[ Rating ]
Design = 9
Flow = 6
Balance = 4
Texture Use = 9
Overall = 7.0
[ Retro Quake ]
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"Everything
became confused..."
That's
putting it lightly. The story of this
modification is quite confusing, with a
bent on very unusual (and nearly
unpronouncable) names, and an atmosphere
unlike most of the other Quake maps out
there. I am categorizing it as a "level",
although it contains a start map, a main
map, and an endgame (boss) level. This is
mainly because the start just lets you
select difficulty, and the endgame has
only the boss to fight. Nearly all the
action happens in the main level.
Seems that
long ago some prince was ruling over a
peaceful land, and some winds of change
blew in causing dark thoughts in the
minds of his servants... oh hell, if you
can figure out the story, let me know...
it's just too weird to fully comprehend.
Let's jump in, okay?
[ top ]
The main
map in this conversion is enormous, and
will take you a while. One of the first
things you will notice is that the look
and feel of the level is quite similar to
one of the large Unreal maps. There are
some imported textures in use here,
mainly from Heretic II, as well as a
couple of ambient sounds from Unreal
itself. The color scheme of the level
overall is a striking green, which is
quite a break from the dull greens and
browns of most Quake maps. But the Unreal
sound effects really threw me. Just to
see if I was imagining, I popped in the
Unreal soundtrack CD and picked one of
the more surreal tracks. That had a
profound effect and almost made me feel
like I was actually playing Unreal. I
half expected to see some Nali wandering
around.
The map
isn't just like Unreal in looks and
sounds either. Even the placement of
enemies and weapons was pretty "Unreal"-like.
Except that with this map, the combat is
either sparse or very difficult with no
gray area in between, so you have a
tendency to run out of ammo in places.
Better attention should have been paid to
the balance here. Some of the combat
takes place at range, which can eat up
shotgun rounds quickly, and ammo caches
aren't always nearby. You also have to
endure some pretty fierce combat before
you get to the better weapons like the
nailgun. The rocket launcher isn't
reachable until the boss level, but it
sure would come in handy in the early
going. Shamblers and Vores are a little
too common on this map.
[ top ]
The
endgame has you facing off against a
pallette-switched (green) version of
Chthon, called Raagoonshinnaah (try
saying THAT five times fast). If anything
though, he is far harder to beat than his
counterpart at the end of the original's
E1. Here you do not have as much cover,
and no electrodes that you can use to lay
the smack down, plus you are on a sloping
surface so even dodging is not a complete
protection. You have to rely on reflexes,
patience, and a lot of rockets in order
to outlast this baddie. It takes about 40
rockets on average to bring this guy
down, after which the level exit opens.
I must say
I found myself marveling at the
architecture. The flow of the map wasn't
always obvious, but I found my way around.
The big sticking point here was the
unfortunate shortage of ammo that I found
myself having to contend with, which
decreased the fun of the level for me
somewhat. Overall though, it is still
well worth the download, if for no other
reason than to see what happens when you
try to do "Unreal" things with
the Quake engine. Worth a look.
Level
Created by Vondur
Please
visit the authors site :
Vondur's War Supply
Review by Zoopster
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