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Kona's latest project is a decidedly ambitious
one. 2 medium sized maps + 1 smaller arena
map comprise this pak. There are tons of new
monsters and weapons to go alongside the maps
as well, however, not all of them are pulled
off well. The brushwork in these maps are
top-notch. A good adherence to the theme
and amazing looking architecture. It appears
to be a blend between q3a gothic and some
other source, of which I'm not familiar.
The outdoor areas are also well rendered.
Good looking rock formations, and nice textures
(unreal rock there) go well together.
Gameplay is quite good, and with the plethora
of new monsters, quite refreshing. Gang
attacks are present, but gameplay is focused
more on a few powerful monsters than on
many weaker ones. Progression is handled
well, and is never too hard or too easy.
There were a few times when I had trouble
figuring out where to go. For example, one
message informed me that a secret passageway
had been opened, but I had no idea where
it was, and had to spend a little while
searching for it, which took away from the
atmosphere a bit. |
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Speaking of atmosphere, this map reeks of
it. Custom ambient sounds are present everywhere
and the adherence to the theme helps quite
a bit. Unfortunately, there are a few times
when the atmosphere was broken. The new monsters,
while being new and providing variety, are
not all of the same quality. The Baron is
present, and rocks as always, along with reskinned
Knights, Hell Knights and modified ogres,
but there is also another monster, a jumping
chick with Major(?) sounds (from q3a) who
looks, quite honestly, ugly as hell, with
an equally bad skin to match. The baby fiend
is another example of an atmosphere reducing
monster. It provides a challenge by being
hard to see and hit, but it is skinned in
green and purple(!). The author would have
been better just leaving it with the stock
fiend skin. As it is, it looks unnatural and
ridiculous. Add to the fact that Quake's palette
does not include very many good greens, and
the texture set along with the colored monsters
look more teal than anything else and very
faded. Some really cool modified monster
are present here, and are of the type I've
never seen before. There is a 'queen' fiend,
which is basically an upscaled fiend with
a shield. It's quite imposing, and although
it's lost it's ability to jump, is still
quite dangerous, because of it's protection.
A reskinned shambler is present as well,
this sucker is great. It's got an Arch-Vile
type attack, and is a fun guy to battle.
The flying 'wizard' type monster looks great.
I'm pretty sure I've seen him before, Nehahra,
I think, but he looks great as ever and
fits in well with the surroundings. I won't
talk much about the boss monster, but it
looks properly evil, and is a real tough
fight. |
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There are also some new weapons, a flame
launcher, a freeze gun, the Positron Beam
and a lightning gun flamethrower. Quite honestly,
I was disappointed in all of them. The flame
launcher is absolutely pointless. It serves
no purpose, since it's ammo is of a different
type, and doesn't seem easy to come by. The
freeze gun is more of a novelty than anything
else, since it can't actually kill a monster.
It will only immobilize it for a short period
of time. You MUST shoot it with something
else, otherwise it will revive and go after
you again. At least if there were extra skins
for each of the monsters when it was frozen,
it could have *looked* cool. The Positron
Beam was a big disappointment. I remember
the Positron Beam as a mass-destruction
weapon, which could gib tons of monsters
with no effort at all. I envisioned a room
clearer. Unfortunately, this iteration of
the Positron Beam has been thoroughly weakened,
and actually does less damage than a grenade,
while still using 1 rocket (rocket?!). The
final new weapon, the Flame Thrower is basically
the lightning gun with reskinned lightning,
and the explosion sprite spawned at the
lightning endpoint. It has the ability to
set monster on fire. I only used it at the
end when I had to. It doesn't really look
like a flamethrower, and does the exact
same thing the lightning gun does.
What I see here is an amazing map pack
with some cool stuff and a bunch of useless
things as well. Honestly, I loved this pak.
It's an amazing experience, with lots of
challenging fights, and some good scares.
Don't let my negative comments deter you
from enjoying this. Just remember, just
because it's new, doesn't mean it's good.
It has to actually serve a purpose.
Underworldfan's note: Good 3 map pack with
superb and original architecture. The Textures
are also incredible. Download this immediately.
Overall Score:
18/20 |
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