Quake Review: Remix Jam

This was a fantastic jam. So much variety both visually and in terms of gameplay with layouts drawn from quite a wide selection of games. Standouts for me were the maps by fairweather, mazu, poolboyq and rj due to their gameplay, but there were several other exceptional maps in this set that stand alongside them. In fact, I really enjoyed every single map on offer here.

The work done by fairweather & co to organise this jam and package it all together so nicely with the custom music, assets and the lovely start map is commendable. Thank you to everybody who participated.

Here are some thoughts¹ on each map:

• start - Fabulous way to kick things off. The walkman replacement for the rune and the music kicking in when you take the wind tunnel sets a fantastic tone and the reimagining of the longest yard with a runic look and all of the lava falls is choice. Spotting the nightmare pillar isn’t too hard and it’s fun to get to, as is jumping around the map in general. You can use the initial wind tunnel to get some decent speed and air control away to the other platforms for some freestyle hopping.

• rmx_bmfbr - I recognised this as being Furious Heights from QL and specifically the theming being like those new project velocity versions, which was comforting because I was worried I’d not be able to figure out the source for many of the maps. Faithful in scale and good looking, I like how the progression was gated off to progressively open the entire map up over time. Lots of decent monster placement taking advantage of the verticality of the original layout and aggressive ambushes too. There were some weird snagging issues with the geometry on the stairs in what would be the red armour room, but it wasn’t an issue during combat.

• rmx_burnham - Extremely claustrophobic and disorienting with a lot of very close quarters monster juking. The threat of getting boxed in by knights on nightmare was substantial and the enforcers and grunts were well utilised to offer that death by 1000 cuts attrition-style combat.

  The layout is confusing and teleporter heavy, but I believe that was the intention and what the source halo map was known for. It synergises well with the rather dense monster placement and initial scramble for weapons. I found myself being forced forward blindly at times, dodging through rooms in a panic, looking for the breathing space to start building up a safe zone of influence. Great stuff.

  Oh, and as an aside, the endlessly resurrecting zombies on nightmare were extremely scary given how little space I had to work with. Copper 1.3 nightmare zombies are a real problem in closed quarters.

• rmx_chrisholden - Not familiar with the source here, but this was a fun arena map to clear out. The ground floor fight with the fiends and zombies was well realised and forced me to consider my grenade usage carefully. Looked good too - I liked the green lighting on the wall panels in the main atrium and the white glow coming out from the gap around the pillars in the basement area.

• rmx_chuma - I had a lot of fun charging around this one lobbing grenades at various turret enemies and cutting down everything in my way. The map is open enough to provide a lot of space for constant bunny hopping and dancing around monsters while being as aggressive as possible, which is always fun. Collecting secrets not only gave me new and faster ways to put down existing enemies but spawned in more fodder for me to churn through, hooray.

  Being unfamiliar with the source map, I found myself getting somewhat lost in the layout after collecting one of the two keys, when I was no longer being guided around by my lust for violence. Some visual set pieces to give a stronger visual identity to each area would help orient the player relative to other parts of the map. Some subtle signs or other visuals signposting to point the player in the direction of each key at the major crossroads would have been helpful too.

• rmx_colossus - Really great looking conversion of dust2. Makkon’s textures look so nice here, it’s like dust2 was always destined to be a quake map. Combat was consistently engaging thanks to the use of enforcers on top of the various crates acting as pressure turrets combined with the main opposition on the ground pushing me around. Situations always felt dynamic, and I had the space to engage and choice as to how aggressively and fast I wanted to push out.

  I really liked the bomb planting idea and the cute ogre merchant who wanted silver keys. The intermediate rewards weren’t hugely useful or necessary in themselves, but the gold key area made it well worth the effort hunting down every silver key. I love it when maps have big optional fights like this where the mapper has more latitude to open the throttle make a more difficult and monster heavy fight. The setting for that arena too - very cool.

• rmx_digs - I appreciated the hot start with a couple of vores sending me on my way. Nice looking remake of Q3DM7 with a lot of detail work with the walls etc. The metal structures in the main room and the red glowing sigils were very intriguing. Was surprised at how much high tier opposition I was up against consistently throughout the map, though the early quad run can be used to make a significant dent in them. Ammo was quite tight and I left the map with only a handful of shells and grenades to my name, though it never got too uncomfortable at any point. I couldn’t find any of the secrets, so I’m not sure if that would significantly alter the balance.

