[Aleks]

Continuing with Water Bases here. So far I like this one much much more than Last Reaction.


Somewhere Else... is an underwater variation of Dark Side, but with a lot more generic settings. We start this level without guns and are conveniently mostly handed just tripmines and pipebombs at the beginning (I was lucky to loot a chaingun from one of the first enforcers). The level has this characteristic hub design with 3 two-way trains (one of them in a collapsed tunnel). The underwater views are nice, however the whole level is still rather dark and mostly consisting of, well, lots and lots of corridors. The combat seems OK, there's a tight encounter with a mini Overlord at the end which is quite tricky, since there's no shrinker/RPG/devastator prior to that. Also the doors automatically open/close with touchplates upon entering them, which is pretty annoying considering they use all the loudest space door sounds. This level also marks the first encounter with two new enemies - one is the Lameduke Octabrain, which just dies with a single shotgun shot and the other is some alien rat which Duke will automatically stomp and get burned in the process from the acid which deals seemingly more damage than the ones from Protozoids or New Beasts.

Green Harbor is one of the better levels so far. While design is nothing special with once again lots of corridors and copy-pasted areas (It's Impossible crew quarters rooms is something I've definitely seen before in this episode), the colour scheme and deep-water parallaxed "sky" that can be seen through the windows is pretty nice. The darkness didn't get in my nerves so much this time around. The combat is probably the best part of the level - it's a 30-minute long rampage with lots of encounters, but this time they feel pretty fair and balanced, so the overall impression is fun. There's no confusion with progression, the secrets are pretty easy to find and the only things which drag down the experience a little is lots of "bullet-sponge" enemies like new beasts or octabrains with still no heavier weapons around. There's also an annoying underwater area with these menacing long-range blast radius drones towards the end, which is a pain to clear (seems pipebombs are the best option, luckily there's plenty, but aiming them underwater is a hassle). There's also 3 mini overlord encounters, but there's plenty of room to run them around and shoot along these vast corridors, so even with just shotgun/freezer it feels really entertaining, like something else for a change.

[Ninety-Six]

I don't care for the overlord encounters in the early parts of the episode, because it takes ages to bring one down. It's not even hard; just annoying.

[ReaperAA]

Okay guys so I am hopelessly stuck on Old L.A. Not because of the switch puzzles at the start of the map. I thank FistMarine (my hero ) for the help (the first one is 1-2-4-6 and the second one is 2-3-4) for that part.

Where I am stuck is at the part shown in picture.



I go through this broken elevator door and I swim up. But when I reach above water, the door is closed. I assume that is where I need to go because I could find no other place of progression and also when I no-clipped, I found the blue key there. How do I open that door without cheating.

[LakiSoft]

ReaperAA, on 16 March 2022 - 07:32 AM, said:

Okay guys so I am hopelessly stuck on Old L.A. Not because of the switch puzzles at the start of the map. I thank FistMarine (my hero ) for the help (the first one is 1-2-4-6 and the second one is 2-3-4) for that part.

Where I am stuck is at the part shown in picture.



I go through this broken elevator door and I swim up. But when I reach above water, the door is closed. I assume that is where I need to go because I could find no other place of progression and also when I no-clipped, I found the blue key there. How do I open that door without cheating.

I also had same problem but i managed to do it. After you swim up there, look down or crouch slowly (but not fully to don't swim underwater again) and then in hole of barely opened door you will see switch that you need to shoot. This will open the door fully. Hope this helps. It's tricky but it's possible.

[ReaperAA]

Gingis Khan, on 16 March 2022 - 07:53 AM, said:

I also had same problem but i managed to do it. After you swim up there, look down or crouch slowly (but not fully to don't swim underwater again) and then in hole of barely opened door you will see switch that you need to shoot. This will open the door fully. Hope this helps. It's tricky but it's possible.

Thanks that did it.

[Aleks]

This isn't going too smooth on my part, mostly due to the size of the levels, but with the current pace I should be able to finish Water Bases and Chimera by the end of the month. I usually end up playing like 30-40 minutes in the night right before going to sleep, as I've been quite occupied mostly with work stuff lately. Not sure if it's better to make longer posts with more levels like FistMarine or shorter ones, but more often - but I think these shorter ones are more convenient to write and read, also it's a bit difficult to keep track of more than 2 levels when playing so casually.

Crystal Mine, well, wasn't anything like Submachine in my opinion - gladly The first part of the map was OK, but a bit unremarkable, then the suffering began with all the purple lava sections which were basically save scumming/trial and error gameplay. Had to memorize the pathways/locations of boots, then just act really quickly not to get fucked in there. The darkness and overall weird navigation didn't help either. Opening the vast underwater section full of mini-queens didn't feel too inviting either at first, but turned out this was the highlight of the level. The ammo was super scarce around here, but its distribution was very clever, also it was semi-mandatory to find at least one of the 2 secrets here which contained the RPG. The queens weren't difficult to kill, with RPG it went pretty fast, just slightly challenging due to their fast and quite random movement patterns. The new beasts themselves turned to be more dangerous here, especially combined with octabrains. The design was pretty good and I really gotta admit the airtanks were fairly distributed not to run out of air. There's also a hidden shrinker which I missed at first, but thought its gotta be there somewhere due to the abundance of shrinker ammo, so backtracked and found it. Too bad the overall experience was dragged down by the lava parts.

The Gate to Atlantis was much better, maybe this was my favourite level of the TC so far. There's plenty of ammo this time, also lots of opportunities to use guns like expander or freezer and the level felt action packed with combat without tedious or bullshit encounters. Really enjoyed the mini-cycloid fight with quite tricky placement which gave him the advantage at first. The design is basically Lunar Apocalypse underwater, but works well here and there's some nice details like the ceiling window in one of the rooms. There's still too many very dark rooms and the author still haven't figured out how to properly work with shadows, so there's shit like stairs with lamps at each step that barely lit the room in front of them. The final was really cool, for the first time I did enjoy a massive sentry drones encounter here, also seems expander is really effective against these bastards. Very good, fast-paced level.

[FistMarine]

Just started playing through Water Bases episode a week ago (finished it last Friday, though I will split the episode review into three parts as before, I find that the best balance, not too many but not too few maps at once) and I can safely say the level design has been massively improved! There are still some oversizing issues in some places/maps, some balance issues and few dark rooms as well (though not as dark as previously, for the most part) but the levels in general are very well designed and very fun to play, while occasionally admiring the cool environment. The reviews for the first couple of maps (meant to post this last week but other things got in the way, also yes if anyone is wondering, the E2 maps are apparently named WW1-WW11 instead of WB1-WB11 as I thought years ago):

Aliens' Trap

Continuing directly from the ending of Last Reaction, Duke has to aboard the alien spaceship and kill the alien bastards! Before swimming through that green hole, make sure you grab everything in the starting room, as there is no way back once you get inside the alien spaceship. There are no secrets in the starting room but instead, you will find two hidden atomic healths inside those lockers, so make sure you check them out as that extra health is very much needed!

After that, the rest of the map is quite straightforward with a few trickier parts but it's not a very difficult map overall. Though it contains a few new surprises, like some sort of an overpowered sentry drone variant that has more health and has a high blast radius that will damage you even if it explodes at few meters away, so it is advised to kill this thing quickly with shotgun/chaingun!
I really like the design of the rooms so far. You can tell the author learned the lesson from the previous episode and there were some absolutely great and memorable parts. Like that room with those newbeasts in the water tubes, which I recommend taking out with pipebombs as one even sits on the blue card you have to grab. Plus they often sit on top of useful ammo supplies, like more pipebomb boxes, so you spend a few pipebombs to get more in return!

This time around, I died twice (thanks to a newbeast shrinking me and falling through floor in that room with mini spaceships, so I had to suicide with pipebombs and later on, an overpowered octabrain killed me once underwater because I got a bit careless and used chaingun instead of devastator) but other than that, there weren't many difficult parts. You are given almost the whole arsenal right from beginning, with some other weapons (like RPG and Shrinker) hidden inside secret places. Too bad you lose your arsenal at the end of the level anyway, as the map ends with Duke getting captured when going to grab the yellow card but at least it's far better to lose them now than to lose them later in the episode, meaning it won't take long until you recover your weapons. Try at least to finish the map with 250 health, so you have something extra for the next level!

Look on the positive side, it's better that you lose your weapons early on, so you don't have to lose them much later in the episode, compared to the case with Last Reaction level 7, even if you manage to recover most of your weapons quickly, I feel like this stuff works better early on in the episode, with the original Duke3D only doing this once in first episode at end of second level.

There are four secrets to find:
-In the room with the monitors and mini spaceships, press on the monitor with static screen (contains RPG and atomic health)
-In the main room where you can find all doors requiring cards, you can find both secrets #2 and #3, just jump through those alien walls (one secret contains Shrinker + ammo, other secret contains Devastator + ammo, both secrets also contain an extra atomic health and some slimers)
-In the room with many newbeasts in tubes, where you will eventually find the blue card, press on the green wall in corner, it contains pipebombs, RPG ammo and atomic health.

Overall, this was a fine map, a promising opener to an excellent episode. I enjoyed my time through it. But what follows next are when things start getting really interesting!


Somewhere Else...

This map is shown in the intro demo, so if playing in vanilla or a vanilla-like port (such as RedNukem), you can see the beginning part of the demo...until it desyncs!
Anyway, Duke starts in a prison. Thankfully he won't stay locked forever as the door explodes (I guess an alien messed with those laser trip mines) and Duke manages to escape. You will get 9 trip bombs and a new item: the medpack (medkit + steroids + armor). Hold space to grab it. I recommend grabbing it when you actually need both portable medkit and armor, so to not waste the useful stuff inside. The steroids are a nice extra, probably meant to protect against shrinking caused by protector drones, so you are encouraged to use them more often (I just realized this right now, as otherwise there aren't many situations where you would need steroids, other than that steroid jump required for reaching a secret in level 7 of Last Reaction).

You will also meet up two new enemies in this map, the first one (which isn't really a typical enemy) is some kind of alien/space rat that you automatically step on it when you get close to it but at the same time its acid will hurt you in the process (seems to sometimes ignore boots as well, which reminds me of an old 1.3D bug where the boots didn't protect from acid dropped by toxic barrels and slimers). The second new enemy is the LameDuke octabrain which is really weak (dies in a single shotgun blast) and only attacks with the same spit attack from an enforcer, which is hard to notice and it doesn't do much damage anyway.

