Apollo releases his first standalone
Q1SP. The map is introduced with a rather amusing
story, the idea of reverse-engineering a Quake
facility... that strikes me as a good one.
The theme is dirty industrial,
with appropriate textures and nice dark lighting.
However, the designs generally consist of medium
sized squarish rooms and hallways. There is
some interesting multilevel design, but this
is the exception rather than the rule. This
is not to say that the map is uninteresting
or looks bad, but when compared to other releases
in similar categories (for instance say CZG03's
layouts, or JJSPQ3's use of industrial textures),
it just doesn't look as good.
Still though, there is mood
in this map and besides that the gameplay is
pretty good. Most of the time it's fair, though
at points large amounts of ogre directly above
you can certainly hinder your progress! There
were a couple battles that were great fun, including
a fiend ambush near the gold key and the map's
finale. This is one map that knows how to end
- the last area was very impressive and the
combat provided a good challenge - a good deal
more difficult yet more enjoyable (arena- type
combat as opposed to the difficulty of trying
to snipe ogres around corners and on platforms)
also.
If you like industrial maps,
then you should certainly get this. Higher-Synth
is a great first map and a good map in its own
right.
