By Eeriewolf:

By Eeriewolf:

By Eeriewolf:

By The_Sketch and TechAnimation:

Not squished version:

By Mauton99:

By Karrott:

By Pieluvr:

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I’d like to begin by saying one thing: this map comes with a resource pack. Now oftentimes, resource packs in minecraft maps can fill a number of functions, from being obnoxious and over-the-top with replacing Minecraft’s whole palette, to providing background music or necessary voice acting. However, the resource pack for this map only did one thing: Added a few special-looking objectives, and changed some blocks to slightly-modified versions of their current textures. Even though they were small changes, this was one of the best use of resource packs I’ve ever seen - because this map looks AMAZING. I constantly wanted to (and did) stop and stare at the beautiful environments! The entire thing gave off a Dark Souls vibe for looks, but with Minecraft’s brighter colors. Normally, I don’t devote too much time to talking about aesthetics, but this map did a truly special job, and even gave you a binocular-type item so you could take a closer look!

With that out of the way, most of the other things about the map came off as average – a very solid average. The gameplay wasn’t anything special that hadn’t been done before, but it all came off as a very polished package, with the mobs and loot being well-balanced. One thing I particularly liked was the complete removal of natural mobs from the map, allowing it to rely solely on spawners. An audacious change, but a very effective tool in the hands of the right map – which this one was! The areas and world felt alive and interconnected, with side paths containing bonus loot frequently appearing, and usually in ways that felt organic and natural.

Without getting into too many specifics – I don’t want to spoil it for those who want to play it – I had a good time playing this map, and I would recommend it without hesitation to someone looking for a shorter and simpler CTM to play.

Final Rating:

Gameplay: +++++++--- 7/10

Aesthetics: ++++++++++ 10/10

Functionality: ++++++++++ 10/10

Story: N/A

Verdict: 9/10

Gora’s Cave Map Review:

Intersection 1/Starting Area:

The beginning of the map was very simple. A minecart track to take you where you needed to go, and a short walk until you make it to a basic base and the intersection for the next areas. The resource management is immediately odd – you’re given the resources you need to make stone tools and some basic farms right off the bat, but it doesn’t provide wood in chests, forcing you to break wooden planks from the environment to get what you need.

Other than that, the lack of honeyboxes is immediately apparent, as the base area is a small well-lit square surrounded by total darkness, which resulted in an eternal siege of zombies during my stay at the intersection. Surprisingly, it actually made for a fairly interesting start – but got annoying fast after I was done gathering resources. The intersection was overall simple, and with no order book saying where to go first. It was only by luck I went the right ways first.

Intersection rating: 6/10 Too many mobs…

Workshop and Research*(White Wool):

The map surprised me here – upon walking in I expected an extension to the base. Until I saw the spawners. With the high numbers of natural spawns and the cramped nature of the area, this place managed to hit the mark of challenging without being too hard only because it had very few spawners. The place was full of brewing stands right away, but netherwart was never available at any point during the map. Overall, the area was winding and twisty, with a lot of dead ends, but still quite short and overall okay.

Area Rating: 7/10 A surprisingly good starting area

*: I’ve put the area names into google translate - the map is in French

Red Cave(Orange wool):

This area is immediately much bigger and more open than the previous one, but also more difficult. The natural mobs are still everywhere, but thankfully, there are few spawners so we’re still dealing with just them. Despite the objective only being a short walk away from the start, the large amount of mobs made it feel like a drawn-out struggle. I managed to remain deathless by virtue of the potions I was generously provided at the beginning of the area – potions are the one thing the map gives out on a whim.

Area Rating: 6/10 A very simple area, with surprisingly large numbers of enemies

Massif arkeoma*(Magenta wool):

Deaths: 3(2 Accidental lava slip, 1 surprise creeper attack, 2 attempting to retrieve stuff after surprise attack)

At the beginning of this area, it really seemed like the map had stopped pulling its punches. It proved MORE than willing to throw out skeleton spawners in an area consisting of hole-filled bridges over lava, making the place feel incredibly tense and stressful. And then, 1 minute in, all that ended, with the area seguing into a much simpler inferno-mines style sandstone cavern, with natural spawns aided by the occasional creeper spawner. This proved to be more challenging than expected, but the spawners were hidden in ways that made it hard to find and disable them - always an annoyance.

