Apotheosis is worth playing for many reasons. The most obvious of these is how visually stunning it is. The architecture and textures look great and there are tons of incredible details everywhere. You can see in some of the screenshots where hypersleep has placed scenery objects with exactly the right lighting, at the right distance, to make them look like real wires or vines hanging down. In another instance, a huge turret object raises up at the edge of the ship. Objects like that in particular, such as the space ship from Infinity, can do more harm than good, but here hypersleep makes the most of them. Fires give off smoke and sparks; alien plants emit pollen. Even more amazingly, much of this is straight in the engine and could have been done in 1996. It's just never been done so well as in Apotheosis.

Animations are also breathtaking. Hunters block your shots with their armor; MOAHs absorb them using a force field; enforcers raise their weapons with deliberation; giant bugs skitter around fluidly. Then you have boarding parties blasting through walls; you have sparking gouges in metal. The list goes on and on. You already know this is Marathon's most beautiful scenario and you have to see it firsthand to understand just how good it looks.

I like the soundtrack and the sounds as well, although I'll get into the latter shortly. The soundtrack is subtle enough not to ruin the immersion. The sounds are all very different from what we know and on their own sound really beautiful.

All of this creates a unique atmosphere. Maybe some of the similarities in palette make me say this, but I think the scenario that comes closest is Rubicon. There's a grit here that you don't really see in any other scenario - ironically, something you wouldn't get without the polish and care the Apotheosis team put into the game's presentation.

The gameplay itself is good, too. Levels, although they can feel huge, are fairly linear and hard to get lost in. When I say "linear" I don't mean it in a bad way. You know where you need to go, either because a terminal laid it out clearly or because the design is very intuitive. I feel a little bit like I'm on rails, but I can't complain too much about it. When I listen to a great record, I'm not going to whine that I didn't pick the track order myself.

There are some things that keep this from being a "perfect" game for me. Most of them involve the game's difficulty. I played on TC and so expected a difficult experience. I quit playing the original out of frustration, but it's not so extreme here. It's small things. For example, the weapons for the most part look utilitarian, reinforced, heavy-duty, but in a lot of cases feel just a little too weak. A lot of the time I feel like I've almost gotten my ass kicked by a gang of 3-4 hunters. This isn't my usual experience. Maybe if I weren't seeing "fighters," "hunters," "troopers," and the like, I would adjust my expectations. The large scrabbling bugs planetside don't make me feel this way.

Ammo is a bit scarce at the beginning, to the point that secrets are almost required. I had to get into the habit of walking into just about every corner so that I could snag the occasional single clip of whatever was there. This definitely isn't the end of the world, but it can be frustrating before you get used to it.

And maybe that's part of my problem: I still haven't gotten used to things. Believe it or not, the most frustrating example of all for me comes from the sounds. I've said I love the sound design, and that's true. The sounds are all great in isolation. But I've found it difficult to identify what exactly is going on in my environment when I can't see it. More than in a lot of other similar games, Marathon relies on this - which is why it works so well without music. I'm not sure what it is about the sounds in Apotheosis that give me such trouble. Are they all crowding a certain frequency? Does stereo or some similar effect throw off what is otherwise a point-based composite sound image? I don't know. I do know that I've been taken by surprise again and again when a huge volley of fire seemed to come out of nowhere, or when multiple enemies walked right up to me from the side while I was too occupied to look at the motion sensor. Item pickups are also hard to gauge. How much did I just grab? Did I just waste that health can by getting it too early? I think in this case I might be too accustomed to the earsplitting sounds from the original games, but maybe they seem louder because they stand out better from the mix and not because of their amplitude.

Finally, in the early ship sections, I had a lot of trouble getting stuck on architectural features. I tend to back up a lot, or slide along walls until I can sidle into an opening, while I dodge incoming fire. For some reason, this bit me in the ass quite a few times. I would end up in a corner or maybe would slide right into the aesthetic wall damage, getting stuck just long enough that I got killed. Either I adjusted or the levels stopped having this type of architecture. Just something to look out for.

