Artistically executed, detailed to perfection, and a joy to the senses. Those were my first impressions of DM-CryptOfQapla` by James "CreepingDeath" Morgan. If large castle/crypt-style maps are your thing, then this one is worth the download time. If small arena maps are your thing, then, perhaps, this map will change all that. Actually, this map has some arena fighting, along with graceful hallway fighting, vertical fighting, and rooms with columns to absorb firepower.

James has tediously assembled a work of art out of a lump of clay. Where there was nothing, now stands zeros and ones that will excite the senses. When I see an author go to all the trouble to make sure his textures are aligned perfectly in a room, only to make that room dark and dank, I know they are a perfectionist. James mentions in his Readme file: "Just learned how to use the 2D shape editor and floor lofter." When I saw this I thought, "Great, come back when you've had some more practice." I was wrong. Besides the meticulous work that went into selecting and aligning textures, Mr. Morgan deviates from the norm by utilizing the 'floor lofter' to create some grass-covered ceilings. This gave these areas the look of a fortress carved into a cave. With the textures that the author used, it is easy to go overboard and design a map that is nothing but gaudy, but James seems to have found the perfect balance. Low ceilings contrast with high ones, stairs, glowing lava pits, and winding hallways all add to the excitement.

Okay, enough of the good stuff; now for the bad news: Ya need some ponies to pull this cart. For example, the room with the spectacular column work had poly counts approaching 300. I thought that was bad until I entered the arena room with the Udamage: The poly count in there soared to 500 if you stood in the right place. Now, in all fairness, chances are you won't be exposed to that many polys when you're in battle, but one room does get annoying, the lava arena room with the shieldbelt. Big rooms suck up processor power, and this one is no exception. Zoning the map may have helped. Okay, time to balance things out a bit: Besides these over-polyed places, there are plenty of other areas with poly counts low enough for you and a few of your friends to trade ammo comfortably. "Trade ammo comfortably." is that a paradox? If you have lots of horsepower (well, relative to date) you might not notice much lag.

Bots handled this construction well. A few broken path nodes were noticed in the editor around columns, but no anomalies showed up during gameplay. The bots will rule if you let them. I did notice a couple of bots jumping into the open lava pit, but I chalk that up to suicidal tendencies since the vast majority of them avoided the death pit. The weapons and health were well-placed, with the shieldbelt set precariously close to the lava pit of doom.

Lighting was above par: Lighting is the icing on the cake for a map. You can have a great map and ruin it with bad lighting, or a so-so map and make it considerably better with the proper lighting techniques. James has his lighting techniques almost perfected. I noticed a couple of places where lanterns were throwing the wrong shadows on the floor, but unless you're looking for it, you'd never notice this. 8-sided torch flames were used, as opposed to the traditional 4 or 6-sided flames. This was to insure that when you looked at his torches, you saw a perfect flame, every time. Light hues were appropriate, and lanterns with lens flares, (also nicely done) abound. Lens flares also highlight torch flames and wall lighting to help give this cold, dank crypt the perfect ambiance. Light/dark contrasts creep into every crevice of this map, so play it at night with the lights out to get the full effect. Attention was also given to light radii and 'special lit' surfaces. Good work!!

For all those out there who invested an entire paycheck in good speakers, you'll get an earful of the CD soundtrack 'Mission' along with ambient torch and lava sounds. James also knows not to max out the ambient sounds, so you'll only hear these subtleties at the appropriate time.

Nice job, James! CreepingDeath also authored: DM-Installation Alpha