Great 20th anniversary map... Even if Nightmare mode is too simple to find !

Can Machine Games get any cooler? After two awesome new Wolfenstein games, we get a whole episode of classic Quake from them. Who needs a Quake reboot, eh? This is brilliant. Textbook Quake level design. Well balanced difficulty on a journey through various classic Quake area themes e.g. base, cave, ikblue style etc.

Very repetitive, very little variety in encounter design, poorly communicated instant death traps, and the secrets are laughably easy (they do get better later on, but barely). Plenty of enemy encounters feel like the high enemy counts merely ended up prolonging them rather than presenting a greater challenge. Most maps follow a very identifiable format that is as follows: player starts in a hub, player has two routes leading out of the hub to clear before finally being allowed access to the exit (some maps allow him to choose the order between the two routes, some maps don't), the routes are almost entirely self-contained and have little interaction with the rest of the map aside from giving the player a switch or a key needed to progress and looping the player back into the hub. The overuse of such a simple and uninteresting design throughout the episode and the lack of effort to obfuscate it shows a lack of creativity and makes the episode feel very repetitive. The maps are often visually pleasing and that's about the only merit I can give them.

Actual author: J. F. Gustafsson

Quaddicted first hosted a zip made by me (6d7829a09579e0f1cf692d17b090bd52) in agreement with the author, this zip has now been replaced with an official zip by him (5192d715d4dee5b8c1ece57219a0976b). This seems to include a tiny update to e5m1 but no idea what. :)

How can I run it? The bat file does absolutely nothing for me...I use Directq

A really nice surprise from Machine Games. 5/5 from me just for giving us a lovely gift for Quake's birthday.

Pietroskij -- yeah, the bat file is just for winquake.

You need to launch Directq with "-game dopa +map start". Or just with "-game dopa", and then start a new game.

If you don't know how to do that, just start Directq as you normally would, pull down the in-game console (using the key to the left of the "~" key) and type "game dopa". Then start a new game.

Aaargh... what I meant to type was, pull down the in-game console using the "~" key, which is to the left of the "1" key.

Thank you very much!

... or whatever key is to the left of the "1". Might be different if you're using e.g. a German keyboard.

And even the dopefish in the end! :)

I just finished replaying Quake for its 20th birthday when i come across this, what a great gift.

Great maps...very deja vu of the original game...Gutted when I completed the episode...Thanks J.F.

Old school fun, very well presented!

Some secrets are a bit too easy and a few traps are far too quick to punish. Still, some of the inventive uses of said traps was pretty cool to experience!

Excellent pack! It's good to see something celebrate the classic feel of Quake!

That's an awesome gift for the 20th anniversary and what just got me into playing quake again after a few years. :)

Looking straight at map quality I rated it a 3/5. The first couple of maps were very polished but visual quality went down as the episode went with more bare geometrical rooms later on.

Too many flat fights with mid-high HP ennemies ( so many death knights) just packed together just adding length to the map rather than a challenge.

But several part had a good old school quake episode feel to it and I was able to go through it in super old school mode ( all keyboard, no mouse) except I ran out of ammo against the last 2 ennemies and gave up. Axing 2 shamblers wasnt gonna happen. Mix ennemies type together more, have some routes crossing each other rather than 1 way routes with ennemies on the way and it'll become a top quality episode.

classic Quake feel, mostly of episode 1 (to me) with much higher ceilings. the secrets were a lot easier to find than expected. i got 'em all! woot woot!

Good Episode, but waaay to easy even on Nightmare

This was a really enjoyable episode, enough that I wish there was more. This was an excellent effort from MachineGames' J.F.Gustafson -I can see the respect for Quake's original style and feel, and a lot of great level design. It makes sense that MachineGames was so successful with their recent Wolfenstein reboot -and since id doesn't seem interested in doing a proper Quake title to follow up Wolf and Doom, DOPA makes me wish that id would hand it off to them. (Sorry... Quake Champions is pure blasphemy that completely forgets the roots of well, ANY Quake game.)

The episode length was good, strong layouts, and flawless event scripting -something I've seen function a little too iffy on a lot of mods. I'm glad this was sanctioned as an 'official' 5th episode of sorts. Admittedly, I wasn't too keen on the end. Or perhaps it was the total lack thereof? The episode just kind of 'ends'; despite a continuous narrative strewn throughout the rest of the episode, the final level ends with no text, no message, no explanation of any kind. It's just 'over'. That's really my only strike against it. I've completed it on nightmare, but left a LOT of hidden areas undiscovered in the process -I will definitely play through again to remedy that. Fantastic work.

