Quake Mods in Review: A Look Back at 2023

I’ve been ruminating on the lack of any sort of Cacoward style year-in-review for the Quake community lately. It’s understandable why this hasn’t happened - organising such a thing is a minefield of potential drama - especially in smaller communities, people have different philosophies with regards to what form these things should take and who is qualified to participate, and more importantly it’s a lot of hard work to organise.

That said, there was a staggering 556 single player Quake maps made in 2023, up from 354 in 2022. The big releases and jams get attention through the occasional post in the retro FPS threads on forums like Something Awful as they come out and perhaps there’s the odd article or tweet from a professional journalist and a handful of releases get wider attention from their inclusion as official add-ons, but there’s so much amazing stuff being put out that gets lost in the whirlwind of activity that is the now booming retro FPS scene.

Quake is an absolutely amazing game and the standard of custom content on offer increases year on year. Nowadays there’s a remarkable amount of diversity when it comes to mapping and the gameplay experiences they can provide, so much so that it has largely supplanted Doom for me as the game I spend most of my time with. This is partially thanks to community mods such as Copper, Alkaline, progs_dump and Arcane Dimensions, which each refine and extended Quake’s bestiary, weapons and mapping toolset in different ways, revitalising a core gameplay loop which has some notable limitations and flaws. More importantly, it’s due the hard work of the passionate artists, modellers, coders and musicians who not only pursue their own unique visions, but are active participants in regular community projects and always willing to provide support to newcomers to the scene. This collaborative atmosphere has nurtured a friendly community built on the foundation of a deep repository of knowledge and resources going back decades.

I strongly feel that the Quake scene deserves the sort of wider appreciation that Doom gets. To that end, I thought I’d throw in my lot and make a list of cool quake releases from 2023 that I think people should go and check out. I’ve broken it down into three categories, each populated with five entries: Episodes and fully fledged standalone projects with multiple maps, community map jams/speedmapping sessions based around a theme or specific gameplay mod, and single map releases.

Whittling each category down to five releases wasn’t easy and I know I’ve missed a handful of great projects.¹ This was especially true of the single map releases where selection was as ruthless as it was arbitrary. I want to stress that the following list isn’t in some sort of rank order and I’m not implying that anything excluded is to a lower standard. I’d heartily recommend going on Slipseer and Quaddicted (currently not being actively updated) to take a gander at everything that came out over the last few years and do your own further research..

Here’s what I was into this year:

Episodes:

Dwell by the Dwell team

My favourite release of the year by quite a margin and perhaps the best mod for Quake to date. Episode 2 of Dwell is a ten map odyssey from the finest talents the Quake community has to offer. Starting in the tightly wound rusting hallways and nukage pits of Fairweather’s Technomagical Transfusion, Episode 2 sees the player venturing through alien temples on shores of great seas, flooded underground caverns and tombs, heading deeper down underground until they reach the dank and rotting depths of the gigantic Abyss of the Troglodytes and the ancient being that lies beyond. The maps are exquisitely constructed with some of the finest layouts and brushwork out there: Vast stonework façades built into the side of rock walls, trimmed with aquamarine tiles and adorned by statues to strange reptilian beings. Crystal outcroppings and waterfalls over seemingly bottomless voids, all curtained by a dense purple fog. There’s a palpable dank that permeates the entire episode due to the omnipresent running water, stagnant pools and moss growing in dark corners.

The gameplay is an absolute delight too - extremely tightly paced and consistently challenging. Every map offers novel encounters that keep the player firmly on the back foot, such as fights across nukage as a biosuit powerup ticks down, contending with the approaching screams of unseen kamikaze bombers or lengthy underwater journeys bouncing from diving suit to diving suit. Starting out short and punchy, the maps ramp up in scale and intensity, reaching a peak with the penultimate map, Mazu’s magnum opus, Abyss of the Troglodytes. Clocking in at over an hour, it’s one of the longest adventure maps I’ve ever played and yet one of the most captivating.

Episode 2 builds on the original Dwell release from 2020 by introducing a raft of new weapons, powerups and enemies. I love the the satisfyingly chunky burst fire rotary shotgun and the almost overpowered, shambler-skewering crystal lance (railgun). They all have their situational uses without becoming dominant and blend seamlessly with the vanilla arsenal. Likewise, the haste powerup - which increases your attack speed substantially - and the berserk powerup - a double axe frenzy that speeds up and adds knockback to your melee swings - both open up new gameplay opportunities and synergise beautifully with each other and the quad damage. Of the three new enemies, the Brute is a standout as the ogre’s hulking older brother with a burst fire grenade launcher and big boot for anybody who dares get too close.