Since the ammo is scarce early on, I recommend to carefully take out the first couple of enemies until you get more supplies. I personally kicked the first troopers and the enforcers inside jail cells while around the corner to minimize the damage taken. They didn't drop anything, sadly. Shortly after, I found the pistol and some pipebombs, though they were guarded by aliens, which I just squished with the door. I recommend in the room with protector drones in tubes (like with previous level), just throw some pipebombs and kill them from outside (the splash damage will take care of them), then enter the secret room (notice a darker wall) and go down the tubes because you will get more pipebombs than what you used, making killing them a reward rather than punishment!

You will notice the level will already feel like an underwater version of Dark Side! You get to admire the really cool environment while you are traveling with the trains, although some areas are still a bit dark but thankfully not as dark as most maps in Last Reaction episode.

Oh and at one point, where the stash of RPG and Devastator pickups are found behind a forcefield, by the time you insert the access card, the wall crashes over them, so you can't actually grab them anymore. I find this interesting, for a second I almost thought I will be able to claim my prize but then realized the author just teased the weapons. There will be time in next few levels where I will get access to these weapons again.

At the end of the level, you have to fight a Mini Overlord alongside other enemies! You have to use the shotgun, as you don't have access to any other cool weapons yet and depending whether an enforcer dropped anything for you (Aleks got very lucky it seems!), you get to use the chaingun or you get to look at the 200 chaingun bullets you can't use yet but wish you could! Anyway the shotgun did a nice job at handling that Mini Overlord at the end of the level while dodging his rockets! Besides, you are also provided a water fountain, although again it's given at the end of the level to help with healing up, just in case you are low on health! Wasn't my case since I don't think I fell below 50 health in this map but it was always nice to recover all the health, especially since I had to grab the atomic health items earlier on after taking damage from various aliens.

There are four secrets to find:
-At the beginning of level, in the last cell (close to the entrance to next room), look for alien footprints and press on that wall, it leads to an atomic health
-In the next few rooms, in same room where you found the pistol and saw those two newbeasts hanging in tubes, press on the dark wall and it will lead to pipebombs (they will help getting rid of those newbeasts and you claim more pipebombs as reward)
-After the Delta door, go forward until you press on the wall which contains shotgun and atomic health
-After the previous secret, In the left corner (just before the room where you find an armor pickup), there is a crack that you can destroy and it will reveal trip mines and more atomic health

Not bad! The design was a bit better than previous map and it continues getting better the further you get into the episode, so this map overall was pretty good and enjoyable (although a bit dark at times and balance could have been a little bit better), it's even accompanied by the same song (Plasma) that plays during Dark Side. So the comparison with that level is unavoidable.


Green Harbour

As mentioned above, the design keeps getting more interesting the further you get into the episode, although the beginning parts (and some later parts of the level) look a bit oversized in comparison to other rooms. And the balance is still not quite there but the author is still improving his mapping at this point and I have to give credit to the author for getting better the further you get into the episode.

I was lucky I managed to get a chaingun dropped from an enforcer this time around, though that happened after the first rooms, right before fighting the mini overlords. Normally you get the chaingun at the end of this level for first time (since losing the stuff in level 2) but this early chaingun helped a lot. I don't regret for a second that I didn't get one in the previous level, it's better to get one late than never.

There's quite a few tricky parts, mostly towards the end with those overpowered sentry drones that can do a lot of damage and it's almost impossible to avoid their explosion, so make sure you stock up on health, armor and medkit to endure all that damage you take! You can even backtrack to earlier parts of map to find more health/armor or even use/drink water from toilets. Then once you are done, enter the submarine and clear it from whatever aliens are found inside!

There is another new item inside the submarine: The PLUTONIUM HEALTH! This resembles the atomic health, except it's green, flashes faster and when picked up, will bring you up to 125 health instantly! But if you've got more health than that, the item will actually hurt you (25 health points lost). There aren't many found throughout the episode and they are always picked up, no matter how much health you have. Unless you are forced to pick them up, you can always leave them for later when you actually need health and they can act as a full health type of item. Kinda wish it was more often used and without the extra health loss, so it would be a bit like Doom's berserk pack (except without the extra strength gained, just a full health item).

Once you have cleared the whole level, since you can backtrack to beginning, as usual I recommend grabbing everything before exiting.

This time around, there are SIX secrets to find:
-At the beginning in the freezer room, jump into the vent to squish alien rats and collect the Freezethrower
-In the third room with beds (the corridor before the bathroom), press on the woman poster to lower one of the beds and allow you to access a secret scuba gear + slimers
-In the really dark room (where you are supposed to insert the blue card), press on a broken panel to collect an atomic health
-In the next room (inspired by Dark Side, before the last part of the level), there is a hidden switch where you killed those two turrets earlier. Carefully look up to find a hidden switch, shoot it to unlock the nearby vent filled with alien rats which eventually leads to an underwater area with various goodies
-Secrets #5 and #6 are right in the exit room, press on those panels to claim your prizes (atomic health, armor, medkit)

Overall, that was a pretty fine level, although fighting those mini overlords with limited weaponry (like shotgun, chaingun and freezer) was a bit of a chore. Hope we get access to the stronger guns soon!



Crystal Mine

Wow, just wow! This map was quite epic! It had a couple difficult areas/fights but it felt very satisfying once you cleared them! The beginning parts for example are quite tricky, especially the parts with protector drones (thankfully they didn't shrunk me this time around, though they did once at a much later time in the level) and there's also a few commanders and other nasties on that corridor. I even remember one Mini Overlord in that room that looked a bit squashed (I guess he fell victim to a protector's shrink blast?), so I'm not exactly sure what happened to him other than having weird proportions, compared to all the other mini overlords I've fought so far.

Now I will say, there was one part that was quite annoying, where you had to jump into acid pit while your boots were burning (just make sure you've got the boots beforehand, hidden in that area before dropping down the pit) and quickly swim to the surface through the tunnel (there is also a plutonium health that may or may not help you). The boots will run by the time you get there.
But wait, it's not over yet! Once you clear the next room (thankfully there is a water fountain that allows refilling your health), look above and shoot two switches near ceiling, to unlock the next part. At this point make sure you've saved because this part may be a bit confusing, though I remembered immediately what I had to do from past playthrough. You have to QUICKLY flip those 4 switches while swimming and grabbing essential items (boots, two atomic health, scuba gear, jetpack). You have do this quickly as you are constantly losing health/boots. Once done, use the jetpack to escape! I had to use my new medkit (the previous one was used from the previous acid part) and even then I barely made it out alive with just 3 health. Then I had to wait two full minutes until Duke's health was restored to full (the water fountain was also broken earlier from gunfire) with the help of that very useful water fountain.

Anyway, grab everything before diving down in lava (or if you want, you can save stuff for later, as you can use the jetpack to return to this room), such as those two atomic health near the ceiling (where you shot the two buttons earlier) because they are useful, although thankfully the author is very generous with atomic health in this level. After that, you have to fight a couple mini alien queens (they seem to spawn slimers, so they aren't too bad, though they still retain some boss characteristics, as seen below) and various aliens underwater (including a bunch of useless troopers that never attack underwater). Keep an eye on the scuba gear oxygen! There are at least 5 scuba gears located in all this whole underwater part of the map (alongside the one you are carrying at this point in the episode), so I highly advise you to grab them carefully!

This time around, I died once (or was it twice? I forgot) from getting too close to a mini queen when trying to use Freezethrower against her and didn't realize that apparently she still had the boss-like behavior of crushing the player when too close. I guess she ate Duke or something. Damn!

Once you took out all the aliens, find a few switches (they will open the exit door later), grab the Shrinker in one of those green crystal rooms, grab the yellow card (this will unlock the exit behind forcefield), swim back to where one door was closed earlier and you should find the exit!

There are only two secrets to find, both of which are located in last part of the level. There is a particular opening you can surface to, which contains RPG, Atomic Health and other goodies. In the left of that opening (leading to first secret), in the huge underwater area, there is a crack that when blown up, leads to a similar secret area containing RPG, atomic health and other goodies. I don't remember which secret contained what but I know one contained an extra scuba gear and other contained some extra chaingun ammo. So I highly recommend finding AT LEAST one of these secrets, to get access to the RPG as soon as possible, which will be very useful later on!

Overall, this was an epic map! Other than those annoying parts with the toxic acid/lava that drains your boots/health very quickly, this was an exceptionally epic map!



Later today, I will start playing Chimera and hope to finish it until Friday (along with writing about the rest Water Bases maps) because that's when voting for next month begins. Then I hope next week until the end of month, I get to write about the Chimera maps and wrap up all my thoughts, as it's been quite a busy month and again I appreciate all the activity in this thread, so thanks everyone for the participation! Stay tuned until then!

[Aleks]

Finished 3 more levels from Water Bases, here's my thoughts:

Atlantic Underground, despite how much potential hides within this name, was a very mediocre level. It has a hub layout and quite lazy copy-pasting design for the most part, which along with way too long corridors make navigating this level quite a chore. Combat is once again OK, with 2 highlights being blowing massive numbers of new beasts with pipebombs while hiding in a vent and the final "surprise" battle which included a trap of octabrains, enforcers and commander and then a pool full of fucking underwater drones, new beasts and a lone mini-queen. Nevertheless, the level as a whole was pretty underwhelming.

Ace of Clover looked much better and had a neat underwater "spaceship" thing that rides on the boundaries of the level and occassionally shoots rockets at you. The level was pretty straightforward and fun to play with nice enemy encounters and a good roster of different ammo types to keep things interesting. This one also consists of mostly long corridors and feels kinda like a bunch of lines, but does play pretty well. Maybe only the area at the end was a bit annoying, but that might be due to me being sleepy and trying to rush through it.

Alienation has a great mood and pretty nice design (besides the copy-pasted areas once again, I think this is like the 5th time the It's Impossible crew quarters are being re-used), but the whole structure here looks quite majestic and sombre. I especially liked the outside part with some really well done shadows. Combat-wise, it uses exclusively new beasts, sentry drones, turrets, slimers and these mini Lameduke drones, don't remember if there was any Battlelord encounter, probably not. While conceptually this sounds like a cool idea, the fact that there's about 150 monsters total and they usually pose very little threat (besides the Lameduke drones, which can deal massive damage before you notice them), this was mostly a test on how well can you remember the supplies of shotgun/chaingun ammo to refill your guns after fighting heaps of bullet-sponge enemies, which ended up quite tedious. The layout of this level is nice with some shortcuts/interconnections and the level flows quite well with clear progression, but I ended it with a feeling it could emphasize even more on the atmosphere rather than tedious fights.

[Ninety-Six]

I always found the best tactic against the lameduke drones is to toss a pipe at them. They're hard to hit with bullets but explosions are foolproof and their health is small.