• rmx_fw - Another Fairweather classic with a layout choice that plays to their strengths of tightly packed, interconnected spaces for combat and aggressive ambushes. The main set-piece fight over the lava with the slowly diminishing platform space and enemies filtering down was sufficiently nasty and required consistently aggressive play to avoid getting overwhelmed. Capping this with some lava traversal and combat on a strict biosuit timer feels like it’s becoming a signature design flourish. Secrets helped a lot with survivability and the placement was inventive without being too obscure, so they were well worth tracking down. Very much my kind of map.

• rmx_gila - I really admired this one for being so full-on all the time. There’s constant pressure from mid-tier and bigger monsters, usually in small groups. Every time you pick up an item or press a switch the threat replenishes. Gila isn’t afraid to throw spawns and vores into the mix either. The initial stages of the map where you’re trying to get your bearings can be a bit grindy with the shotgun, but after while it gets into a comfortable rhythm.

  Given how most rooms are quire large with multiple levels and the lowest point in the centre, it’s safest to work around the highest edge rather than risk a crossfire. The truly nasty threats like the spawns and shamblers tend to all end up filtering down there, anyway. The lack of space on the walkways on the edge combined with the pressure from melee enemies makes getting pushed down into the pit with them a real possibility and keeps things interesting.

  One minor issue for me was the moments of unclear progression. It’s hard to understand what the barriers all mean at the start of the map without going up to them and reading the centre print messages and the lift to the gold key was something I didn’t notice for some time.

• rmx_greenwood - A really cute interpretation of facing worlds. This one definitely wins the award for my favourite bit of re-imagining in this jam. I loved the giant acorns floating around and the general atmosphere with the appropriately killer skybox. Despite the symmetry inherent to the map, each squirrel base having slightly different layouts and enemy compositions on each floor kept proceedings engaging.

• rmx_hcm - Another Mazu banger and the longest and hardest map in the set, as I’ve grown to expect. Some nice secrets that require platforming to get - often over lava to make the risk/reward calculation that bit more taxing. I enjoyed the constant pressure from the blob of ogres at the top of the map and their chaotic grenade rain with no real recourse and the satisfaction of finally reaching them and being able to gib them with explosives.

  The final fight is extremely vicious on nightmare in particular - each wave clogging the narrow path quickly and the wall of projectiles from scrag and enforcer projectiles requires immediate focus. It just keeps building in intensity with no end in sight. Barely scraped through, but to be fair, I had to grab the quads earlier than I would have wanted & missed the initial red in the antechamber quad frenzy.

• rmx_il8r - Dark and moody ambience. The fog and shadows do a good job of making the relatively large and simple rooms visually interesting. Despite the focus on wide open, relatively flat spaces, the fiends and vores do a pretty good job of making things dangerous. I enjoyed the room with the staircase traps.

• rmx_iyago - I love the knave texture set and it’s put to great use here with everything draped in a sinister red glow. Another ultra claustrophobic map, with some difficult fights where you get totally enveloped by monsters and must keep moving whenever the opportunity arises to avoid getting cornered. The fight with the two shamblers and zombies was fun, as the zombies do a great job of frustrating attempts to dodge behind pillars and re-position in nightmare due to their constant respawning. Secrets on this map were obscure and they’re big enough rewards to significantly tip the balance in the players favour, so perhaps it’s better that I couldn’t find them on my first playthrough. Nice unsettling exit hallway too.

• rmx_joymodulo - A nice clean industrial look, really adored the wooden (bathhouse?) statue. The warehouse interiors with the rooflights and the variety outside with the little container area and sewer path all look great. The open multiple-lane layout gave away that the map was based on something CS-adjacent, but I’m totally unfamiliar with Valorant. I appreciated the choice of paths available from the start and just being able to explore as I saw fit. It felt somewhat narrow and cramped in places and it felt like the whole place could have maybe been increased in scale to allow for more opportunities for encounters and movement. I was also able to break out on to the top of the map by climbing around the shipping containers which was fun.

• rmx_konig - The orange sky in this map looks absolutely amazing - the whole outdoor area has a killer atmosphere. Decent fights and some nice high-pressure point-blank ambushes you have to work around. The platforming across that one pillar was extremely awkward to deal with: It doesn’t look like a jump that is comfortable to make without doing a little circle jump, distance-wise and it’s easy to bump your head and fuck up the jump back on to it from that middle area. The sudden pillar lowering if you dither for too long owned me a few times too. It’s not a big issue as the map is quite short and getting blindsided didn’t set me far back.