Each episode ends with a proper multi-phase boss encounter complete with increasingly taxing attack patterns and enemy spawn-in waves. There’s a degree of sophistication to these, the likes of which I’ve never seen before in Quake. There’s also a new start map to explore and a handful of excellent bonus maps hidden within it that unlock once you’ve beaten both episodes. If you’ve already played the original episode of Dwell, it’s well worth going back because the maps have been rebalanced and modified to include the resources added with the episode 2 release and one of the aforementioned boss stages has been added to replace the original finale.

With two episodes to go, Dwell still isn’t complete, but despite that it feels like a complete package and extremely professional for lack of a better word. What’s there is polished to a mirror shine. There’s a degree of cohesion in the presentation that’s rare - the original texture work and theming, the new enemies, items and a bespoke dark ambient soundtrack by Aleks with a K create an atmosphere that’s unique and elevates the project to something far greater than the sum of its parts. It easily stands alongside Arcane Dimensions, Alkaline or Copper with Underdark Overbright as the best the Quake community has to offer. I’d go further and say that for my money, it’s one of the finest FPS experiences out there. I just wish there were more episodes to play right now. I’d also settle for a community run map jam based on the Dwell progs. A man can dream.

The Spiritworld by Zigi & Newhouse

An homage to Episode 4 by the Finnish power combo of Newhouse & Zigi. Expect cruel traps and a lot of spawns just like Sandy Petersen would have wanted. Mapping duties were split between them in the style of Plutonia, each working primarily on their own maps and then sequencing them together. Both mappers have a distinct style and it’s easy to pick out who made what and get a feel for what to expect from a map as you play: Zigi’s layouts are refined and elegant, with a real focus on tightly designed combat scenarios and savagely difficult set pieces. Newhouse on the other hand makes maps that are more eccentric and sprawling with unusual, dreamy layouts and a chunkier old-school aesthetic, though thoroughly hostile to the core. What unifies them beyond a love of the design tropes and aesthetics of id’s episode 4 is an unwillingness to go easy on the player. You can expect to get hopelessly disoriented and lost and going to be fighting for your life every step of the way while contending with some nasty traps.

Some of the maps in this set are particularly long and exhausting, especially Newhouse’s Diyu which is a gargantuan non-linear trek through a twisted yet familiar landscape, structured with the chaotic logic of a bad nightmare. It has by far one of the most complicated layouts I’ve ever had to learn, but despite this the gameplay kept me engrossed enough to not just clear the map fully, but to sit down and figure out how all the parts fit together for a speedrun. Despite initial appearances, they do so quite elegantly. Zigi’s final map is the Palace of Hate on steroids - stuffed with monsters and traps with spawns in every dark alcove and corner waiting to catch the player off guard. This culminates to a savage final arena where you get to pick your choice of powerup before being plunged into a violent maelstrom of demons while dodging lightning traps. There’s also a pretty well put together boss arena and custom boss fight to cap things off.

The Spritworld was recently re-released as a community add-on for the official remaster port but in a somewhat different form. A couple of the larger maps were split in two and remixed so they’d run acceptably on console hardware and the time between releases gave Zigi & Newhouse an opportunity to make some other changes here and there. I think this is a fine way to experience the Spiritworld, but I prefer the original community release because it is so uncompromising and keeps the monolithic Diyu as one overwhelming experience. That said, the new map Voudou by Newhouse is well worth checking out - remixing half of the Diyu into a dark, menacing oversized nail and lava filled nightmare. Perhaps you should just get both and play through it all twice?

Tainted by DragonsForLunch

Eight maps for Copper by DragonsForLunch, Tainted is the platonic ideal of a vanilla-style Quake episode. The maps are all of an average length, vanilla themed and robustly constructed. Each map works around a different texture set and contains at least one memorable encounter or set piece that will stay with you. DragonsForLunch has a knack for dense interconnecting layouts that reuse vertical space repeatedly. Navigation is effortless and smooth, being guided from fight to fight and key to door without hesitation as easily if on a fixed track.

What really pushes the set from being good to fantastic is DragonsForLunch’s ability to place monsters to best take advantage of the spaces they are in and remain threatening without resorting to strength in numbers. Monster ambushes are designed to pull the players attention in conflicting directions, forcing improvisation and rapid target prioritisation. Unafraid of throwing spawns into the mix or pressing the player to advance forward out of immediate danger into the unknown or to distant resources, everything just flows smoothly in a whirlwind of aggression.

I can’t recommend Tainted enough for anybody looking for consistently engaging and action focused episode of Quake.