[Aleks]

Aaaand finished Water Bases. Here's my thoughts on the last 3 levels:

A Tower in Space has a layout reminiscent of Space Port (maybe also a bit of Fusion Station due to texturing of the lowest floor) due to the central hub being a vertical shaft between 3 storeys. I really liked this one design wise - particularly the lowest floor where we find the red key was pretty neat with these water parts. The gameplay waas quite hectic at the beginning after falling down on the lowest floor, there's also been quite a challenging part with underwater drones transitioning through the water/air maskwalls and being out there in the open. Nevertheless, despite basing mostly on new beasts and sentry drones again (with occassional turrets, Lameduke drones, mini-queens and heaps of slimers that don't really change much), this one was quite fun and challenging. The middle floor was a bit disappointing after the bottom one, which was a highlight for me here. The finale where the Earth is revealed was quite a cool effect. Good level, one of the better in terms of both design and gameplay so far.

Back to L.A. is where the real shit starts. It's actually quite a pity that the whole essence of this massive TC is basically squeezed in the two final levels. Anyway, while the design here might not be perfect, it's the mood that makes this level really memorable, especially the initial street area and the first building. There's new water octabrains which are pretty neat considering they materialize from the dripping water and the new large drone which is packing heat even more than the underwater bastard. The sewer part is dark as hell, but kinda works with the enemy types we encounter there, although the progression through here is a bit obscure. Then there's a finale with massive underwater fight against tons of slimers coupled with underwater drones and mini-queen(s), which is a bit challenging, but also tedious when the more dangerous enemies are cleared. I like this level for the somber and bleak tone it sets, however design wise it's kinda meh.

And finally, Changing the Future?, hands down the best level of the TC. Once again, there is a strong mood set in this one right from the beginning, even if the first couple of rooms are dark as hell and I have no idea how I got out of there. Then there's few lesser encounters until we finally reach our destination, the room with the time machine. And honestly, I don't care that much for the first part of this level - I guess it works quite well as a build-up to what's going to happen. The real fun starts once we enter this 32-button code and activate the time machine... There's a bunch of monsters, including mini-cycloid and mini-overlord, but that's all quite easy to clear. And then there's the boss, which is absolutely the coolest custom thing about this TC - the "Indestructible" Drone. Fighting it takes up about half of the level, the guy sure can take a lot of hits and has some strong attacks, including mortars, rockets, chaingun and electrocuting from which there is no hiding. But the real danger in this fight is that this motherfucker will self-destruct in close proximity to you, taking you along with him no matter your HP. The area for this fight is constructed really well, with lots of places to cover, but the fight itself is really the highlight of the whole pack. The boss is super agile, so any type of projectiles like rockets are not an option for the most part, unless he gets stuck between some boxes. The key seems to be a large stack of expander ammo. I still died two times from his proximity self-destruction, which made it all the more fun. It's basically playing cat and mouse - shooting at the drone with whatever you've got, then escaping across the whole area, hiding behind some pillar and watching/listening to his engine humming to make sure he won't surprise you in a kamikaze attack. Even while killing him, you have to watch out to stand at sufficient distance not to die as well, but it didn't seem to difficult. Once again, one of the best boss fights in Duke!

Now for the scores of each level:

Alien Trap 7/10
Somewhere Else... 7/10
Green Harbor 7/10
Crystal Mine 5/10
The Gate to Atlantis 7/10
Atlantis Underground 6/10
Ace of Clover 7/10
Alienation 6/10
A Tower in Space 7/10
Back to L.A. 7/10
Changing the Future? 8/10

Also, loved the custom music in the second episode, especially in the last 2 levels - really fit well with the atmosphere and helped to immerse in the story here.
Guess the whole episode would get 7/10, which is quite an improvement from Last Reaction. Time to finally try out Chimera in the next couple of days

[FistMarine]

Personally, I just kill the Lameduke drones with the shotgun/chaingun, most of the time it works fine and if they come in groups of 3 or more, chances are that killing one will cause the others to explode as well. This is useful if you are lucky to take them fast enough without taking any or little damage but yeah, the pipebombs also work well sometimes, although you run the risk of the pipebomb blowing up in your face if they happen to fire in same moment you throw the pipebomb, so I rarely use the pipebombs as a direct attack, I mostly use to blow up cracks or groups of slimer eggs. Sometimes I used the pipebombs against the drones if I noticed them before they saw me. There is also the possibility to simply get close to them and make them self-destruct, which will do minimal damage or even no damage at all.

Now for the review of the next part of Water Bases (only 3 maps this time):

The Gate to Atlantis

Another epic map, which continues directly from the last level. The level is quite packed with enemies, so prepare yourself for what awaits you later in the map! Especially at the end.

The final fights from the level are quite challenging, not only you get to fight THREE Mini Battlelords behind the big door but also there's tons of sentry and protector drones in the last part. You have to be careful with how you handle them. The expander seemed to also work well in this case, as otherwise there isn't much of a reason to use the Expander in the original game or even most of the time in the mod but here, the weapon will be very useful, considering you will run short on the shotgun shells and chaingun bullets if you don't use other weapons. You also have to make use of the pipebombs, of which are plentiful in the episode.

Yes, I got shrunk by a protector once again but thankfully I managed to escape with help of jetpack. This happened towards end and after loading the save to try doing this part better and waste less ammo, I tried different strategies, what seemed to work besides Chaingun and Expander, was using pipebombs by grouping them together in the last room and make use of the splash damage, as it's inevitable you will shoot one by accident, which then causes another one to wake up and so on. Just get rid of all these aliens, so you can have some peace.

Died twice from a cheap mini cycloid ambush that happened halfway through the map (the first introduction to the mini cycloid) that exploded near me and killed me, leaving me confused a bit about what happened initially, since it was perfectly timed to explode near me (while being busy with dealing with 3 protector drones) and kill me immediately with no warning that this was going to happen. After my second death, I realized what happened, entered the room, went back to where I came, after the explosion happened, I came back and took out the mini cycloid with my RPG.

There are five secrets to find:
-In the dark room where you find blue card, press on left wall, inside the room contains two octabrains, RPG, atomic health and armor
-In the room with 4 switches that unlock the big door (near the start of level), there is a vent that contains another RPG
-In the room near where you insert the blue card, you will find a panel that when opened, contains various ammo pickups
-In the room with mini Cycloid Emperor ambush, jump on that platform and collect Devastator + Atomic Health
-Near the end of level, there is a vent that contains an atomic health.

Not much else to say, I think this was another epic level and I'm already looking forward for the next one!



Atlantis Underground

Another nicely designed map with many interesting fights! Although the level may not seem as epic as compared to other maps, I still had fun with it. When you first start from the elevator, you will see an armor pickup in the center of the room, which should be obviously saved for the end (unless you are low on armor, if you didn't save any armor from previous maps, then you should grab it). You will be in a hallway with 4 doors. You can open all 4 of them and kill the enforcers behind the bars but to get through them, you need to insert a card. There is only one area you can access at this time but at same time you may want to clear those enforcers behind bars early on, so they will not bother you later. Once ready, go further the room that doesn't have any bars.

I noticed that the author really likes giving lots of pipebombs but also expander ammo towards the end, hinting that you should use this weapon. I also want to correct myself with the combo medkit item, the armor you receive from the medkit adds normally up to 125 armor, while steroids and medkit will be added normally in the inventory if missing. I noticed you also get 10 health (up to 125) when grabbing the medkit. This is noticeable if you have less than 115 case and I noticed this in the next couple of maps. The upgraded medkit item is already relatively rare, so I must stress to make sure to collect it carefully, as you don't want to waste it for nothing!

There is the part with those hanged newbeasts inside those tubes. Once again I recommend getting rid of them early on, as they will wake up eventually. Upon grabbing the card, explosions will happen and they will all wake up at once or perhaps even killed altogether. I can't confirm this because I killed them all before grabbing the card, just to make sure I won't have to deal with them later.

When you reach the end with the nuke button, be careful as it's a FAKE exit! When you press it, you will get surrounded by aliens, so don't get caught off guard! Once you deal with these aliens, there are more underwater (the hardest part of the level to me). I actually died once in this very last part of the level (with underwater drones and such), I'm not sure exactly what killed me but I think it was a second drone that exploded shortly after another one and took out my last 50-something health immediately. Damn! I was so close to do this one without dying! Ah well.

Once you clear those parts and shoot a switch underwater (and explore an optional area that includes another scuba gear), you can swim back up and see the real exit has been revealed! Before pressing it, just go back and grab everything you can, including health, armor, ammo and whatever else you saved earlier, such as another scuba gear! You will thank me later.

There are SEVEN secrets to find this time around, most are found in vents or behind computer screens. There is also a secret that requires blowing up a crack in the purple lava area with two octabrains, if you explored further in the dark corridor where you found the red card at beginning of level. I try my best to help other completionists out there, even if in some cases I won't mention where each secret is found as there is far too much to talk about that I don't want to drag the post any longer, so I will give the conclusion to this level.

IMO, this was another epic level, despite its shortcomings! Looking forward to the next map!



Ace of Clover

Another very impressive looking map! It's got some good action and some challenging parts (there are 3 mini bosses present in the level, one of each type, minus the mini queen) but overall seemed a bit easier, although there aren't any water fountains this time around, nor there are armor pickups (besides the one included in the upgraded medical kit), so you are encouraged to start this level (and the rest ones as well, if possible) with maximum 250 health and 125 armor, so you will have a much easier time. I will be focusing on the most important parts of the level.

There is a place that will get flooded by water later on, which contains the red card (required for the last part of the level). You must hit two switches at the opposite sides of each other which will raise the water level to allow you to reach the card, although you can just use the jetpack to fly up there and grab it. But then you have to jump from water into the door opening and this is difficult to do since it might seem like you are stuck. You have two choices: Either tap the jump button (A in the original DOS version) until Duke will jump high enough to enter the corridor (if this doesn't work, try submerging and then immediately holding the jump button to resurface while jumping, Duke then should make it) or simply use the jetpack to get out. There is no jetpack present in this level but you should have one from the previous maps. Also to reach this particular room, you need to press on the circular door in a room that contained octabrains and eggs, which confused me initially when I was trying to find the red card to deactivate the forcefield in last few rooms of the map, so if you get stuck and need to look for the red card, check that room that you explored earlier, as that door can be opened by just pressing on it!

Answer for the switch combination near end of level: 1, 3, 4 and 6 are the correct switches. This will open a small window behind you containing the card, as well as two turrets.

