[ Reviewed by: Calyst ] - [ Date: Friday, 24th June, 2005 ]

In the time that Kona has mapped for Q1, he's built up quite a legacy of quality SP maps. It would be an understatement to say that Carved in Flesh continues that legacy. It's far and away his most stunning release in his entire body of work! More than a must-play, it's at once an instant Kona classic, and not only that, one of the best Q1SP releases, ever. It's not very often the Q1SP community receives maps that just plain sparkle and announce themselves in style as if they were on a red carpet, but Carved in Flesh does exactly that!

Indeed, this time out Kona's produced a unit that could be called a limelight stealer making the loudest fashion statement possible. It comes packed with a bold and brilliant new texture fusion that may literally cause your jaw to drop and hang open! The green stone is instantly captivating and makes you want to take a closer look. Go ahead and soak it all in, you'll notice these textures include cracks, marks, and faceted lines to fool the eye and make everything look real. And where this green stone meets the other visual components is just as handily pulled off. Running green and red trim lines accentuate separation between texture sets. The interlocking with the brown-brick walls and granite faces make the wooden doors look heavy even. Combination textures collate to form ornate "artwork" over wall areas. And smaller individual texture plates like windows, crosses, and pseudo-lights are applied liberally everywhere to provide a genuine "detailed" look.

And it really, really, really works. The textures do such an excellent job of covering everything up, they almost hide the actual architectural detail. Not that anything would need to be hidden here though, because Kona's complexity has been taken to new levels that surpass anything and everything he's done before. There are floor/ground impressions, "curbs" underscoring wall-floor grids, angled support beams, angled wall faces, curved pillars and supports, and slanted-off edging. The level of attention to detail is simply unprecedented, astounding, and mind-boggling! Not one corner or face has been overlooked. Even the rock faces are angled off to give them the right raggedy look. Level design like this is simply masterful.

Not everything is quite perfect, however. For this map pack, Kona's thrown in a myriad of custom monsters, a few of which are culled from other Q1SP maps, or other games completely, like Quake II. The Baron enemies return but the real meat is the cast of modified Q1 monsters with increased attack methods (like modified Fiends, Shamblers, Ogres, and Death Knights), and a few completely new ones. Not all of these mesh with the overall color scheme, and some of them could've been more visually distinct. And the three new custom weapons (a flame launcher, ice gun, and positron beam) are mostly useless, they require too much time to use in a game driven by action where the enemies are coming fast and furiously. They're good fallback if you run out of ammo for the standard weapons, but only then.

Not that you'll run out, but it's a good idea to keep an eye on the counters when the ammo/monster ratio is actually kinda tight. 63 enemies on the first map, 71 on the second, and 26 on the third, on Hard. And the lot of them demand lightning-quick movements and shots, especially since some of them can jump, and others have incredibly swift attacks, like one of the modified Fiends. Lots of varied combats result that follow more of a "break/action/cut" formula than a continuous one, to provide an extremely satisfying play. When you run into a monster, usually more and more will quickly get added into the mix, and then the action will break, only to follow up with another attack (either solo or by a gang). This may frustrate less skilled players, but it's a great way to do it because escalating fights are always exciting, and the custom monsters are great fun to go up against. The tougher ones only add to the thrill of the challenge regardless of which skill setting you choose, making sure that even Easy isn't a total walk in the park.

But what really sets apart Carved in Flesh from Kona's previous maps though, is the sheer epic scope. There are real set-pieces here, and every one of them is not only set in an appropriately sized space, they also feature solid, very challenging wave-attacks or multi-way fights. The multi-way fights are more prolific and staged very well, and the wave-attacks...are pure self-indulgence for circle-strafing elites. Of course you can't have epic without visuals to match, and Kona's brushwork more than lives up to the job. Major, major props to Kona for pulling off this absolutely stunning achievement. It's the landmark of his portfolio of SP maps by far including his final release Autumn Haunting! Carved in Flesh is carved in well-deserving Ten Four Gold!