Hello, friends, foes, and curious passersby! Upon this blog I will review adventure and survival maps that aren't very well known to the PMC community. It serves as a way to talk about the pros and cons of maps, to promote less-known users, and to give constructive feedback on their creations. I plan to update every now and then. Currently, the highest rated map here is Negentropy, with Limbo Chapter 1: Transfer second.
If you want me to review your map, then comment below. I won't review maps that have thousands of diamonds, or I'd have to change the name of this blog, so keep that in mind.

Negentropy

Gameplay:
Negentropy is a puzzle map that involves placing moving circles on a grid-like board so that they never collide. You must place all of the circles, and there are four different types of circles that each move differently, but a level may require multiple of the same type. It's very original and something I've never seen before. The first few levels are easy, but it gets harder. It's incredibly addictive: I simply could not pause the game to write this review until I got stuck on one of the last levels and gave up. In this aspect, Negentropy reminds me of an awesome app. 10/10
Aesthetics:
The blocks that make up this map have their own basic custom textures, each designed for function rather than eye candy. The items, on the other hand, are stunning. The menu room displays three-dimensional rotating models (I can only assume that they are permanent dropped items) similar to non-Minecraft puzzle games. The circles are also 3D models, and I have no idea how they move like they do, but I can guess it took some heavy redstone. 9/10
Creativity:
Like I said before, Negentropy is very similar to a puzzle app in terms of level design and time-killing. Of course, this is something rarely seen in Minecraft maps. Most of the levels are interesting and it was smart of the creator to include multiple types of circles. Though the precise mechanics presented are new to me, I have seen similar puzzles like this. 9/10

Negentropy has gained status as the highest-rated map on this blog so far with an impressive 9.3/10 overall score.

Subject 62

So, I have to rewrite this review because I just came on here to write a different review and I discovered that the review for this one was missing. Strange...
Story:
This has an appropriately dramatic story. You are a test subject in the laboratory of a mad scientist, Gordon. You are the last living subject with a two-digit ID, and he is determined to fix that. For the purposes of the review, I will also say that you are freed and you attempt form an army to take down Gordon. The entire plot involves mystery and betrayal, but the dialogue that conveys it could have been better (i.e use /tellraw). It also goes for a fair while and doesn't completely focus on one aspect of the plot, nor does it forget about the things mentioned at the start, for example your girlfriend. 9/10
Gameplay:
In this map, rather than the story being melded to fit the gameplay, the gameplay is melded to fit the story. Usually, this is a good thing in my books, but in this case, it sort of ruins the fun. The challenges were cool and creative at times, but at other times, it was repetitive and boring. The part that ticked me off the most was towards the end when you have to scale the town walls. Sure, it's part of the story, but it was a complete and utter waste of time that provided no challenge. This brought down the good parts, unfortunately. 6/10
Aesthetics:
The design and general look of this map is average in most cases, maybe a little above the sort of stuff you'd expect from a normal player. Nevertheless, it gets the message across. I noticed that instead of having room-next-to-room areas, it has pressure plates at the joins of each room that would teleport you to an identical join in the next room seamlessly, so it looks like they are all connected, when in reality they are far apart to reduce lag. 8/10
Creativity:
I must admit, "escape from the lab" maps are fairly common these days. This is slightly more original, however, because it also goes through the aftermath as well. Like I said before, the physical aesthetics are pretty generic, but function of the redstone makes up for that. The part where you have to obtain the key card seemed particularly awesome and original to me. 8/10

Subject 62 earns itself a well-deserved overall score of 8/10.

Impossible Parcore

Requested by Alex_the_Great99
Story:
This is a parcour map, and it doesn't have a story. Period. So like last week, I will leave this section out.
Gameplay:
As the title suggests, this is a parcour map, and as the title suggests, it is near impossible. When I began the map, I assumed it was going to be a series of jumps, like a standard parcour map, but was I proven wrong. Throughout the whole thing, you'll find every kind of jump, run and twist possible in the game of Minecraft. I admit to opening my game to LAN and activating cheats just to work around some of the parts that I just couldn't do. Due to this, the map is among the longest I've ever played, not due to a lot of content, but due to difficulty and mass raging. 10/10
Aesthetics:
Many of the aesthetics are world-generated, but the aesthetics that are man-made aren't sloppy. Each level is set in a different dimension, and the parcour itself is themed around that dimension. I must say, I was scared when I counted three Ender Dragons in the third level! Some command blocks were showing, and that kind of killed the mood, but it is hard to hide command blocks mid-air without building a big ugly cube in the sky. 7/10
Creativity:
Many of the jumps in this were original and much more interesting than merely jumping from block to block. I was especially pleased when nausea was used in some parts to make the parcour ten times harder. But, and I hate to bring this up, we've all heard the "Impossible Parcour" idea before, and it wouldn't be too hard to find another parcour map with the same idea. So the gameplay is original, but the concept is very generic. 6/10

This map earns itself a nice juicy average of 7.5/10.