Three secrets to find, two of which are located close to another (both are in the corridors leading to the yellow card, one is a vent that contains Devastator and slimers, other is located near the computer screen, behind a door that rewards you with atomic health, few weapons and a sentry drone). The last secret is located near the end of level, find a crack in the corridor that leads to where you would place the red card. The crack is difficult to spot, so keep an eye on it!

Overall, this was another fantastic level that was pleasant to explore and to fight with the aliens. Few parts were a bit dark and had a few confusing parts but I can forgive that. Plus this level also plays the song "Aliens, Say Your Prayers!" from Lunar Reactor, so you've got a kick-ass song to prepare you for the rest of the level!



The review of the remaining maps and overall thoughts for the episode, as well as voting for next month, will be in the following two days!

[LakiSoft]

Now that i have completed Old L.A. on Ice and Launch Base, i will say my thoughts.

Old L.A. on Ice

I am very impressed by design. I like how author combined the vibes from E1L3, E1L4 and E3L11 Freeway into one good highly detailed level. My only complainant would be those tricky and confusing situations such as with door mentioned above in this thread. Otherwise good level full of challenging action.

Launch Base

I liked the layout and beautiful Area 51 inspired texturing, but for complainant i would say that level took me too long time to complete. Not to mention that hopeless situation i had with rocket pad area near the blue keycard room, which i eventually i manage to do and complete the level thanks to advices and hints by @FistMarine. Thanks man!

Screenshots:

[FistMarine]

Glad to help you, my friend! Also nice screenshots!

Anyway, it's time to wrap up the Water Bases episode! I have also finished Chimera last evening but the writing for that episode will be done next week. Right now I will focus on the last 4 maps of WB and the suggestions/voting for the next month. Overall thoughts for the entire series will be given at the end of the month. I don't know if I will ever do the bonus Hidden Zone map, I rather save that for another month, as honestly I felt like 29 maps were enough for this month, many maps were pretty lengthy already.

Alienation

And now for another "base" themed level. Not as unique as most of the levels from the episode, although I like that the opposition only comes in form of drones (all types of them) and turrets. But the level was alright, couple of issues aside, which are told below.

Died once from the mini drones (those little bastards!) in that warehouse filled with them. Other than that, I didn't have much trouble with the rest enemies from the level, since they are mostly predictable, other than the parts that were a bit dark and it was hard to see the enemies.

The only serious issue I encountered was the game would freeze DOSBox when viewing the automap at certain points and I'm not sure why exactly this happened but later in level it didn't happen anymore, nor in the remaining levels. A shame that this happened as I almost thought the mod was running flawlessly for me.

There are three secrets to find:
-In one of the corridors early in the map, blow up a crack to access a short room, swim to collect atomic health and RPG
-In a dark room (where some newbeasts are found and also near where you find the Freezethrower), press on the map, contains two atomic health inside
-In a familiar room (that looks like one seen in an earlier map), press on the vending machine to lower the other one, inside you can find atomic health and RPG ammo.

Overall, I think this was another nicely designed level (despite some parts being damn dark). I just wish that the game didn't freeze at those points, I almost believed this mod runs flawlessly in DOSBox but thankfully that was the only problem encountered so far, the rest of the mod worked just fine in plain Duke3D v1.5 in DOSBox 0.74-3.

If this level felt a bit disappointing compared to the previous ones, the next level is surely gonna be epic!



A Tower In Space

Another epic level (possibly my favorite from the episode), definitely one of the best in the episode so far! The area with the alien tower itself was stunning, absolutely epic! Nicely balanced as well. I recommend first tackling the middle floor corridors and then the ground floor. At least that's how I did it and felt the map flowed nicely that way.

There are some very good fights in this level that pose quite a bit of challenge (mostly the alien parts where you have to eventually grab the red card) but thankfully you are given plenty of resources to deal with the alien threats. The design here is top notch, as mentioned previously. It was just wow, I really liked that Earth view!

This time around, thankfully I never died but a protector still managed to shrink me and I fell through the bridge, then after I returned to normal size, I decided to load save to go back to that underwater place quickly. There's two mini queens but thankfully you have better weapons to take them right now, they can be just taken with pipebombs (especially the one that will be waiting you down there) because the author really likes giving them away in many levels, often some rooms would contain multiple boxes of pipebombs. You are also provided another scuba gear just in case but this one I obviously recommend grabbing at end (same with the jetpack), the one you should have from the previous maps will last you the entire underwater trip while you can focus on killing the aliens without worrying about drowning.

There is a single secret to find: a few rooms before going into the underwater fights of the level, press on the computer panel to reveal an atomic health!

The map ends with Duke getting into a shuttle that will be sent back to Earth, as the last two maps take place back on Earth!

Probably one of the highlights of the episode, so far. I really enjoyed my time with this one and consider it one of the best from the episode, especially that alien section that leads to the red card and the nice Earth view you can see!



Back To L.A.

Duke is now back on Earth and has to time travel to change the future by defeating a huge drone boss! Before doing that, he has one more obstacle, a level with various challenges presented. Oh and check that monitor at beginning, as that's another hint for the code needed to enter in next level (it was posted and mentioned before in the topic but it doesn't hurt to post another screenshot of the whole code, to help people reading this paragraph).

Unfortunately, this level wasn't as good as I was hoped (especially after the previous map set the standards a bit higher), this one is just plagued with many areas that are dark and health seems rather scarce, plus I initially missed the red card and had to go back up with the jetpack from the sewers, wasting around 20% fuel (I saved the extra jetpack offered earlier in level, for the end of the level) just to go back to look for the red card. So before dropping down that giant hole, make sure you've got the red card! The various supplies provided, you can save for later if you don't need them right now, as thankfully you can still backtrack, although most people wouldn't really bother doing that (unless they miss the red card like I did).

Until then, you have to make your way through various buildings and fight against various new threats, including aquabrains (one of the newest enemies) and some mini boss versions of the final drone boss (there are only two present in the level, thankfully, one being present inside the dark building before dropping the giant hole and another is near end of level). The aquatic octabrains sometimes seem to come out of nowhere (yes I noticed the blue puddle where 2-3 can spawn from) and while they are weak, they shoot between freeze rays and octa blasts, so they are nothing more than another octabrain variant, although unlike those overpowered ones that spam missiles at you, these ones aren't too bad, they are actually fairly weak, I think a bit weaker than the regular Octabrain.
The new mini version of the drone boss is tougher and prepares you for the final drone boss from the next level.

And then, as for the sewer sections, they are very dark. The night vision helped to detect those aquabrains and lame drones but it didn't last long until the battery of NVGs have ran out. So I had to be careful with my usage of inventory items here. I also got confused at times, I actually had to consult mapster, even early on the level. You also have to get through some sort of crushers but you need the red card first, so yeah good luck not getting lost!

This time, I died 3-5 times all from the last part of the level in the acid area. I got killed by an underwater explosion, getting eaten by a slimer (yes really!) and about 3 other times from those dumb protectors that respawned in those small corridors. Not much you can do when you are very low on health, although I still had that last portable medkit with me, which I used later after I grabbed a leftover large medkit in an earlier room I had to backtrack.

So yeah when you get there at last part of the level, I recommend using Expander to kill most eggs and those drones, then kill the mini queen quickly, whatever eggs/slimers remain and grab the red card to unlock the exit! And then watch out for those respawned drones because they actually proved problematic when you are below 20 health!

There's only two secrets to find, one you have to fly up to (it's inside the main street area you drop into when you start the level, just look up for an entrance to the building to fly up to) which contains a scuba gear and then the second secret is located near exit, just press on one nearby wall and it rewards you with atomic health and expander ammo.
There aren't any armor pickups in this level (outside of the one included inside that new medkit item), so you have to work with what you already have.

I wish I enjoyed this map more than I wanted to, especially after the previous awesome space levels. This one felt too much like a map that belonged in Last Reaction episode and suffered from similar balance issues and areas too dark at times to navigate through. I understand the author probably expected you to set the brightness level higher but I don't think that should be a requirement, considering vanilla Duke3D by default seems like it has Brightness level set to minimum. And the NVGs were also in limited quantity (only one given on top of the one carried from previous levels), so you don't get to use it too much until it runs out, thus I recommend using NVG with care.

Let's hope the next map doesn't disappoint and it wraps up the whole thing nicely!
png]



Changing The Future?

While I enjoyed the boss map much more than previous one, it still suffered from being a bit dark at times (mostly the beginning parts) and had some strange design decisions. But it was relatively short and most of the action comes from the last part of the level, which is one of the highlights of the episode (and the entire TC).

Anyway, you start in a dark room. Before dropping down, look out for more aquabrains, kill them, then drop down the elevator. Sometimes you will get another jetpack upon dropping down, though this doesn't always happen and I'm not sure what causes this to happen. I recommend saving before dropping down anyway. The jetpack will be needed to survive a long fall a bit later. Then you have to take a few more aquabrains in a warehouse. Grab absolutely everything in that room. Once done, fall the elevator shaft and use the jetpack to stop the fall (or just minimize the damage), otherwise you will die. Now you have to swim quickly through the purple lava (hope you've still got the boots!) and arrive at what seems another warehouse with the time machine and filled with various aquabrains and protectors. Take them out and insert the time machine code. But before doing that, get rid of all aliens and explore the whole place to find some goodies. There is also a secret found inside a crate, both here and in the future, in same location. So make sure to grab everything, as there is no way back once you enter the TIME MACHINE!

Once you entered the correct code to disable the forcefield, teleport, then prepare to take on the various enemies. You will also see mini Overlord and mini Cycloid Emperor. Most of enemies present will be octabrains and lame drones, as well as a few troopers, pig cops, one enforcer and one commander. But there will also be the Drone Boss awaiting you, so I advice here to NOT WAKE UP THE BOSS EARLY ON! If you do, you will not only get chased by him but it also seems he is radioactive (or just electrocuting you like the Alien Queen) and it will drain your health just by standing near him!

So make sure you are fully prepared before taking on the boss. Even then, the boss is a massive pain in the ass. Not only he has a shit ton of health and various attacks (machineguns, rockets and mortars) but also if he detonates near you (or even at long range), you will simply die. Not to mention the boss will sometimes charge at you and insta-kill you but personally, I found more frustrating when defeating the boss and still dying to the large explosion, so sometimes I had to be very lucky with boss only doing some damage or no damage at all, the latter mostly happened if hidden behind crates (it was quite difficult to get the boss stuck behind crates unless I got really lucky), to allow Duke the well deserved victory and then be able to watch the nice new cutscene, which shows Duke on a monitor that General Graves was watching, which is a modified cutscene from the introduction of The Birth episode. Not bad! It was quite satisfying to take on the drone boss successfully, even if it took several tries!