4.75/5

This is not an official episode.

The beginning of this episode was for me very strong, and kept me excited about the upcoming levels. I yesterday finished playing this episode and started gathering now my thoughts about the overall feel.

Scripting was well made and I didn't find anything negative/critical about it. Traps were unforgiving, and couple of them came out of nowhere. Spike traps works the best, they minimize the space you can move safely, I expected more of those kind of ideas.

Enemy placement was quite "too" predictable, but for the newcomers not really. But when reading the title Episode 5, I expected more skillful moments, not just throwing yourself into massive amount stronger enemies (and that came out of nowhere too in some parts of the episode). I wished to see more silent / actually scary moments, and more build up, or the actual meaning of the map.

Ending map was way too much like the actual ending level, and it also ended all of a sudden. No final boss or anything? Just 2 shamblers waiting for you kindly, so I can take them one at the time with my shotgun. Though I really liked the rush at the beginning of that map, thanks to that squad damage power up, it really made that map much more fun.

I forget so many maps because there wasn't really something interesting that stuck in my mind. Yes, it is made in oldschool style, but it doesn't limit the creative spirit. So yes, there was couple maps that shouldn't be there imo. I can't give it more than solid 4.

Most enjoyable, though as other have noted, somewhat old-school. Almost every part of this episode was fun (apart from one or two "What, more death knights?!" moments), but there are not many places or moments that will live in my memory the way some other levels do. The big exception will be the too-easy-to-find silver key in the penultimate level. A great moment.

All in all, I agree with NewHouse's assessment that "solid 4" is the right mark for this. To give less would be unreasonable given the amount of craftsmanship involved; but to get a 5 these days you need artistry.

Thoughtfully placed foes with fair supply placement, a relief after unfairly hard maps. The architechture is very intuitive and logical, often looping back into previous areas, or showing areas that will be accesible later. Themes covered are base, wizard and metal. Each map has it's own character, offering different methods of layout and puzzles. Plenty of secrets too, some are easier to find than others, but it's worth looking for them since it isn't really a consuming task due to the minimalistic style mapdesign, however there are enough details to achieve an eerie atmosphere.

Overall I think it's a worthy episode 5 with light and fun gameplay, similar to the originals.

I'll briefly add my praises to this set. Yes, very "old school" in terms of layouts and progression, but there's a kind of polish and detail that makes it much more than a retread of id1, SoA, or early fanmade episodes. It's not flashy or monumental like many a mapjam or AD map, but it's still gorgeous in a way that I can appreciate. I like this style of mapping quite a bit--no frills and all id1 textures--and it's hard to argue with an episode like that done this well.

My only issue is that the secrets are quite easy for the most part (I found all or nearly all in every level, which is rare for me), making skill 2 less of a challenge than it could have been. As a result I found I died on traps more than monsters. On that note, it was nice to see some old school wall and ceiling crushers. The bloody metal textures are my favorite, heh.

Dimension of the Past on The Quake Grave

This episode is exactly what it says it is: It's a great, old school episode that could easily fit in with what ID software created back then. As Lane mentioned above, it's very much "like Id did" but it does have a polish that makes it stand out. Considering the flow of episodes 3 and 4, if I was to refit this one in, I might put it between 2 and 3 but not 5 as episode 4 gets a bit crazier than DOPA does.

As the type of Quaker I am, this fit perfect with my skill level. I found it fun, never frustrating yet still offering up a bit of challenge in some areas. I loved the areas of maps that gave you a quad to blow off some steam and plow through enemies. And as much as others are saying they were too easy, it was nice to play through some maps where I was finding most of the secrets without having to get discouraged for not knowing how to get to any of them. In fact, the clues that were littered about, teasing the secrets, I thought those were great and made it more fun to find them.

Absolutely amazing work here and a great birthday gift for Quake on its 20th! Well worth playing and a ton of fun!

The last level was a pain in the ass on hard difficulty, the rest were pretty good. Secrets in the starting levels were too easy but later on got better.

High to medium quality maps, entertaining and visually faithful to the original maps for the most part, but the very low difficulty and the way the secrets are distributed throws everything down the drain. Since enemies are hardly a threat, the most common way to die here is by running into a trap, assuming they're the insta-kill type. Worst of all though, is how almost all secret areas are presposterously easy to find, like it was purposely made that way as some kind of joke; a very, very bad joke.