Overall, Apotheosis is an amazing achievement. You might not have the same trouble I've outlined above, and I would be just fine with that. I never thought I would see a Marathon scenario that I could recommend just based on "superficial" elements, but I think Apotheosis offers an experience above and beyond that provided by a typical Marathon game. I stopped caring much about story long ago, and aside from the above quirks, it's been a pleasure getting to know Apotheosis. Will I play it again any time soon? Probably not. Was it worth doing once? Definitely. Try it out.

this guy has written compilers. but eat the path is his greatest accomplishment.

can't think of a more appropriate soundtrack for this game. unfortunately i don't own the original wheels but i can cry along to the music

make sure you use charlemagne for all yhour phuycsics needs

send me alcohol

a good primer to enter the NEFX mindspace. my mind is able to drift as i read a given NEFX web thoughtpiece, but such measures are literally crushed should i allow this to happen in Revelation.

textures are grid map screenshots.

what more can you ask for?

a good/bad trip simulator

one star per square or triangle

i like the purple but it's not as fun as you'd think

if only they had originally release it like this, we wouldn't need mararthon eternal lambda omega

lets play king of heighters or something

ray, do you still smoke? if so, are tobacco taxes still prohibitive? if so, do you still live in salem? if so, are you a witch or a witch hunter? fuck survival

i made that 2.5d joke about eight years ago. i retract my 4-star review

i'm still here

fuck survival

do you idiots understand yet

fuck survival

ALL OF THE FIVE STAR RATINGS ON THIS PRODUCT WERE MADE BY REAL ACCOUNTS THAT WERE MADE LONG AGO. IF YOU HAVE ANY KNOWLEDGE BY NOW, YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT W'RKNCACNTER IS AN EFFING GOD.

.

kawaiipet knew what he was doing. wrk knows even more what he's doing. remember team fortress classic? and those dumb physics let you fly around using grenades without dying? and your wildest dreams came true? that's how the olympics are in wrk's and kawaiipet's mind. the path around a sphere crosses itself and now we're back where we started. try it.

p.s. fuck survival p.p.s. needs robert tag

wrk's view on the matter: "maybe if i actually finish it someday it'll be worthy of the robert tag"

minus one star for implying mararthon is not 2.5d

To an extent I haven't seen in other scripts, Kill With Style's effect on gameplay varies with the level you play it on. In some cases, you'll more or less play as you always do. In the more fun instances, you'll end up chasing each other up and down the same staircase, going in circles until one of you can line up a good shot. It's a hell of a lot of fun.

One might argue whether "being impressed" means much in the context of seven-polygon levels. After all, they're bound to be relatively primitive, aren't they?

Yes and no. There's a difference between overcoming obstacles and stopping well short of them, and while these levels are probably at least as good as very early fan works for the first Marathon, what does that really say about them?

The good: given two skilled players, and a pact between them not to kill a newly-spawned player on sight, you can have fun here. Many of the levels places hold up under these two rules. In particular, The Alley Gorey, Lobes and Pfhishes, and The Bilateral Commission are the best for these types of games. Lobes and Pfhishes is the most varied and offers the best cover, while the other two can house frenetic games. Shading is paid due. CC has applied textures with admirable workmanship. Hamilton's Unfinished Cycle also features a nice trap where the invisibility powerup spawns, preventing players from following one another around for the kill.

But that's not enough. Even under the kindest circumstances, there will be frustrating games. In all levels, ammunition and weapons are sparse, meaning that more often than not you'll be on the giving or receiving end of a shotgun-vs.-pistol slaughter. Spawns will occur within sight of roaming enemies. Architecture is often boring, small, or, even more often, both. Without exception, maps have one or two separate levels. Often these are accessible by an easy-to-cover range of entrances, meaning the player on top tends to stay on top. Players don't have much choice when attempting to dodge enemy fire and often the first person to score a hit is the winner. This is a regression to the most boring aspects of early Marathon mapping, not the transcendence of self-imposed boundaries.

Yes, this review is about four years too late. I thought it would be good in any case to counter the positivism from other reviewers with something a bit more realistic.

