[FistMarine]

What's this thing?
We play through a set of maps/mods during the month, and use this thread to discuss it as we're still all fresh with our comments/opinions/feelings about the maps.

What's the purpose?
Basically, there are 4 purposes:

• Showcasing some of the older mods/maps to wider public - they definitely deserve the attention!
• Getting more people to actually enjoy and appreciate the user content - because let's be honest, over the past 27 years this was really what kept Duke alive after all.
• ...and while we're at it - keeping Duke alive by still enjoying it, as there's no new games in the franchise on the horizon (and let's be honest, they wouldn't be as good as some of this stuff!).
• Having a more structured discussion on maps than what's going in "Last map you played" thread - which is great, but it's basically a monologue most of the time.

Can I join?
Sure, as long as you find some spare time during the month to play the stuff that's on the table!

Why a month?
Because people have lives, jobs or other stuff to do (like mapping). For smaller maps, this could be shorter time - it's all up to debate in the future!

What port should I use? Are mods allowed? Where to get the maps?
It's entirely up to you how you play the game, so you can use whatever port or mod allowed - it would be cool to state in your posts what you're using too, as there might be some slight differences between the ports! As for the maps, they should be always linked within the first post.

How should I play the maps or post about them?
Again, it's up to you. You can finish them all in one go or play them one by one whenever you feel like. On Doom forums, there's a rule that you should keep the pace by not posting about a map that has a higher number than the day of the month, so e.g. on 6th you shouldn't post about map 7 etc. I think that might be a good practice if there's a large interest in this, but first let's see how active the thread is for a start - so if there's nothing going on, feel free to post about whatever map you want to.

Previous 2023 Editions

Spoiler

March 2023 - Metropolitan Mayhem
February 2023 - WGRealms + WGSpace Episode + Maps by William Gee
January 2023 - Future + Fight the Future + Duke Tournament + MSSP Episode + The Brave New World + Maps by Mikko Sandt

Previous 2022 Editions

Spoiler

December 2022 - Countdown to Christmas + Duke: Nuclear Winter + Duke's Snowy Adventure II: Stolen Weapons + The Christmas Project + Xmas 1997
November 2022 - JJ Duke Nukem 3D
October 2022 - Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition + Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour
September 2022 - Secrets of the Acropolis + Twin Dragon
August 2022 - The Lost Duke Episodes
July 2022 - Community Build Project Series
June 2022 - Maps by Billy Boy + Maps by Bob Masters
May 2022 - Duke It Out In D.C. + Duke Caribbean: Life's A Beach + Penthouse Paradise
April 2022 - Duke Nukem 3D
March 2022 - Last Reaction & Water Bases + Chimera
February 2022 - DaikariN + Operation Blitzkrieg
January 2022 - ADG Episode + Maps by Alejandro Glavic

Previous 2021 Editions

Spoiler

December 2021 - Lost Highway + Maps by Lukas Cerovsky + Maps by Peter Kucera
November 2021 - Maps by Various Authors
October 2021 - Maps by Taivo Maripuu
September 2021 - Duke Hard
August 2021 - Maps by Geoffrey van Dijk (FakirBaba) + Maps by Rob Wijkstra (Highwire)
July 2021 - Maps by Maarten Pinxten
June 2021 - Roch Series

Introduction

This is not an April Fools joke! We take a break from the usual Duke Nukem action and instead, we visit the countryside to battle aliens and rednecks, while admiring the rural environments. That's right, this month we are playing through the fellow Build Engine game, Redneck Rampage!

Redneck Rampage was created by Xatrix Entertainment and published by Interplay Entertainment. RR was released on April 1997 and contains 15 SP levels split across two episodes, with a third separate multiplayer episode containing 7 levels.

The story is simple and focuses on two brothers, Leonard and Bubba, who are the local residents of Hickston. Aliens attack Hickston, cloned some of the local residents and stole the brothers' prized pig, Bessie. You play as Leonard and have to find Bubba at the end of most levels and whack him with your crowbar to move on to next level, while supposedly looking for your stupid pig!

