The Marcher Fortress

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Author: Benn “Kinn” Wooding | Rating: 9.50 | Download: kinn_marcher.zip

Kinn has produced two levels for the Quake community. The first, Bastion of the Underworld, was a strong standout. The second level, The Marcher Fortress, is being called by some the best fanmade Quake level ever. Honestly, I find it hard to disagree. This is one of those levels that you might as well start downloading now as you continue to read the review. Even if it turns out that you don’t like the level, you will at least want to see what all of the well-deserved fuss is about.

First, it must be said that the Marcher Fortress is a high end level. A computer that can play the standard quake levels will not necessarily be able to play the marcher fortress. The download comes with special optimized engines for the level: one gl-based and one winquake based. These are generally necessary to get Marcher Fortress to play at normal speeds. I tried FitzQuake080 and even it was not up to the task. Don’t let the necessity of downloading an engine turn you off. The level is worth the trouble and the custom engines will use you existing quake config file, so you shouldn’t have to do too much fiddling before you actually start playing.

Why does the marcher fortress need a more powerful engine you may ask? Simply put the scope of this level is beyond what most standard quake engines were designed to deal with. There are many enemies, lots of level real estate, and an expansive outside area that I would expect to see in Doom, but wasn’t sure was even possible in Quake.

In a lot of respects this map feels like a continuation of the previous release, Bastion of the Underworld. Texturing, architecture and playstyle are very similar. And the theme of a fortress/citadel is the same as well. However, Bastion of the Underworld was such a good level that playing another like it isn’t such a bad thing. The Marcher Fortress does however expand on and remix on Bastion. Instead of being confined to the inside of the citadel, you start outside it in a cavern, emerge into a valley to see the fortress at its center off in the distance. The sense of scale is greater than other quake maps I have played. The level feels very epic. Once again you will be winding your way deeper into the citadel, moving from level to level, higher, then lower, then higher again, climbing all the way to the top of the fortress to ring the massive bell. Once you do that, you will have your hands full just getting out of the level alive.

Marcher Fortress is a bit more difficult than Bastion of the Underworld was on normal, and Bastion was already pretty hard. You will face a tough challenge on normal. Many of the custom monsters from Bastion reappear too. The flying imp things that hurl fireballs are back, as are the minotaur monsters, which are even harder than before. There is a lot more mob combat this time around. You will face hordes of enemies that will tax your abilities and forced me to run around like a crazy person to avoid dying or getting physically pinned by groups of enemies. Combat like this makes Quake scary again.

You really don’t want to miss out on this map. Download it today and see exactly what Quake is capable of.

- Marius