As to the reviewer argument that there may be lowered floor:
The floor is a mirror, if it's breaked up in verticals, the mirror doesn't work properly...

awesome! 10/10

Such a good map. The most dominating feature would be the textures, they are beyond excellent. I have never seen such graphical reflection on Quake 3 Arena. The reflection can also be used to your advantage as well, using it to see the reflection of an enemy, but not the enemy itself, which brings me to gameplay. The gameplay is awesome, though the map is small, it has interesting gameplay, some good action as you can easily get to safety, but you will need to keep an eye out for snipers. Pretty fun with 4 human players or bots. As for framerates, I don't know if it is my computer or not, but it went pretty smoothly, without any lag. Good fun, and definitely a keeper. 10/10.

AMAZING MAP!

This map makes me think of the Dark Eldar from Dawn Of War-Soulstorm.

There are no other maps that have quite the same "dark feel" of this one. The statue of the evil one can be seen feeding energy from the dark crystal that spawns the invisibility, causing his eyes to glow from the dark force. The marble floors reflect the abominable cathedral's scene, as if it were the lurid Stygian river, Styx. Remember, game play is yet only what you cause it to be.

very nice map!

Forget about the problematic gameplay with easy rg kills, a map can't always have both: great gameplay AND optical appearance. And the atmosphere in that map is SO dark and creepy that I didn't care much for gameplay. On top of that since the side wings are somewhat narrow you can easily get behind the next corner and hide there for a counterattack if there's really someone with an RG after you.
Additionally, this is one of like 3 maps I continously start up from time to time just to be in there again and to take a look at their magnificent textures, atmosphere or something else like that. By the way, another map having that "wow"-effect on me is moonstone, just to make clear where I place that version of "The Black Realm" considering the impression it creates.

We found this map quite enjoyable. The different textureset (blacks instead of red and stones) and the reflective floor add beautifully and the lack of floors is compensated by pillars to run around. The invisibility is a perfect choice as it adds that feeling of constantly being watched. It's dark, it's creepy, it's perfect.

• Mike

anyway i think it is a cool map

Definitely looks cool, i had to turn my res down a notch to avoid 35 fps in some spots. I didn't find that the level's gameplay was lacking, even though it really COULD have benefitted from some more vertical gameplay. overall, maybe it would've been best to work on this one for another few days or couple weeks.