• rmx_lilybug33 - Pretty cool id1 style techbase. The shamblers don’t really have much of a presence in that main room as they tend to get hung up on the crates and can’t follow a player that hides behind them or goes into the side hallway. Enjoyable finale and little ambush at the end.

• rmx_lob - Hey it’s Bunker 2 from Goldeneye! Layout is pretty faithful to the original, with the maze of corridors leading out from the cells. It’s difficult to utilise quake monsters in such spaces so I think that it was a good call to use a lot of base enemies that are easy to mulch rather than the tankier mid-tiers who’d probably act more like doors with health. They’re nicely appointed hallways too and the different theming for the different basement levels helps visually break the map up and provides some signposting for player navigation.

  I spent a while looking for a combination to the safe before realising I could just crack it myself. The combination and music sting were super cute. I also enjoyed the goldeneye alarm sound effects going off at the end during the big grunt and enforcer showdown in the main control room.

• rmx_mrtaufner - Going from one goldeneye map straight into another. I’m glad somebody tried their hand at facility and this effort is both faithful in scale/layout and a lovely quake experience in its own right. I really enjoyed playing this and the nostalgia trip it evoked in my rapidly diminishing mind. The techbase theming would make it absolutely perfect for the full standalone Alkaline treatment in my opinion – perhaps with an addition of the botting room finale. A man can dream.

  My one major complaint: where was Dr Doak?

• rmx_naitelveni - A cool mashup of two classic maps, gorgeously appointed as ever by Naitelveni. The souped-up knights on nightmare are extremely nasty to deal with without getting caught on one and subsequently mobbed to death. Figuring out the best way to collect the rocket ammo while manipulating the crowd to prevent them from getting too close was a fun puzzle to solve.

  The facing worlds half of the map was really puzzling to try to 100% clear. I figured out a strategy for the quad that would have quickly cleared the final teleporter ambush and left enough ammo to clear the quite substantial number of optional sleeping shamblers back on the ground, but sadly I accidently hit the exit teleporter while executing my quad run. I think that exit really needed to be pushed back further from the ambush as it’s very easy to dodge into without even knowing it’s there. Even with a plan, killing all the shamblers would have taken quite a lot of patient grinding away with rockets so I wasn’t too put out by my error.

• rmx_niccolicious - Another great id1 techbase, this time based on a UT99 map. There’s just one little texture that stuck out to me - an oversized metal panel just after the grenade launcher where the change in texel density looks odd. Briskly paced and ambush heavy, I loved the bit before the silver key where the fiends and death knights hop up on to your little raised platform vs your grenade launcher. The quad push is great, there are spawns chucked into the mix to make things scary and opposition is plentiful. The map gives out the SNG and grenade launcher with plenty of ammo quite quickly so it’s fun to smash through everything as aggressively as possible.

• rmx_nickster - Incredibly beautiful art deco styling that perfectly matches with Quake 3’s curving architecture and arched doors. The lighting looks fantastic with the spotlights over the pillars, the outdoor area, and the amazing looking chandelier. It took me a while to figure out that it was q3dm8, but that’s very much my own fault for being dozy - looking back it’s very hard not to recognise it from the layout. Gameplay wise it’s very slick, most fights being efficiently constructed to make the most out of a small handful of enemies. Try as I might, I couldn’t find the secret switches, so I missed out on the big secret this time around.

• rmx_pbq - I really love how this one played. Constant pressure and backspawns to force aggressive play. A lot of pin situations with threats from multiple angles that need defusing by eliminating a key high tier enemy or clearing out a single angle, just like a good Doom encounter. The final fight is one of the heaviest in the set with a very fast tempo multiple wave encounter and a quad to cut through things while trying not to get worn down too quickly or take any accidental explosive self-damage. The map is very much in control of pacing here and the situation adapts faster than the player can get it under control, which is lovely to see.

  Secrets were difficult in this map - even if you know where to look, the switches are barely visible and the timing for one of them is tricky even with decent movement. In my first playthrough I missed the secret quad that unleashes a massive wave of strong enemies. It’s a great map to speedrun too by rushing the start of the map to wake the shambler, then looping back to the secret quad to clear the hordes with quad nails and grenades.