Good maps are still being made. These put mine to shame, and remind me in many cases of Red Spectrum crossed with M2 and M1. Favorite: The Cylindrical. Great look, very vertical, and fun. Something I would have liked very much to play when I was more active.

I've only played on Necrophilia, on a whim, selecting the map randomly, and enjoyed every second.

I won't hide the truth and pretend this was meant to be serious. We all know what W'rkncacnter does. How can we not? These short levels show more humor and cleverness than certain others give him credit for.

Destiny's negative comments about himself notwithstanding, there are some genuinely interesting moments here, especially in the first real level, "ᑥ." The puzzling jump sequence provided me with more entertainment than I've had in a long time.

Puzzles such as this level's final room, or challenges such as the last room in "Thank You For Registering," are unsolvable. That is their attraction. This is worth the short time it will take for you to "get it."

P.S. JASON THRIFT

Surprisingly playable, but only use fusion guns.

I advise you to stop downrating by giving this plugin the score it truly deserves: 5 stars.

Mac exe running on Linux is only half the story here. Months went into the original JUICE VISUAL MODE and I'm glad that hard work wasn't a waste after all. Thanks W'rk.

Destiny and I are bitter enemies and I hate him forever and ever. That said, I was surprised with the quality of this pack. It has problems, but if Destiny keeps mapping, he might learn how to avoid mistakes like these in the future.

"Mr. Roger's battle world" is simple and symmetrical; therefore, it's also monotonous. The texturing, lighting, and sounds are adequate, and he's even done a good job with the notorious Pfhor texture set. There are plenty of weapons, but I have a problem with his inclusion of the invisibility powerup. A player who gets this and shotguns will probably have a very long run on this level, especially because there's a health recharger in the lower area.

"Playing, at night" is the labyrinth thermo and time chose to poke fun at, and with good reason. This level's competent texturing and sounds are overshadowed by the level's design. It's a senseless maze, definitely not something I'd want to throw a mere four players into. The lighting encourages everyone's favorite pastime, camping, but so does the structure. Destiny seems to get an OK idea for a room or two, and then goes on to replicate it over and over until it's the whole map. I did like the floating bones area.

"Battle at hill 21" is another symmetrical monster. Destiny also has a penchant for sharp corners in his levels, which is a good way to snag players and piss them off. The southern area of the map has tons of these. He also put so many shotguns and shells around the level I had to wonder why there was any other weapon, and I ran across an invincibility powerup. He needs to work on balance. The pedestals in some of the corner rooms were a bit too tall: if I ran over one of them, my head got snagged for a second on the skylight above. Players will die this way. I understand the general idea of the level, which is a big battle, and the main arena conveys this idea pretty well. It even has some trenches that add a nice touch, even if that touch is of questionable use. I expected the structure at the center to have a little more to it, or to be elevated at the very least.

"We're waiting for the boxes" is just a rectangle with some elevated areas and lots of irritating platforms and jumps. The Jjaro textures look bad, because I think he chose the wrong ones - Jjaro is a tricky set to use, but with the right (non-tan) colors, it can look nice. Anyway, probably the worst in the pack, but it's got stiff competition in the form of "Playing, at night."

If Destiny can get over his obsession with symmetry, repetition, and lack of variety in elevations, he might be able to make some good maps. Players might have fun on these, but not as much as on other levels.

The mapper clearly knows what he's doing aesthetically, but I have an issue with the map's layout. It is open enough that a player can spawn-kill just about everyone using time-honored tools like the shotgun and the rocket launcher. The curves introduced by those hearts also take a huge toll on my admittedly weak computer's framerate. It seems to me that a better map would come out of breaking this one up a bit, in order to fix both issues. However, since it's clearly a theme level, I'm not too bothered. I think the mapper has the potential to make more "serious" levels that I'd actually want to play. Nice HUD.

