A brush too far was originally released in 2001 by r3tina. 11 years later this level finally appears on ..::LvL but, does it pass the test of time?

If I am not mistaken, this was the first official CTF map for Quake3 by r3tina. He has describe the map as a "Pretty large CTF map", but you will soon read that this may not be the case everywhere in the map. Not his best CTF map by far, but still quality is here and you can see it with the routes from each base, the layout of the weapons, ammo and items (only weapon missing is the BFG). It is very well done. There are 2 routes from the middle going inside each base, these routes then split along the way to the flag in a lot of ways then resume to 5 entrances to the flag room. Of course the map is symmetric since it has been designed for CTF. I do wish that there could have been more space in the middle ground (where the Regen spawns). This would have balanced with the larger inside areas. r3tina suggest 8 to 10 players for this map and I think it is the right number. It can go up to 16 players, but you will discover that this is too much (again the middle ground may be the cause of that).

Visually, there are a lot of the original ID textures and they are well used. Some custom jumppads that I can not recognize are used and no mention about the textures in the readme file. Some small areas in the map will probably remind you of The Dredwerkz (Q3DM12), for example; where the Rail Gun and the MegaHealth are located. I also think that this is where this map shows its old age, only by the look and not by the gameplay mind you.

Bot support is well done, they go almost anywhere, still they tend to favor the lower route for going to the middle ground. Small drawback, no Team Arena support, it would have been fun to be able to play it with the power tech and try this map in Overload, Harvester or Oneflag. Only CTF is supported.

Download? If you are into CTF like me, for sure, but I don't think it is going to be a classic, r3tina has better maps already available in his library.

Reviewed by DGhost

Note: The included readme file is well out-of-date and r3tina's contact details have changed. See r3tina's current website for details.