(Explorer's Hat for Icon)

I played skill 2 and found it to be just fine. Not really that hard and supplies held up.

I like to explore so I enjoyed this map. I also liked the visual theme. I uncovered all 5 secrets without too much trouble.

I'd enjoy more maps like this. 

Another nice release. I also ran out of ammo a bunch, as I missed the nailgun the first time through also. Making it more visibly obvious through the window would have made the section where you pick it up a really strong introduction to how this map wanted you to get items/stuff. (The red cast of the lighting on weapons tended to just make them darker and harder to see anyway).

A valuable experiment. I really hope we start seeing more stuff like this - quake that needs to be played in ways other than classical straightforward quake. 

I ran out of ammo a lot and died but I apparently suck at exploring. I will say that this is maybe the first Quake map I've seen where I liked the colored lighting. It seemed to work well. 

I like the look and gameplay. I think it was a good idea to have the 'exploring' bits not be a whole new path but always visible to encourage detours. That way you cant really complain about choosing the wrong path and skipping over stuff so not having ammo (although I see some people did exactly this). oh well, i liked it. 

Liked the feeling, the look, the "almost everything at the same level of height" gameplay and loved the alternate routes to gain ammo-weaps-health.

Here is the first run on skill 1

http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/xplore_ci475.zip

Please, I want more to explore!!! after I'll found out all the secrets in this one :)-- 

First run:
17:42, skill 2, 83/83 kills, 4/5 secrets.

A very competent map, with nice architecture & texturing. The gameplay was pretty standard, and having been heavily prewarned to explore, perhaps the whole "hidden stuff" idea was lost?

The coloured lights were understated and I think rather well done. The icey blues of an alpine base, in sharp contrast with the warm yellows of old filament lighting.

The ending with 2 the two doors... erm why?

Yeah, good map. I enjoyed it. Thx. 

I liked the ending with the two doors 

"The ending with 2 the two doors... erm why? "

I was thinking that was a punishment for those not playing with colored lighting. Green door? Uh... :) 

If it is so it's a cool idea 

Firstly, I guessed right, without coloured lights, so suck it down bitch.

Secondly, it's not. It's nothing to do with gameplay or anything. In fact, being at the end of the map, it's not even attaining the lofty heights of a gimmick, it is merely irrelevant. 

I used the blue one, thinking it was a trap, as usually done (like choose this one if you want to survive: oops, it was a joke: you are dead :P)
Anyway, it was cool :P 

 

Just - saw - shots . . .

Meh. (Jet Lagged, I'll try later ;P )

WTF - Screen shot with missing stuff . . . Showing massive sprawling layout of nice lighting and interesting-looking textures!!!

...OK, just saw the shots on your site...
So you're the secret screenshot poster from before!!! Oooh - such a dark horse.

Seriously man, I'm gona check this out ASAP

(Seriously JET LAGGED, head dizzy, cant - sleep . . . (!!!)) (:-o)

Also suffering from sun - stroke 

played on skill 0, very interesting and enjoyable map. fun2xplore. I have never seen similar. 

First run -
Skill 3 / 20+mins / 81/83 / 3 of 5 secrets

I thought it was a great little map. The lighting was fine. Ran in Fitzquake no problem.
I was expecting a real punch in the face but had enough ammo ? :/ (146 nails/34 shells)
I took my time, gave each beastie exactly what was needed to take them down.
The ogre helped me out with the vore and only needed 2 shots in her ugly face. Saw no Smablahs. Hence my monster/ammo count I guees.
Quality little map with some nice details.
Thanks :o)

H 

"Firstly, I guessed right, without coloured lights, so suck it down bitch.

Secondly, it's not. It's nothing to do with gameplay or anything. In fact, being at the end of the map, it's not even attaining the lofty heights of a gimmick, it is merely irrelevant." 

...it's a good map. Good solid style, nicely made. I like the somewhat disturbing looking hanging room that you get the lift into, good piece of design that.

Good gameplay. A little sparse on the ammo perhaps but well balanced apart from that. The end was a bit weird and weak but the secret Shamblers were good - a challenging arena to fight them in. I can see how if something when wrong that part could be hard. It was a good combo of base monsters and normal monsters - funnily enough the normal monsters made me more wary but the base monsters took more damage, it seemed, lol.

I liked the exploration of course, but I explore a lot anyway so it didn't feel that different to me, but felt good. I liked being able to see lots of the side areas and then work out how to get to them.

Some improvements would be maybe a bit more spectacle a la end room, a couple more hectic combats especially to finish, and perhaps a smidgen more ammo (or a GL!). More exploration would be cool too. 

compared to cogs, you put combat back in the spotlight and made the button pressing less intrusive.

- Doors that don't open yet should give some kind of feedback, either "opens elsewhere" or just a sound.

- Lifts should be automatic after pressing the button the first time. Pressing the same button twice or thrice sucks.

- I would have liked a GL, if there was one I didn't find it.

- I still think that buttons should be "logically" related to the objects they switch, I said this elsewhere, but personally I find it too unlikely that someone switches a door with a shootable button high on a wall in some other part of the map. It destroys the illusion of being there, because it's obvious the mapper did it because he could, or because he found it clever. Not all buttons in the map were like this though. Most were placed somewhere sensible.

Nice map, personally I'd like even more weight on the combat and even less on the button pressing. Some good ideas in it. Also good examples of "see it now, find it later" which is always nice. The stairs that came out of the floor were good, when I first passed them I thought "?" and when I finally saw what they did, I went "Ah! Of course!" so that was a nice detail, much better than another lift.

Thanks, will replay this one. 

again, brilliant textures, great colored lighting, fun layout. 

http://python.net/~mwh/xplore_mwh_049.dz

All the grunts make it pretty annoying. 

I wasn't that fond of this map. It had some nice design, good lightning and interesting textures. Just the gameplay wasn't thrilling enough.
Here is my first play demo on hard skill. It ends at the shamblers :/

http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/xplore1_ankh.dz 

Xplore was ok. Cool buttons around every corner, and interesting layout. The lift + shambler was too hard.

Found e1m1 rmx hard... which is great. Funny playing this old favourite with serious monsters everywhere. Just love the shamblers and the lightning gun placement. Replaying it on "hard", i saved up the quad for the final run. Sweet. 

A good sense of gloomy place and generally nicely balenced gameplay, although a final showdown would have been nice.

There were a couple of things that bothered me, brush-wise. The barrels seemed big and I didn't really get the idea of the spikes, but they're minor things.

2/5 secrets and a handful of monsters missing, so will be continuing to explore this one.

Cheers. 

with careful play it wasn't that much necessary to fully explore, but all in all a very enjoyable and good looking map. Thanks.

As requested, here's my first completed run:

http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/xplore_sw1st.7z