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Quake Brutalist Jam 2 - 30 maps wrought of concrete and steel
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Quake Brutalist Jam 2 - 30 maps wrought of concrete and steel
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- Thread starter Makkon
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Aww sheet, here we go again. (ironwail/normal)
Collecting my thoughts/notes (Some of this was on 1.01. I'm updating for 1.1 as I replay things):
Start map: Sombre intricate impressive piece of work. Easily a step above qbj1's start map. I had a little trouble with the surprise but it's fine, funny little gimmick anyway. Most importantly, the map tracks completed levels this time which is VERY appreciated.
more sand than oil: The sand draining mechanic was very fun, reminded me of some levels from Prodeus. That sand texture plays with brutalism very well. Top shelf.
corridor of stone: Cool map, cool aesthetic, easy to get lost but not a huge issue, final fight is too long. Drop the second wave of respawns, they are not fun. Maybe you can ignore the enemies and just hit buttons but there's not enough ammo/health for it to be fun otherwise. god/impulse 9'ed the final fight after a few attempts. Maaaybe if you went in strapped but the map was already very very long. My gas tank for banging my head against something was pretty empty at this point and I had to take a break after.
elude tranquility: I try to play sze maps when I see them as I feel bad for hating Pipework Powered Pillars. Opening feels very dwell. Had a little trouble with the triggers for some reason but I appreciate getting weapons immediately. Short but really fun, may be a tad easy on normal but that's fine (I had just come out of the end of corridor of stone so don't listen to me). A little jumpy but nothing like the end of pillars. The map building itself as it goes along with the purple skybox was very appealing
raw marrow: Been awhile since I played a Grue map. The opening room is very appealing. Really cool towering structure + sky way above aesthetic. All around great map. I got a tiny bit lost at one point but it was fine, like 2 minutes. Very last fight was fun.
Euclid's Malice. Yep, this is a Euclid map heh. Very enjoyable, definitely one to play on harder difficulty as normal was mostly cake (which I won't complain about as I've played Euclid's Nightmare on Nightmare). Fun use of color and the arenas are well constructed. The lack of weapons for awhile would have sucked if it wasn't obviously setting you up for infighting. Since it is that's great.
castle p'heenis (lol): Obvious e1m2 throwback and very fun. Custom music was sick. Not quite Entombed in Stone from qbj1 but still top shelf.
high places: I'll have to redo this to find all the secrets, cool aesthetic (love the couches) and a fun slaughter fight at the end. Parts of it kinda reminded me of Euclid's style.
the cut: Really cool transitions. That giant wall opening is stunning. Very clever use of knowing where the player will stand on the vore encounter. Juxtaposition of the dark brown with white was fun. Short but it made an impression.
site z-374: Immediate awesome impression, that opening vista is great. Gives me hrot vibes. The custom music is cool. I really liked the fights and encounters, slaughtery without being obnoxious. Weapon and ammunition pacing was excellent. The escape sequence reminds me of the end of Mazu's sewer jam 2 map. One of my favorites of this pack so far.
blood vapor: I love the pink concrete (my partner just said she enjoys her brutalism fabulous too). I also love immediately getting a double barrel and the custom music is good too. I ran into a similar slope issue right after the room with the spawn that I did in zetabytes map. The giant man was cool and the grinder. Short and sweet with an unforgettable aesthetic.
trespasser: Very disconcerting music (that's a good thing). That giant warehouse was really cool. OSHA approved fire stairs. Short with only six enemies but cool. This would have fit really well into Disconcerting Unease.
in the shadow of the weapon: This immediately reminds me of Urn from Remobilize which I really fucked with, and then turns almost escher. The alcoves in the walls with the particle effects are really nice. Another map with OSHA approved emergency stairwells. The encounter early on where a bunch of enemies are lowered around you reminds me of a fight from the Foundry in Doom 2016 (was very doom in general which was cool). I really enjoyed the use of color and lighting effects throughout. It just gets better and better, really fun use of elevators, the fights at the portal are fun, inventive set pieces, the presentation overall is just top notch. And that ending arena was just awesome. Easily my favorite map in the pack.
concrete catastrophe: I really like the secrets on this map, especially that cheeky first one. First fight is very enjoyable, good mix and arena. It's a good sign when I walk out of the first building and go "Oh my." Not super long but well done with fun fights. Good use of vores and a close in shambler without making me want to tweeze my grundle hairs.
the nullspace: Aptly named, interesting use of fog or lowered draw distance that I don't know I've seen in a quake map before. Not super long but really cool with a decent fight at the end, I kinda want to know like... lore around this.
