Autumn Haunting is the last mapset [Kona]
produced and it proves to be a quality ending
to his mapping career. It’s the sequel
to his previous and, in my opinion, best mapset,
Carved in Flesh. While not quite as epic as
the former, Autumn Haunting is an excellent
addition to any Quake fan’s singleplayer
library.
The design theme of the mapset is that of a
medieval castle. Traditional [Kona] architecture
returns with a series of open air courtyards,
overlooked by a second level, and connected
by twisting hallways. There are wonderful details
about, most notably the darker, moodier lighting
that helps contrast the theme of Autumn Haunting
from its predecessor, which was a bright and
ornate temple.
The first map is a moderately long slog through
a challenging and nearly continuous series of
foes as you proceed room to room deeper into
the castle. There is some backtracking, as you
follow a standard “find the key, open
the locked door, get to the slipgate progression”.
Thankfully, there isn’t enough backtracking
that it gets annoying, just enough to break
up the linearity of the level. The second, and
final, level is short, but powerfully challenging.
There are only 32 enemies on normal, but you
face almost all of them in a single end fight
of massive proportions! The fight takes place
in a large, oval courtyard with sufficient cover
and circlestrafing room, but there are about
5 waves of foes. Due to the length and difficulty
I saved several times mid-fight. It’s
a tough challenge, but not frustratingly so.
In keeping with the theme of the series there
are many custom monsters including [Kona] favorites
like the Nehara Baron, floating wizard specters,
Super Nehara Barons, Fiendlings, Giant Fiends,
nailgun Ogres, the arch-vile style Shambler,
and several powerful Death Knight variants.
Custom monsters make up a majority of the opposition
and up the difficulty of normal to a challenging,
but still reasonable, level.
The previously introduced extra weapons, the
positron beam, flame launcher, and freeze gun
also make a reappearance. So does the firebolt,
which replaces the lightning gun, but is more
of a graphical change than anything else. The
positron beam is the only real welcome one,
with it’s powerful and large blast radius.
The flame launcher and Freeze gun are still
as mediocre and unnecessary as they were before.
Don’t worry, you still don’t need
to use them to get by and all the standard weapons
appear as well, except the lightning gun.
Ammo is sufficient throughout both levels,
but you don’t have much to waste. Ammo
placement is such that you’ll find yourself
having to repeatedly switch between the nailgun
and the double barreled shotgun as you use up
one and then the other on alternating groups
of enemies. Health powerups are a bit on the
generous side and, depending on your play style,
you will probably have too many rockets by the
end of map 2, but this really doesn’t
hurt the map’s challenge very much.
As his final work, any fan of Kona should play
this. Make sure to play “Carved in Flesh”
first though. While it’s not his best
release, it’s very close and proves to
excellently bookmark his body of work in Quake
mapping.
