Great great great! I died 3 short of the finish :(
Really nice architecture and texture use. Excellent gameplay all around. Got stuck under 2 dufferent lifts and had to noclip out. Otherwise, I give it a 9+. Thanks for the great work. 

Skill 1
30:21
3/8
135/136

Was damn hard, but good fun. That was my second attempt, btw. My first attempt ended with me falling off he bridge and into the lava. I was more careful next time through to that area.

Map geometry was very nice, and very interconnected, although not always in the way that I expected it to be. A notable absence of doors that lock behind you (apart from early on with the 2 hell knights, and the ending of course), which worked well to my packratting style. Th sloped walls in the zombie area made tossing grenades around corners more interesting and not fully predictable, although if you aim carefully you can still take out the zombies without having a grenade go off in your face.

Nice weapon progression throughout, although I would've liked to have seen a section where you had just the single shotgun to take monsters down. Maybe not quite like in Marcher Fortress (where you have a fiend that's walking away from you, and it's a nice chalenge to down it in 13 shots without it hitting you), but maybe a few knights and scrags would've been interesting. Ammo felt like it was about right, although I did end with 77 rockets. If I were to play it again, I'd use them more often throughout the map, even though I felt that I was using them more than I usually do. Maybe I've been playing too many base maps...

Monsters were used well, although it would definitely have benefitted from a "spawn silent" function in places. Then again, that would've just made it harder. And evidently my fiend vs SSG fighting skills are a little rusty, as I took more hits that I would normally like. There was only really one or 2 bad monster placements, like the second fiend after you pick up the silver key (who can be shot without him reaching you) and a vore that spawned 1 level lower than the other one after the gold door. I did expect a bigger ambush after the gold key, though. Just having 8 scrags was a little disappointing...

End fight was interesting. Walked into the fight with a whole pack of nails, and ended up emptying them all into the fiends. Had to finish them with the SSG (normally not the problem) while picking up the 200 nail ammo and getting back upto 100 health, only to be greeted by 3 shamblers. Ran out of nails with only one dead and had to improvise with the SSG while taking a full lightning hit from both of them to take me down to 36, but I dropped them. 

i remember playing chsp1 when it was new and thought it was alright.. certainly not bad enough to warrant starting a new sequence of map names :P

needless to say this map is much MUCH better! the scale was perfect, as was the interconnecting vertical layout that made a great job of reusing rooms at different levels - one of my favourite aspects of level design. the architecture was consistently solid and well angled; there were a few awkward texture choices (blue vertical trims & tech floor lifts) but nothing major. did i mention how good the layout was?

standout point for me was emerging in front of the bridge at the top of the main atrium (with the 2 vores).. i found that really atmospheric. atmosphere seemed quite a strong point in this map overall actually; there was a good balance between forboding spacious areas that seemed to tower over you, and enclosed underground rooms that felt a little claustrophobic (in a good way). i also loved the multi-layered staircase willem referred to, one of those simple but neat designs that work so well in q1sp

gameplay was very good. i actually liked how the SSG was held back for a while at the start; i managed alright without it yet was all the more pleased to see it after being made to wait. combat was generally slightly on the easy side but always fun, and some of the ambushes were neat (if a little predictable.. some could have used a small delay so as to lure the player into a false sense of security). i agree with ijed on the shambler placement, namely in the main room after returning with the gold key - i ended up strafing around the ledge picking them off with the boomstick, which was a bit of a lowpoint. ending was satisfying enough, if a little standard

i only found 2 secrets (2 & 5 in spirit's list) but am annoyed i didn't get 7, especially since i managed to slopejump onto that bit to pop the shamblers from behind. unfortunately for some reason i jumped the other way, got stuck behind the button & had to noclip out ;/

still, brilliant map that suited my taste in q1sp down to a T. i noticed you plan on making a full episode... pretty big project to undertake but i wish you the best of luck with it. i started on one last year and am still only 40-50% done; it takes alot of hard work & dedication! i look forward to future releases from you either way. 

cannot add much to what has been said, superb map that leaves us wanting more.

I was recording the first run, but sadly my comp crashed shortly before end*, so here is just a screen for now (luckily I save on first runs):
http://shub-hub.com/files/images/fitz0000.jpg

*does anyone have crashes with an ATI on aguirRe�s engines (only?!), happens randomly for me and I have tried quite alot of stuff...:( 

I really enjoyed playing this, the runic texture set and style always strikes a chord with me and it was done great here, very professionally made!

Progression was good, I never got lost or anything silly like that, combat was intense and you have room to move for the most part, I felt the final combat area was maybe a bit too much (a nice touch that you play with the players head when the door closes, I laughed out loud there) with regard to difficulty, but not frustratingly difficult.

Secrets were very nicely done, its always nice when a mapper keeps the secret hints the same throughout the map and then just lets the player find them with his/her own skill.

So overall I really enjoyed this, and am looking forward to your next release :) 

I never tire of well made maps in this texture theme. Nice clean build - fun, long crawl and nicely atmospheric. Good 3D layout. Most battles felt fair but some multi sham bams seemed a bit harsh but not impossible.

I found all 8 secrets on my first pass through - no backpeddling required to find them. I liked that there were many and they were all fair.

Nice map - made my night. 

Very nice map, combat was really fun, layout was funky.

I also thought the shamblers were a bit dodgy. Ended up on the ledge before the GK door with only grenades and tried about ten times to grenade the two to death and failed, testament to my lack of skill. Even tried escaping from them up the lift shaft but was then ambushed by the two vores! Unfortunately I gave up here and had to restart the map because all my ammo was gone. More nails would have been fine - I conserved them very carefully in my second run through and those shamblers *still* ate all my nails and shells sniping at them from above.

The final showdown was hard but not impossible and really fun. 

I really enjoyed this! (Finally got around to playing it just now, it's probably been sitting on my desktop for months...)

Nice old school feel, interesting layout, I liked the fact that you were revisting areas from above (and also appreciated that there was always a new lift or staircase to get me back up if I fell down). I was never lost and always knew where to go to progress, but at the same time it didn't feel overly linear or predictable.

Combat arenas and monster placement were very good, there was always room to fight with adequate cover and movement options... as a result the ambushes were fun and never frustrating (the combat after picking up the gold key was a high point, it was an intense moment but not unfair). Similarly the end battle was very well done, it got the adrenaline going and was a fitting end to the map... I just scraped through, but had I died I'd have been blaming myself, not the map, which is always a good sign.

Item placement was also good (with the exception of the lack of armour outside secret areas). I had a decent weapon selection and enough ammo to get the job done AND have fun (didn't have to be super conservative). There was enough health, and it always seemed to be in the right place when I needed it.

Minor complaints (just nitpicking, none of it matters much):
- lack of any ambience was a bit odd in some parts, particularly early on (remember, most of us don't have music so no sound at all is weird).
- some monsters (just a couple) were placed in a way that made them ineffective. Nothing abnormally bad, just stood out because the rest of the monster placement was excellent.
- lack of armour on the main path. If I didn't get the RA before the last big battle, I'd have been royally fucked!
- lighting was not amazing (it wasn't bad, but a little more time spent on tweaking the lighting might have paid off).
- I got stuck once and had to noclip out (behind a button, not a lift, need more testing for this kinda stuff though).

I played on normal, and it was challenging but beatable on the first run (exactly as it should be). 29 minutes, and I missed 1 monster and 2 secrets. I'll definitely play through again on hard and try to find the stuff I missed.

Thanks for the excellent map, Simulacrum. 

I just played this yesterday and thought I should say that I really liked it. Do you have anything else in the works?