towers of doom: This map was an absolute delight and wastes zero time fucking around. Open the door and you're treated to a killer cityscape and an awesome fight. City brutalism maps are so fun (kinda reminds me of the overpass map from the bridges jam). I love that with quake physics the half pipe works perfectly. Top shelf!
cat_city: Why is this call... ah. I see. Despite the author's note it's pretty good. I would put it in the gimmick category though it's got some cool architecture at the end. A little light on ammo but most fights you can simply run past so it's not a problem. The fight along the two catwalks with a shambler sitting in a corner not immediately awake is interesting if you didn't kill the stuff leading up to it heh.
grey matters: Really fun slaughter fight. The first room is a master class on telling the player YOU WILL NEED TO USE INFIGHTING on this map. Which you do, but it's not cancerous shit infighting like in Stonemasons, it's fun. Progression on the map needs work though. The switches are not really obvious on what they do and I spent 15 minutes running around at the laser puzzle thinking I was soft locked. I did eventually figure everything out, but I would remove them entirely and make triggers instead. The laser puzzle is unique but needs better feedback. A large chunk of the level sinking into the mountain dew code red was cool.
crumbled ambitions: Do more of this, please. This was a really sick aesthetic, hampered a little bit by being somewhat disjointed. Like where plush executive carpeting which you somehow did in quake (how did you do that?) leads into an area with shipping containers. Despite that there's a lot of cool bits here, the initial vista with the giant steam vent (and later where you overlook that out a window), the computer room, a conference room?, just a whole bunch of really great stuff. Please do more maps like these.
brutalism in space: Rare low gravity map. Very fun, good fights (that is a lot of dead scrags). The saucer at the end was cute. I did end up running around for 5 minutes trying to figure out how to unlock the gold key when it turned out I already had it. Only issue I had. Custom music was fun.
the world tree: Dumped out. Cool aesthetic. Extremely un-fun to actually play. Tried god moding it for a bit but go tired of falling off ledges. I'd like to see this, but not with platforming in blackness and 100 vores. (edit: I noclipped this. I was 100 feet from the exit. oof)
elemental my dear ranger: Sombre music works well with the aesthetic. I liked the subtle skybox. Gameplay is okay, needs some healthpacks after the platforming section before the elevator (or I didn't find them, I didn't go looking too hard). Pretty short but that's fine.
firedaws-i breen: I liked it! I'm not usually into platforming and environmental hazards but these were pretty generous on normal. The room with all the ogres that you can just run through and watch them grenade everything from above was fun.
boulevard of broken ribs: Cool set piece at the start, short with some fun little fights. I really liked that final arena.
ahioren's nightmare: The author has a.... unique definition for the word "secret." Quick little map. Should probably be played on harder difficulties as it was a cake walk on normal outside one dubious jump.
bleak city: I don't usually like "half life" start/heavy plot maps but this was great. Really cool city with some fun storytelling and the fights were good. End fight being a quad / pentagram rampage was fun.
ruff concrete: Very fun. Very abstract "american gladiators". ***Really fun replay on nightmare***
vol 1: ctrl + alt + concrete: Similar opinion to ruff concrete, with the slight complaint that I was getting a little tired of "enemies in front and random scrag spawns and shoots you in the back" by the end of the map. I have been chewing through most of the pack over the last like 6 hours so it may just be that.
pollinator: I really like the early aesthetic and the music. I'm mid on the final fight, that flood of spawns, vores, and early hitscanners makes a good chunk of it just luck. You will die until you know how to time the quad.
the brutal life of a spawn: I identify with this map on a spiritual, legal, and grammatical level. That music changed my life. (it's a gimmick but I was amused)
Mazu's map was really fun. You WILL need to use infighting.
Collecting my thoughts/notes (Some of this was on 1.01. I'm updating for 1.1 as I replay things):
Start map: Sombre intricate impressive piece of work. Easily a step above qbj1's start map. I had a little trouble with the surprise but it's fine, funny little gimmick anyway. Most importantly, the map tracks completed levels this time which is VERY appreciated.
more sand than oil: The sand draining mechanic was very fun, reminded me of some levels from Prodeus. That sand texture plays with brutalism very well. Top shelf.
corridor of stone: Cool map, cool aesthetic, easy to get lost but not a huge issue, final fight is too long. Drop the second wave of respawns, they are not fun. Maybe you can ignore the enemies and just hit buttons but there's not enough ammo/health for it to be fun otherwise. god/impulse 9'ed the final fight after a few attempts. Maaaybe if you went in strapped but the map was already very very long. My gas tank for banging my head against something was pretty empty at this point and I had to take a break after.
elude tranquility: I try to play sze maps when I see them as I feel bad for hating Pipework Powered Pillars. Opening feels very dwell. Had a little trouble with the triggers for some reason but I appreciate getting weapons immediately. Short but really fun, may be a tad easy on normal but that's fine (I had just come out of the end of corridor of stone so don't listen to me). A little jumpy but nothing like the end of pillars. The map building itself as it goes along with the purple skybox was very appealing
raw marrow: Been awhile since I played a Grue map. The opening room is very appealing. Really cool towering structure + sky way above aesthetic. All around great map. I got a tiny bit lost at one point but it was fine, like 2 minutes. Very last fight was fun.