Although to be honest, the reason why I had to replay the last level was because on my first attempt when I recorded the boss fight (which went a lot better), it appears at the level stats screen, I missed an enemy somewhere (52 killed, 1 missed) so I got disappointed and even actually used cheats (DNKROZ and DNCLIP) when loading the save, just to find it by going through the whole level but the problem is I couldn't find that enemy anymore, so I quit game, come back a bit later, redo the level and then I was able to get all 53 kills. No idea what happened the first time around but all I know is the boss fight was much harder and more frustrating the second time around where I would die at least 5 times (sometimes even from the Mini cycloid emperor), while the first time either I didn't die or died only once, possibly twice in total.

Oh well, I won't allow these issues to ruin the really cool boss fight. It's not often you see new bosses in classic Duke3D mods and I feel like this one felt like a new boss that could have appeared in an official Duke3D expansion. In fact, I think the whole mod felt like an official Duke3D expansion at times. More on that another time (maybe after Chimera review next week), as right now I have to first wrap up the final level of the entire mod!

Oh and how could I forget to mention that this time around, you get a new song that plays during the level! You get "Goin' Down The Fast Way!", the famous song that plays both in ROTT (the first level of shareware episode) and the only song playing in LameDuke! In fact, the readme file mentions the song was taken from LameDuke, so it's quite fitting for a finale! A great finale and one of the best boss fights in the history of Duke3D! Even if the boss was a bit annoying/frustrating, it was something you don't see everyday! A great finale to wrap up the entire TC!



Now for the votes for next month, I decided to do something different. This isn't because of upcoming April Fools or anything. But I think that nominating a Build Engine game would be interesting to have once in a while, at least at every couple of months. I tried last year in August, with nominating Shadow Warrior and realized it wasn't quite a good choice, so let's try this again. I think for the beginning to have Build engine games (or even expansions) to be played, we can nominate the following two build engine games: Duke Nukem 3D and Redneck Rampage!

Both the original Duke Nukem 3D (Full Version) and Redneck Rampage, came out in April 1996 and April 1997 respectively, basically at one year difference from each other. So I think for a start, we can decide between either the good old original Duke Nukem 3D (the original 3 episodes, 28 SP maps + 2 DM maps) or Redneck Rampage (two selectable episodes, 15 SP maps + 7 DM maps), the latter game being directly based off Duke3D (to be exact, somewhere between Duke3D 1.3D and 1.4). To make it fair, here are the previous month's suggestions (Aleks' nomination from spoiler will have to wait until later, sorry about that): BillyBoy's maps, Community Build Projects, KaiseR's maps.

You can then decide between voting for your favorite Build engine game or voting for any of the other choices presented above. I will not vote this time around, so people are encouraged to choose wisely. I was also thinking of allowing people to vote for two different things (one build game, one map pack), though at the moment I am not decided which option to go with (one or two votes per each person). In the event of a tie (between two or more choices), I will discuss privately with Aleks what to do in this situation. In meantime, here is the table, to begin voting, starting with today until the 31th:

BillyBoy's Maps
Community Build Projects
Duke Nukem 3D
KaiseR's Maps
Redneck Rampage

Any other suggestions are welcomed. Have a nice weekend everyone!

[LakiSoft]

Finished Last Reaction episode. My thoughts of its two final levels are next:

Aliens' Detraining

Absolutly excellent. It felt to me like combined style of all 4 original Duke Nukem 3D Episodes in one map. My favorite part was well designed Space Ship interior though. Great map!

Great Stadium

Nice combination of The Birth and Hollywood Holocaust vibes with Stadium. Actually it felt like worth remake of Stadium. Well done map. Ending part was epic too.

Screenshots:



Now that i completed both Last Reaction and Water Bases it's time to move on Chimera. This time i will probably record gameplay videos as well.

As for voting, this is what i vote:

BillyBoy's Maps
Community Build Projects
Duke Nukem 3D +
KaiseR's Maps
Redneck Rampage

I have chosen Duke Nukem 3D because i can't wait to blaze thru this awesome classic FPS on Damn I'm Good Skill level!

Thank you so much for these awesome offered choices @FistMarine!

[Aleks]

BillyBoy's Maps
Community Build Projects
Duke Nukem 3D ++
KaiseR's Maps
Redneck Rampage

Won't have much time to play next month, so I voted Duke 3D which has the least access entry really and anyone can basically discuss anything about it without really replaying

As for FistMarine's comments on the darkness in the last 2 levels of Water Bases, in my case it didn't really bother me as much as in Last Reaction, as here it seemed to serve some purpose and work well with the desolation/horror atmosphere of the whole maps and their plot. My only regret is that this plot was really only present in 2 last maps, and felt kinda stuffed into the whole thing, would probably prefer a whole episode about this time quest (although would require a lot more creativity, as these maps were kinda generic to be honest, besides the plot/mood).

[Aleks]

Started Chimera. First thing I gotta mention are the "new" guns, which act exactly as the old ones, but have a neat new look and sounds. I'm not sure if they are taken from another game, but it seems more probable that the author of the TC has designed them himself, as they based on and very much compatible with Duke's old guns and the animations look very smooth. To be precise, there's a new pistol, chaingun, RPG, shrinker/expander and devastator. I love this design, it composes very well with Duke's palette and art style, kinda like the new guns in Caribbean - and even if they function exactly the same as their original counterparts, they are very satisfying to use. Not sure what's my favourite - love the prongs opening when shooting shrinker, the cyber-punk look of the RPG or chaingun being actual minigun. The sounds are nice too. Overall, they are a nice mix of alien/hi-tech with the TC's "genetic" theme. Probably the best asset in the whole mod.

There's also a new enemy, yellow alien that spams laser/blaster pistol. While it seems to die from about 3 shotgun shots and is immune to shrinking, he does pack quite a heat, dealing massive damage when he manages to "lock on to you", also he seems to charge aggressively towards Duke. Been just a few encounters with these bastards so far, but they seem quite dangerous.

I've finished the 2 first levels. First one was very good - the theme seems to be EAF (Earth Attack Forces, yeah) drone factory, with a production hall and, well, a room filled with about 30-40 sentry drones where you'll definitely need these pipebombs. The layout is quite interconnected and the design is your standard clean hi-tech base stuff. There's plenty of monsters, a lot of which are slimers in the vents (which seem to be a bit more dangerous, at least dealing more damage from acid pools?). I really liked this one, it was Water Bases tier level for sure.

The next level, Frozen, seems to be a "horror themed" attempt that's gone terribly wrong. It's hands down one of the worst and most annoying levels I have ever played, perhaps even more frustrating that first level of Last Reaction. Now where do I start? The whole level is basically same looking ice caves connected with labrenthine tunnels. Automap is your best friend in this map. The whole layout seems to be nicely interconnected, both on the surface and through underwater tunnels - and that's about the only positive thing about this level. If navigating these caves would be difficult on it's own, the author had a "brilliant" idea to make the visibility super low. Again, it's the damn visibility, not the shading - so it essentially works like you are carrying a flashlight that works for only about 3 metres ahead and also renders NVG completely useless. The tunnels that connect each cave are made of sectors with random heights and slopes, so it's painfully tedious to crawl through them, leaving alone the occassional sectors that could squish you from too high a slope (happened to me once). You can choose underwater option instead, besides the fact there's no scuba gear until the very last part of the map when you won't really need it anymore. Also, there's 2 of these underwater drones and due to how cramped the areas are, they pretty much cannot be avoided, each dealing about 50 hp damage. All the monsters are water octabrains and yellow freezing troopers (some of the troopers are underwater for some reason, where they just swim without ever attacking), usually attacking you all at once when you finish navigating through a tunnel from the darkness, so you can't even guess how many there are. While the secrets are quite easy to find, it took me a while to find correct way to progress further at the place with waterfalls, where you have to make a blind jump from one ledge to another into a tunnel you're supposed to just know is there. Also, backtracking from this part seems to require a steroid jump and since you need 2 keycards from the previous part, you can basically get fucked with a softlock here that would give you absolutely no warning. If you think all this is bad enough, then let's get to the grand finale - at one place towards the end, you exit the tunnels to face 2 invisible (standing in total darkness) cycloid emperors in a cramped area that basically requires to go close quarters with them and watch not to fall from a ledge. There's also a bunch of random flying troopers/octabrains to make your movement even more restricted. This is basically a trial and error point - jump out of the cave and blindly shoot the shrinker at the locations where the cycloids are supposed to be, counting you'd hit them, then make an uninterrupted jump through the waterfall and be fast enough to stomp them both before they blow their loads in your face. Luckily after getting rid of some more alien vermin in this cave, the map finishes, but damn it was ridiculously bad!

[Ninety-Six]

The good news is Frozen is the worst it gets.



Regarding the guns, when I played it last I actually swapped the graphics around with Water Bases. I felt it made more sense to have the somewhat more alien-looking guns in the episode set on an alien planet, but back to the regular guns when we return to Earth.

[LakiSoft]

Started playing Chimera. Finished first 5 levels of it. My thoughts of each level:

Level 1 - Good Introduction Level
Level 2 - Ice Caves. Too much confusing and frustrating. Not my type of fun.
Level 3 - Interesting layout. Some texture choices reminds me of E1L6 Launch Facility.
Level 4 - Fun and Challenging level. Sometimes simple but good layout architecture.
Level 5 - Annoying canyon but still less frustrating than Level 2 Frozen Ice Caves.

Duke Nukem 3D - Chimera - Longplay video - Part 1
You can watch gameplay video here: https://files.fm/f/47yahxcme

In case you want to watch the video from files.fm but can't for some reason try downloading video directly from that site and then watch it directly right on your computer or mobile.

Take a look at screenshots here:

[TheDragonLiner]

About the new gun graphics, I can't help but think that the new Pistol sprite looks a lot like the big gun Duke holds on the game's cover-art ....

Anybody having the same feeling ?

[LakiSoft]

While i haven't noticed at first, when i take better look i can only say that i totally agree with @TheDragonLiner about Chimera's pistol looking exactly the same as Duke's gun portrayed at Duke Nukem 3D Title Screen.

Anyway, Just finished Chimera's Level 6 - The Mother Base.

Overall it was really nice alien base themed level with lots of challenging situations and interesting puzzles to solve. One of best levels in the Chimera pack.

Duke Nukem 3D - Chimera - Longplay video - Part 2 (Mother Base)
You can watch gameplay video here: https://files.fm/f/nknzdq38k

Screenshots:

[Ninety-Six]

TheDragonLiner, on 27 March 2022 - 10:34 AM, said:

Anybody having the same feeling ?