Even further in, we got our first show of random loot, which can be best described as an incredible inventory-filling deluge of good things. Hardly unwelcome, but wholly in contrast to what the map had provided so far. Continuing onwards, the area changed again, into a stone cave pockmarked with many, many small spider-filled holes. It proved easier to run through than try to eliminate anything. This area was significantly longer than the other two, and varied vastly in difficulty throughout. It did at least provide you with good rewards. The loot chest was a definite highlight.

Area Rating: 7/10 Good but too much lava.

*Google translate failed me here

Intersection of Fire and Explosions*:

While exploring massif arkeoma, I noticed in the bridge over lava portion a bridge which didn’t connect to anything. Upon bridging over, there was a little dungeon-type area with some zombies and loot. It initially seemed like a neat side-area… until I found the ladder tucked in the corner. The ladder led down into a little chamber with some more loot and a tree in the middle, with creepers and lava guarding it. This also wasn’t the end – there was another side-cavern, leading into the place you see in the picture above. Now, I thought this was a full separate side area. But I was wrong! It’s an entire intersection! I was lucky, sure, but it’d be incredibly easy to miss this!

What’s more, just look at it. Can you see why I didn’t think it’s an intersection? It has creepers, dangerous bridges above lava… and worse yet, there’s no base or chests or teleporters or railways back or ANYTHING! The only thing telling you its an intersection at all is an area with four poles and some signs! What’s worse, this proved to be a consistent theme through the map. Moving your items every which way is a huge hassle, so its better to set up a new base for each new place you go to, which gets annoying after a while.

All in all… Hard to find, no base setup of any kind, no convenient way back to the previous base, unnecessary and frustratingly hazardous… this place has all the parts of a bad intersection.

2/10 A decidedly mean little place!

*: My personal name for it

Cavern of Water/Main Point:

I was only able to find this on a tip from someone else. Back in the first intersection, there was a small hole in the walls on the coal-filled part of the area. This led to a large water drop into a cave, which led straight to another intersection, also fairly easily accessible from the first areas! At this point, the map started to seem confused. There were 2 intersections stemming off from the first one, neither with a base or any connection to the others, and the remaining area left in the first intersection was lategame content (surprise – I’ll talk about this later). The map was expanding rapidly in every direction, but I had no idea where to go next or what order to do things in, and the map refused to provide any indication. Even some of those carpets along the ground indicating which area had what wool would have been helpful!

With no other choice, I decided I would set up base at the new intersection I had just found and try to get stuff done here. The intersection itself wasn’t too bad, but still lacked any semblance of a base*. Or a way to get back up the massive water drop I had gotten through to get down there.

Extra note: The water cavern you see in this picture? Even though there’s no indication its anything but a small transitional area for the next intersection, it contains the entrance to 2 wools, brown and yellow (see if you can find the one in the picture). Brown is just in a small cave led to by a hole in the ground, but yellow is an entire dungeon that I didn’t know was there until someone else told me.

*There actually was a small base in Infernal Road, but if you didn’t go to that area first you would be out of luck.

Intersection Rating: 3/10 Less dangerous but same problems as the other one

Infernal Road(Gray Wool):

The entire area was pretty much just the road you see above. A hole-filled, boring, burning road. Walking along it is very easy, and if you stick to it, you’ll make it to the wool without problems. There are a handful of ghast spawners along the way, but they aren’t primed and won’t be triggered if you’re quick. Though there were some dangerous-looking custom mobs at the bottom of the road, I never saw any reason to actually leave the road. Overall, the whole area just felt… pointless. Why have a giant road if nothing’s going to attack you along it? Is the map relying on people slipping off into the lava below? Why?

Rating: 4/10 Boring.

Skeletown(Cyan Wool AND Light Gray wool):

This place seemed like it was going to be pretty terrible. And it wasn’t great. There were lots of skeletons. Skeleton spam and eventually blaze spam was what the entire area relied on for its challenge. The “meat” of the area relied on buildings, some with spawners inside and some not, shoved very close together, so that while you were taking care of any one area, the others were filling up with mobs at an alarming rate, until you needed to retreat for a little while so things could cool down. I had to retreat a few times for things to be manageable. But there was one even more major problem with this area: It had 2 wools in it. Okay, that’s not the problem, it’s how that’s indicated to the player that’s the problem. Specifically, it isn’t indicated to the player. The wools are hidden in 2 places: One in a tucked-away underground sewers-type section, the other in a large, important-looking building on the surface. I got lucky, and found the sewers wool first by pure accident. But I could easily see someone in a hurry to get through the area(because, skeletons) getting the wool in the building, and fleeing the area never to return, because, why would this area specifically have more than wool? It’s not like areas having more than one wool is presented as a possibility early on. This area just happens to have more than one wool.

