The Fane of the Diabolist

Author: Richard Dale Carlson | Rating: 6.25 | Download: fane11gl.zip

Here we have one of the earlier releases for Quake, and a very interesting one for so early into Quake mapping. This level has created a spooky atmosphere in an almost realistic setting. The story has you searching for your missing brother in the woods, who was hunting with his dogs. At the edge of an abandoned quarry you find his shotgun, and his dogs, which have gone mad.

The architecture of this map is fairly simple, starting out with small scale rock formations, and pools of water. The rocks are satisfying, convincing enough to make you feel like you’re in an abandoned, scary place, although the pink sky does not help reinforce that illusion. It’s a fairly small map, a little over a 1000 brushes, and no real detail, but the overall darkness and mood of this map more than compensates. It’s a fairly dark level, but you can always see what you’re doing, which is good, and the occasional blinking light is thrown in to confuse and disorient. Texturing is competent, nothing really looks out of place, although actual door textures for doors might have helped.

The layout of this map is by far it’s weakest aspect. It starts out okay, having to two keys in and around a pool of water, but the doors are made of a rock texture, so they are hard to see. After that there’s an annoying part with a wind tunnel that doesn’t go high enough to get you out all the time, so it takes a lot of tries. Now to the weakest aspect, you have to find an unmarked patch of shootable wall to find the exit, which I only found by noclipping. This is unacceptable in a single player map. Make the exit visible, save the secrets for secret areas ( which there are none of in this map ) and for areas that are not mandatory to exit. It’s got a strange flow, a mix of traps, semi-hard fights and eerieness, but it all works.

The game play is okay, starts out with dogs, which fits into the story well, and then escalates into scrags, zombies and knights. One thing I liked, that instead of giving the grenade launcher immediately, you get a quad to complement your double-barreled shotgun. You get every weapon in this map, which is surprising since there are only 53 enemies total on hard, and only one Shambler. There are 2 traps to get past, one stupid, one not, both easily manageable. The ending is interesting, it’s easy, but you can perform an act of mass electrocution if you’re observant. Not too hard, but if you have trouble on skill 2, skill settings are fully utilized.

Overall, a worthy map for it’s spooky atmosphere and it’s overall creepiness, so it’s worth your time. Just don’t expect anything amazing

- Edgecrusher

Screenshots