The game was a commercial success and spawned an entire franchise, though for this month, we are only focusing on the original Redneck Rampage!

You can buy the game at GOG, which costs 10 euros. The GOG version includes the main game, the Cuss Pack addon/DLC, the Route 66 addon/expansion and the standalone sequel, Redneck Rampage Rides Again!

Or, you can download the demo version! Note that direct links aren't provided for the rare demo versions (Early Years and Possum Bayou) because of their questionable legality status, as they were only released in retail and not as a free download!

Alternatively, you can buy RR from Amazon, eBay and other similar websites if you prefer to have a physical copy of the game. Installation instructions and download links are offered below in the post.

Presentation

Redneck Rampage is directly based off an intermediate version of Duke Nukem 3D (somewhere between versions 1.3D and 1.4) and much of the interface should be familiar. Please note that no patches were ever released for any RR games, although a few demo versions of the main game exist, which are documented below.

When you first start the game, you will see a cutscene with several UFOs flying towards the Earth. After it finishes, it starts the second cutscene with the mailbox Interplay, the publisher of the game, getting shot by a shotgun. Then starts the third cutscene with that wind thing (sorry, I don't know its name in English, it's not my native language if anyone's wondering) which shows the developer Xatrix Entertainment! Then it shows an ugly loading screen with our main characters (Leonard and Bubba) and the word LOADIN' in the middle of screen. The gameplay demo has now started.

The first demo shows E1L1. After the initial scene with the pickup truck running over chickens, the player turns around and finds a secret area containing a shotgun and a bottle of whiskey. The demo finishes while shooting the animals with the shotgun. It doesn't show much, suggesting that the demos were recorded in a rush. When the demo ends, it shows the cutscenes again (just like it happens in Duke3D v1.3D) before starting the next demo, unless you were in the main menu, in which cause it skips straight to the next demo.

The second demo shows E2L1. The player blows up the gas station, he doesn't kill the pistol guy who somehow survived the explosion, grabs the Ripsaw, goes the right path, tries to kill the big-ass alien and gets killed before the demo ends, suggesting a minor desync (demo should end at the exact moment the player dies) has happened in the meantime.

The third demo shows again E2L1. This time the player picks up Dynamite behind the garage door, blows up the gas station, kills the pistol guy, grabs the Ripsaw, goes the left path, tries to kill the shotgun guy but fails and demo ends abruptly while the player still has 69 health left. Whether or not it was intended, we can definitely reach the conclusion these demos were half-assed and they should have showed more of the game instead of shitting around.

Anyway, when you begin a new game, you are given the option between selecting OUTSKIRTS and DOWNTOWN. The episode/level structure is very similar to Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity! Which came a month prior, although it could be simply a coincidence. When you make your episode selection, be sure to select the first episode, as once you finish it, the game immediately advances you to the second episode. If you select the second episode, you skip the first one entirely!

The third episode PISSIN' CONTEST, is not selectable in the main menu (at least not in the original DOS version, while source ports may offer this option) as it is only meant for multiplayer and only accessible with command line parameters. More on that later.

After you made your episode choice, then you have to choose the skill level. The alpha demo version had only four skills which were nearly identical to the Duke3D equivalents (except no enemy respawn on the hardest skill, which is carried on to the full game). This time you've got five skills. I will explain each of them and what they do:

Wuss - Easy difficulty. Minimum amount of enemies encountered in the level. When selecting this skill, Leonard does a retarded laugh.
Meejum - Medium difficulty. Moderate amount of enemies encountered in the level. When selecting this skill, Leonard says "City Folk!".
Hard Ass - Hard difficulty. Maximum amount of enemies encountered in the level. When selecting this skill, Leonard says "Jesus Palomino!".
Killbilly - Same as Hard Ass, except cheats are now disabled! When selecting this skill, Leonard says "Holy Shit!".
Psychobilly - Same as Killbilly, except SAVING AND LOADING ARE NOW DISABLED! When selecting this skill, Leonard says "Hot Damn!".

