Sapphire - Orbital Research

A techbase (orbital space station?) that lacks gameplay and tries to make up for it with detailed corridors and very neat effects. Unfortunately the really gorgeous visuals (awesome skybox, great textures and their usage, good lighting) cannot make up for the corridor gameplay. This is one of those maps that feel very copy and pasted, because you entweder one corridor after the next and apart from some different colored doors they all look the same. All key pickup rooms look the same, all corridors look the same, only one room at the beginning of the map has something more unique to it. Corridors are usually fine, if they are connected to actual rooms and not other corridors. It's a pity, because everything else is really great and with a little bit more effort (i. e. more "unique" rooms inbetween) it could have been so much better.

i'll go ahead and say it, but I never understood the hate that Tormentor gets. he makes ZDoom wads that are generally fun, and this is one of those. only one map, it's a very well-done techbase that looks snazzy. the gameplay definitely isn't a strong suit though, since most of it is "shoot what's in front of you" there are six color keys, and the base does have a few branching paths, but ultimately the gameplay is quite linear and the ambushes after key grabs are quite easy to anticipate. some newer monsters to slow the pacing down a bit, but they aren't too much except for the boss at the end. pretty typical for a Torm ZDoom map. is that why it's hated? I still don't understand. but I had some fun with this still.

One of the best maps I have ever played. I have played many many maps. Probley spent more time looking around than fighting. 5/5/06

I like this wad it's very detailed and fun to play I'm a gzdoom nut so I love levels created using it I look forward to more levels from you Tormentor667

That nifty skybox and reflections sometimes look much better in quality than your average 3d accelerated FPS game! Wow,. I could never expect such a gfx quality from Doom! The gameplay is a bit forgetable though. 4/5 - Optimus

rox

Very Impressive! i love space maps and this one rules. tough, few things. First, the bloodcolor could be dark green (for Hell Knight and for Baron) and caco dark blue.

Looking awesome this map is great 5/5

Yet another shitty sparkledog in doom form.

This is a really nice wad , not your best, but still very nice and it looks great. It's a nice filler untill TNT4 comes =) So f**k the usuall negativity of doomworld.com's newstuff. 3,5 stars in my opinion.

3/5: Looks good, but what matters more in my book is gameplay. Which suffers here, sadly. If only he had taken the time to make sure this played well... -- Wills

What's with the whining here? This is all good aside from the corridor madness

Good, but not that great. Looks nice but it's boring. It's more a showcase of (useless) detail than creativity and well designed gameplay.

realy hard but its all good

Gets boring quite fast because of the predominantly squarish designs and linearity. The section after the purple door doesn't help, same goes for other lengthy hallway areas where monsters can only come from one direction. There are several rooms that provide a more interesting challenge (like the YK room or the room with 3 switches) but that's not enough for me. 3/5 - Belial

This map kicking ass LOL -Daimon

OOH SHINY FLOORS

The atmosphere is perfect! Download it now! 5/5

This one is fantastic! - Zalewa

Good. Elll.

This is a beautiful map with great atmosphere and style. Gameplay is linear and predictable, but the battles are fun and exciting, and require some tactics to get through. Not for everybody, but if you appreciate aethetics, you will find this exceptional.

Good level, decent gameplay. Worth a run. Very nice visuals. I think i'm tearing up deathz0r ;( -Fusion

Best map in a long time, from a solid author. Standard yet fun gameplay, nice aesthetics. Give it a looksee and judge for yourself, don't listen to everyone's opinion, make your own. --Darkfyre

Outstanding. Absolutely NO COMPLAINTS. Extra Textures used very well. Gameplay is a bit repetitive but its always exciting, the pace never slows down. Just fuckin OUTSTANDING. Felt much like unreal. Great job on the atmosphere,its the best ive seen so far for a single map. Complete with endgame graphics and all. Which is very beautiful by the way with the 2 moons and the beach. ZDoom features used well and sparingly. Not overdone just cuz one knows how to use it.

This is an extremely good-looking level, although if you strip away the looks it's surprisingly simplistic. It reminds of a typical Quake II map but with more monsters, in the sense that it's a methodical and generally one-way blast through a set of good-looking locations. Eventually becomes a bit of a chore. The difficulty is mellow until the very end, where you face three archviles and a chaingunning, BFG-ing spider mastermind. Lovely skybox, nice design.