[ Rating ]
Design = 7
Flow = 5
Balance = 6
Textures = 7
Overall = 6.25
[ Retro Quake ]
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"Use
your wits, trust your instincts...As
usual, no clues."
Here we have one of the
earlier releases for Quake, and a very
intresting one for so early into Quake
mapping. This level has created a spooky
atmosphere in an almost realistic setting.
The story has you searching for your
missing brother in the woods, who was
hunting with his dogs. At the edge of an
abondoned quarry you find his shotgun,
and his dogs, which have gone mad.
The architecture of this map
is fairly simple, starting out with small
scale rock formations, and pools of water.
The rocks are satisfying, convincing
enough to make you feel like you're in an
abandoned, scary place, although the pink
sky does not help reinforce that illusion.
It's a fairly small map, a little over a
1000 brushes, and no real detail, but the
overall darkness and mood of this map
more than compensates. It's a fairly dark
level, but you can always see what you're
doing, which is good, and the occasional
blinking light is thrown in to confuse
and disorient. Texturing is competent,
nothing really looks out of place,
although actual door textures for doors
might have helped.
[ top ]
The layout of this map is by
far it's weakest aspect. It starts out
okay, having to two keys in and around a
pool of water, but the doors are made of
a rock texture, so they are hard to see.
After that there's an annoying part with
a wind tunnel that doesn't go high enough
to get you out all the time, so it takes
a lot of tries. Now to the weakest
aspect, you have to find an unmarked
patch of shootable wall to find the exit,
which i only found by noclipping. This is
unacceptable in a single player map. Make
the exit visible, save the secrets for
secret areas ( which there are none of in
this map ) and for areas that are not
mandatory to exit. It's got a strange
flow, a mix of traps, semi-hard fights
and eerieness, but it all works.
The gameplay is okay, starts
out with dogs, which fits into the story
well, and then escalates into scrags,
zombies and knights. One thing I liked,
that instead of giving the grenade
launcher immediatly, you get a quad to
complement your double-barreled shotgun.
You get every weapon in this map, which
is suprising since there are only 53
enemies total on hard, and only one
Shambler. There are 2 traps to get past,
one stupid, one not, both easily
manageable. The ending is interesting,
it's easy, but you can perform an act of
mass electricution if you're observant.
Not too hard, but if you have trouble on
skill 2, skill settings are fully
utilized.
Overall, a worthy map for
it's spooky atmosphere and it's overall
creepiness, so it's worth your time. Just
don't expect anything amazing.
[ top ]
Level
Created by Richard Dale
Carlson
Review by Edgecrusher
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