The Brutalist Volumes by Spootnik

A Copper episode by Spootnik that grew out of their contribution to the Quake Brutalist Jam 2 - a project which is another of my top picks for 2023. A set of six purely abstract environments with minimalist theming, consisting largely of irregularly sized concrete columns suspended over lava, nukage and void. Some areas are vast and wide open to the elements while others snake through narrow artificial concrete ravines. Though the maps are comprised primarily of grey orthogonal platforms and surfaces, the texture set created by Makkon gives these surfaces a lot of diversity through varying cracks, pockmarks, and crumbling corners. Spootnik has added highlights in the way of glowing candles, orbs and patches of greenery to break up the monotony with the occasional coloured highlights to guide progression or draw attention to important items. These are given depth and a sense of scale from the ambient lighting emitted from hazards like lava and nukage, the use of long shadows and distant fog. Combined, these elements serve to elevate environments that in lesser hands would be rather drab and strictly utilitarian.

In terms of gameplay, the maps are a marriage of platforming and high-pressure monster placement. The focus is a doom-style test of spatial awareness and control: Dodging projectiles while on narrow platforms and fighting for space without getting pushed down into the abyss. It suits Quake’s bestiary which is full of enemies that lunge forward and can attack while moving in a manner far more aggressively than Doom’s, not to mention the ever-present pressure from the chaotic rain of ogre grenades. Each map mixes up encounters in an entertaining manner: Not the Voids You’re Looking For (bv2) is reminiscent of Sunder’s Precarious with a focus on platforming and small skirmishes over the void. Goodness Gracious Great Walls of Fire (bv4) has some fantastic ambushes with monsters emerging from Lavafalls and a very intense Chthon arena fight that rapidly ascends into chaos. The secret map Electric or Treat features a maze of pillars, heavy resistance pressing in from all sides and a well stocked lightning gun and occasional quad. My favourite map is the end, which is a large arena encircling Shub with several very aggressive potential quad runs and an ever escalating tempo. Pure adrenaline.

Re:Mobilize by EmeraldTiger, Inky & the Re:Mobilize team

Re:Mobilize is gameplay modification focused on adding new movement mechanics to Quake and set of eleven maps built around them. It adds trampoline floors you can bounce off, a grappling hook that can pull you towards specific wall panels and wiremeshes that not only act as ladders, but also let you hang from ceilings while still able to fight. Quake’s movement is somewhat sacred due to it’s combination of simplicity and depth, so modifying it always runs the risk of souring that. However, Re:Mobilize deftly avoids any such pitfalls with these very simple additions that are implemented in a very natural way, augmenting your existing movement abilities without overriding or impeding them. With Quake’s strong air control, it’s easy to add a well placed well-placed hook shot or trampoline bounce to your bunny hopping, building momentum and adding height in a way that opens up a lot of opportunities for combat and progression. With practice, you can fly around maps with speed and finesse, raining down grenades and slingshotting away from danger.

The included maps are fantastic - widely varied in theme, scope and approach, they’re all extremely well polished and importantly, they all fully take advantage of the new mechanics in different, non-trivial ways: EmeraldTiger’s Waterfront Citadel is a delight of tomb raider style platforming replete with environmental traps. Swamp of the Heretics uses the climbing mechanics in the context of a vast adventure map which sees the player scrambling up the side of crumbling pillars and leaping between buildings. DragonsForLunch, Nickster and Riktoi’s maps are more combat focused where you’ll be bouncing between light panels firing grenades or scrambling across the ceiling dodging enforcer projectiles. There’s even an intriguing map by Inky structured like a violent adventure game with an inventory for different puzzle items.

Re:Mobilize offers something different to satisfying every kind of player in it’s current form and the the mod has potential to go even further if used as the base for future projects like Alkaline or Arcane Dimensions. EmeraldTiger ran a map jam a few months ago which generated four further maps, so you should definitely grab that too if you enjoy this. My only wish is that it was based on Copper instead of vanilla/progs_dump because I’m so wedded the various quality of life changes/vanilla+ experience that copper provides these days. A minor quibble because it’s fantastic either way.

Map jams/speedmaps:

Quake Brutalist Jam 2

The second Brutalist Jam for Quake, it attracted twenty-nine different members of the community to come together to make thirty Copper maps in a three week period. Concrete and monolithic architecture suit Quake like a hand in glove. This was the big community jam from this year that generated immediate coverage on many gaming websites and across games journalist twitter feeds. There’s something about Brutalism that drives people wild - beyond the lost futures of a utopian social project, clearly.