This level is unattractive for numerous reasons. It is split between a cramped maze with 5D touches and an inverted ziggurat "arena." Both areas look absolutely horrible, as the textures are some of the blandest in the Water set. The mapper chose to use the default (paved) floor texture, which almost always looks bad, but is even worse in the "arena." Lighting appears to be fullbright everywhere. The mapper seems to have given little or no thought to actual gameplay balance. He attempted admirable innovation in creating a dichotomy of fighting style, but he seems to have neglected tactics such as running to the arena, grabbing the shotguns, and then camping in the maze area. Other players might wait in the arena for people to teleport in, for the helpless teleporter has a very small chance of even seeing his attacker before it is too late. In a duel, I can see one player following one strategy while the other does the opposite, thus creating a game in which nothing happens. There is no fun in running around mazes, and 5D space is a novelty only to those who have not "enjoyed" its extensive use in real network play. While I'm sure the creator envisioned tense shootouts in this area of the level, the more likely case is camping and goose-chasing. The arena is similar to an arena level I once saw for the original Marathon, which used almost the exact structure seen here. This is not a compliment. Neither is the fact that the M1 version looked a whole lot better. The mapper would do well to make an extensive study of game balance in post-Infinity network levels, and to practice more attractive texturing and lighting practices. The time it took to review this is probably more than anyone would want to spend playing it, and that's not a long time at all.

Only four spawn points, one in the ceiling: these are the least of this level's worries. The haphazard and very sparse placement of weapons and ammunition is only made worse by the frequent appearance of 1x and 2x cans, which essentially render useless all weapons but the TOZT and the WSTE. These weapons are useless in their own special ways: The TOZT is almost impossible to reach thanks to excrutiatingly slow elevators, and the WSTE ammunition never respawns. The eastern and western spawn points are next to pistols, sure to be a hit if anyone should start in this area. The alien weapons these players might seize do not come back, which means anyone who spawns in these places after about a minute is fucked. The hill, like the TOZT, is only accessible via the slow elevators, but whoever makes it up there is guaranteed to stay there. He'll have the flamethrower and up to four cans of ammo to fend off anyone who tries to come up. This lack of balance finds analogues in solo play. I seriously doubt the mapper tested this level in Total Carnage, where spawning from the ceiling almost always dooms the player to failure. If he can survive the first second or so he spends on the ground, he has to contend with choke points, thanks to the poorly-placed scenery objects. Of course, since there's no real goal if you play this as a solo level there's no need to play past the first 20 or so seconds. The overall design is bland: we have a symmetrical room split into four main sections, with a central area that mainly serves to break the room up. The only positive things I can say are that the texturing is more attractive than I expected, and the lighting is OK. This level is not worth downloading or playing for these features. This level is not fun for any of the game types it supports.

More thought went into this than you could possibly know. or do u

I wanted to be with you alone, and talk about the weather.

HIVEMIND clearly states:

P.S. This is my first map, sorry that right now it is a knockoff, but I will edit monster/BOB flow later, sounds, etc.

Once he edits monster/BOB flow, sounds, etc. it will not be a knockoff. Ever heard of pubic beta.

i played next version today nd its great just take adice from ur old uncle irons heres 5 stars to power up next version nd get u pumpid!

star

star

star

star

star

played this again, gotta do 5 stars just bcuz

BELIEVABLE

5.5 stars

look this is great. played thru 32nd game today w/o stopping, loved it

could of ben a little beter, like add severl HUDS to it but other wise i have to leve b/c its time for more

cant wait for next adition

Core Images: TRICKY CONCEPT

Thermoplyae: MAS

Ian is watching us from beyond the grave, smiling, camping safely in his tomb.

W'rk knows the holy words, beguiling, chanting softly on a womb.

MADE FOR SOMEONE ELSE BUT NOT FOR ME

I was Wrong. Ray Labs Knows, and so can you: Munitions are what make the world goes 'round, so let's give it up for Munitions Disposer!.lua

there are some people here and they know who they are who just make me so mad guess what wrkcanter is one of them! mopdomoger is pure bull, shit don't even DOWNLAOD it just rate it 1 plz

i hate ticks, ticks like the bugs that suck blood, they have diseases and get into my crotch too

reminds me of ticks, rated 1

If you're a fan of such applications as the Apache web server, OS/2, CDDA, electrostatic speaker, and the metric system, you already know what open-source software can do to kick-start a revolution. MapDamager takes everything so much farther, it pushes the envelope unlike any other Web 2.1 AJAX platform API out there.