Logic and Cake

Story:
Not much story here, or any really. Motivation isn't required for maps like these, though, so I'm just gonna leave this section out.
Gameplay:
This map is a puzzle map, with only ten puzzles. Despite this, the map took me about an hour. Each and every puzzle has a different and compelling idea: magic carpets, a jail escape, a zombie helper. Most of it was finding and crafting items, and using your head to think rationally and logically. I enjoyed every minute of it, although it did get way too hard at some points. I admit I had to look at the post to find the answers for some. 9/10
Aesthetics:
Most of the structures and background in it served only functional purposes, except for puzzles 1, 3, 4, 7 and 8. In those cases, the building style one would most commonly find on a minigame map is applied: made to look natural, but not like something out of classic Minecraft. Otherwise, iron, prismarine, quartz, wood and a few other blocks were used. Either way, the aesthetics are alright, but not too great. 7/10
Creativity:
Like I said before, each puzzle in this is a fresh idea. But it's not just the puzzles that are unique. This map contains secret achievements that you don't get to see without first completing it. I only got three out of eight, but I think I figured out what the other five were. It almost made me want to go back and play the whole thing all over again. The final puzzle is the strangest: your mission is to bake a cake. This one specifically is titled "Lies!", referencing Portal, which is a nice touch. Upon completion, you have access to the redstone workings and a rollercoaster that covers the whole map, both of which are things I've never seen before. So yeah, this map is full of creativity. 10/10

Averaging those out, the overall score is about 8.5/10. This map is definitely one for puzzle lovers.
(Actually, the overall score was 8.6 recurring, but I like to keep things simple)

Time Tangled 2

Story:
This one happened to be another great adventure map with a story much more intricate the words "kill the zombies". It serves as a sequel to Time Tangled (obviously) which I haven't played, so some of it didn't make sense at first, but I got the gist of it pretty quickly. You're a scientist at Glowstone Industries doing your average everyday time machine development, when you get a call to teleport to the abandoned mental hospital. It's short, but a lot of dialogue is crammed into it, so you always know what's going on. My only complaint is the need for a grammar check, but that's the pet peeve part of my brain talking. 9/10
Gameplay:
Time Tangled is certainly a story-oriented map, as the gameplay is mostly walking around and pressing buttons. Towards the end, there's some combat involving a zombie spawner, an evil villager posing as one of the antagonists, and the Wither, which is surprisingly easy to beat with a stone sword. I suppose that's actually a sufficient amount for a fifteen-minute map. What you need to do and where you need to go is clear as crystal thanks to an objectives system, so stupid people like me don't end up coming across the final boss battle while looking for the tutorial area. 7/10
Aesthetics:
The majority of it is simple quartz/obsidian contrast die to the futuristic setting, with villagers serving as protagonist NPCs (excluding one) and zombies serving as antagonist NPCs. But there's a lot of different buildings and rooms, even if you only spend less than a minute in each. Lighting is actually pretty well done here, and the rain throughout it (not sure if deliberate or accidental) adds to the atmosphere. 7/10
Creativity:
The idea of a scientist inventing time travel, and a villain stealing it and using it for their own evil purposes, has obviously been done before, but due to the lack of story in many modern adventure maps, it's among few on PMC. Other than that, it doesn't really do anything new or unusual, but it gets points for having something to put in this section. 7/10

Applying the ol' mathematics, the overall score ends up at 7.5/10. This is definitely worth fifteen minutes out of your time to play.

Limbo Chapter 1: Transfer

Story:
Unlike many adventure maps of today, Limbo has a compelling, original story. You find yourself in a strange, dark room with no memories and a guy named Murray talking to you. To begin with, it seems a little like the Matrix, but it takes its own unusual and interesting twist upon completion of that area, with wild minecart rides, parcour within the belly of a dragon, and a great ending. A nice plot with thorough dialogue and twists is something I always look for in an adventure map. 9/10
Gameplay:
Limbo mantains a great balance of difficulty in its gameplay: never too easy and never too hard. It mixes combat, parcour and puzzles together to keep the player on his toes. The only problem I found with it was that the second part with the IEM torches got a bit repetitive after a while. Nevertheless, it's worth the time to play. 8/10
Aesthetics (and in this case, music):
The creator of this map clearly has an eye for detail, as the map has been built like an artist would paint a picture: attentive right to the last block. Even off in the distance, in places far from where the player can access, wondrous lands exist. The music is amazing too, and this is one of very few maps I've ever downloaded that has music at all, let alone good music. Limbo has its own custom resource pack that gives everything a fresh texture. 10/10
Creativity:
As I have said before, this map is one of a kind. In many scenes it takes advantage of commands and a custom resource pack in ingenious ways: retexturing rain as binary code, falling into barrier blocks to give the effect that time has stopped, spawning in a room of pitch-black blocks to create complete and utter darkness. 9/10

The overall score works out to be 9/10. Can't wait to see a Chapter 2!