The Trickster's Domain

I liked both of pLaw's previous maps, but this makes them look decidedly amateur (and they are, of course, not).

I'm generally not much of a Metroidvania person myself, but the weapon gating works quite well here, tying in well with the overall level design—which is where pLaw knocked it out of the park.

Great big picture architecture and small-scale details, with excellent level flow and suitably nasty, well-conceptualised fights on Nightmare (but, crucially, never unfairly nasty). The last arena is a standout fight, one of the better ones I've played recently.

Very cool map and skybox. The puzzle style part of the map is very enjoyable. It's very playable on nightmare, but a bit hard in some aspects. The special buttons design are pretty clever, however I managed to open the super shotgun button with the nailgun.

• The shambler cutout scared me! Really good.
• The ending with the quad and the invincibility was very cool.
• Didn't like the fact that some pickups were infinite, but that's okay.

30 minutes playthrough.

I wasn't sure how well the metroidvania aspect was going to work going into this map, but I really liked how it turned out, and how simple the gating systems were as they tied into weapons.

I also really liked the little model of the final area with the buttons indicated just before the area itself.

Incredible map! Really interesting theme, nice encounters, clever flow and situational design. I even liked the mass encounter at the end.

Excellent map. The skybox was amazing, as was everything else.

Apart from the marvellous architecture and the great combat, I loved the idea of the Weapon Locks. Amazing how well Escher matches Quake.

top tier map, great encounters and enjoyable puzzle elements. took me 21 minutes to complete, no deaths.

I played this map three times, skill 0, 1, 0. Skill 1 because skill 0 contained some bugs Paul corrected. Skill 1 manageable for a slow player like me, skill 0 better to admire the wonderful architecture.

Remembering that I owned a MC Escher illustrated book long time ago I investigated the implementation of his art.

Even after long searching I could detect only 4 secrets including the thunderbolt. I couldn't puzzle out the secret with the pips (I had to google this, I'm from Germany), the eyes of a dice. Very clever. I'll give this another try after a break.

Great! An independent interpretation of Escher's art and a map full of suspense, thinking, shooting.

And, by the way, thank you also for "Derelict Freighter". I played this around one dozen times ....

Great aesthetic and a good show. I've been hankering for more metroidvania type maps in quake and doom from playing Metroid Doom and this shows how the same could be done in Quake.

The mirror room was an obvious high point and yes I found the secret.

This is an excellent map. Most has been already said in previous reviews. Sometimes I wish you could just turn the Perspective and go up the stairs on the wall or ceiling and keep exploring.

I liked the idea of the new weapon based gates and targets to unlock doors. Would like to see these in more maps. The only disadvantage is that you can stock up on ammunition to the maximum with these gates.

If possible I would probably try to limit the respawn of ammunition. Only respawn ammunition if the player has less than a certain amount of that type of ammunition, i.e. rockets < 10 , nails < 20 , gun < 50.
Retain the respawning of a box if player has activated the gate, regardless of the number of ammunition.

Amazing. Beautiful, fresh looking map, the skybox especially had my jaw hitting the floor, as did the
. So many great ideas.

Great use of monster ambushes and jumps, felt constantly on my toes but always given fair cover, escape routes or enough room to manoeuvre . End battle was immense.

Favourite new map in a while!

Does justice to both the Escher look and Metroid gameplay+navigation in a tight package.

Amazing map that constantly keeps you on your toes, both in terms of combat and level design. Definitely an early highlight for 2024!

Great map! My applause!

But to be honest, I prefer your maps with houses and forests more. ;-)

The mistake I saw: after shooting at the shambler layout, megahealth did not fall to the floor in front of him, but continued to hang from the ceiling. QSS 0.94.7

Imaginative, clever, and at times comical. Excellent map design, fantastic aesthetics. Really had a great time with this one.

So far all Plaw maps are best of the best. At least to my tastes. They look great and play great, so what else to wish for. And this 4th Plaw map is no exception - flawless map. Must play for any Quake fan

Easily the best take on Escher ever made in Quake. The secrets are insanely high-effort and unique without being too obscure, and this creativity is carried into the combat setups. The overall aesthetic but especially the skybox make it one of the coolest-looking maps I've ever seen, and the ideas in the layout and routing serve this theme really well.

Plaw is raising the ceiling, except the ceiling is also the floor and all the walls.