This is especially bad since the entire intersection is far away from the rest of the map, and it would be a huge hassle to come back here when you found yourself one wool short later on.

We can be thankful for one thing: These were 1.8.9 skeletons, not 1.9+ skeletons.

Rating: 5/10 Not boring, at least

Fungal Gallery(Purple Wool):

This area’s aesthetic tells a lot about it: Its just a stone cave that happens to have mushrooms on the floor. The primary enemy is natural mobs, along with some clumpings of cave spider spawners along the way. The area felt more annoying than challenging, but as usual, it didn’t last too long. Even the final challenge was simply boring – there was an island above lava you had to approach, but the only thing defending it were non-primed witch spawners. It was all very easy, and it never really presents any interesting problems for you to solve.

Rating: 4/10 Also boring.

Of note, there was a shortcut in this area that led back to Magenta wool. If you don’t like blocking your way back up huge water drops, this is your only way back to the intersection you started in.

At this point, we’re out of the water-drop intersection and back at the first intersection, there were some areas I hadn’t gone to yet.

The Furnace(Green wool):

Yes, the green wool was connected to the first intersection. It was behind a glass wall on a minecart track on the way to the last area of the first intersection I was actually trying to get to.

Now, I imagine trying to just bridge this area would be hell, even though the map does provide you some blocks. I instead used a water bucket, which proved to be… surprisingly not area-breaking! The design of the lava, in upper and lower parts, meant that it would often flow into my obsidian pathway, sealing off my exit. The prevalent natural mobs would also spawn behind me and mess me up. Plus, the main challenge is trying to get up to the highest part while ghasts assault you, which needs blocks with or without a water bucket. I made it through okay, but… why is this in the same region as the earlygame areas? There isn’t even any indication its meant for the endgame! Just… lava cave with ghasts, this is your life now if you didn’t think to go to other places first!

6/10 – Dangerous and misplaced

At this point, I headed back to the intersection buried in Magenta.

Creeper Climb*(Light blue wool):

This area was just creepers blowing up. Repeatedly. Over and over. The entire thing consists of you trying to climb up while creepers spawn from spawners in clumps of 4 and rain down upon you. The area is designed so that you can’t get up to the creepers easily, but they can get down to you with no troubles. I’m happy I had the loot from the later areas for this one! The place is devoid of loot, which should be a point against it, but it probably would have just been blown up by the creepers anyway! At least, it was mercifully short.

Rating: 6/10 – Short but explodey

*No name was provided, I made it up

Magma Sector(Red Wool):

Notice anything? Yeah, this looks really similar to The Furnace with Green Wool, doesn’t it? Just, a straight path instead of a big circle. I ended up water bucketing myself a path forwards, wondering what would attack me. Ghasts? Blazes? Wither skeletons?

…Nothing attacked me. Literally nothing. I got in, grabbed the wool, and got out with zero mobs seen whatsoever. And a free fire resist potion was provided at the end, presumably to help with The Furnace, which may or may not have been intended to play before or after this. I don’t even know what to say. Why even make an area if nothing is going to happen to the player in it? There’s nothing here! Just a lava-filled cave with wool at the end! It wasn’t even brown wool! Why?? Is this all some master-level trolling course!?

2/10 – Defied expectations…

Apothecary Ruins(Lime Wool):

Have you ever wanted a much shorter, more compact version of Inferno mine’s Lush Ruins? Well here you go! Outside of the main “ruins” area, many of the spawners were hidden in such a way that they were hard to find. The inside was a little better, with the spawners not hidden but appearing in clumps of up to as many as 8 at a time. The area would probably have been really hard if you took the “intended” path, but you can get through fairly easily if you choose to break the 1-block thick walls and go into rooms from the side.

Even if it was really spammy, it was probably my favorite area of the map – stuff was finally happening, and it was a more tense area.

