Starslave

Absolutely gorgeous map. Enjoyed hunting for secrets and it has a challenging learning curve in the last arena. I enjoyed the concept, although maybe the damage was too steep for lower difficulties.

Just finished playing this. Really great map, great gameplay overall and the attention to detail made the lore messages and secret areas interesting to find!

Finally got around to playing this. Well, Bal aesthetics and Mazu gameplay, the best of both worlds. The layout was somewhat reminiscent of Elden ring and Star wars Fallen Order, the sections are very well integrated together and convey the feeling that we are only exploring a small fraction of a much larger complex.

The only map that I've ever been interested enough to read lore in, you can tell the author knows how to write. I enjoyed whack a shambler and the map is near perfect up until the end, I feel that concept seemed cool on paper but in practice it doesn't work that well (I played on 1.0) so maybe its changed now but you would get hit behind cover still and monsters would push you out into the open I just resorted to dying a lot and learning the path and then just yoloing it, I wish the story had a proper slow moment to wrap up things instead it just ended up abruptly as I tried not to die. The scale in that area is awesome though.

I am very torn about this map. From a technical perspective the map is of course an absolute masterpiece and as a non mapper I can hardly imagine how much work goes into creating something like this. On the other hand, I was happy when I finally finished the map and could move on to something easier and less strenuous. Nevertheless I have to give 5 stars for the work.

How can you take such a beautiful map and screw everything up? First, great fun with Shamblers hiding in the floor, and then the sun theme, beautiful dark atmosphere and... the map is a stupid arena where you give all your weapons, an infinite amount of ammunition and off you go. Why?

Masterpiece. Perfect.

Like Comfy's previous maps, I find this really hard to give a simple rating to. I played this map on Skill 0, and can't imagine playing it on a harder setting.

There's some incredibly impressive design and setpieces here (the final section is both visually impressive and also ties that into its new mechanic in a natural way)... but it's also *really hard* in places, including the final section, sometimes in ways that are super stressful.


Especially, the starlight damage mechanic in the final section made me feel pretty "constrained", despite being v cool - and when you add the rapid firing tracking turrets to the mix in the later parts, I was mostly just in a panic and not actually *looking* at anything anymore. (Which is a shame, because it means I didn't really know what was going on in the final room, "progress wise" because I was just running around.)

It's not clear to me how you could resolve this on Easy without actually removing one or more mechanics - the issue is the overload of having to manage too many "urgent" impulses all at once, when they're mostly conflicting.


That said, the entire design concept is very impressive - and the extra vores-from-the-sky encounter if you go back outside after doing the pre-gold-key-door section is very cool.


I found... 13/25 secrets - and I saw at least 2 more which I just don't have the movement skills to get to. (Unfortunately, one of those gives you the only rocket launcher in the map - a case where the map is harder for people who probably need the help more?).


Anyway, 4/5 - 5/5 design.

I thought it was an incredible map. Very detailed. I have completed it on hard and have enjoyed it very much. The ending requires saving many times. The visuals are incredible. A special detail what happens when you return to the beginning.

great map! i played on normal and only really had a problem with the end and its mechanic. i save-scummed a bit while dying several times, but that actually made it a lot of fun once i figured out a strategy of where to pause and where to just run past/through stuff. definitely going to be a love it/hate it section for people.

other than the end, well i guess it depends on people's taste for combat with lots of enemies, but there's a lot of really fun combat set ups and set-piece moments in this map. i also liked the silver key random item dispensers. plus the map just looks cool too, so... yeah it rocks!

Top shelf, very fun and balanced appropriately for normal (and not as ballbreaking as Heel on normal). Once you complete it once there's a bunch of clowny stuff you can easily do to speedrun.

5/5 for
alone

A super ambitious map that does really well at what it's trying to do. It's not perfect, being Quake and all, but I definitely appreciate the creative ideas in this, and they're executed probably as well as could have been.



That being said, I had a great time with this map. Nice work, Comfy!

Really cool quad runs, honestly possibly overtuned up until the big set piece of the map. I'm interested to see how the map would have worked with the 8 second mini quads instead, keeping the enemy count and ammo the same. I LOVE the amount of rings of shadow that can be found in the last area / big set piece area. I also prefer this turret tracking section over I No Longer Fear The Ranger, way more manageable to dodge while now being focused on traps and enemies as opposed to a crazy fire rate (again the ring is awesome here). The Whack-A-Shambler fight works really well, I was honestly afraid it would be too fast. My minor nitpicks would be the water diving sequence being possibly too long and not the most fun to navigate but great to look at (high tech Egypt pulled off well) and some shadows/"tall"-ish walls not protecting the player at the end. Perhaps the "wind tunnel's" location could have been communicated better but it was not hard to find, not many avenues to be lost in, mostly a matter of the player getting stressed running from enemies while getting toasty. Super glad to have had the chance to finally play this, since this was originally intended to be a Reload Magazine Jam release.

The map is sub'lime, its a beauty.Played on nightmare.....completed after about a zillion saves, runs on latest quakespasm no problem, no bugs etc etc etc

Unplayable. Even on Easy. Hordish crap. I do not approve such gameplay at all. Just no. 3 only for visuals - they're really good actually. Really-really-really good talented visuals. Not just good but gorgeous and immersive. Why the heck such a map could have been ruined with such a gameplay? Why of why? I loved the atmosphere sooo much. Lighting. Geo. Everything is sooo unique and otherworldly. Just praises. Oh and notes! They're great and add A L O T to immersion. Loved 'em all notes. Just great... And then THIS gameplay which I cannot even call gameplay. I don't understand. The map could have been a masterpiece


Damn. I was waiting for this map. Watched some mapping streams. And now I cannot even play it, just a fest of annoyance & unpleasant gameplay. It feels like a crime. I am on rally demanding the redux for usual players, who wish to be immersed into this world