[ Rating ]
Design = 10
Flow = 10
Balance = 9
Textures = 10
Overall = 9.75
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"In
the cloudy shadows, a humanoid figre
stands..."
First of
all, before we go on, click on the link
at left to begin downloading this
terrific conversion. While you are doing
that, I will explain. What you are
getting is Rapture, by Tronyn, [Kona], and The Lieutenant, quite possibly
one of the best conversions we have ever
seen here at Retro Quake. Rapture is a
set of connected maps with a Start and an
End level, but it does not really count
as an "episode". It can almost
be considered a Mission Pack in
miniature, because at the end of each
regular map is one of the game's Runes.
The maps as a result are all very
large, and full of monsters, puzzles, and
challenges. The player will note the
presence of some of the monsters as well
as the Hammer weapon from Scourge Of
Armagon in this conversion. They are of
course a welcome sight and really spice
things up. There is even a story
of sorts, in the form of a pretty long
text interlude between maps that fleshes
out the player's journey, from a hired
soldier to... his destiny.
The
textures look a lot like they came from
the medieval levels of Scourge Of Armagon
as well, but the authors specify on their
website that textures from Daikatana and
Hexen II were used. It doesn't
really matter, since every level shows
nothing short of masterful texture usage.
GLQuake is highly recommended for this
level, especially the "Unofficial"
1.13 release from our Files page with its
GL fog and bumpmapping turned on. While
the levels with water have been compiled
for transparent water, the ones with lava
have not. This was most likely a
conscious choice and we respect it, but
to keep the lava from having a weird
effect, the user must turn the wateralpha
flag off at the console on those levels.
However, water does not come into play
much in this level anyway, at least in
terms of secrets.
[ top ]
Playing
through these levels, the player has to
really appreciate the architecture. These
environments are not only amazing to look
at, but functional. There are hallways,
parapets, gateways and doors, and
battlements; and all look like they could
exist in real life. Don't think for a
minute though that functionality equates
to boring or linear levels. Quite the
opposite. There are plenty of twists and
turns, and high places that must be
reached in order to advance. The gameflow
also seems perfectly tuned, with
objectives that are pretty clear to see
and logical tasks that must be performed
to reach them. In short, I don't think
Hipnotic, Rogue, or even id themselves
could have designed these levels any
better.
Finally,
we come to the difficulty. There are a
few places where the enemies won't seem
to notice you if you come at them from
the side, but overall I cannot lie
to you; playing this on Normal tested the
limit of this reviewer's competent skill.
Playing on Hard would probably require a
lot of knowledge of the levels as
well as locations of weapon caches, and
of course extremely good aim and reflexes.
Playing on Nightmare... all I can say is
"good luck". In addition to the
usual assortment of original Quake
enemies (dogs, Ogres, Barons, and Vores
seem to dominate), you also find several
fugitives from Scourge Of Armagon, as
well as a modified "Baron"
monster guarding each of the game's four
Runes that is entirely new. These Barons
each have extremely high armor as well as
a nasty weapon based on which "element"
they represent, and move as fast as a
Reaper Bot. Nails seem to be the most
effective against them, so be sure to
have a full supply before going in.
Overall this is some of the toughest
combat we have seen in a single-player
Quake conversion.
But even
with the steep difficulty, this
conversion is simply a "must-have".
With incredible level design and texture
usage, and logical gameflow, you just
can't miss. Indeed, this pack could
almost stand as a retail product but
you can get it for free online,
which means there's no excuse to
pass it by. For anyone that still
appreciates single-player Quake, they owe
it to themselves to download and
immerse themselves in the rapture of
Rapture. Highly, highly recommended.
Level
Created by Tronyn, [Kona], and The Lieutenant
Please
Visit their respected sites :
Ethereal Hell
Command HQ
Phantasmal Garrison
Other
files by [Kona] :
Evergem
The Looming Madness
Grisley Manifest
Other
files by Tronyn :
Coven of Ebony
A Desert Dusk
Review by Zoopster
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like or hate this conversion? Let us know. ]
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