The texture set created by Makkon is both flexible and beautiful. Its simplicity means it’s easy to work with and there’s enough varieties and trims to allow for the construction of a multitude of concrete themed locations, ranging from simple abstract bunker complexes to more intricate constructions like the absolutely incredible start map built by Makkon himself, screenshots of which graced all of the press coverage the jam received. Most of the maps skew towards larger interlocking spaces and open atriums befitting of the brutalist style. This is complimented by a dramatic contrast between brightly lit areas and the long shadows cast by stone walls and enclosed spaces. In some maps, underground cavernous spaces are lit primarily by environmental wall spotlights or the glow of hazardous liquids like lava and the use of fog helps build a powerful atmosphere that adds depth to the monolithic geometry.

There’s so much to get lost in here, with maps of every size and difficulty level. Some are laser focused on combat, some on exploration and others are more conceptual - sketches of ideas or environment pieces. To highlight a few: JoyModulo’s In the Shadow of the Weapon is a remarkably beautiful techbase which combines fantastic lighting design with some claustrophobic portal-based setpiece fights. Annihilator’s Towers of Doom is a chaotic and open city sandbox where combat spills out across courtyards, down alleyways and over rooftops. DraQu and Mazu both offer different flavours of massive abstract complexes fusing exploration with persistent combat against mid and high tier monsters in open large scale spaces. Lincent’s Brutal Life of a Spawn is a claustrophobic and puzzling hunt for keys set in some sort of grand housing estate for our favourite bouncing comrades. Entsoy’s The World Tree is a gorgeous abstract map where you’re forced to run a gauntlet of vores while navigating through a landscape of thorns cast entirely in silhouette and white fog.

The overall quality level across the board is extremely high, which has been the case with most jams put out in the last couple of years. It’s all the more remarkable when you consider the time constraints and fact map jams are open to anybody who wishes to sign up. This really is an exemplar of the form and if you like the sort of maps on offer here, you’d do well to go on Slipseer and start downloading all of the numerous other jams that came out this year too.

Coffee Quake 2: Double Shot

A speedmap collection of 132 maps all of which were made in two hours or less. Even with the power and ease of use afforded by modern map editors like Trenchbroom, two hours is a very limited window of opportunity for a mapper. Faced with a constraint like this, less time is spent on painstaking encounter design or fretting over detailing and the main drive is to just get something small that works out the door. This kind of speedmapping session draws in a broader pool of mappers than usual, especially attractive to those who can’t commit the time to a bigger project or longer jam session. It is also fertile ground for creativity: Many maps feel like sketches or fragments of a larger potential project, hinging on one central idea or motif. Mappers can fearlessly try new ideas and see how they are received by a large audience in an isolated context. Such an audience are going to be more receptive to novelty and less likely to judge harshly than if it were a component of something larger and more traditional with the expectations and baggage that brings.

The maps have been broken up into four themed episodes based on a different texture set - Egyptian, Runic, Elder and Koohoo (kind of swampy/Mesopotamian) and then sequenced to be played as continuous episodes with a rune to collect at the end of each one. You can also play all of the maps from a shotgun start if you want, which is how each map would have been designed, so there’s the option of double dipping for double the playtime as I did.

As every contribution is short by necessity, it’s the ideal set to pick it up and play for a few minutes at a time, chipping away at few maps on a coffee break or while queuing for one of those wretched modern online fps games. Quality is understandably variable given the sheer volume of maps and number of mappers involved - some of the maps are rough around the edges quality wise or fail to hit on the concept the mapper intended, but that’s counterbalanced by the real gems in here too. The novelty factor and short length of each map sustains the entire endeavour and keeps things brisk and fun. Treat it like a giant box of chocolates - you’re going to be sampling a lot of different quake flavoured treats. Dig in.

SM223 - Quad Run II

Sixteen speedmaps based around quad runs, with the only stipulation being that each submission must contain at least two quads. One of the greatest aspects of Quake combat and one of the few ways in which it bests Doom is picking up a quad and charging about like a mad bastard. Condensing the experience down and focusing an entire map around it is a sure-fire winner. This is a set of maps that all encourage aggression, pushing the player to exact maximum damage output against the quad timer and matching their superior firepower with high density encounters to cut through. This isn’t without risk, for aggressive play and more active threats on the map means increased chaos - grenade spam, clusters of knights, rogue spawns and shamblers to focus down.