8/10 – spammy but kinda fun

Final Vestige(Blue Wool):

Deaths: 2(1 blaze-related falling injury, 1 silverfish-related falling injury)

At the beginning, this place was a desperate run through a bunch of nether-themed diamond MCedit brushes, while being assaulted by the Vestige Protector forces – our first semblance of a custom mob, even if the only custom thing about them is their spawners, which have a wider detection radius and a faster spawn rate. It proved to be a fair challenge, so the first part of the area wasn’t too bad – but getting the wool was a massive pain. It was another repeat of some previous challenges, with you needing to block up to the top to reach the wool – this time over 127 blocks of distance! And throughout, you would only be attacked at one point: The very tippy top, where blazes would unexpectedly spawn and shoot you down, forcing you to go aaallllllll the way back up, assuming you didn’t splat from the unexpected fall.

In the end, not a terrible place, but getting the wool was the worst part. Once I found the monument and nether portal to the final area, I was ready to be done. Sadly, it turns out I had missed a few things.

Rating – 6/10 The pointless climb to the wool drags down what would otherwise be okay

The Monument of Explorers:

Other than being hidden at the bottom of a big hole in Final Vestige, there is nothing special about the monument whatsoever. It comes with some average-level loot, and doesn’t want metal blocks. There isn’t much more for me to say.

Monument rating: 6/10 – it works as a monument, but isn’t anything special.

Creeper Cave(Yellow wool):

I was only able to find this wool thanks to someone else telling me, so by the time I got to exploring this dungeon, I had full diamond gear. If I had had anything less, then this place probably would have been terrible. The entire dungeon can be essentially summed up as “creepers”. Creeper spawners in stacks, creeper spawners in the walls and floor, with no indication of where… and each area is blocked off by gravel, which you need to break, ensuring they have time to spawn. This would be genius, if it wasn’t HORRIBLE. It is blessedly short, but if you tried to attempt this in the earlier parts of the game when it was initially available for you to find, you would end up just flat-out destroyed. There isn’t any thought to the spawners, there’s just a lot of them.

Rating – 4/10 mob spam

Bedrock Zone*(Pink Wool):

Also found only with someone else’s help, this was hidden behind a wall of vines in Magenta wool, and you had to bridge over a pit of lava to get to it. And then go down a LONG ladder. It wasn’t worth the effort to find it. It’s a simple, short bedrock cave with a bunch of spawners, with the map’s only proper boss fight at the end. The boss itself is a simple skeleton, with a lot of health and nothing special except having Thorns armor, the least fun enchantment in the game. Fighting him consisted of smacking him with a sword over and over, while occasionally taking a break to heal yourself for no reason other than thorns damage.

Rating – 4/10 Hard to find and annoying

*No name was provided, named it myself

The Finale(Black wool):

Through a nether portal located just above the monument entrance, this place could be found. The picture you see sums it up well – bedrock walls and lining, with tons of monster spawners everywhere, forcing you to slowly conquer it. It’s not a bad concept for a final area, but the main problem is – it’s been done before! By a lot of people! And they did it better! It wasn’t necessarily unfun, but very unoriginal.

At the very end, the map provided me with a small base(FINALLY), and a teleport to the last area. I thought we’d finally get a REAL boss, but it was just one last wool, guarded by standard mobs plus an extra-fast spider. A fairly disappointing conclusion. But, at the very least… we’re done.

Rating – 3/10 Unoriginal and unfulfilling

CONCLUSION:

This map was boring and confused. It felt like it was trying to emulate a lot of other maps, rather than doing its own thing. All the area designs were simple and unoriginal, if you could even get to them all, what with how they were hidden. It seems to be trying to channel Myriad Caves’ spirit with a more open-world linear-branching style, but instead it just sort of goes everywhere without feeling interconnected at all. Easy areas are smashed in right next to difficult areas, and its hard to tell where you should go at any given time. Any area you enter could be far too hard for you or incredibly easy. The fact that many wools are hidden in obscure locations doesn’t help at all. The aesthetics were very simple, if not ugly, the gameplay did nothing special, with the lack of custom mobs making it play like a map from a much earlier version. Overall, while not explicitly painful to play, it isn’t worth the effort required.

Overall Rating:

Gameplay: +++++----- 5/10

Aesthetics: +++------- 3/10

Functionality: +++++----- 5/10

Story: N/A

Verdict: 5 out of 10