Euclid's Malice. Yep, this is a Euclid map heh. Very enjoyable, definitely one to play on harder difficulty as normal was mostly cake (which I won't complain about as I've played Euclid's Nightmare on Nightmare). Fun use of color and the arenas are well constructed. The lack of weapons for awhile would have sucked if it wasn't obviously setting you up for infighting. Since it is that's great.
castle p'heenis (lol): Obvious e1m2 throwback and very fun. Custom music was sick. Not quite Entombed in Stone from qbj1 but still top shelf.
high places: I'll have to redo this to find all the secrets, cool aesthetic (love the couches) and a fun slaughter fight at the end. Parts of it kinda reminded me of Euclid's style.
the cut: Really cool transitions. That giant wall opening is stunning. Very clever use of knowing where the player will stand on the vore encounter. Juxtaposition of the dark brown with white was fun. Short but it made an impression.
site z-374: Immediate awesome impression, that opening vista is great. Gives me hrot vibes. The custom music is cool. I really liked the fights and encounters, slaughtery without being obnoxious. Weapon and ammunition pacing was excellent. The escape sequence reminds me of the end of Mazu's sewer jam 2 map. One of my favorites of this pack so far.
blood vapor: I love the pink concrete (my partner just said she enjoys her brutalism fabulous too). I also love immediately getting a double barrel and the custom music is good too. I ran into a similar slope issue right after the room with the spawn that I did in zetabytes map. The giant man was cool and the grinder. Short and sweet with an unforgettable aesthetic.
trespasser: Very disconcerting music (that's a good thing). That giant warehouse was really cool. OSHA approved fire stairs. Short with only six enemies but cool. This would have fit really well into Disconcerting Unease.
in the shadow of the weapon: This immediately reminds me of Urn from Remobilize which I really fucked with, and then turns almost escher. The alcoves in the walls with the particle effects are really nice. Another map with OSHA approved emergency stairwells. The encounter early on where a bunch of enemies are lowered around you reminds me of a fight from the Foundry in Doom 2016 (was very doom in general which was cool). I really enjoyed the use of color and lighting effects throughout. It just gets better and better, really fun use of elevators, the fights at the portal are fun, inventive set pieces, the presentation overall is just top notch. And that ending arena was just awesome. Easily my favorite map in the pack.
concrete catastrophe: I really like the secrets on this map, especially that cheeky first one. First fight is very enjoyable, good mix and arena. It's a good sign when I walk out of the first building and go "Oh my." Not super long but well done with fun fights. Good use of vores and a close in shambler without making me want to tweeze my grundle hairs.
the nullspace: Aptly named, interesting use of fog or lowered draw distance that I don't know I've seen in a quake map before. Not super long but really cool with a decent fight at the end, I kinda want to know like... lore around this.
towers of doom: This map was an absolute delight and wastes zero time fucking around. Open the door and you're treated to a killer cityscape and an awesome fight. City brutalism maps are so fun (kinda reminds me of the overpass map from the bridges jam). I love that with quake physics the half pipe works perfectly. Top shelf!
cat_city: Why is this call... ah. I see. Despite the author's note it's pretty good. I would put it in the gimmick category though it's got some cool architecture at the end. A little light on ammo but most fights you can simply run past so it's not a problem. The fight along the two catwalks with a shambler sitting in a corner not immediately awake is interesting if you didn't kill the stuff leading up to it heh.
grey matters: Really fun slaughter fight. The first room is a master class on telling the player YOU WILL NEED TO USE INFIGHTING on this map. Which you do, but it's not cancerous shit infighting like in Stonemasons, it's fun. Progression on the map needs work though. The switches are not really obvious on what they do and I spent 15 minutes running around at the laser puzzle thinking I was soft locked. I did eventually figure everything out, but I would remove them entirely and make triggers instead. The laser puzzle is unique but needs better feedback. A large chunk of the level sinking into the mountain dew code red was cool.