Particular highlights here include Fairweather’s brutal SCVMFVCK MINI: JUST THE TIP which features an exceptionally tight gameplay loop of quad arenas dotted through a densely knotted runic layout worthy of Sock and a returning fan favourite set piece from Doom’s Sunlust. This is a map that will push you so beware playing on hard or nightmare difficulty if you aren’t automatically filtered by the cute skill check system at the start of the map. Riktoi’s Exercises in Futility is a striking battle entirely in silhouette against a blood red void that culminates in waves of monsters closing in out from the fog on every side. There’s also the melee focused Get Digging by Pinchy if you want to try something novel and practice your berserking. It’s violent and faced-paced fun from start to finish.

Snack Pack 3: Trick or Treat

Speedmap sessions and jams always have a brief and focus. Sometimes it’s a specific texture set, working in the style of another classic map, a specific environment or concept, or using a specific gameplay mod as a base. Released on October 31st, Snack Pack 3 is a set of twelve appropriately Halloween themed maps. Eight of these maps were then sequenced as a short episode with three standalone bonus maps that didn’t really fit in that mould. These are tied together by a beautiful start map from Strideh set in a church graveyard suspended in the void with some secret pumpkins to hunt down too.

This pack is special because it was graced with a totally unique mod for mappers to play with in the form of two new weapon replacements: The extremely fun and beefy rotary shotgun from Dwell, which fires in a three round burst, replacing the super shotgun and the Penetrator stake gun, replacing the super nailgun. The Penetrator is very much like the stake gun in Painkiller, a fat projectile that flies in an arc, capable of penetrating multiple enemies. The flying gaunt from Quoth makes an appearance too - a skeletal gargoyle who shoots shambler lightning at the player, albeit with much weaker tracking. This was also the first release to use Copper 1.3’s new nightmare difficulty mechanics, which bins off Copper’s old 50hp limit and beefs up the threat level of most monsters substantially with larger, harder hitting projectiles, new alternative attack patterns and faster enemy movement speed.

As a a jam organised around new experimental gameplay mechanics, this set really couldn’t have been more successful. The weapon changes substantially alter how players have to approach mid and high tier monsters, removing unthinking crutches like using the super nailgun to quickly spam down shamblers. All of he maps all take advantage full advantage of these new toys in a playful manner with a particularly strong showing and not a single dud in the set.

The bonus maps for me are the real champions of the set: Mazu’s map is a really good introduction to using the penetrator effectively, with a focus on drawing knights into clusters to despatch with a single well-aimed shot. ComfyByTheFire’s contribution is a gorgeous Doom style slaughtermap in the Quake engine, which has one of the best designed massive horde fights I’ve seen so far. It’s a true test of the player’s movement options and powerup management in order to avoid getting boxed in by the thousand-odd monsters flooding in, requiring thinking in three dimensions, especially on nightmare where the knights run that little bit faster.

If you liked this, another good release from this year that similarly used custom stuff is sm227 Thunderbolts & Lightning which introduces mini quads and pentagrams of protection that only last 8 seconds.

Explore Jam 3

Who said Quake had to be a first person shooter? Explore Jam 3 is a set of 14 maps where the only stipulation was that there could be no hostile monsters on the map to kill. Arcane Dimensions was the ideal base for this set of levels for two reasons. Firstly, its extremely robust set of mapping features - moveable objects, breakables, extra keys, written notes and a powerful entity scripting system - and plethora of example maps made by sock demonstrating how they function offers opportunities to create advanced puzzles and dynamic level progression. Secondly, it introduces a handful of metroidvania powerups that grant abilities to the player that completely change how they navigate through the map. The blast belt negates all self-damage from explosives, allowing for risk-free rocket jumping, the lava suit lets you swim in lava and there’s a set of jump boots that let you double jump or jump even more times if you can stack up some upgrades.

The community rose to the challenge and delivered a set of diverse levels each with a unique interpretation of what a monster free map can be. There are some platforming based maps: Obtuse Myopericarditis by rabbit is a massive weapon-less playground filled with jumping puzzles and surf ramps of varying difficulty with the objective of finding enough hidden switches to buy a coveted set of jump boots and enough keys to unlock the exit from a friendly shambler merchant. Dream by Colossus decks the player out with a rocket launcher and blast belt and offers a gorgeous floating palace structure to rocket jump around freely. For those who like a more masochistic challenge, HagalazNauthizIsaz by brain O))) is an extremely difficult challenge map which demands total mastery of Quake’s advanced movement techniques in novel combinations with zero margin for error.

