Like the other Mel Soaring levels the plot for this one is pretty irreverent and more than a little odd. You play the eponymous Mel Soaring, a soldier in the Quake 2 campaign, who decides to take on the Strogg leader because he's bored. As you do.

Once into the level you get the usual objectives to make your way through the Strogg defences, butchering anyone who gets in your way, until you find the leader. It's fairly typical stuff, but no less effective because of it. Just don't expect something stunningly original and you'll be fine.

As with most Quake 2 levels in this day and age, the framerate is pretty much perfect throughout.

The design of the level incorporates both tight, cramped, corridors and jagged canyon areas. While the outside bits are uniformly pretty well designed and good looking, the insides (which make up most of the level) are a bit of a mixed bag. Several areas, such as the start, are nicely detailed and have plenty of interesting things to look at. However an equal amount of areas are bland, plain cubes with a couple of things stuck on the walls in an attempt to spice them up.

Basically the visuals aren't bad by any means, but they're just not stunning. Fair enough I suppose, this is quite an old level and the author's next Quake 2 level (Mel Soaring 3) is great to look at. If you wanted to you could look at this as an indication of how the author's style has progressed over time. Alternatively you could look at it as a Quake 2 level stuffed to the brim with angry bad guys. Whatever.

Although there are no new textures in the level, what has been used has been quite well chosen and neatly aligned. Personally though I thought that some areas had perhaps a couple of textures too many leading to a slightly messy look. Anyway, as I say the texturing is fine and doesn't detract from the atmosphere at all. One nice thing to note is that the author has used several of the Palace textures in the level, which is a welcome change from the endless generic base levels. Lovely.

The lighting is polished throughout the level and really helps to bring the environment to life. There's a good selection of light and dark areas, plenty of colour has been splashed around, and some areas feature subtly flickering lights which is cool.

For the majority of the level the monsters are well placed to put up a good fight without resorting to cheesy tricks. Another groovy thing is that pretty much any time you do anything important several monsters will spawn in areas that you've already cleared. This really makes you paranoid and keeps you on your toes which is a good thing. On a couple of occasions I came charging round a corner and blundered straight into a Gladiator. A quick change of the underpants later and I could kick their behind, but the constant wariness is great.

The only downside to the monsters is the end fight where monsters clearly spawn in front of you as you kill their team mates. If done properly this could have looked like some cool teleporter effect, but as is it just looks silly.

Spread over the level are both of the shotguns and machine guns, some grenades and a rocket launcher. I would have said that the balance of weapons was pretty much spot on, as adding any of the more powerful guns would have been overkill on a level of this size. No complaints here.

In addition to a plentiful supply of armour, health and ammo, spread across the level are several secrets, each of which is handily labelled. Personally I always like it when a level has secrets that tell you which one they are as it gives you a clue when you've missed one. Of course this invariably means that I spend the next five minutes scampering around like a chimp searching for the damn secret, but what the hell, it keeps me off the streets.

Suitable music plays throughout the level which works nicely, but I found ambient sounds were a little lacking. Possibly this was down to me not being able to hear them over the constant screams and gunfire. Also the Quake 2 sounds got in the way as well! Tiddy boom tish! Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Yes, I am available for parties and social events, very reasonable rates. Ahem.

If you were to list everything that should be in a typical Quake 2 level then the results would look pretty much like this one. So while it features a fair amount to do and some nice combat, originality isn't its strong point.

Errrr, nope. Next question? Seriously though this level actually feels even more like a computer game than most do. It's probably the kooky plot and obviously linear puzzles, coupled with plentiful (and sometimes obvious) secrets that do it. Probably.

Fortunately the level features easy, normal and hard difficulty levels. I say fortunately because on medium difficulty this level can be an absolute swine to complete. I often found myself fighting a Gladiator in a cramped, cluttered corridor, or taking on several Gunners and becoming snagged on a sticky out bit of scenery. I wouldn't say it was particularly unfair, just be prepared to make frequent use of the quick save key. And Valium.

Around an hour or so I'd say. As mentioned above the level could take a lot longer if you're not such a hot player.

Lots of bang bang shooty action crammed into the level.
Some bits of it look pretty cool in that classic Quake 2 sort of a way.

Can be difficult to move around due to cramped and cluttered design.
Not startlingly original.

This is a fairly old skool level and it really does feels it as you play. It doesn't offer anything startlingly new or surprising, but there's plenty of full on combat here if that's what tickles your fancy. Oo-er, etc. If you're pining for some traditional Quake action then you won't be disappointed with this level. If however you only play the very best of levels then you'll probably want to stay clear.