crumbled ambitions: Do more of this, please. This was a really sick aesthetic, hampered a little bit by being somewhat disjointed. Like where plush executive carpeting which you somehow did in quake (how did you do that?) leads into an area with shipping containers. Despite that there's a lot of cool bits here, the initial vista with the giant steam vent (and later where you overlook that out a window), the computer room, a conference room?, just a whole bunch of really great stuff. Please do more maps like these.
brutalism in space: Rare low gravity map. Very fun, good fights (that is a lot of dead scrags). The saucer at the end was cute. I did end up running around for 5 minutes trying to figure out how to unlock the gold key when it turned out I already had it. Only issue I had. Custom music was fun.
the world tree: Dumped out. Cool aesthetic. Extremely un-fun to actually play. Tried god moding it for a bit but go tired of falling off ledges. I'd like to see this, but not with platforming in blackness and 100 vores. (edit: I noclipped this. I was 100 feet from the exit. oof)
elemental my dear ranger: Sombre music works well with the aesthetic. I liked the subtle skybox. Gameplay is okay, needs some healthpacks after the platforming section before the elevator (or I didn't find them, I didn't go looking too hard). Pretty short but that's fine.
firedaws-i breen: I liked it! I'm not usually into platforming and environmental hazards but these were pretty generous on normal. The room with all the ogres that you can just run through and watch them grenade everything from above was fun.
boulevard of broken ribs: Cool set piece at the start, short with some fun little fights. I really liked that final arena.
ahioren's nightmare: The author has a.... unique definition for the word "secret." Quick little map. Should probably be played on harder difficulties as it was a cake walk on normal outside one dubious jump.
bleak city: I don't usually like "half life" start/heavy plot maps but this was great. Really cool city with some fun storytelling and the fights were good. End fight being a quad / pentagram rampage was fun.
ruff concrete: Very fun. Very abstract "american gladiators". ***Really fun replay on nightmare***
vol 1: ctrl + alt + concrete: Similar opinion to ruff concrete, with the slight complaint that I was getting a little tired of "enemies in front and random scrag spawns and shoots you in the back" by the end of the map. I have been chewing through most of the pack over the last like 6 hours so it may just be that.
pollinator: I really like the early aesthetic and the music. I'm mid on the final fight, that flood of spawns, vores, and early hitscanners makes a good chunk of it just luck. You will die until you know how to time the quad.
the brutal life of a spawn: I identify with this map on a spiritual, legal, and grammatical level. That music changed my life. (it's a gimmick but I was amused)
Mazu's map was really fun. You WILL need to use infighting.
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Splitting out bug reports from my wall of hurf blurf:
site z-374: BUG REPORT: Something is broken with the slopes in the room with pillars and 6 cells (the second cell fight, screenshots attached). Specifically in the corners between the walls and the pillar (but I could also get it on the other slopes), walk forward into them and you'll get stuck constantly. It's bad enough that it killed me several times.
blood vapor: I ran into a similar slope issue right after the room with the spawn that I did in zetabytes map.
vol 1: ctrl + alt + concrete: BUG REPORT: This map is not linking back to the start map correctly. It's linking to bv2.bsp, which I assume is in spootnik's mini campaign he's working on. (edi, from comfys discord: Spooknit: I'll post an update in the discord and on slipseer, and if Makkon updates the upload it'll be there too)
site z-374: BUG REPORT: Something is broken with the slopes in the room with pillars and 6 cells (the second cell fight, screenshots attached). Specifically in the corners between the walls and the pillar (but I could also get it on the other slopes), walk forward into them and you'll get stuck constantly. It's bad enough that it killed me several times.
blood vapor: I ran into a similar slope issue right after the room with the spawn that I did in zetabytes map.
vol 1: ctrl + alt + concrete: BUG REPORT: This map is not linking back to the start map correctly. It's linking to bv2.bsp, which I assume is in spootnik's mini campaign he's working on. (edi, from comfys discord: Spooknit: I'll post an update in the discord and on slipseer, and if Makkon updates the upload it'll be there too)
I'm wondering if it's just the angle. Maybe raise the floor so it's flatter? I ran into the same problem on a very steep slope in Blood Vapor. That might also have been something I ran into in remobilize jam (I should probably raise an issue with Ironwail but not tonight) Regardless of my issues in that room site z-374 was still a highlight for me.
here is good! I've got them added, and slotted for the 1.1 release. sorry we didn't catch this during testingUpdate: replace my maps with these - these will lead to start.
Thanks techtrogs
@Makkon please let me know if this here is good enough, or if you want me to send them directly to you for some (maybe) 1.1 update.
