Custom levels for Quake, Quake2, Quake3 and Half-Life by Shaun [Kona] Ross

ARCHITECTURE
This being a Deathmatch map, the level consists of a main atrium with a few rooms branching off. The architecture is for the most part very well done, with some nice angled structures. Good texturing all round, although I'm not sure that the cyan textures match the rest of the (mostly iD dark blue) map, and a nice, contrasting skybox.

WEAPONS / AMMO

You start off in the atrium, surrounded by ammo, so tanking up right here you get the SSG and the SNG. True to its deathmatch origins, there's no NG. Ammo feels plentiful, yet suprisingly well measured - I exited with 20 rockets and 3 shells, and you get better weapons as you progress, up to and including the lightning gun. The weapons are well-spaced around the map, and you get a new one at just about the right time.

HEALTH

Health, however, is not no easy to come by. I came close to dying a few times, my health dropping to 5 or so, then staying at 30 for a few minutes until I opened up a new area.

MONSTERS / COMBAT

All the runic monsters are present and correct, well organized so that they get tougher as you progress, starting out with ogres and ending with a three-shambler finale. However, monster placement isn't brilliant - for the most part I was able to find a nearby pillar to hide behind whilst picking off ye olde shalraths with the RL, and shambler placement is appalling - I don't think I was hit by a single lightnning bolt. In general all the monsters in the atrium appear far too far away to be a threat, which makes annihilating them disgustingly easy, for the most part. In the side-rooms, there's more interesting combat, but still not challenging in most areas.

SUMMARY

The big problem with this map is that there's no feeling of progression, because you have access to nearly the entire level at the start - it's obviously a DM map that's been converted to single-player. Although this would make quite a fantastic end-piece to a map, on its own it's not brilliant - it's just a blast-fest, with no real feeliing of immersion in the game. If you want some target practice against medieval foes, download it, otherwise, don't bother.