Rim 2 - Cere

This is actually from 1999, not 2006. It's a map with an idea similar to rim.wad but this time on a larger scale, plus it's a desert instead of the sea. It has a kind of unique mood to it and there is a little bit of neat parkour in the yellow key building but, I don't know, I feel like something is missing, perhaps good action? Also for some reason I can't perform the jump to the switch that opens the blue key: I just keep falling on stairs.

I've seen worse, this isn't much better, but its a bit better. The level is way too bright and there isn't much detail. Textures clash and the gameplay consist of nothing but searching for keys and blasting away an occasional imp. 2/5

Urgh. My goodwill ran out with the other map. This is vintage August 1994; a large, mostly empty and barren base almost uniformly textured in silver. Plays a dreadful version of Barber's Adagio; given the inspiration I think the author meant to put in Khachaturian's Gayane Ballet Suite. Would take months and months of work to be acceptable for a January 2006 map.

Slightly better sequal to Rim - the Colony. Again, the basic idea, design, and atmosphere is great, but the execution is about average. The map is large but nondescript, with the same textures repeated over and over and barren architecture throughout. It ends up looking very basic, even though the facility with the interconnected silos looks interesting. With a little more detail, this could be a great map. ***

I didn't expect much when I began playing this and saw the rather simple architecture, but it's actually very atmospheric, and both the simplicity and the harsh lighting contrasts and stark shadows help with that. Of course, the map is rather easy to finish, without any big battles or the like, but that, too, fits in with the theme, I think. Nice one.