ARCHITECTURE
Everything done in a mix of medieval blues and
browns. Many textures are familiar from either
the standard Quake texes, or some other popular
texture sets like IKBlue. There were a couple
I didn't recognize, but they all fitted together
well to describe a kind of runic maze feel.
The layout of the level is very complex, but
the author guides you from one part to the next
with ease. I only got lost once, because I though
the hallway I was supposed to progress sown
was a dead end (the back was was dark so I figured
that it was a cubby-hole). There aren't really
any impressive structures, but the whole design
is clean and well made, especially the multiple
areas where you find yourself back in or next
to somewhere you'd been earlier.
MONSTERS
[Kona] has seen fit to include a number of
custom monsters in this one, with mixed results.
The axemen of doom return from Coven of Ebony,
and they fit in with the theme well, and at
the pace they move at, provide a good pressure
opponent. Some of the HellKnights have custom
skins, these guys are a little harder than normal,
otherwise no difference. Same for the reskinned
Knights, again using a skin seen before in CoE.
There's also some nail-firing ogres that wear
the boss-ogre skin from one of the mission packs.
These are possibly my least favourite of the
'modified' monsters, because they dont just
fire nails, oh no. They jump and move at insane
speeds too.
In addition to the modified monsters, there
are two new ones, also seen in previous maps.
Neither fit well into the theme of the map.
One is the Snakeman, wielding twin uzis. The
other is the Scorpion from Scourge of Armagon,
a monster which I really hate, and again doesn't
fit into the theme.
ITEMS
Early on, I found health especially sparse,
and there are only a very few armours available.
As you progress though, you start to get more
and more ammo, although health is still encountered
infrequently. All weapons are present and correct
except for the Thunderbolt, and the weapons
are awarded in the usual progressive style,
with the exception of the super-shotgun, which
you start off with.
GAMEPLAY
The first third of the map is fairly tense,
when you are coming up against fairly tough
monsters with little health and ammo. However,
when the ammo starts to flow in the remainder
of the map, things start to heat up and the
level becomes immense fun, tackling the gobs
and gobs of monsters that are thrown at you
with the plentiful nails and rockets. The ending
is a good, but a little less health might have
made it a bit more of a challenge.
SUMMARY
Tense to start with, then turns into a great
blast-fest. Get it.
