Escaping Bastille starts you off in prison on Quake's world, a world which happens to be very green, colorful, and full of rivets. The map is dominated by modified Id metal textures, but bears no resemblance to the Id metal theme. In fact, it's one of the most successful original themes I've seen in a long time. The level of detail, mostly on a 32x32 or higher scale, is considerable. Even less-detailed rooms (like the first one) are still filled with busy texturing. No complaints about the electric/sky/lava lighting either. The craftsmanship of the level is also impressive: besides the abundance of riveted beams all over the place, there are also many curves and multiple angles that are unusual, if not unprecedented. The "machinery" of the prison is a great touch, though it would have been even better if some of it actually moved.

Bastille starts off quietly, but all hell breaks loose once the monsters realize you have. With mostly small groups of monsters teleporting in, the unfortunate escapee will soon learn to fear the one modification I don't like: grunts that can aim (either that or they have a wider spray of pellets.) Staying on the move is no longer a good defense so prepare to take noticeably more damage than expected. There aren't many trick situations other than simply facing the modified monsters, which is challenge enough. There are a few secrets, hard to find and not very useful. They could have contained health rather than unnecessary weapons.

Forsaken ditches the green scheme in favor of a more rusty runic atmosphere, using more original E3 textures (or at least only marginally modified ones.) There's only slightly less detailing than the first map, again on a large grid. It's more outdoors-oriented than Bastille, with numerous open courtyards and eye-catching building structures (both screenshots.) The first room and the silver key area have been over-lit in an attempt to create ominous shadows - using an alternate fade distance to get the same effect would have been better (although the latter is a neat piece of beamage in its own right. Sunlight is also inconsistently used, but there's nothing downright ugly about it. Aside from one out-of-place bloodstained room, the map is coherent and successful on par with the first.

Combat is another story since it sometimes strays from "challenging" territory into "frustrating." At the beginning of the map, you need to face several difficult situations in quick succession before getting to the health. There are also too many areas (usually the courtyards) where a closing door not only blocks off retreat, but usually makes an attempt at running away result in death. I can understand this is probably done to force fighting into the courtyards, which is a good idea, but there must be more fair ways to do it. There are two secrets, not quite enough to offset the above but very helpful.

Combat-wise, the intensity is turned up considerably with large ammo/armor caches to complement the large gangs of monsters teleporting in. The fighting is frantic but rarely or never becomes as impossible as the troublesome parts of Forsaken. As for the finale itself, I'll only say that it succeeds completely in adding a highly appreciable new challenge to an old situation.