First time I saw it that was immediately what I thought. The RPG also resembles the Enforcer's gun on the cover. I kind of get the impression that that's what he was going for with these new sprites; to try and emulate the game cover style, even in the guns that don't actually appear on the cover.

[Aleks]

Two more levels finished here - I definitely prefer the levels to be of similar length as in Chimera rather than LRWB.

Green Crystals is probably the level Ninety-Six mentioned as an inspiration for Submachine, even if I never played it before - wouldn't say it was much like it either, but nevertheless I really liked it. Short and sweet, mostly based around a single shrinker "puzzle" that was quite easy to figure out, yet pretty clever. The combat was quite entertaining here with no bullshit encounters and even if the map kinda lacked proper shading, there was no problems with low visibility/pitch black darkness. The only problem I had was a Lameduke drone getting stuck somewhere and spamming its super loud and annoying chaingun sounds, took me a while trying to find him, but seems he detonated randomly at some point in the end.

Mountain Lab was one of the better designed levels (still that low visibility darkness is super annoying habit of the author though), with nice layout, very distinctive, clean style and nice composition of beige/white walls with strong orange/red lights (that for some reason didn't really turn the rooms brighter at all...). There was some nice combat encounters like the Cycloid, double Battlelords or the chimeras+new beasts towards the end, however for the most part combat was just a lot of pig cops, often respawning behind you, which could be picked up like ducks with a shotgun, abundance of ammo and lots of corners to hide behind. Secret places so far are quite straightforward in this mod for me, although here I just had to randomly wall hump a lot for a bunch of non-marked ones. Also there's small crack with 2 atomic healths that is tagged as a secret, but (at least in my version of EDuke) it was super difficult to fit into it and collect the secret, but managed to do that in the end by some random jumping/pushing. Since I'm playing on r7395, which is the last one before the major clipping changes, I assume this might be a problem in DOS Duke as well, but it is possible to get in there. Design wise, I really liked the layered shadows, especially the light cast from the windows, and the few last rooms that were abandoned/destroyed - last lab was quite suggestive story-wise I'd say. The music in this one, however, was pretty annoying.

Didn't play the next level yet, but just seeing the beginning and hearing the really fitting music I think I'm gonna love it - unless there's some bullshit design choice that would make me change my mind...

[FistMarine]

Aleks, on 25 March 2022 - 10:56 AM, said:

As for FistMarine's comments on the darkness in the last 2 levels of Water Bases, in my case it didn't really bother me as much as in Last Reaction, as here it seemed to serve some purpose and work well with the desolation/horror atmosphere of the whole maps and their plot. My only regret is that this plot was really only present in 2 last maps, and felt kinda stuffed into the whole thing, would probably prefer a whole episode about this time quest (although would require a lot more creativity, as these maps were kinda generic to be honest, besides the plot/mood).

The darkness in last two levels of Water Bases wasn't as bad as most levels from Last Reaction but I still find strange to have so many levels suffering from being very dark at times, which wasn't a problem at all in the original Duke3D. I don't know, it's my opinion that these levels would have flowed a lot better if they weren't this dark.
Also agree about the time travel concept, would have liked to see more maps with this concept. But what we got was still great and I think the boss fight alone makes up for that.

Now time to write about Chimera! Was going to write about only two maps but seeing as the topic activity sped-up as of lately, I will stick to 3 maps at a time. On 30th when posting about the last Chimera map, I will give my overall thoughts for the entire LR/WB/CH series and giving my vote as well (despite the original Duke3D already winning, even without my vote), then I prepare to host the new topic. Also noticed a typo I made in last post. I meant 31st, not 31th.

Chimera

Presentation

The demo is the same one as before (there are no new demos in Chimera), there is a new 3DR logo screen (based off the original Atomic one), title screen with Duke fighting over those new aliens (we will get into that soon) and a new GENETIC logo replacing AQUATIC logo. Although for some reason, the new GENETIC logo doesn't seem to replace the one from the main menu sadly, only in the opening scene. And the new episode CHIMERA replaces THE BIRTH, meaning you get to see the unchanged cutscene that played at beginning of The Birth.

This time around, there is some new art for some of the weapons, as others have mentioned earlier. The new art is pretty good. The shotgun has a new sound for shooting and reloading. But the following weapons: Pistol, Chaingun, RPG, Shrinker/Expander and Devastator have all brand new art! The chaingun (which seems to resemble the Doom chaingun a bit, though I think the author was rather going for the Battlelord chaingun) is missing its sound file, which results in the GATLING.VOC sound missing text appearing on top of screen every time you fire the chaingun. It's a shame this was overlooked, because this seemed like an easy fix but oh well, it's not the only unfinished thing in the mod. You will see much later, despite the fact I already mentioned it before in the topic. Oh and almost forgot, there's even a NEW soundtrack, which is pretty cool!

Two bonus screenshots to show (the title screen and the episode selection menu)


Now for the actual levels review:

Twilight For The Drones

Nice factory themed map and a great introduction level! I had fun with it, even if some parts seemed a bit annoying/confusing. For example the part at end required throwing a pipebomb behind bars to blow up the last door from the level, which took a while to figure out. There was also a room filled with sentry drones where I just abused the glitch with making them explode behind the door/wall and that way I saved a lot of health/ammo, though some still managed to blow up in my face but in the end I managed to survive, at least.

Speaking of which, there are two new enemies to be found. The first one is sort of a yellow alien that shoots many laser projectiles at you (they are quite tough, especially in groups), the second one is a stronger pig cop variant (appears only at the end of level and will return as a common enemy in level 4) that wears a darker uniform and reminds me a lot of the stronger pig cop variants from DukePlus mod that use Double Barrel Shotgun at you.

Three secrets to find:
-The roof seen at the beginning, you can access through the vent, inside the cells you can find two troopers, two chainguns and the combo medkit item
-Inside the factory (near the crane), blow up a crack, to find inside two octabrain (one regular and one lame), as well as Freezethrower, ammo and an atomic health
-In the room you have to jump through the window, there is a door you can open, inside it contains an octabrain (powerful variant) and an atomic health.

Overall, it was a great intro level for the episode, though what's up with the author's obsession to make things darker than they should be? I mean while it wasn't as dark as in the previous episodes (and you are even given a pair of NVG right at start, which have a new Night Vision effect, seen in one of screenshots), I feel like the maps in general would have flowed a lot better if they were slightly brighter. As it stands, it gives the impression that Duke has lost his vision over time or something.

Will the next level be better or worse? Let's find out!
png]
png]


Frozen

No, not that movie! But yeah, I couldn't resist to not make a reference to the actual movie. So anyway, what do we have here? An icy caves themed map!

Unfortunately, this map was just painful to play through, despite the "cool" visuals. You have to collect 3 cards while running around the whole map figuring out what to do next (every time you grab a card, some walls will explode somewhere, so you have to search the whole level for that), fighting mostly against aquabrains and yellow troopers. There are also a few underwater drones (the powerful variants) and some nasty surprises later on, mostly towards the end of the level.

Died 3 times this time around, first death was randomly getting squished inside some part of the caves (it seems I'm not the only one who suffered a random death like that) and the last two deaths from very last enemy in the level, that new yellow alien bastard that likes spamming lasers at you. Yeah, I know, first time I tried shrinking him and failed (didn't know at that time he can't be shrunk), second death was because I tried freezing him but he still managed to take all my hp immediately. Not gonna lie, I was expecting the Mini Cycloids to give me trouble but not this shit. Next attempt, I finally taught him a lesson by freezing his ass and then backtracked to grab the leftover atomic healths, some of which were from the cluster underwater given earlier. Oh yeah speaking of which, it is difficult to backtrack once you drop down the waterfall part of the map, as you need a strafe jump to get back up. You don't actually need steroids to go back up, just strafe jump, though this took quite a couple of attempts (just save before attempting the jump and load if you fall, to get back faster). There is no jetpack to help you and you have to rely on jumping from a slope, which will cause Duke to just fall most of the time or fail to jump, so as I said, I advice to save and just keep trying until you will make it. Otherwise, it's not worth backtracking. I did that just to have my 250 health back, as I ended up saving a few atomic healths earlier in the level. There is no armor available in the map at all, so I really advice you to try to have as much health as possible, so that you won't have a bad start in the next level.

There are also three secrets to find, all of which are cracks that are found throughout the level and contain various goodies inside. Two of them are found in first half of level, near two places where you find water to dive in, the last one is found on the part with the waterfalls (in the place where it is difficult to backtrack to previous part of map). It's very difficult to tell their exact location but if you are observant, you can find them.

Overall, this map was just disappointing (after the previous good opening level) and had a miserable time throughout it. At least the new song was pretty cool but even that couldn't save the map. Let's hope the next level makes up for this disaster!
png]
png]


Green Crystals

I liked this one. It was much shorter than the previous two maps and offered a decent challenge at times. There is even a water fountain to help you out, since normal medkits appear in small amounts, though there are also four atomic healths and an armor pickup present in the whole map, with the armor present in the room you need to solve another switch puzzle to activate the SHRINK RAY! Oh yeah, this level has the Shrinker as its theme and I think it succeeds doing that, with the level ending with Duke required to be shrunk to fit under the door and reach the exit.

There are two secrets to find:
-At beginning of level, blow up the crack and swim through acid, eventually one of the compartments leads to Scuba Gear and Devastator
-In the room where you find armor and activate the shrink machine, there is a wall that when opened, contains Freezethrower + ammo

While I was playing the map, I was actually wondering if this level was an inspiration for Aleks' Submachine map, considering it features green crystals and shrinking puzzles (despite the latter being a common element in Duke3D maps in general).

Not much else to say. It was my favorite level so far and hope the next maps will continue to deliver!
png]


Regarding that problematic secret of Mountain Labs (more details on that tomorrow), unfortunately it was a problem in vanilla Duke3D as well and I couldn't register that particular secret. I tried a couple of times but I just couldn't do it, to matter what. All I could do was grab those atomic healths but not actually fit into the sector to register the secret. It's not the only level where I had a missing secret, in fact the next level (Natural Carnage, the canyon themed level) also contains a secret that can be very easily missed and it happened to me (I didn't bother to redo the level) and I want to point this out immediately. That secret requires you to:

Spoiler

Hold the backward button to get the secret in the first few seconds of starting the level (Duke starts the level in air, allowing you a second to reach that secret). Because there is NO jetpack available in the level at all, at least not in single player. And there aren't any from the previous maps. In fact, there is no jetpack at all in the entire episode and the last level of the game also has a point of no return much later in the level. More on that in the following days.

