Holy....

Nice :D 

felt like a really high quality speedmap (no offence intended). Some nice designs and top notch texturing. 

okay, so loved this.

seemed like a kind of concession... or a compromise... but not in a bad way...

Like, when a really abstract band becomes more accessible, but without becoming shitty. the core E4 ness of Negke mapping is still DOMINANT in this map, but it is somewhat toned down with regards to the tougher puzzles and eccentricities that are kind of de rigeur in the rest of your catalogue... fuck, I don't know. I think you did an amazing job with this - it is another step forward in your inevitable dominance of the Q1SP sphere. 

I like that. 

Btw. does anyone care about 100% spoiler demos for the secrets, or have you already found them yourselves? 

well i've already posted a 100% demo above and nobody seemed to care 

And I watched it, but forgot it was 100%. So, #33 then. 

Well I wouldn't mind watching a better demo, specially from the maker himself (or on some other skill!). Mine wasn't that planned... 

first play on hard skill:
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/mappi_h_ankh.zip

carnage on skill 3 - almost all monsters and all secrets just below 6 minutes:
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/c_ankh.zip 

fun to watch and I even learned a few things :) 

Pure Negke Go(o)dness.

Managed to get a half assed run on my mother in law's Macpro laptop(like walking with tied knees): awesome stuff, as usual.

default skill(I suppose it's normal)

29:52

3/6

78/82

Shall play all other skills, I suspect there's more greatness to be savoured.. 

I'm going to play this again, at night, so I can see it better, and give better comments. The brushwork and angles are amazing in this. Errr yeah. 

carnage skill 3 demo with 3 kills missing. time 3:37s
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/carnagea.zip 

If I didn't watch some of the demo's here I might have missed the shackled Chthon. That scene looks fantastic. 

Is amazing. Probably the best brushwork I've ever seen in a Quake map. The angles are mind-boggling, I bet the brushes are begging for mercy after what Negke puts them through. The sheer amount of angulation, architectural details, and consistency throughout. All the little roof details and those angled grey beams....you're a genius. Hell the Eyes secret has better architecture in that one room than most old-skool Quake maps have in a whole map.

Gameplay is great too, both times I played it. The first time I got a bit narked with the twin Chthons, this time I saw the cells respawn, so that's fine. I like some of the wee surprises too. Good use of a variety of monsters.

Only problem is it's quite DARK. 

twin chthons? Is that a Hard only feature? 

the boss fight is completely different on hard. i much prefer the hard finale, tbh. 

Here is skill 2 100% demo as well as a skill 1 boss walkthrough and a carnage run.

Shangler: Woot. But how dark is DARK? Too much to see at night, or more in a E4M4ish kind of way? 

IMHO. 

if you were going for e4m4 levels, i'd say it's about like that. except with less huge pitch black shadows than e4m4 (which is good). 

The quality of the lighting is good, it just all needs to be upped a bit. 

I thought the flames were a bit too bright at 300, so I lowered them to 250. This is the main difference to id style.
It's another case of different monitor charactistics and settings. 

What it's a case of is what on average looks good on my monitor which is obviously factually correct.

I think you and Orl should do a joint map! Or you and Madfox. 

 

brushwork a+++. great layout. not a massive fan of the texture theme but it was cohesively put together.

gameplay just above average (skill 1) - got really low on health at one point until i realised where most of the medkits were, after that never really properly challenged or surprised but there was enough to do

loved the shackled chthon. ending was confusing though and not really that satisfying

in summary, very well put together; barely any negative points. but save for the brief chthon moment above, nothing really left an impact on me or made me go 'woah'.. so even if it is technically awesome, there have been a lot technically simpler maps that have blown me away more than this did. still solid though