Beyond pure platforming, Sock offers up a couple of logic puzzle based maps where you have to push sandstone blocks around an Egyptian tomb to build platforms and push down switches like the good old days of Tomb Raider or a 3d Zelda. If you just want some straightforward exploration why not try relaxing in a cosy mountaintop Tavern and conversing with the locals in iYago’s At the Mountain of Imperturbability, wander around the peaceful summery temple grounds of Aesop’s Nook of the Earth or infiltrate a cyberpunk corporate complex in RecycledOJ’s Upright in Blue. There’s also several rather lovely maps that fall in between, straddling the line between light platforming over deadly hazards and exploration like alexUnder’s Who Ordered the Pistachio Shake.

The start map for a map jam is sometimes unfairly overlooked, seen as just a place to dump portals to the various contributed maps, where the action really takes place. Don’t make that mistake here as the start is a vast full-scale map to explore in itself, built by the legendary Sock, project lead for Arcane Dimensions. It is exquisitely crafted, really fun to jump around, teeming with detail and one of the highlights of the entire jam. If you want to play something a bit more relaxed than you standard quake fare, don’t miss out on this set.

Single Map Releases:

The Warden by Spootnik

Requires Arcane Dimensions 1.8

A love letter to Honey built with Arcane Dimensions by Spootnik. A sort of tower in a vast crumbling sewer structure with a massive amount of verticality, giant chains, fog and poison. The fetid atmosphere of dank and decay are laid on thick and the soundtrack helps sell the mood perfectly.

There are multiple routes up through the tower that dominates the map with a lot of secrets to hunt down and detours through optional areas along the way. The tower itself packs a large amount of playable space into a relatively small footprint so combat is frequently spread across multiple floors and platforming around the interior rooms and across exterior catwalks while under fire is the name of the game.

Despite being built on Arcane Dimensions where maps often skew towards being easier - due in part to the generous hitboxes of the shotgun’s projectiles, increased shell capacity and massive DPS of the widowmaker - balance is quite tight here due to spatial limitations. An abundance of narrow precarious ledges, lots of sniping monsters raining down fire from higher ground, immediate point blank melee ambushes and roaming scrags make dodging attacks a tricky affair. The map is also quite strict when it comes to doling out ammo and health, demanding the player make judicious use of their entire arsenal. The lack of health is compounded many of the enemies being the poisonous AD variants. Losing focus and letting these boy get a hit in will leave players desperately scrambling for the nearest of the scant health packs available.

While you can simply climb up to the exit and leave, the secret hunting adds a large amount to the map and I’d strongly recommend trying spending time exploring and figuring out how to release the eponymous Warden before making your escape.

Starslave by ComfyByTheFire

Requires Copper 1.3

When I started idly thinking of my top five single maps for 2023 back in December, I assumed that I No Longer Fear The Ranger Guarding My Heel (fear) by ComfybyTheFire was guaranteed a place on the shortlist. It’s a staggering first release that felt like the product of a more mature mapper: Gigantic in scope, non-linear in layout, filled with a variety of optional extremely difficult encounters, platforming challenges, inventive new mechanics and capped with a genuinely difficult giant slaughtermap style encounter at the end. It was built using only prototype textures, originally intended for May’s Prototype Jam 4, but still looked fantastic due to the lighting and striking architectural forms.

Comfy dropped her second solo release Starslave right at the end of December and quite frankly it’s even better. Set under an Egyptian pyramid hiding ancient technology and a very large secret, Starslave is bathed in blues hues and long dark shadows. The walls hum and crackle ominously with a hidden power that’s spectacularly revealed at the back half of the map. It’s a unique spin on the Egyptian theme and it’s really beautiful to behold while exploring. There’s a story told through various lore books which is actually worth reading and helps fill in the gaps left by the environmental narrative. Unlike fear, this map is linear, shorter and eschews the slaughtermap style set pieces, but is no less difficult to overcome. Encounters are well composed and combined with various environmental hazards like turret pillars in a way that encourages pushing forward and denies any easy respite or safe ground to take cover. On higher difficulties and nightmare in particular, you will be tested to breaking point by the more sadistic side paths and the final area. The readme says to play on a difficulty one lower than you are used to and I’d strongly recommend doing so unless you’re very comfortable with the harder side of quake custom levels.

The first half of the map is dominated by a series of quad runs followed by a brief yet tricky underwater interlude. The second half of the map revolves around an ingenious and breath-taking final set piece that I really don’t want to spoil at all. Take it from me that it’s something you really want to experience first-hand. It’s something I’ve never seen done in Quake before and executed in a way that is intuitive and fair. There’s a lot of optional and secret areas where you’ll be rewarded with additional snippets of lore, much needed resources and silver keys. These keys are used in a novel way - they can be spent at shrines which offer the player random rewards ranging from a lowly ammo pack to a pentagram of protection. The gamble can pay out handsomely, but you’re never starved or resources to an extent where engagement with these shrines is mandatory. If you’re going to play any individual map release from 2023, play this one.

