Sapphire - Orbital Research

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

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