Mckinley's Copyright Infringemen

McKinley's Copyright Infringement is the kind of map name I love. Almost certainly it only makes sense in the author's head (and maybe not even there!), but its attention grabbing and sets me up to be inquisitive about what is ultimately a really solid little map.

It mostly orients itself around three pretty vertically minded encounters. The first plonks you at the watery bottom of the map and begins by launching down swarmers and other enemies on your head like the worst hailstorm you've ever encountered. The second and strongest has you moving through a set of twisty stairs surrounded by monster ledges. A bezerk powerup waits at the top before a series of respawns then keep you moving up and down repeatedly. It creates a good rythm to the space. The third has a flatter sense to it, several platforms suspended over the first arena with enemies closing in horizontally on all sides as a few enemies pepper you from side rooms. Its all good solid stuff, not remarkable, but fast and to the point.

There are bits and pieces I could complain about here and there. It has that faint feeling of being 3 independent setpieces stapled together a little more than a coherent space. Some of the ceilings are hideously and incongrously textured. The combination of ID1 and Makkon textures just up together that doesn't really work for me, jarring as they are but not in an evocative or interesting way. Worst of all, there's a fucking spawn in the dark in a sewer pipe, for which the only appropriate punishment is death.

Those are relatively minor though. For a short mostly combat oriented map, this does pretty alright for itself.