Please note that the damage between players and enemies is identical across all skill levels, much like in Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior, so don't be surprised if the enemies are still kicking your ass even on the easiest difficulty! At least there is a mechanic where you can get damage reduction if you manage your meters well (more on that below).

Oh and also, unlike Duke3D, the enemies don't respawn on hardest skills, with the exception of one alien enemy that respawns if its corpse is not blown up within 25-30 seconds, regardless of the difficulty chosen. You will see that later when playing the game. But for now, I recommend sticking to one of the easier skills if it's your first time playing through Redneck Rampage, especially if it's your first Build Engine game. If you have played Duke Nukem 3D before and are familiar with how Build Engine works, then you may start with one of the higher skills if you want an extra challenge. Good luck trying to beat the game on the hardest difficulty, though. It's nearly impossible!

Redneck Rampage Versions

Redneck Rampage Alpha Demo Test Version 0.7 (Moonshine) -> The official demo version of Redneck Rampage with various minor differences from the final release. Includes a cut down first level of the game, where your only objective is killing all the enemies in the level to receive the message "YOU DONE KILL'EM ALL!" at the top of the screen. Released on 20th January 1997.
Redneck Rampage Release 1.01 (Moonshine) -> The official full release of Redneck Rampage. Released on 7th April 1997.

Redneck Rampage: The Early Years -> 5-Level OEM Version 1.00. Includes 5 playable levels: E1L1-E1L5. Released on 13th November 1997.
Redneck Rampage: Possum Bayou -> 7-Level Version 1.00. Includes 7 playable levels: E1L1-E1L7. Released on 3rd September 1998.

I don't think any of the source ports support any of the demo versions. If playing RR in a source port, it is recommended to use the full version of the game.

Alpha Demo Test Version 0.7 can be downloaded right here at DOS Games Archive: https://www.dosgames...file.php?id=724
The game comes pre installed and ready to play in DOSBox.

Here's a few screenshots of the Alpha Demo Test Version of Redneck Rampage:

png]

See if you can spot the differences.

Buy the RR collection right here on GOG for 10 euros: https://www.gog.com/...page_collection
Please note that the game doesn't seem to get discounted often, so I'd recommend waiting for a sale if you plan to pick it up.

Installation

If you've got the original Redneck Rampage CD, just look for the REDNECK.INS file on your CD. You don't need to run the installer to install the game. Just copy that file mentioned earlier into a directory you created, named "REDNECK" (without quotes) and extract that file using 7-zip into the folder. The game will be extracted quickly and that way the timestamps of the files will be preserved as well. Using the installer (whether you use DOSBox or not) will NOT preserve the original date of files!

After you've done that, delete the REDNECK.INS file to save disk space, run SETUP.EXE to configure the game (recommended to play on a minimum resolution of 640x480, unlike most other Build Engine Games that default to 320x200), move the brightness slider to middle (otherwise, the default setting is too dark in some levels/places), enable the crosshair (optionally) by pressing the I button and enjoy the game!

To play on a source port, just copy the REDNECK.GRP file to your source port's directory. At the moment of writing, the only source ports that support RR are the following: BuildGDX, RedNukem and Raze.

Optional steps

1) Install the Cuss Pack to add more profanity to the game. This will overwrite most of the talk in the game with more offensive versions of the same lines. It will also overwrite at least one con file (COOT.CON), so I would recommend making a copy of the REDNECK folder before you plan to check out the cuss pack. Don't worry about hard disk space in this day and age. The REDNECK folder (which is 138 MB by default, the sequel is 209 MB by the way) will be copied, renamed to CUSSPACK and then paste the contents into the folder. Note that the Cuss Pack becomes extremely repetitive over time. If this only made the characters say these lines sometimes (mixed with the original lines), then this would have been a nice addon. But as it stands, it's not really recommended.

