Kona's Grindmill takes the humble square and
transforms it into an implement of destruction.
The map is full of squares, being basically
square in shape, with a square outdoor plaza
in the middle, and four smaller square rooms
in each corner of the larger quadrangle. Long,
straight hallways connect each of these outside
rooms, while two staircases and an elevator
link the sunken plaza floor with the elevated
outside structures. Does this sound boring?
Trust me, it's not. The author has added just
enough irregularity to keep the underlying geometric
shapes very interesting, indeed– each
of the outside rooms varies slightly from each
other, and a couple of corridors branch off
the main form and jut into the plaza. The geometric
pattern is further deviated from with the addition
of a lone room– placed midway along one
perimeter of the map. A teleporter on one wall
links to one of the corner rooms on the far
side of the map, while an elevator sinking through
the floor links to the plaza via a jagged rock
tunnel. The byword for this map is connectivity–
and there is gobs and gobs of that. A well-interlinked
design is fairly easy to secure on map as small
and symmetrical map as this, but the author
wasn't one to rely on that characteristic alone.
It seems that every room offers some exit or
view onto the plaza floor; no matter where you
go on this map a way to cut directly across
the board through the plaza is only mere steps
away. A simple design but an elegant one–
excellent. (A)
Atmosphere
Gothic is a word that has become much maligned
in the Q3 lexicon. This style of architecture
and level design relies upon pointed arches,
rib vaulting, and flying buttresses, along with
moody lighting, gloomy stonework, and a smidgeon
of Victorian influence to invoke a atmosphere
that is oppressive, mysterious, and desolate.
Unfortunately, the total overuse of the Id stock
texture set with those same characteristics
has doomed the style to unpopularity in this
game. Every so often, however, you get a custom
map that comes along and does gothic just right,
and reminds you why gothic in Quake 1 was just
so damn cool. This is that map. The screenshots
speak for themselves– mixing equal parts
dreary stonework, rusted metal, and spooky white
and green lighting, this map just oozes with
personality. Although there's nary an arch to
be found, what there is that is gothic can be
accredited to Rorshach's superlative Jackboot
textures, which keeps the gothic gloom and doom,
while also adding a touch of oppressive industrialism.
The plaza floor is coated with cracked and dry
soil, while the elevator tunnel seems to have
been hacked out of the living rock. In a nice
throwback to its gothic Q1 forebears, the teleporters
have the same dead grey static pattern seen
there. Against the dark and grimy background
of this map, only the clear blue night sky overhead
and ivory white moon stand out– adding
a nice bit of color contrast. Superlative. (A)
Technical
Gameplay is FAST. I mean not just speedy, more
than swift– this map flies, especially
with 3 or more players. There's no delay between
the booting of the game and the onset of swift
and savage hostilities– when my playtesting
team loaded this one up, the mad rush to be
the first to snag the biggest, baddest pieces
of iron was tantamount to a herd of stampeding
water buffalo. This "run fast and die faster"
style stayed constant until the very last frag.
One of the things that makes this map so fast
is the connectivity built into the main atrium;
it's amazing how many entrances to that room
there really are. If you're on the plaza floor
an extra degree of paranoia is warranted, as
turning your back for just a second will induce
all manner of baddies to spring up out of entrances
you didn't even know were there. Additionally,
no corner of the board is more than a few feet
of having some sort of field of fire into the
plaza and over whichever fool happens to be
running to snag the Megahealth placed out in
the center. Another feature which keeps gameplay
in different areas tied together are the long,
straight hallways that connect nearly all of
the corner rooms. With nothing to block line
of sight, players in one room can usually see
what is going on in the next, with obvious results.
There's nothing more amusing of throwing a ridiculous
volume of fire down a hallway and into a group
of brawlers who don't even know you're there
until your cap catches them right in the neck.
I'd also hate to be the sad sack who is running
down a hallway with another player in pursuit,
only to find someone else entering the hallway
from the other direction. (Can you say "Shit
Sandwich?") With four corner rooms, it
doesn't take a Nobel laureate to figure out
where the guns are gonna be– the PG, RL,
and RG all have their own rooms, while the humble
SG shares space with the RA. The GL sits right
above the elevator in the only non-corner room,
while the YA sits mid-hallway on the opposite
side of the board. The PG and the RL seem to
be the guns to own here– with their considerable
punch and rapid rates of fire, these weapons
are the most aptly suited to every confrontation
you're likely to find yourself in. Although
the author suggests 2-4 players, as many as
five is not out of the question– player
lives will likely be short enough that weapon
availability will not be a problem. Fed by small
size of the map and the paranoia from a layout
that never gives you a safe moment, Grindmill
is a fast, furious, and fabulous fragfest. (A-)
Conclusion
This is a great map, and one that is quickly
becoming the favorite of my playtesting team.
It's got a great layout, visuals to match, and
unbelievably fast gameplay fueled by outstandingly
good connectivity. Not one to miss. (A)
