bizz (I managed to, just about, get the axe. I have no idea how to do anything else :D )

As such, I'm knocking 1 mark off for "maps without difficulty settings" (and *not* for "maps I can't complete"), but actually there's a lot of really good stuff in here and it's worth picking up and playing.
Map is completely broken. First couple of hours were fine and as I approached hour 4 I began to feel the excitement welling up in my chest. And then...

Nothing...?

After playing for 5 hours I still wasn't let out of the room. I think the author needs to take a step back and reevaluate what makes a map fun versus just showing off.
riktoi
riktoi
It seems like setting host_timescale too high will break the map!!!
ok this is right up my alley ! well, chris holden's, specifically!! and the start map. the rest is sad cry kill pupy. i'm bummed there weren't more entries, i know the community could make some really cool maps based on pupy's!!! (i did not b/c i had my potate lap top when the jam was going). these were all cool maps in different ways i love u
really good. adore the seaside look, some fun fights, super cute extraneous details. sega as hell. do not listen to the naysayings about the time of day, you're on to something good here.
Spootnik and Stickflip maps shine bright in this one. Overall pretty nice maps by everyone just don't play mine.
Very understandably not many players are going to be able to finish this map. Even my blind playthrough of it was quite rocky with a lot of quick saves and experimenting different ways to approach challenges offered here. This is easily one of the hardest well designed Quake maps ever made and that alone should just be 5/5 for this.

Visuals go hard with the scale and at the times you don't even feel like you are playing prototype textured map. There are some technical issues especially on Quakespasm port like view getting cut by draw distance and sounds getting overwhelmed in the last battle.

What I love about the map is that you can really choose how to approach different locations and you don't have to do all difficult arena fights in middle of the map. Whole market idea is great and offers more non linearity to the map. Pretty sure I know where that is inspired from.

Final area caused me to make quick saves in middle of all the fight as I couldn't get lucky enough rolls to survive it with my strats. I could never single segment this, but that is fine. That is why we have Koren.

Awesome map Comfy!
Incredible. 1/10. Will play again.