Okay, might have a solution to the slope problem without applying the laser band-aid, currently applying it to all slopes and then I'll give it a quick test run after (this might also have the adverse effect of making the Shamblers stronger, as now they might be able to run up these new slopes)
tbh shambles running around there is fine. If you post the map somewhere I don't have a problem poking at it.
The thing I did ended up working (basically cut the slope from the wall below it, attached it to the floor it probably should've been attached to in the first place, then put them at a less steep incline, dunno which part of that fixed it but I'm not questioning it at this point), should be changed in the next update
Just wandering through start map for now, cause I have to go out for work. But the hearttrending music, the sheer desolation of the place grips something deep inside. Wondeful and tragic at the same time. I had to stop playing qbj1 because it made me feel so melancholic. This start map is a true work of art. Can't wait to play the maps. Thank you guys for another incredible notch in the Quake concrete wall !
Makkon updated Quake Brutalist Jam 2 with a new update entry:
QBJ2 1.1
Read the rest of this update entry...
QBJ2 1.1
Read the rest of this update entry...
Tried the update. Fixed completely. I even found the unmarked secret. Top shelf!
I'm replying to this because I wanted to pick out some things I particularly agree with (or not) from skill 0, and you already wrote all the things ...
I forgot to mention this in my review, so I'm calling it out here - the sand draining is very cool.
On the other hand, I found Corridor of Concrete far too hard (because it's not got difficulty scaling - it felt balanced for skill 2 or so?) - this was one of the maps I started out thinking "hey, the artistic vision here is great", and transitioned to "okay, I'm just going to turn on god-mode and check out" before I was even half-way because of the difficulty making everything crawl. Which is a pity, because aesthetically, I am all for this map and the transitions in it - although I also did get lost a lot on the various staircases.
I have to say, I thought this was going to be unplayably hard, given Euclid's Nightmare... but it was actually pretty fun (although the start is a bit stressful with all the enforcer-turrets).
Another two I'm just quoting here because I didn't mention them in the review, but I enjoyed (it's amazing how much more dramatic E1M2 looks in scaled-up brutalist high-texture, in particular).
This was the other "map I bounced off of because it's too hard" - I know you're supposed to use infighting, but I still couldn't get past the first room before the patch, and I dunno, it's really not my jam at all. (Other maps which are infighting-oriented in the pack I was fine with, but this is egregious.)
Yeah, 100% on this. It looks awesome, but I really need a flashlight or something to play it.
I dunno, maybe I just need to delete the music track and try this again. As it was, I just did not get into this.
It's true, it was - but I'm quoting here because it also has some nice affordances on skill 0 (for ex: the lava-moving-platforms puzzle has a teleport trigger just above the lava which put you back on the starting side if you fall off, for example). I think, other than a bit where I got lost for a while trying to remember where the silver key door was, this was probably my most consistently "fun" of the "really long and expansive" maps in this pack.
I forgot to mention this in my review, so I'm calling it out here - the sand draining is very cool.
On the other hand, I found Corridor of Concrete far too hard (because it's not got difficulty scaling - it felt balanced for skill 2 or so?) - this was one of the maps I started out thinking "hey, the artistic vision here is great", and transitioned to "okay, I'm just going to turn on god-mode and check out" before I was even half-way because of the difficulty making everything crawl. Which is a pity, because aesthetically, I am all for this map and the transitions in it - although I also did get lost a lot on the various staircases.
I have to say, I thought this was going to be unplayably hard, given Euclid's Nightmare... but it was actually pretty fun (although the start is a bit stressful with all the enforcer-turrets).
Another two I'm just quoting here because I didn't mention them in the review, but I enjoyed (it's amazing how much more dramatic E1M2 looks in scaled-up brutalist high-texture, in particular).
This was the other "map I bounced off of because it's too hard" - I know you're supposed to use infighting, but I still couldn't get past the first room before the patch, and I dunno, it's really not my jam at all. (Other maps which are infighting-oriented in the pack I was fine with, but this is egregious.)
Yeah, 100% on this. It looks awesome, but I really need a flashlight or something to play it.
I dunno, maybe I just need to delete the music track and try this again. As it was, I just did not get into this.
It's true, it was - but I'm quoting here because it also has some nice affordances on skill 0 (for ex: the lava-moving-platforms puzzle has a teleport trigger just above the lava which put you back on the starting side if you fall off, for example). I think, other than a bit where I got lost for a while trying to remember where the silver key door was, this was probably my most consistently "fun" of the "really long and expansive" maps in this pack.
Makkon updated Quake Brutalist Jam 2 with a new update entry:
QBJ2 1.2 update
Read the rest of this update entry...
QBJ2 1.2 update
Read the rest of this update entry...