Only You Can Prevent Containment Breaches by Trashbang

Requires Copper 1.2 or 1.3

Trashbang is a relative newcomer to the scene, putting out a trio of maps in 2022, one of which was good enough to be included in Alkaline’s 1.2 patch. These were small in scope with a focus generating some pretty brutal encounters with a small number of monsters in claustrophobic spaces. The influence of Doom mapping, especially by the way of 1024 maps was quite explicit. Despite their small scope, these maps were all built to a high standard and really tastefully detailed and lit. They’re all available for download on Slipseer and well worth playing.

Only You Can Prevent Containment Breaches is a copper map and altogether more ambitious affair, being twenty odd minutes in length and building some more extensive naturalistic spaces. A synthesis of crumbling ruins and techbase elements, the brushwork is really nice and areas appropriately detailed with rubble, pipework and sci-fi greebles. The lighting is moody, shrouding many areas in shadow, guiding the player around with torchlight and light tracks appropriately. Combat wise, it’s just as tightly wound as her previous maps. You’re going to be menaced effectively, constantly put on the back foot and scrambling for space against monsters bearing down on you. Ambushes open up from multiple angles demanding fast decision making and target prioritisation. Just be wary of the final battle and don’t hesitate for even a moment.

Thirteen Tombs of the Brilliant Dynasty by alexUnder

Requires Arcane Dimensions 1.8

The very first map I played of 2023 and the experience has stuck with me over all that time. Thirteen Tombs of the Brilliant Dynasty is an Arcane Dimensions map, originally planned to be a contribution to the Twisted Christmas Jam 2022. alexUnder missed the deadline and wisely decided to package it as a standalone release, spending the extra time to refine the map further.

It’s an engaging jaunt through a fantasy castle and courtyard deep in winter, pushing deeper and deeper into the crypts beneath and fighting back out again. The texture work and lighting are superb with the basements and crypts of the castle getting darker, older and more ruined before eventually becoming overgrown with bioluminescent mushrooms and pools of mysterious fluid. The transitions are seamless and there’s more environmental variety on display here than you get in the average map while still maintaining the illusion of being in a realistic and cohesive setting.

Encounter wise you’re going to face off against a large chunk of Arcane Dimension’s expansive bestiary, fighting off the various knight variants manning the castle and increasingly hostile demons as you push deeper into the tombs. Combat is pretty straightforward and front loaded, though it gets pretty hectic in places like the initial push into the courtyard where there are crossbowmen and ogres on the battlements supported by flying enemies and knights on the ground. There’s a couple of arena style encounters too which work nicely, like the one at the bottom of the crypt involving statues and those big knight mini-boss fellas introduced in Tears of the False God. You can also expect some swinging blade traps, platforming and destructible terrain to keep things dynamic. While not an epic adventure, it’s a decently paced journey clocking in at just over thirty minutes for an initial playthrough. Balance remains relatively easy and casual throughout and secrets tip the scales even further in favour of the player. It’s a fun map I’d recommend for a beginner dipping their toes into quake stuff, but also there’s a lot to like for anybody into Arcane Dimensions mapping.

The Anomaly 3: Tower by digs

Requires Arcane Dimensions 1.8

Another map that that snuck in at the end of the year and another example of why it’s best not to start mentally compiling best of lists in your head before last orders. Digs makes really interesting experimental maps: The Parallel Worlds (digs04) is a map that is played three times in a row, using runes to modify the layout and monster placement each time around; The Anomaly 1 and 2 (digs05/6) are full of mapping tricks and illusions that warp your perception of space and let you move in ways that seem impossible in Quake; and RJ Zone (digs07) is a non-linear techbase journey that relies on rocket jumping to progress with a terrifying invincible golden vore boss fight to puzzle out as a capper. The Anomaly 3 is their latest release, building on the tricks and illusions of the first two but this time using Arcane Dimensions as a base.

Your goal is to progress to the top of a large crumbling tower - think of it as being like a more vertical version of the Forgotten Sepulcher. The path to the top is ultimately linear, but the route to get there is fraught with many unexpected detours. Your winding path will take you through crumbling walls and barricades, down through rotting floors and back up ladders, and through anomalous spaces that will disorient and confuse you. You’ll encounter areas that you can see from certain vantage points and then vanish from others, unexpected traps and fake-outs, ambushes from out of nowhere and even an area that seems to vanish into thin air once you’ve passed through it. Enemies, like the map geometry, are also not always what they seem at first glance. Like a cross between a funfair haunted house and hall of mirrors, you’re always uncertain as to where you truly are and what’s going to happen next.

