Hoover Dam

First things first, if you want to experience the map, do yourself a favor and look for a cool fitting midi that inspires nature and beavers, open this wad in an editor like SLADE and import that new midi, which will replace the ol' d_runnin, which doesn't suit the environment. For reference, I picked Requiem's MAP05 and it worked nicely. 

Did you do it? Good.

Hoover Dam is a recreation of the actual place in the USA named like that, which I've never seen in real life and never will. It's atmospheric outside, with a neat vista of the dam, and the canyon, although dry and empty, isn't painted in just one texture but various different rocks interspersed, kinda gives it more colour. Visually the only boring parts are deep inside when it's not cool sector enginery. 

Most of the action happens on the ledges around the rocks and plenty more to work out in the interiors, you wander through caverns, facilities, control bases, a hellish portion, and even a very flat very narrow maze that can rub a pain elemental's little arms. It's nothing exceptional if you're familiar with '90s type of combat flow, and the high ration of blue artifacts will diminish some of the dirtiest surprises later on, unless you're being too careless with The Tomato Crew. I quite enjoyed the exploration and the feeling of ending an invasion of imp-like beavers, who wouldn't enjoy that?!

Cinematic elements abound. My favourite was a fissure in some generator room expanding behind me while the floor was slowly collapsing, that felt a little scary. Arriving to the top of the dam, long after I stared at its imposing height from below, was a good sensation, as if I marked the most important checkpoint in the map.

Stop the invasion of the damned dam before the demons blow it down. Cool visuals, try not to fall down.

Excellent stuff for the mid-1990s. Lots of action, good layouts, pretty challenging on UV. 

9/10