• rmx_radiatoryang - A really fantastic looking rendition of de_aztec. I enjoyed the start of collecting enough resources to clear out the shamblers at A bomb site. The hazardous water section with the spawns was a really cool idea and legitimately threatening if you don’t use the quad to try to control things a little bit before wading out to the key. The bit on top is a nice change of perspective but a little bit awkward to navigate. The placement of ammo and resources is all so spread out it feels like there’s a lot of needless trudging back and forth. It’s dangerous though with the scrags sniping from random angles and the final ascent was a decent little fight when fully tooled up.

• rmx_rick - Nice techbase quake 2 conversion. I’m not familiar with Quake 2 deathmatch maps, but despite this it felt naggingly familiar and very Quake 2 in its construction with the concentric circle geometry if you get me. Opposition is pretty light in the style of an id1 techbase, but I appreciated the handful of spawns that were thrown into the mix. They’re quite tricky given the enclosed space and leaving them to fall into the water - while it felt like a smart play at the time - was only delaying having to take care of them. The lift temporarily bamboozled me because I was a bit slow and don’t read good.

• rmx_rj - From the initial flyover revealing the map I knew this one was going to be great. It’s just so fun to bunny hop around this map and you can get some insane speeds with relative ease. Shooting rockets at enemies and having to account for arriving there before the rocket does is always fun. Killing the enemies quickly became irrelevant to me, I just wanted to dodge around them and keep moving as fast as possible. I bet there’s some nice stuff you can do to skip sections of the track with the rocket launcher here too. Loved it.

• rmx_roj - When I was playing this, I had the nagging feeling that big chunks of the layout felt very much like the course in a cart racing game with the fixed loop and branching paths that converged back on the main circuit. Despite this, there are a lot of side rooms, platforming elements and areas that felt like they wouldn’t work in that context. After seeing the intermission picture and looking up what this map was based on, I learned how Rayman M is a sort of racer/platforming hybrid it all clicked into place. The map does a great job staying close to the source material from what I gathered too.

  It’s nice how each lap of the course takes you down different routes, keeping things fresh while still intersecting with the same hub areas to help waypoint where you are. My only real complaint was how a few of the weapon pickups felt easy to miss due to their positioning and lack of any lighting or enemy breadcrumbs to draw the player’s attention - the first grenade launcher at the start of the second lap being such an example.

• rmx_scampie - Lovely to see a scampie map in 2024. This big chaotic arena is a fun one. Running around collecting the scattered weapons while avoiding getting caught up is suitably chaotic. The teleporting monsters constantly threaten to push you down toward the central crossroad of the map which rapidly fills with all sorts of bad fellas. It was nice to leave the quad grab to the very last second, just when things start to get hairy and massacre everything.

• rmx_sodium - A nice rendition of Blood Gulch! The open layout and number of enemies makes combat very chaotic but fun to clear out systematically. On nightmare my big concern was eliminating the grunts as fast as possible before they could chip away my stack of health. Unfortunately, the sloped terrain caused monsters to get stuck and path-find around in odd ways. I also couldn’t figure out how to get to the silver key without doing a ramp jump off some nearby terrain and turning in the air. Not sure if that’s intentional or if there was perhaps a switch I missed.

  The secret back at the start of the map freaked me out a bit I saw it from a distance. It was too small to make out any details as to what it was and incongruous in a very unsettling manner. I felt very silly when I got a closer look.

• rmx_spoot - Cracking stuff from Spootnik. Great looking and engaging without being too tough. The very tall vertical layout provides good opportunities for nasty turret enemies and harassment from distant scrags. Setting up six little bespoke encounters for each gold key was a nice concept and the different fight ideas were enjoyable and played to the strengths of the geometry in the sections of the map in which they were placed. I particularly liked the alleyway with the quad and a chain of spawning fiends where scrags threaten to interrupt your rocket spam as they drift in from the sides.

• rmx_strideh - Absolutely gorgeous. The geometry and texture work here are fabulous as is all of the detailing work with the custom props everywhere. Combined with the soundtrack, the lighting, skybox and the sunken ships and masts in the distance, it’s one hell of a package. The combat is serviceable, though not the main focus - geometry is scaled appropriately so there are no weird snags and awkwardness which is an impressive feat given how busy the different rooms are. I really liked the cute ranking system when collecting the secrets too. This map shows that quake needs more pirate related mapping and mods badly.

• rmx_thelokk - A suitably old-school homage to an old-school Doom DM map. I dig the chunky trees and very sparse lighting outside. It was odd how all the giant staircases were clipped as ramps except for the one right in the centre of the keep. I also wasn’t sure how to get to the exit hallway, so I ended up hopping the railing and jumping down from the roof.