E5M4 probably has the best two examples of this mess, one secret being a red armor and some rockets waiting on the other side of a pit filled with deadly spikes that can be reached by simply jumping across. That's it, no hidden switch, hidden passage or anything remotely similar as anyone would expect, you just jump and there's your reward. The second and most outrageous example comes right after opening the silver key door, where you take a short turn left and right, kill an ogre and find a yellow armor that by unfathomable reasons counts as a secret.

In all fairness, things pickup a bit later starting on E5M6, but not enough to make any real difference by then; things went bad right from the start.

3/5

I agree with the criticisms other people have made--easy secrets, repetitive combat, etc--but this is still a very entertaining mapset. I particularly like the first level, which captures the feel of the original game while actually being better than the id base levels in many respects.

I remember JF Gustafson old maps.. liked his style ! So I'll try this even though base-theme really is not my cup of tea

@komagame Don't worry, only the first two maps are base themed, the rest have other types of environment.

A great 5th episode. Fits perfectly to the original ones but with higher details and nice mapping tricks. 2 thumbs up!

For extra atmosphere, BloodVengeance made RTlights for this episode, check them out here: http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-mod-releases/works-progress/11712-rtlights-custom-maps-episodes-more-come.html This link should be added to the introductory text.

Erratum: The link above is for BloodVengeance's general RTlights thread. The direct download link is this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xxrcg728zw7d9nk/DOPA-RTlights-v1.0.pk3?dl=0

It's the real deal. The "Episode 5" tag isn't just marketing, this really feels like more vanilla quake awesomeness, albeit with a few modern mapping flourishes here and there. Indeed, I spotted some very neat and creative uses of textures and other mapping tricks.

I agree that many of the secrets were fairly easy to find (I kind of like it) and that some horde battles were a bit repetitive (the number of hell knight hordes stood out in particular), but having this episode to continue the quake saga was a real treat for which I am very grateful.

Really good old school episode, but with more modern ornamental architecture. It's perfectly Quake.

Visually, these maps are pretty good - there's a nice "high ceilings shrouded in darkness" motif that runs throughout the episode, and the architecture styles are clean and rather elegant - retro, but advanced a couple of years - czg's "numb nimbus" would fit in seamlessly with these maps visually.

However, I think these maps fall short of greatness due to the layouts tending to feel a bit boring and predictable, and the gameplay is similarly routine.

Gameplay and layout-wise, these maps are about on par with some of the less-well-executed maps in the Hipnotic mission pack, and they don't quite reach the lofty heights of the better Hipnotic maps.

Anybody have RTLIGHTS? All links gone, please mirror it and post link there!

Anybody have RTLIGHTS? All links gone, please mirror it and post link there!

Solid map pack faithful to the original game. Nightmare mode sometimes feels like a survival horror game because you can run out of ammo, and i like that. No final boss or proper ending makes this a 4/5 stars.

Amazing! This just feels like good 'ol Quake. They have don a really faitful job with this episode, it doesn't feel out of place at all.

Could've had a final boss, I agree with that.

Finally got around to playing this one and have since run through it twice (Nightmare). All around good episode and I enjoyed it overall. Enemy placement feels predictable at points and there are a few points that feel utterly cheap (one has you falling down into a sewer area with no cover and three shamblers staring you down). Also, this could be my source port acting up (QuakeSpasm), but I didn't see any ending text which makes the whole thing feel to end rather abruptly. Other than that, I think it's solid overall and absolutely worth playing, particularly if you prefer level design in the style of the original four episode campaign.

No, Amackert, it's not your source port. There wasn't any "ending" at all. They should've put at least a little text, but considering it's free and well-done, I guess we shouldn't complain! Come to think of it, if they did, then folks would probably complain about the content anyway.

I loved the episode. It fit right in with the rest, official or not. Granted, there were some spots that you were guaranteed to die ... but that's Quake. It's not a hold-your-hand game like most modern shooters. Between this and Romero's Sigil, I am digging professionals showing old games some love. If you haven't yet, play this sucker!

