Lost Facility, by Robert "BJA" Hodri, is a multi-part single player map for Doom 3. Despite its shortcomings, it's a fun little romp stopped only by, well, the end of the map.



Difficulty: 5



I'll be honest, originally I was going to give this a lower score in the difficulty department. For most of the map, I found myself fighting cannon fodder and remaining relatively healthy. Fight a few Z-Secs, imps, trites, and a few Revenants at sniper range. Not so much a problem with your trusty sniper rifle-- err, I mean pistol. For a while, I didn't really find anything new or noteworthy.



At around the second part of the map, though, there's a bit of a difficulty spike. Not a huge one, but a noticeable one, for sure. You go from fighting imps and trites to taking on multiple revenants, cacodemons, and a mancubus in close quarters. Ammo is kinda tight at this segment. There is a rocket launcher you can pick up just prior to entering the area, but since it's close quarters, you might end up blowing your face off. I found myself relying on the shotgun at this segment, mostly, reserving the rockets for that revenant on the balcony.



After that, the difficulty kinda drops again, pitting you against Sabaoth and two revenants. Which actually isn't that challenging - the Sabaoth's BFG actually targets the revenants anyway, quickly nullifying any challenge having the extra baddies there would have added. Sabaoth isn't that hard either, as the plasma rifle you pick up just before you fight him is more than enough.



Design: 8



While not stunningly beautiful, the architecture and planning is definitely better than average as far as Doom 3 maps go. The facility really does feel abandoned, and the author makes good use of prefabs. It's a bit bright for Doom 3, so I found that a little bit of a turn off, especially since the early part of the map's battles would have been much more difficult had the lighting been turned down. For an abandoned facility, someone sure left a lot of lights on!



Either way, the map's layout is somewhat believable, as far as abandoned research bases go.



Playability: 8



I had no real issues with playing this one, save for maybe the difficulty spike in the second act. No real major bugs, so that's good.



Overall (Not An Average): 7



Lost Facility may not be stellar, but it's definitely got some charm to it. I only wish it were longer, and expanded its use of the bestiary to generate more varied fights. Still, it's worth checking out once or twice.