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 (Size: 2.40 meg. No Alternative downloads.)   Note 1: This is not the Dig29.zip found at the I Art site, as that version currently does not unzip with Winzip. Note 2: All of these levels have textures that clash with Id textures, thus causing the game to crash if any normal map is loaded first. Therefore to start Dig, make sure you start it with "+map dig" in the command line (see Help page for more help). Dig3 has textures that clash with the previous map textures, this error cannot be worked around. The only solution is to save at the end of Dig2, then start a game of WinQuake, and load that saved game - or play in WinQuake throughout. A two map unit with some interesting and experimental features. As well as SoA's rotating gubbins, forcefields, exploding walls, low gravity (in one room) and rock falls, it also features usable cameras, increased falling damage, and modified Grunts. The latter are actually quite good, they're armed with nailguns, grenade, or rocket launchers, and these do a fair amount of damage, but not excessive, making them well balanced to fight. The skins for the nail and grenade Grunts are army/Rambo style, they look out of place. The skins for the rocket Grunts are much better quality, but again the colours don't fit into Quake - why was turquoise chosen?? Normal Grunts have a new, inferior, shotgun skin. These various mods *mostly* enhance the maps, in fact the maps are really a showcase for all this stuff. The maps, set in a sort of mining facility, center around a search for a gold key, with interesting ideas to get the key - a clear background story would have helped. After a small start map, Map 1 is a mining map, set in caverns, small canyons, with some Q2 influenced base sections. A small graveyard and a sort of ancient house also feature. Architecture is good, angles are well used in most areas especially the caves, and there are good "realistic" details like floodlights, a conveyor belt, crates, pipes, and a jack holding up a rockfall. Map 2 features a mixture of base and arcane sections, again mostly, with some nice, unusual designs and good angles, though theme is lacking. A couple of prominent aspects of the maps: Firstly there are plenty of really nice textures, though not always consistently used. Secondly, throughout the maps, there are lots of different design styles, giving it a very haphazard theme, with many ideas just thrown in at random - exaggerated by the overuse of teleporters indicating shoddy layouts. More focus was needed. Gameplay also needs a bit more focus, though some of it is rather well done. There's exploration needed, and the second map has the novel feature of an unavoidable route choice that you can't go back on, to give it replay value - though in a map this small it would be better to just play the whole lot one time. Secrets are hard to find. The combat has a mixture of normal Quakey stuff - Enforcers on patrol, Ogres dropping on your head - with some cunning use of the new Grunts, and some rather poorly set-up combats. The Grunts often lurk in darker corners of the map, and always re-appear when you backtrack, giving good surprises. With their weapons, they provide a fun challenge. Some bad combats spoil the overall fun: being trapped by two Shamblers in a room with little cover is almost impossible to survive the first time, there are gangs of Zombies you have to run past with difficulty, and some annoying traps in Map2. The ending is good, again using the Grunts well. The mods and mining style are the best aspects of the map, elsewhere quality is patchy. - - - - - -  |