Really good set of maps. Has a very 'vanilla quake' flavor There's one map early on where health is really hard to come by and that was a pain. Sometimes ammo is scarce. The new wolfenstein games stink so I deducted one point. 4/5

It is worthy of what would be called Episode 5 and corresponds to the spirit of the original game. But sometimes Machines Games go a little further than the original. Episode 5 is more complicated, the medium difficulty is more likely the hard in the original game. Developers do not pity you and sometimes frankly laugh at you and create very unexpected situations. Save more! If you are a quake nerd 80+ lvl, then perhaps it will not be a challenge for you, but to all other players this episode may seem rather difficult for the first walktrougt on medium difficulty. It is impossible not to notice how carefully the design of each level was created, the logic of location and spawn of monsters, objects. Everything is done very professionally.

Good episode! Very old skool! 5/5 And yes, we need a single-player Quake reboot! Classic Quake or stroggs, no matter

A solid episode. Everything works, which means you can just focus on getting your Quake on.

Here's where I feel this addon stands in comparison to the other single player campaigns content wise (descending order):

Abyss of Pandemonium > Scourge of Armagon > Quake > Dissolution of Eternity > Dimension of the Past

I don't mean that dopa is bad. Quite the opposite, comparing to the classics. Besides, it's not in the same league with the rest being the only one free at the release date.

Dopa is quality content, however it doesn't have bosses, new enemies / weapons / items that others have

wasn't aware of this. interesting.

Only by mistake i came across this episode.Its 1st class.Absolute joy to play.Skill 3 about same hardness as id maps,But what a joy 10/5 lol

Good pack, but only good. Gameplay on normal pretty hard, there's a lack of ammo here and there. Too many hard enemies makes gameplay a little boring. Could be a little easier and maps more different. Looks almost same as Id but there's really no map to remember.

Overall quite good, but not too polished.

Did I get the impression that DOPA is a sort of prequel to the original four episodes (map Year Zero)?

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Not sure about that. Year Zero is a NIN album.

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Really well made levels by Machinegames devs, although the end level is disappointing.

Played on Nightmare. Had to shotgun pretty much every shambler to death. I like the 'classic' feel of the levels, but I remember the original levels having WAY more ammo, at LEAST 100 nails per shambler in a level.

Also, maps in this pack serve as a warning to modders, don't include vores in areas with angled walls! The projectiles will slip right around corners!

I really appreciated that Jerk and the MachineGames team took the time to pay homage to Quake with this unofficial 5th episode!

Played it twice, first on hard, then on normal so I could look around a bit more. With all the heavily modded Quake episodes out these days, (taking NOTHING from them!) it's a lot of fun to play levels that look and feel like the original from nearly 25 years ago now.

Loved this. The levels were the perfect size, and the difficulty was just right. I also like that the secrets were findable without excessive scouring. It just "feels" like Episode 5.

I really enjoyed the "Episode 5". It's hard to find good full episodes like this that are maps-only, without depending on modded progs.dat or expansion packs. Thanks to the authors for making this. :)

really great episode, lovely blend of e3 and e4 themes! would fit right in with the base game! only complaint is that there are too many death knights on hard/nightmare - they're not as fun to fight as ogres.

It barely earns a 3/5 to be honest. Whilst visually it's a bit of a step up from the stock id1 maps, gameplay-wise it's rather basic and dull, with generally boring and banal encounter design throughout. The layouts lack the creativity and playfulness of the id1 levels.

Doesn't really earn the "Episode 5" label.

czg's "Terra" episode, which pre-dates this by 11 years, is far, far better...and Terra isn't even that great.

Loved this episode. Most levels are hub based which makes progression feel very satisfying. A must play.

I'll admit I didn't really care for Dopa much, but I think it's more that I've been spoilt by all the wonderful modern maps I've been playing.

Functionally, the levels are okay and feel like they could fit in perfectly with the base game, but they could have at least tried to freshen things up a little considering this came out in 2016. I played on hard, and that resulted in a frequent ammo shortage and far too many Death Knights in tight spaces for my liking. It's obviously well worth playing anyway, but it's also not the best official content for the game.

Looking back at DOPA just shows how far Machine Games' involvement with Quake has come. What originally was a simple tribute to the vanilla game has set the stage for the Kex port and Dimension Of The Machine.

I'd give it a 4 out of 5. It's not the most exciting add-on when you got accustomed to Arcane Dimensions, Copper or the numerous map jams pack, but it's certainly not the worst offender. That title belongs to Ter-Shibboleth and it will keep it forever. Rather, DOPA is the sort of content ID Software would have released in 2001 if the 2 Johns and their acolytes stuck together like they used to.

Ter Shibboleth is awesome you fool…