https://www.quaddicted.com/tronyn-reviews/backsteingotik_by_sock 

Several things got in the way of this, like my pc dying on me, but I finally got around to replaying this on Hard and recorded a demo. Found all secrets. Killed all enemies. The ending didn't glitch out either this time.

Here's the demo: http://taw.duke4.net/qsteins3.zip

Some notes;
If you're wondering while watching, I spun the mouse near the Silver/Gold wind tunnels to randomly choose an entrance.

Also, seems one of the secrets glitched out on me; Silver route while fighting Shambler. Was trying to figure out what I did. Only later when taking screens I noticed where the switch was... which is odd!

Still counts though! (cough) :p

I'm also currently writing up a review for this. Once it's ready I'll make another post. 

Fudge, just realised. Hard is skill 2 isn't it? Gets confusing when I've also got Doom on my mind! Wish there was an edit button. :p 

You should totally upload that to https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/backstein1e.html (demo upload form appears when you are logged in). You'd be the first person to add a 100% playthrough after me. :) 

Some day demos uploaded will automatically be video captured and uploaded to archive.org and Youtube. 

@Quakis, yeah I was thinking that as well because the ogres were not rapid firing grenades at you which is something they do on nightmare skill (3). I tried to check but the console would not tell me what skill level the demo was record at.

I got the impression from your previous comments you did not like the map so it was a pleasant surprise to see your demo. I get the impression from some of your movement that you were still discovering stuff. It is the first demo I have seen that got the SNG secret!?! I am not sure why you used the axe so much, you had so much ammo you could have filled a couple of trucks and still had plenty left! Looking forward to your review. :) 

It was just too fun to use here! :P 

I now understand why Kinn did a crazy fast axe mode in Marcher and negke included a special quad damage axe mode in Red Slammer! :D 

the only logical next step?
dual wield axes. 

 

 

And it's done; http://taw.duke4.net/2013/08/quake/backsteingotik/ 

Wow, thanks for the review, that is a lot of words! My only concern is that the thumbnails feel very dark (lack contrast) but apart from that I am glad you enjoyed playing the level. Plus I got a chance to check out the Motef review again, I still love the look of that level! :D 

Fantastic level. Loved the texturing.

Okay so where I'd make improvements:

The sk/gk vaults were very misleading for me. I was wandering around for a good 10mins completely confused (and lost) because i couldn't find the keys. I eventually figured maybe there are no keys and I'm just supposed to go to the exit. In which case you should have called them something completely different because silver key vault and gold key vault suggest there are keys to pickup. And in fact a vault. Where was the vault?

I played on medium, and most of hte level was a good challenge. The first crusher room I was too dumb to realise what they were, so just ran around rocketing everyone.
The final battle I used nothing but crushers so ended up with just about full ammo on every gun. I didn't end up using the lg AT ALL, and still had 80 rockets left, so in that respect it felt a little bit of a lacklustre ending. But then that's partly my fault because I'm an ammo hoarder.

One thing I did find is that for a large level, the texturing doesn't change at all throughout, so it does start to get repetitive and confusing as to where you are. I would have spiced things up a bit and introduced some different textures as you progress. When I was running around looking for the sk I got to a point where I had no idea how to even get back to the centre, so I had to noclip (which still took about 30sec to figure out).

Other than that, build quality and your detailing and architecture is fantastic, gameplay all well thought out. Can't wait for more! 

@Kona, wow I was not expecting to see anymore feedback for this map, thanks for the surprise! :)

The original design for the map was to have everything red brick (hence the name, gothic red brick in german) but it was too confusing so I quickly painted the silver/gold key sides different. It was too late in the design cycle to redesign areas to be different. In hindsight I should of realized this because no one except me is going to understand where everything is if the whole map is one texture pattern!

The vaults were really designed as something extra for treasure hunters. I don't normally do disconnected buttons because players will be confused but I thought Quake players would tolerate it better than most.

I really recommend you try a higher skill level, the hard setting is different and you will not have such an excess of ammo left! :) 

haha yeah i'm a bit behind on quake maps but I've almost caught up, pretty much just czg's honey to go I think.

Yeah I should play on hard not medium, I've played quake for enough years (17 years?) to not be such a pussy and upgrade to hard, haha. So the difficulty levels are probably more correct, just that I'm not playing to my skill level. 

that you still get to discover honey. that was released years ago! 

@Kona, it does sound like you need to play my maps on Skill 2, I do make sure that every skill level does play/feel different. Give the map a second play through, you might be surprised! 

Cool map. I think I won't have anything to add to what's said already by others. Here's my first run demo: http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/backstein_erc.7z 

<onetruepurple> fuck yea beat backstein on skill 3
<onetruepurple> 256/256 8/10

Extremely hard, but still manageable. I had more luck crushing monsters this time round than on skill 1, oddly. 8/10 secrets isn't too bad given that I completely forgot the placement of most of them, I guess playing Zendar a lot helped in this regard. ;-) 

 

@onetruepurple, yeah this map is hard on nightmare skill because the large arenas are difficult without cover, but if the crushers are used then it is not too bad. It was one of the design ideas behind the crushers, player controlled cover, something the player can create. The MH secret on the SK side is indeed too hard, I wish I had turned the demon door into bars, at least it would have been a good visual clue. 

Omg, in the time this map was release I downloaded and forgot to play because I went on vacation...

With this last post I notest I didn't play it...

Fucking awesome map 45 minutes of fun gameplay on hard...

Many thanks for this Quake pearl!

Demo in attachement;

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/tr_back.rar 

@Trinca, Thanks for the demo, its always interesting seeing how other people play your work. There were several areas you visited that were alternative routes. The map is designed to be played several times in order to have fun with every different route. 

I loved the layout... you are a very talent person!

even if I mapped for 50 year I never would make a map like you do :p