I haven't played any of the other maps by the author, but I've played a lot of mods from the workshop. Arcane Forest starts it off in a way that made a part of my brain itch in the way I miss. It's that little sense of mystery - one that kind of deepens when you don't read into workshop descriptions, thinking you're in for a pretty action-heavy experience again, but nothing toooooo out of the ordinary. Boy do I felt like going back and reading what I had installed because Arcane Forest sets you off with no handholding.. There's some little goodies to find here, an overshield, several grenades, an active camoflague to ambush a lone elite and his grunt buddy. I love this rise to power, when the player is stripped of all weapons. I recall a mod doing something like this with The Maw where, for a brief minute or two, the player has zero guns and extremely few bullets - with the Flood roaming in the vicinity.

I hit a surprising no-no trigger early that set me back and removes a spare Plasma Rifle. I tried to jump some rocks on the left lane, out of curiosity as one does. I begrudgingly accept the loss of the gun, but at least some time was saved walking back. I later realize this isn't a teleport, the script that took me back was just a reverting checkpoint. I have never seen anyone do this, and it explains why I was missing my gun.

The vistas are very cool.. I love the openness. However, there's some needed ambiance, life and music to the start IMO, I found myself wandering in quietness a lot. I'm a strange player, I'll pop past a 'Checkpoint' trigger and walk back because I don't want to miss anything, and I popped the music trigger on the right side fight first before changing my mind. This did run the music down, leaving me with a lot of quiet walks and quiet fighting up to the 'Castle', or should I say.. *temple.* From Zelda.

The ambush with the stealth elites were a surprise, the vehicle acted as cover fortunately. Nice try. I like this little silly bit with the ramp, and I besiege the castle with a rocket and SMG. I'm used to the SMG getting the 'worse-AR' treatment in every mod and this one sadly adds another to that tally I personally keep count. I love the SMG, but man, it sucks. The long distance fights (as will continue in this mod) really doesn't give SMG any particular place, as the AR outshines it in pretty much every concievable way. In fact, the AR is REALLY good now - and I found myself obsessively tap firing and bursting with it a lot to, enjoying the workhorse of the UNSC. It's not overpowered, just freaking reliable in every sense. The Pistol, while we talk guns, feels extremely satisfying with the fast fire rate - and it doesn't go too hard. I do think the BR felt less fun to use in contrast. The lack of red reticles does make for less of an engaging experience.

Albeit not a lick of credit is given to the very obvious 'Ocarina of Time' forest temple, of which the author has clearly taken a lot of inspiration from, it is a very cool little segment that I really wished lasted longer. I found myself wishing to go up where the elevated covenant where, to explore, and all the doors with locks I thought myself traversing through any moment now..
Sadly, the two panels inside there to remove some covenant cabinets and deactivate the forcefields was very lost on me, and I expected myself to explore more of the Zelda-core temple. I wasted an active camo, humping doors, then realize sentinels were waiting on me outside. Okay, I see you're using enemies to guide me. This works and has a little 'Doom'-ism to it, like Half-Life could borrow - but why not let me walk out through the main door instead of having these roadblocking covenant cabinets disappear and suddenly create a path for the player? It feels more like natural flow than that of arbitrary.

The part ahead in the cave feels more rushed on the level-design. It's the weirdly wedged light bridge and the little objects scattered around to climb that gives it a rough look.
I wander left where the glowsticks are around a dead marine and the switch there confuses me. The enemies that re-populate the map does help me feel less so, but I wish they pushed into the cave. When I discovered them, they were kind of.. waiting around and I was able to get the drop on most of them in a silly plasma-grenade fashion...

I'm happy to hear Johnsons familiar voice, but despite my best attempts, I can save none of the poor bastards below. My aim with the Beam Rifle isn't good enough, but the weapons are more than enough to kill everything, even leaving a whole Fuel Rod that I leave aside. Hey, the ODST don't use the SMG, either! I guess I'm not alone in feeling the way I do after all about the gun.

Keyes voice surprises me - I didn't know there would be a second castle, much less one we are defending. Awesome. After the little segment, I'm tempted again with two paths. I can go to the castle or I can go into this tunnel to my left - but I know the tunnel *has* to be wrong - and in my book the wrong path in a free-roam game means some kind of exploratory reward or weapons. I take the strange 'needler Ghost' and almost kill myself by test firing its awkwardly slow firerate; flipping myself over and losing two bars of health and my newly acquired overshield. There's nothing up here, just a blockade of rocks. Awesome. Covenant spawns from the same tunnel, and I learn the needler ghost is *hilariously* bad against Hunters, so much so that I get out and use the AR after a half minute of tickling one.

Against what is probably level flow, I hop down into the 'sewers' that's on the side of the entrance. The design is identical, but there's zero stuff to find down here, regretting it my curiousity and feeling betrayed. Nothing?! At least block the entrances or delete this part of the map if you're not gonna have any point to it (and now that I realize it's pretty much at the end of this map, at least an easter egg of some sort would have been fitting here.)

I'm a little scolded by Keyes, who is.. awkwardly facing away in the funniest way.
The level ends quite.. unceremoniously, right before I want to explore some staircase. I found myself wanting more, damnit! I wasn't nearly challenged enough, nor did I get enough use of my rocket launcher. I think I ended up having 13 rockets unspent in total, if we include the ones near at the door with Keyes. All in all, the fun is over and I've had a good time. Definitely a nice, different little impression, and one that made me start writing this "diary".

8/10