This constsant ambiguity makes things tense and engaging to the end, which by a rather scary final arena fight with its own deceptive edge. Balance wise it’s never cruel or unfair - despite appearances nothing is going to be too difficult for the average player to deal with. As you progress up the tower shortcut lifts and paths open up so if you miss a jump or fall the walk back is never too arduous. The tower is also stuffed with secrets as you’d expect, so remember to keep your eye out at all times, hitting any suspicious wall, window or floor with your axe. Don’t be afraid to take a leap of faith from time to time either…

Honourable Mention:

Peril 3.0 by Balgorg

I just couldn’t resist mentioning this mod even though I can’t fit it into the list anywhere else. Peril is one man’s labour of love - a gargantuan adventure spanning 37 maps, some of which are so large they push source ports hard. It’s based on a modified Arcane Dimensions with a bunch of weapon model replacements and reskinned monsters in the tradition of the best old-school total conversions. It’s also designed to be played as one continuous journey and will probably take you 15-20 hours at least.

You start in your apartment and head down a seemingly endless lift into a cyberpunk city, riding on flying taxis, dodging terrestrial traffic and crawling through multiple high-rise buildings on the way to a train station. From there you head through an industrial estate - another gigantic map - and arrive at a slipgate that thrusts you back to the past. From here the journey takes you through a variety of locales not limited to: an island prison complete with a long sail to a distant pirate’s cove, an ocean base set in a deep ocean trench (you can swim to the bottom), a geothermal plant, a medieval fishing village, country roads, a swamp, ice caves, a hydroelectric dam, a galleon attacked by pirates and a sea monster, a space ship and giant space station, a ski resort and mountain base, an airship, treehouses, a fleshy hell realm in the void and finally you return home to the apocalyptic ruins of your home city. Many of these maps are large and complex in their own right and each map is logically connected to the last. The level of detail, brushwork and texturing is surprisingly decent for many of them given the sheer amount of variety with a few real stand outs - the crossroads burning to the ground being invaded by a hellish force, the space station and the final apocalyptic remains of your city in particular are a feast.

So why is this not in my top five? While it’s a fun journey, the gameplay gets turgid and repetitive. There’s a lot of churning through enemies that are just placed on the map haphazardly in your path as you push forward without much thought. This is a pitfall that befalls many maps that seek to recreate realistic spaces. Some of the maps like the island prison are so large and complex that progression can be really obscure in places and there are a few lengthy detours that leads nowhere or worse still, instant kill environmental traps. Weapons are stripped from the player and loadouts modified changed arbitrarily from map to map, making continuous ammo balance a non-issue. Sometimes you have the plasma rifle then the next map you’ll find you have the LG staff instead. It’s quite jarring given how much effort went to making the transition between each map logical thematically.

One map attempts thief style stealth in a medieval city, stripping the player of their weapons while neglecting to implement the requisite stealth mechanics, which is bemusing. This rapidly devolves into a blind dash around the map being chased by tens of knights while desperately trying to figure out what the objective is and how to find an exit.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of annoyingly prominent gameplay bugs too. The worst offender is moving lifts and set pieces like the airship ride malfunctioning and killing the player and placed monsters in sourceports other than the now essentially deprecated Quakespasm-spiked. For these levels it’s worth having a copy of QSS set up and migrating the saves back over.

Despite the very high quality of many of the map environments, there are also some questionable art choices in places. Elements are thrown together that don’t really mesh with the texturing and style of the surrounding map - ranger on the HUD is replaced with an anime schoolgirl, some of the trees are sprites that look to be drawn by hand with felt tip pens and there are photo-realistic modern beer bottles as sprites in medieval bars. Amusingly, the diegetic music in places like the the inns is decidedly modern and electrified, despite the rest of the map striving to be period appropriate.

That being said, these questionable choices and more ramshackle elements simply add to the charm of the project. It’s a passion project from an amateur with a lot of love for old FPS games and some really nice specifically English environments. I really enjoyed streaming this one and spent much of the time in awe of the scope and ambition on display. Every new map brought new surprises and revitalised my interest, even when the previous map would start to wear down my patience. It’s worth playing, almost certainly. A throwback to the kind of fantastic total conversions we used to download way back in the day.

To the best of my knowledge, I’ve played most releases from 2023 and this is the only significant exception. I’ll write about it when I get to play it, hopefully some time in 2024!