A striking effort, with great sense of place and impressive huge rooms.

Interesting idea with two endings, but I think the 'secret' ending should have more intense final combat to make your freedom feel earned. Currently endings feel like just two paths at the very end.

Gameplay wise it is too easy even on skill 2. Some areas are vary large, which leads to unsatisfying sniping and easy kiting and evasion. Many monsters are just not threatening enough at such extreme distances (for example, the secret ending's shambler, which can be killed even before he gets in range).

My blind playthrough (with both endings):
I said I had to go play it from your recent map so I did!

Every now and then you walk into a room in Quake and just... stop.
The gold key room did that. Top shelf.

I may have noclipped the bars on the "second" ending. Cool bit of storytelling (and I knew we had to fight that nerd at some point when I saw him earlier).

I had a minor black texture bug on the first lift, however I ran this in copper so it could be that.
Excellent use of color, scale, and shadow. A big jump from your previous map -- and just compared to other maps in general, a unique and strong look. I really enjoyed just seeing what was next in the visuals from room to room while going through this.

Usually good texture selection too, although one of the few visual errors here comes from the use of some textures with quite different scaling, so that the pixels are almost invisible on some textures but huge and blocky on others. Also a couple of movers/lifts have pitch-black lighting issues on the "covered" parts (these are annoying to fix but can be taken care of usually one way or another).

Anyway: great look! One of my favorites this year.

The theme and mild storytelling was also fun, making use of some nifty environment designs. Pretty bold choice also to have a "bad ending" possible in a Quake map. :) I do wish you had gone with a custom music track BTW, it would have really sold your setting!

The combat encounters were sparse at times yeah (skill 2). While there were at least a couple of areas that did get my pulse up a bit, on the whole I'd say that the fighting was the weakest aspect of the map. If the experience here included some truly punchy combat setpieces, it could be an instant classic.

Still feels like a 5-star despite my quibbles, because I _really_ liked the visual vibe.
Visually pretty cool looking map using Makkon textures decently aside from some trim sheets being thrown into walls at times, but hey thats what I would do too if I was using texture sheets like these. Cool environments and interactivity with moving platforms and stuff.

Gameplay pacing was quite slow and not that challenging on hard difficulty. It took me 37 minutes to get to the very end killing one monster after another except a few zombie hordes here and there.

There are several holes behind boxes and some ramps and pillars where you can get soft locked. Aside from those few locks it didn't have bugs as far as I know, neat map!
GrazzasOnlyFans
GrazzasOnlyFans
Hey Mazu - Do you remember where the softlocks are?
Really cool map. Heavy with environmental storytelling. Difficulty is on par with vanilla, which is great. Nice lighting. Gorgeous mood & atmosphere in general. Interesting layout and windyness. Verticality is top notch. Recommended to anyone! PS. Perhaps the map could win with Copper, it could me more challenging. But that's subjective
Really impressive map! Good pacing, challenging combat and stunning visuals. At the beginning I was finding it too linear and blocky, wishing it had more inventive room shapes, but later on I was convinced and surprised of its quality in its tour to the top. A must-play!