[LakiSoft]

Finished level 7 and therefor finished Chimera. This was great episode. Better than Last Reaction but not better than Water Bases though. Overall it's a shame the Chimera went unfinished, as it could be great classic episode. Level 7 of it was challenging but interesting and amazing. Texture choices at Sewer parts reminded me of Duke DC's Dread October. And yes, i can confirm too, Nuke Button doesn't work in this level. But overall it was great episode so far.

Duke Nukem 3D - Chimera - Longplay video - Part 3
You can watch gameplay video here: https://files.fm/f/erz2cxmeg

Screenshots:

[FistMarine]

Mountain Labs

This was quite a challenging level, mostly due to high number of pig cops present, some of which are the stronger variants that have more health and stronger shotgun. Although you are also given lots of shotgun shells (around 100 or so at the start of the level, on top of the 50 shells you start with and on top of whatever pig cops drop to you), as well as 3 water fountains present in the map, all of which is much appreciated! This means that the shotgun is going to be the dominant weapon for this level.

There is also some sort of a new "enemy" (appears a few times later in episode as well), an octabrain corpse that seems to infinitely spawn slimers, basically acting as an upgraded slimer egg. You have to simply kick the octa corpse a few times to destroy it and prevent more slimers from spawning.

Died twice. First time I got killed by the stronger pig cop variant despite being full on health and armor, which was annoying as he (alongside two other pig cops) did lots of damage quickly (not even that leftover 42% medkit from first level saved me) and then later I died by falling into those rotating gears when trying to grab the card. Otherwise, there aren't many obstacles in this map other than darkness in some corridors and some enemies (mostly the Mini Bosses) might surprise you when you don't expect them.

There are 6 secrets to find. I won't be telling where to find them since it's hard to describe their location, you should find them behind certain walls or by blowing up cracks or inside a vent (that secret contains clusters of pipebombs). Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, there seemed to be one secret is impossible to register, the one containing 3 atomic healths. You can grab them but you won't be able to enter the sector as it is too narrow to enter, so all I got is 5/6 secrets, unfortunately.
However, recently Aleks informed me that there is apparently a way to get into that particular secret by jumping and crouching at the right time. I didn't think of that and I will try this another time when I get to replay the episode. Hope this will help others.

When you get to the last part of the level, keep in mind that once you enter the vent, you have to quickly escape and finish the level before the building blows up, at least that's what I imagine happens. I haven't tried standing still to see what happens. So make sure you grab everything before getting into this last vent, in the room with various yellow aliens and protector drones.

Overall, despite many same-y looking corridors (and one or two dark corridors), this was quite an enjoyable level. I have a feeling the next couple of maps will be even more epic and interesting!
png]
png]


Natural Carnage

A large canyon styled map. It's quite impressive how it is designed, which seems at times inspired by The Abyss and unlike the third level of Last Reaction (which also had a few parts inspired by The Abyss), this one is actually pretty good. Gameplay wise, it succeeds at providing solid action, if you don't mind the view shifting at times and having to do some platforming, as well as backtracking at few points.

It's not quite perfect, as there was one point I was confused early on (mostly in a small cave that contained a few octas and a bunch of pipebombs) and as mentioned before, there is also a secret that can only be reached once in the first few seconds when you start the map! More on that below.

What else to say about the map. At a later point, there's another new enemy, a turret (utilizes different sprites from the actual turret enemy) that shoots rockets at you. This turret doesn't seem to appear again after that, making its existence pointless. Perhaps it was going to be utilized more in later levels, had Chimera been finished.
There is also another drone mini-boss located near end of the map, alongside a few upgraded octabrains, so be careful when reaching the last swamp part of the level!

Speaking of which, the last part of the level looks nice and it even reminds me a bit of Redneck Rampage Rides Again. Whether this is a good or a bad thing, it is up to you but personally, I really liked the visuals and I think the comparison is inevitable, though I don't know if the author was inspired by that game. Either way, the visuals were really good and constantly wowed me.

There are six secrets to find, most of which are scattered around the map. The first one can only be reached by pressing the backwards button as soon as you start the map and another (located near the bridge) requires a steroid jump. All secrets contain atomic health, as well as other goodies, so you are encouraged to explore to find the secret areas for extra health. Shame about that easily missable secret, would have been easily solvable with providing the player with a jetpack, at least inside one of the later secret areas or even given at the end of the level.

I realize this was done to prevent flying to the top (if the jetpack would have been placed earlier, so my solution would be to be to give the jetpack at the very end) and I also realize that the original The Abyss didn't have a jetpack either (at least not in SP), though you could get a jetpack from Launch Facility and use it in The Abyss. Unfortunately, that's not the case here in Chimera, as the jetpack isn't available in any level of the episode.

Leaving aside that easily missable secret at the very beginning and some confusing parts, this is a very nice level and one of the highlights of the episode! But something tells me the next level will be even better!
png]
png]


The Mother Base

Great alien-themed map, possibly the best map in the entire episode. Despite the fact it is quite long and you fight hundreds of aliens, the difficulty was mostly fair as you are provided with enough supplies and the actual fights were absolutely epic. I died about 5 or more times and every death caused by Mini Cycloid Emperors, which shows how much of bastards they can be.

Although they aren't the only mini bosses present (this map uses ALL 4 mini boss types!) but the other ones shouldn't give you much trouble, with only the Mini Battlelords actually posing a bit of a challenge, while the Mini Overlords are easily dealt with (you can even safely shrink them!) and the Mini Alien Queens are only in small number, appearing in a single underwater area in the map!
The rest of the aliens (except the pig cops for obvious reasons) are also used in good quantities.

Most of the time you will know what to do in the map, as inserting a card will open one of those numbered doors and if you have a good memory, you will know exactly which door opened. Some of the spawned monsters may also help with guiding you in the right direction, like when you grab a card or activate a switch to unlock one of those doors.

The only slightly confusing part was the underwater part where you had to activate all the switches behind pillars, as my oxygen was running low and had to go back and resurface a few times. I entered this area with my scuba gear from previous maps, which had about 70% oxygen remaining. I only grabbed the new one when I was done with the map and because of that conservation, I lost a bit of health by drowning at times. Don't worry, it wasn't too bad (even with the aliens found underwater that would be a bit distracting at times) but that area was also dark (had to use NVG) and some switches were hard to see, so I had to look carefully for them. Once successfully activating them all, find a hole you can resurface and that room has the red card inside (the pillar reveals the card when all switches are on), then you go back where you came from.

There is one minor issue I noticed (I remember Ninety-Six mentioning it before) near the end, with mini bosses falling through those grates. I had 3 mini cycloids fall through and they were difficult to kill that way, which costed me a couple of deaths or even massive damage from their rockets. So I had to rely on them hitting themselves (while running in that corridor), which wouldn't always happen, they would sometimes just fire the octabrain attacks or ignore me. It took a couple of minutes and eventually I succeeded.
Once you clear the map, grab the plutonium health in front of nuke button and now GO BACK as some atomic healths have spawned in previous room. They will greatly help you for the next level, so don't forget them and especially, don't forget to grab everything before leaving!

There are 4 secrets to find this time around:
-Before entering the spaceship, go to left, go through the "wall" and inside you will find various goodies (chaingun, ammo, atomic health)
-At the entrance of the base (with the 3 doors, where you fight Mini Battlelord and a bunch of troopers), go near door 3 but don't enter it, go either left/right and jump down to find a bunch of goodies (shotgun, health), as well as two useful water fountains. Behind one of the fountains, press on the wall to reveal a hidden room, which contains various goodies (RPG, ammo, two atomic healths, med pack)
-After door number 4, in the room with the computers, press on a wall to reveal an octabrain and a bunch of goodies (RPG and two atomic healths)
-In the other room with computers (where you fight a bunch of aliens and collect yellow card), press on a wall in the right corner and it will reveal a few goodies (chaingun, atomic health, armor)

Overall, this was a superb level and one of the highlights of the episode. But wait, we aren't done with the episode just yet...
png]
png]

[Ninety-Six]

Yeah the main reason I don't like Natural Carnage is how it can be confusing to navigate at times because of how narrow your view is forced to be, making it hard to identify landmarks.

[Aleks]

Natural Carnage didn't disappoint me one bit, even though I did get a little skeptical after realising this is all about platforming and jumping. But hands down, all this platforming is done really well in an enjoyable way - the enemies attacking you from distance don't get triggered all at once, don't get behind your aim up range and generally can be cleared from distance before you proceed with most of the climbing routine, so they don't get in the way which makes both the combat and the exploring really fun. The secrets here are mostly out there in the open and just require some extra exploration and jumping at places that aren't necessary for progression. The level makes clever use of enemies instead of large encounters, it's mostly projectile shooters like troopers and octabrains with occassional enforcers at the open, but even the hitscanners don't seem unfair with plenty of cover and generally quite high visibility around the level.

The new textures really work here and blend in nicely with usual Duke stuff, whether it's rocks or plants/grass. There's a cool section in an abandoned mine and some bunker/fortress which is mostly empty and dark, but doesn't take too long to clear and makes for some good opportunities to use the pipebombs around the corners where the pigs are lurking. The map nicely loops back on itself with a use of an impressive hanging bridge that can be seen from the beginning and with how the climbing is modeled here, the sense of progression and ascension is really pretty satisfactory in this one. Also the layout deserves some praise, a lot of the jumps are measured perfectly for either the maximum distance of regular or strafe jump - and the slopes don't get much in the way. The final takes us through some swamps with a little "boss" fight against a strong drone that is surprisingly cinematic.

The music fits perfectly with the levels theme and dynamics - in conclusion, this is an all-around very fun map, probably the best one so far this month - at least until the next one...

The Mother Base is the best level of all the 3 episodes from G.W. Bernard and I can clearly see why it's a fan favourite. The layout is quite "believable" for an alien base, but also works really well with all the windows and interconnections around, the only parts I don't like that much is the underwater bit and the mazey like corridors leading to the keycard slots which could have been way shorter. The design of the alien ship is definitely the best the author has pushed so far - lots of good use of his new textures that fit well with the original ones, creative detailing and compositions, some nice effects (the sealing pressure chamber before the underwater part or the rotating monitor in the room with yellow keycard).

There's about 450 enemies, but most of that is just slimers or eggs, even if there's a bunch of minibosses. The encounters feel mostly fair and challenging, well balanced for sure and it was cool that pretty much every gun came in handy at some points (besides trip mines, which aren't given to us at any point throughout the mod anyway). The final battle with a bunch of mini-cycloids, battlelord and overlord is really cool, even if the narrow corridor to approach this area makes it kinda tricky to dodge all the incoming rockets. The level is pretty vast and long, but there's enough variety and good combat that it doesn't drag at all, even at about 50 minutes length.

