I really enjoyed all of the maps. Kind of hard to describe - they felt like proper visual (and more) remakes, but still kept the old vibe for the most part. Good work, especially concerning the limit amount of time
(cough). Here are my skill 2 first run demos:
http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/rmx-pack_negke.dz (e4m1rmx is skill 1 - I didn't realize the setting had changed)
If I was to rate them, it'd probably look like this:
1. e4m1rmx
2. e4m7rmx
3. e3m5rmx
4. e3m4rmx
5. e2m1rmx
Ricky: Great style and construction. The textures and colored lighting fit the map well. Texture work is generally good, too, apart from a few bits. I liked the lasers and the (respawning) enviro suit closets. Found only one secret.. by accident. I also died once in the demo (the only time I died when playing these maps, and also the only map I played on skill 1, go figure), though mostly because I didn't remember how the original map was.
Zwiffle: Blue bricks and red bloody bones fit well together. I would have loved to see a nicely interwoven red brick section, as well. What I liked most about this map was that it retained all the oldschoolness the original one had, yet shifted its theme to another level. Gameplay was good, though I missed at least one or two classic moments. There're some misaligned textures and stuff, but that rather reinforced the oldschool flair. The ending could have had more beef and details - where was the rune, btw.?
Speedy: Nice style (totally obvious why you chose this map) and proper architecture to support the impression of a large and arcane windtunnel fortress of unknown origin. Brushwork was good, though texture alignment could have been better in places. There were numerous familiar and new areas which worked well together. The skybox could've been darker and more corresponding to the dark rock texture. Gameplay was very hard, I was constantly low on health and there were countless near-death situations, because of a serious lack of ammo and medkits. You would've quit and ranted not even half-way through the map, wouldn't you? ;)
Willem: Most traditional map of the pack - it was obvious you used the original map source for as a base. Still, it looks like a proper polish-up of the old map. There're some badly aligned textures and all, but that's okay as it conveys the same kind of oldschoolness Zwiffle's map has. Not sure how to evaluate the weapon balance - despite having read the text file, I only later realized one had to cheat to get the weapons for the map was faithful to the original entity-set. Some noticable changes, like an additional monster here and there, wouldn't have hurt. Looks good enough to make up for it.
Spirit: Most remixy map of the pack. I appreciated the approach, and it works well thematically. Too bad some areas were missing. Overall, it looked okay, but it definitely would have benefitted from more detail. Some areas were even quite ugly (though fortunately mostly dark enough so they were not that salient). Some sloppy brushwork and misaligned textures, too.