Only You Can Prevent Containment Breaches

Reviews 4.84 star(s) 27 reviews

Superb map! Great atmosphere, combat design and a mix of tech & Honey-styled architecture to die for. Thanks for making this, I had a blast playing!
Skill
Normal
Truly inspiring; I can only imagine the hushed and excited discussions that would have been uttered had this map been built at Quake's release - this really lives up to the fiction as-presented by Quake's narrative and world. Every brush in this map is a symphony. I'll be thinking about this one for a long, long time!
This was a nice little treat to play. I got a bit lost for my own dumbness. All scripted set pieces were really cool and fun. Combat was solid. Even backtracking was fun and keeping things fresh.
"THERE'S A SHAMBLER IN THE SERVER ROOM!"

The intro, sound effects, the brushwork, all was just so goooood. The look of sheer joy I had when I saw the walls of the facility come creeping out of the darkness surrounding the castle.

And as is tradition, it took 3 attempts to find that last secret!
Fantastic architecture and lighting as always from Trashbang, with much more ambitious set pieces than previous entries and some interesting custom scripting. Several instances of back-spawning enemies and an army of high-ground ogres make some encounters more predictable and wearisome, but the sheer intensity of the combat and flow of the layout keep the pacing quick and enjoyable (with the possible exception of the route back from the yellow key). Altogether a map that feels classic yet fresh, with combat that runs the gamut of traditional Quake gameplay punctuated with moving brush traps and an almost shmup-like ending that feels so unique and fits so well, one wonders why it hasn't been used more often across Quake's modding history.
The second map I've played since a ~25yr break from playing Quake.

I played on hard and found it challenging in areas but nothing overly crazy, well balanced overall with enjoyable ambushes, plenty of opportunity for infighting which I took advantage of.

The map itself is stunning! I love the mix of themes, so much attention to detail. I managed to find all 5 secrets just by taking it slow and admiring the scenery (admittedly I spent way too many minutes making the final jump on the parkour one! xD)

Overall excellent, would love to play more of this, this is what I'm here for :)
super creative encounters & phenomenal brushwork
Excellent (& beautiful) map! Intro with the custom sounds felt very unique.
This is an excellent map (I played on skill 0, as usual, although I think this map is balanced about as hard as Quake itself, so I might have been happy on skill 1) - all of the transitions feel natural, the texture work is spot on, and all the combat encounters made perfect sense for their environments. If I have any criticism, it's the same as Alison's down below.
Phenomenal work as usual Suzy.

The 'bursting free' sequence is the best we've seen in Quake. The gradual reveal of the castle in its wider context is utterly sublime: there's a marriage of Honey & Rubicon that echoes (haha) and extends the repertoire in one of the finest works of the impossiblist castle+tech tradition. That particular quality of vastness — which also immediately evoked HL2 + Portal — is truly brilliant, and difficult to put into words in its vertiginous wonder. That breathless opening sequence, with its immaculate scale and atmospherics (lighting & fog use so consummate I think unrivalled in its realism for Quake) sets an immersive tone which grounds the further adventure. Even if one might have wanted a touch more of it — perhaps in later further cracks into the abyss, or more pointed and expansive vistas back onto the initial scene.

The series of encounters that follow are all brilliantly done, connecting seamlessly and judicious in scale & detail. There's a great balance to the maddening machinery environment: it is not at all so arbitrarily architecturally sprawling as to test that suspension of disbelief which asks of so many banal tech base levels "wtf is this all _for_" — neither is it too dense in its mechanistic interactive detail, which was a feature in HRT.

I was particularly delighted by the first base arena: echoes of Doom 1 2 & 3 in the claustrophobic corridor panic, and surprisingly effective and fresh firefight architecture with Grunts & Shambles. Special mention also needs be made to the crawlspace sequence, with its pitch-perfect atmosphere; and the Fiend encounters were absolutely bang-on: neither mundanely claustrophobic nor so spacious as to be banal. All combat encounters were expertly designed but that aspect was singularly well-judged.

The dramatic return to origin was joyous, really brilliant ludonarrative of a rare quality. It's so tough to get across just how neat and well-judged this all is: nothing too long or big or obnoxious, everything distracting and immersive enough to carry the mind on without ever being confusing or onerous. Expert craftwork in every respect.

The atmospherics are exquisite: usually when these things strike me, my mind quickly goes to comparisons or technical appreciation for use of tools — this isn't like that, it's sustainably immersive and holistically beautiful throughout.

Like Allison I couldn't help be dismayed by the impertinent Pentagram: the pistons section is one of the few places it feels like something's missing and suffers a mild dip in enchantment for its ludic functionalism. There's also a couple of places that feel mildly artistically underdeveloped: the wind tunnel & the gate itself, though conceptually enchanting, don't feel quite up to the general level of innovation and detail work; or perhaps don't have differentiating enough a level of set piece contrast — a bit more localised greebles or lighting effects might have given them more oomph.

Overall: superlative; a singular chapter in the Honey vernacular, and an articulation of techbase soul that equals Rubicon & SMEJ. It's so delightful seeing a development & synthesis of your prior work: the claustrophobic stony traps of Stars We Lost To Grief; the abyssal depths of Warmest Body In The Room; the consummate othering machinery of HRT.

Thanks so much!
A great map. The atmosphere was world class and the fights on skill 2 were perfect for my taste. The ending was great and very innovative. The secrets were perhaps a little too well hidden. I played through the map twice and only found one. But maybe I just need to play round three again. Thanks for a lot of fun.
This was an delightful experience! Lots of atmosphere, lots of nice combat setups and "aaaaaaaargh!!!!" moments! Great job! Loved it! :)
@Trashbang has been consistently excellent, and this is no exception. Some of the best sci-fi brushwork and texturing around.
The theme took me by surprise! Fantastic texture work and nasty ambushes, love it!
Absolutely amazing level. I loved the slime pushers things on the stairs and all the cool little combat scenarios in this.
Yeah, this is great cant think of one thing negative even to mention excellent mood/atmosphere
Nice soild map, the ending part is creative and I like it.
Favorite Trashbang work so far, loved the ending.
Absolutely gorgeous brushwork, creating a great sense of location and a fairly fresh spin on the tech/castle theme. Encounters were fun, with a few surprises along the way. Trashbang continues to improve exponentially with each release, especially in what seems to be a fairly short span of time. At this point I'll hastily download anything from her!

If I had any gripes, it would be that the
final battle was more interesting than it was fun. The wind effect was too strong, lasted too long, and came right after another tough fight for the rune itself. I was also a little letdown that the Pentagram didn't seem to allow for anything to be recovered from the slime. Finally, there seemed to be some odd clipping at the top edge near the Lighting Gun secret.
I lack the vocabulary to really put it into words, but this map is excellent. extremely clever execution in concept and aesthetics. I somehow missed every secret, so I'll likely be playing this multiple times.