On a simple level, this is a great variant of the Koohoo theme into something more ambiguously 'modern millenial' in style — reasurringly solid in its late 90s geometry & gameplay style but with little details of modern finesse.
It's a consumate temple complex of interlocking puzzles, loops within loops and multiple interweaving axes of progression around a main tower. Many nodes to Grendels Blade from Arcane Dimension.
What's really special is the understated technical flourishes that make it a brilliant early showcase of progs_dump 3: There are new enemy types and behaviours, small health & armor drops, camping enemies, precisely timed and located spawn triggers, camera switches for scripted sequences… none of which grandstand but all of which combine to produce a level of depth and dynamism that really elevates gameplay while still feeling completely in tune with the spirit of Quake.
The scripted floating platform cut-scenes are the jaw drop 'this is new' moment, but the large locked arena with continuous spawns was incredible, completely nailing the euphoria of Q3-onwards arena combat.
A couple of minor nits: geometry slightly awkward in places — free-standing lifts in particular always felt slightly offset compared to what I was expecting; Aleks Dwell music coming in for the final conflict is impecably judicious but why silence until then? Is that a limitation of the music scripting ability? (I notice the track is duplicated, once as track30 and once as track99 — maybe a packaging mistake?)
On a wider level, I recognise the new minor health and armour pickups are standard issue, but these models are completely out of step with the mainstream level of detail in Quake mapping. It's faintly ridiculous how much detail those models have for their relative scale — lo-fi variants ought to be developed.
About the music: I just now checked this upload, and the music that is playing is from Quake, Track 10 (The Hall of Souls). It should be playing the whole time, until the last fight when it changes to Aleks' "Feedback." If it's not playing, it might be because you're playing with a source port install that didn't include the complete id1 assets (specifically, the music)? Or some other reason? Anyway, I checked, and it should be playing. Though, it is a pretty quiet ambient track...
As for including pd3's Track 99 (a 1-second silence track): indeed I could have left that out. I just took the framework for making one's own mod from pd3 (a package it calls "mymod") and used that, which includes it.
I also think you're right about the little health vials. They don't really fit the "style" of quake. Pd3 includes some other alternate health drop models, one of which is a cool little bag/pouch thing. That might fit a bit better, for next time.
Thanks again, and cheers!