Review by DrCrypt

People who have been following my reviews (Colin Phipps) will know that I have a perverse jones for a level designer named Nicholas Bell. Nicholas Bell (go check out my reviews of dmturm, dmpits, dmifst, and dmprtl) makes some damn fine levels... the problem with his levels is that he always nails every thing in a level on the head, and then fouls up really badly on one aspect of the level that makes me give it a bad review. So why am I starting out a review of a level from Oliver Nowak by talking about Nicholas Bell? Because this level plays like a Nicholas Bell level done -right-. Give it a five.

This level just kicks ass. For one thing, it has the sort of monster placement I like... legions of slavering monsters attacking you dozens at a time. There is nothing more satisfying than a really bloody level, where you almost feel your vision is blurred red from all the crimson gore that has spewed into your eyes at the hands of your trusty shotgun. This is one of those levels. There are just hundreds of imps and demons and former humans to contend with in this level. There is a healthy dosage of Barons in this level. I always like to see a few Barons in a level to give it an edge, over a cyberdemon or spider. Gunfights are exciting and bloody, a lot of times with nice architecture to help you beat the odds, like strategically placed barrels, etc.

Speaking of architecture, there are a variety of settings in this level that manage, despite their variety, to blend in well together. I don't like narrow passages, which this level has, but they are in such small variety and handled so well (re: they are not pitch black and are not hopeless labyrinths) that I won't dock for a personal taste. I didn't notice any texture misalignments. The theme, whatever it was, seemed to be fairly steady. Also, there are some really nice looking areas in parts, such as of the screenshot, that are a pleasure to kill in.

So go get it. A 5. Excellent old school wad. I'm sort of curious about this level's history now. It is fairly old, but it only just showed up in cdrom.com's newstuff directory. Furthermore, there is a text file in the newstuff directory, but not one in the zip, and I'm curious as to how such a good level could have remained unknown to cdrom.com's hallowed halls for so long.

Nuff said. Giddyup.