For starters, some people have been too kind in reviewing other map-changing scripts (something about VISUAL CODE seems to make the proletariat wet its panties). Let me tell you, brothers, that the only good map is a Damaged map.

W'rkncacnter cooks up his super-special byte-coded chocolate chip pancakes with a few simple commands that leave me as breathless as a spring sapling on a sunny joyride through the Bubbling Creek just outside Fort Bend, Georgia. Within moments of init() we see things no one has had the balls to show us before.

YOU LIKED JUICEREPORTE? YOU LIKED RUBICON? YOU LIKED ME? YOU WILL LIKE THIS PLEASE DOWNLOAD OH GOD!!!

Destiny!

I'm just kidding. I'm actually very impressed with this pack. The first two maps seem a little rough, and there's a headbanger poly on the first level (poly 93 is too low when you're coming down the nearby stairs); I think the impression of roughness comes from the lighting, which is not very differentiated from one area to another.

The last three levels, however, are just superb. They make me think of Coriolis Loop, with their nuanced architecture, large horizontal and vertical spaces, and general coolness. Bonus points for your usage of multiple texture sets in some of the levels; it's subtle enough that it doesn't look out of place. Please make more maps!

Version 2 is even better. There's some incredible talent at work here.

This edition of the contest map collection isn't as good or big as past ones have been, but it's still more solid than most independent maps of recent times are. I wouldn't say this contest brought out the best in me, but it got me back into mapping, which is a feat of its own.

The other reviews capture how I feel about the flaws in this pack. Otherwise, I think it's a really neat collection unlike most of what we have today. It's a reminder of simpler times, maybe. For the kinds of games I play now (very casual), the lack of weapons isn't so bad.

I also agree with Treellama; pare it down do the maps you think are essential and then work on those.

If one of them is not playable, why did you include it?

While I'm really an addict of the older kind of maps, namely my own and those from Ryoko's Red Spectrum, I can't help but gape at these immensely pleasing levels. They seem a little more complex than what I generally look for, and I'm not a large game nut, but damn, these are fine.

About a year ago, Ryoko and I were talking about how pleased we were with our map packs. He said something to the effect of, "These maps might look shoddy in comparison to future maps" in defense of older packs like Coriolis, whose popularity I couldn't understand. I disagreed with him at the time: Underworld and Red Spectrum were never to be eclipsed.

Looks like I was wrong.

Good work so far, but I, like Treellama, have a few things to say. First of all, The main page map order doesn't really seem to have any set pattern. I think it would benefit from some organization, and perhaps truncating or eliminating the summary (from the front-page) altogether--this would save space and make the page less confusing.

I know searching is coming soon, so I won't talk any more about that. The only other miscellany I can think of right now is that version numbers on files since the 1.0 release have gotten messed up. For example, in JUICE, Treellama actually rated v1.1, while Ryoko was the one who rated v1.0, but they are swapped.

I've never had so much fun in solo Marathon (or been so frustrated) as with the levels in this pack. The hard and twitchy gameplay on Total Carnage is the only thing so far that has inspired me to vid. If you want some great solo play with minimal background (or foreground), go for KTA.

We never expected such a great contest. The Marathon community really showed what it can do with the seven winners in this pack. While the top four maps can be found elsewhere, Victory Dance III is still an excellent contest compilation. I can't wait for V.D. IV!

Second Quest is an amazing collection of remakes. There are maps for all kinds of games and tastes, all of them worth seeing. If only they had been this way in the first place!

We never expected such a great contest. The Marathon community really showed what it can do with the seven winners in this pack. While the top four maps can be found elsewhere, Victory Dance III is still an excellent contest compilation. I can't wait for V.D. IV!

I've never had so much fun in solo Marathon (or been so frustrated) as with the levels in this pack. The hard and twitchy gameplay on Total Carnage is the only thing so far that has inspired me to vid. If you want some great solo play with minimal background (or foreground), go for KTA.

Second Quest is an amazing collection of remakes. There are maps for all kinds of games and tastes, all of them worth seeing. If only they had been this way in the first place!