My only grips would be that some rooms are once again stupidly dark with low visibility (in some of the rooms this works, such as the long wide corridor with mini overlords where the darkness makes it kinda horror-esque and the 3 similar rooms with octabrains and slimers with that neat dense fog around the ground level). Another thing is the weird numbering on doors, probably would be better if they were numbered 1-4 in the proper progression order, took me a while to find out what yellow key opened here, even if it was mostly on me not seeing the number near the key slot and connecting it with the door. Finally, there's some tedious backtracking that doesn't serve much purpose - again the best example is the yellow key slot, which basically requires a long walk through some empty corridors after picking the keycard, then back to the same spot after inserting it.

I'd say these are minor things in case of this map though - the layout, visuals, texture and colour compositions and most importantly, really entertaining combat make for one hell of a great map, which feels a lot more modern than the maps from LRWB (which can be more or less said about all of Chimera, but this level and Natural Carnage seem like the most shining examples due to their massive lengths) - the sense of progression and the layout here seem much more purposeful than your average level from the time, which is quite an accomplishment.

[NNC]

I would have liked Chimera better with the classic weapons, and without the ugly (and often unfair) new yellow monster and the reuse of the water octabrain. The water octabrain looked amazing in Back to LA and the boss level, because they are both desolated thunderstorm levels, but they made very little sense in maps like Mother Base. And yeah, Frozen was terrible. Also the city level in the end made no sense progression wise, despite being very good on the looks.

[FistMarine]

Big City Nights

An interesting city styled map that starts you in a sewer, though it won't be long until you get to the surface (you eventually return to the sewers much later, though in a different side of the sewers). The city area is nicely designed and provides a solid challenge with many monsters appearing in groups of 3 or more. I actually took quite a beating in this level and had to rely on water fountains to refill the health a few times (though there also seemed a decent amount of atomic healths available, as well as a couple of regular health packs). I was also lucky with many pig cops dropping used armors, as there's apparently only one armor item available (inside a trash can). There's no portable medkit (or med pack) available, so I hope you bring the one from the previous map!
I won't complain about the low visibility this time around, it wasn't as dark as in some of the earlier maps and the map seems to take place at night, based on the title.

Died twice, both happened inside the hellish secret area (see below), first time I got killed by those yellow aliens when they overwhelmed me, second time I suicide with the RPG when fired too close to one of them. On the third attempt, I used the Devastators which worked much better.

Interestingly, at one point, I just got the glitched yellow trooper inside one of the secret areas, he must have fired way before I got to this area and this caused him to glitch, so I couldn't kill him anymore, no matter what weapon I used! Shame that this stupid glitch had to happen right in the last level (and after overwriting the saves of current level), ah well. At least I ended up with this comedic effect of the trooper running into walls.
Oh and while looking in Mapster, I realized this yellow trooper wasn't actually present in this secret room with toys, so he must have flew to this room somehow...

Speaking of which, here are all the secrets you can find:
-One door has a crack on it. Blow it up and inside you can find RPG + ammo
-Near the place you insert the red card, there is a pentagram. Step into it and you will teleport to a hellish secret place (I guess it used to be some sort of Church?) with a few troopers and yellow aliens. This area actually contains two secrets, the second is found by jumping on the pillar (in front of the steam) to spawn an extra atomic health. Don't forget to visit the two small cabins to kill a hidden trooper and collect a bunch of atomic healths!
-Near that pentagram, jump on the fence and then look for a red window. Jump through that window (look out for a trooper hidden in the corner) to enter a room full of teddy bears and collect some goodies (Devastator + Atomic Health)
-At the gas station, press on the cola machine, will open nearby a small compartment with Atomic Health and Devastator
-Inside the gas station, press on one of cash registers, which will open a secret room, containing Atomic Health and Devastator + ammo.

If you are looking for getting all kills and secrets, make sure to collect everything before dropping down the sewer hole much later in the map. There is NO WAY back after this point! There is also no point of return in the starting area of the sewers, so before getting to the surface, make sure you kill all the slimers, etc.
Once you get to the last part of the sewers, you have to clean a few more rooms before reaching the nuke button, which unfortunately doesn't work in the original version of the mod, resulting in a disappointing ending. It's also impossible to tell the level stats in vanilla Duke3D, so you will not know how many enemies you killed and how many secrets you found in the last level, unless you play in source ports. Shame that the author never finished the mod but I'm still grateful that the mod was even released in first place, no matter how unfinished it is. It is far better than sitting unreleased to the author's hard drive.

Forgot to mention (though Aleks beat me to it already) that there are no trip mines to be found in the whole episode (though I don't think anyone misses them) just like with the jetpack also being absent from all the Chimera levels. I believe the Holoduke and the Boots were also absent.
As was mentioned earlier in the topic, the author apparently had two more unfinished Chimera maps, which were sent to Mikko Sandt, who decided to combine the maps, make small edits (I guess adding the player start position?) and release it as a standalone map that doesn't require Chimera/LR&WB to play it.
The map can be downloaded here: https://dukeworld.co.../HiddenZone.zip

I have not played that map yet, so I can't give my thoughts on it. I will eventually play it one day and if I feel like, bump this topic to review that map and that's it.
Overall, leaving aside the disappointing ending, this last map of Chimera was pretty good but I don't think it should have been the last map, as the Watchtower pointed out it feels out of place from the level progression. I feel that the previous two maps worked better as the final maps of the episode. We don't know what the next maps would have been like (besides that Hidden Zone map) and it is possible the level order would have been slightly changed. I also think the author would have added trip mines and more inventory items to some maps, as well as reskin the rest weapons that didn't receive new art. I personally didn't mind the new art (it looks pretty good, though the new yellow alien looks a bit out of place) but it would have been a lot better if either all weapons were reskinned or none at all.
png]


Conclusion (Last Reaction & Water Bases & Chimera)

Honestly, Last Reaction is a mixed bag. Many maps were cool, epic and filled with fun, despite being quite lengthy at times! On the other hand, some maps were frustrating as hell and a chore to complete and this is unfortunate because the first impression matters. Most of the people who have played this TC (including myself more than a decade ago for first time), first they would experience Last Reaction and then probably give up early on because of the awful first level. They wouldn't have the patience to get through the first shittier maps and experience the better maps later on, even if some of the later maps are still plagued with various annoyances that drag the whole experience down. If you don't want to put up with the first half of the episode, you can always warp yourself to the level Old L.A. On Ice and play from there.

But the real highlight and a true gem is the Water Bases episode, which is like a very nice underwater themed version of the Lunar Apocalypse episode from the original Duke3D! Water Bases is VERY GOOD, almost commercial quality, at least to me, most of the maps in the episode were epic, very fun to play, very good looking, mostly well balanced. So congrats to the author, George William Bernard, of managing the rare case of capturing the original Duke3D feeling in this episode, it almost felt like an official expansion! Some absolutely phenomenal level design right here, I had a blast with these maps and wish the rest of the mod was like that! If only the author came back later and not only finished Chimera but also polished the existing maps and then re-released the whole thing (possibly even with a new 4th episode!), we would have one of greatest Duke3D mods/TCs ever made!

And as for Chimera, despite being unfinished, it was still great, although I agree with Laki that Water Bases was more memorable and slightly better designed, though I also really enjoyed how most Chimera maps looked and how much the author improved over time! I can only imagine how the last maps would have looked like...

Despite all the bad stuff mentioned earlier, I still had fun revisiting these mods and completing them 100% (except for those turrets inside walls in Khaki Space, also those two missed secrets in Chimera). It was a much better experience than just completing the maps without exploring everything (the old playthroughs I did in past). It gives you a new insight on the maps and makes you appreciate them more if you carry the full arsenal and will not have problems with running low on supplies, for the most part. But until that time, you have to suffer through the first couple of maps from the Last Reaction episode and there's a few other parts of certain maps where you have to save-scum to get past some annoying bits that have little to no health available because the author didn't balance those parts correctly or expected you to somehow get unscathed through those parts.

Since Aleks already rated the maps (and you can already tell which are the best and worst maps of the bunch, so there's no need to arrange them from best to worst), here are my personal ratings for all episodes (and overall rating for the series)

Last Reaction - 7/10 (the last half of the episode saved it from being rated 5-6)
Water Bases - 9/10 (most maps were very good)
LR&WB Overall - 8/10 (a solid package)

Chimera - 8/10 (not bad! if the episode was finished, I would have rated it 9/10)

Final Thoughts: LR&WB is a great TC and worthy to be considered as a semi-official Duke3D expansion at least. If it weren't for those first 3 crappy Last Reaction maps (and other maps that should have received more polish), then the LR episode would have scored at least an 8 (maybe 8.5 at best). And for Water Bases mostly, if it weren't for a few strange design choices at times, the episode would have easily been a 10/10. But even then, a score of 9/10 means it is still excellent and I feel it really is that good and deservedly awarded its reputation! Most of the Water Bases maps really WOWED me this time around and I was really enjoying my time with them, that I wish there was more to play. Even then, I still think this episode comes close to commercial quality!

But don't worry about the fact that Water Bases ended, because Chimera continues the action and despite being unfinished, it is still absolutely worth checking out to get the complete experience of the entire series!

And now, for the votes and current rankings, forget what I said earlier about not voting this month. I might as well throw in my obvious vote, despite the fact Duke3D was already winning anyway!

BillyBoy's Maps
Community Build Projects
Duke Nukem 3D +++
KaiseR's Maps
Redneck Rampage

As I said before, thanks everyone for the participation in this topic (the most popular entry so far!) and see you on the next edition of the Duke Map/Mod of the Month club!

[LakiSoft]

BTW, i have finished Chimera's bonus level known as Hidden Zone. Nicely designed level. My only complainant is that i had lack of ammo especially at final parts. But overall i enjoyed this nicely built architecture in this level.

Duke Nukem 3D - Chimera - Bonus Level : Hidden Zone Gameplay video
You can watch video here: https://files.fm/f/jrvbum43b



Some Screenshots:



As with @FistMarine's conclusion on all three episodes, i can only say i couldn't agree more! I also totally agree with @Aleks the way he rated each level individually.
I am Glad to say that i enjoyed this Month club. It was very active month full of useful exchanged information here. Hope that upcoming months would be even more active, better and enjoyable.

As Duke Nukem 3D is winning anyway, i can only state that i would be happy to replay this master piece FPS video game on Damn I'm Good skill setting.