2) Install the Soundtrack. The game's soundtrack is very cool and one of the main highlights of the game! Featuring music by Mojo Nixon, The Beat Farmers, The Reverend Horton Heat and Cement Pond. Installing the soundtrack requires you to insert the CD in drive (or mount a CD image, though if you bought the game digitally, you should have the soundtrack already) to hear the music in game. Unfortunately, as with the cuss pack, it becomes repetitive after a while because the whole soundtrack loops (tracks aren't assigned to a particular level) and you will most likely hear the entire selection for each level, especially as how long and confusing most levels are. You can choose to not have any music at all and only hear the game's sounds. This is what I have experienced so far in all past RR playthroughs. But now, for the first time, I will be playing with the soundtrack (mounting a CD image) which really adds to the atmosphere. Also, getting the soundtrack to work in source ports is a bit tricky. I can't offer further instructions but for DOS version, if playing in DOSBox, you can just mount the CD image and you will hear the music in game. Instructions for that will be offered later.

Some helpful hints about Redneck Rampage

1) In the original DOS version, saving is a bit buggy. You often get asked whether you want to overwrite your saved game, even after you confirm, in which case you must mash the "Y" button repeatedly until the game accepts saving. Sometimes, the saved game screenshot is also glitched for no reason at all. This glitch was only partially fixed in the sequel, as sometimes you are still asked when to overwrite the save and the screenshot also gets glitched occasionally.
2) In the original DOS version, quitting is a bit buggy as well. I am guessing there are supposed to be splash screens when game is quitting, like in Atomic and Shareware versions of Duke Nukem 3D. But for some reason, they forgot to remove their code, so the game displays invisible screens that makes it look like the game froze. To fix this, just press a random key (e.g. spacebar) twice. This bug was fixed in the sequel, where the game exits properly to DOS.
3) Skill levels 3-5 have IDENTICAL ENEMY PLACEMENT in the original Redneck Rampage! Only the addon and sequel (Route 66 and Rides Again) have even more enemies present on skills 4 and 5. Because of that, there is no difference between playing the main game on higher skills, except for the cheats/saves being disabled and showing "N/A" enemies left at end of level (a leftover from Duke3D's Damn I'm Good skill level), meaning you can't tell if you've killed everyone or not. Not that it matters, since the kill count is glitchier than the original Duke3D!
4) In most levels with Bubba present, whack him with your Crowbar to finish the level! Don't kill him or else you die as well! Don't try to hurt him either because if you hurt him enough, it is possible to make the level unwinnable, as he will die when hit by the crowbar! Hope you have a backup save!
5) Enemies generally have high health, while dealing high damage in return, even when compared to the original Duke3D enemies. Find out which weapon works the best against a particular enemy and consume the health items with care!
6) Pistol guys almost always drop their pistols upon death, which means you will not have to worry about running low on ammo anymore. However, while the pistol deals decent damage and it is excellent for sniping enemies from far away (especially in the first level of the game), it is quite slow and boring to use.
7) The Alien Hulks will respawn after 30 seconds if their corpse isn't blown up by explosives. After putting them down with your weapons, be sure to gib their corpse and get the Alien Arm Gun as a reward! I also recommend conserving explosives for situations like these! Luckily, these aliens are completely absent from the first episode if you are playing on the easiest skill setting but this also means you don't get the Alien Arm Gun until the second episode.
8) Health pickups are generally plentiful in most levels but you need to consume them with care, as mentioned above. You can only consume food/drink if your health is less than 100. Don't drink too much alcohol or else you will suffer nasty side effects, like walking sideways and having the view turned sideways, making it extremely difficult to move around or shoot at your enemies! Consuming food items is generally safe, although you will suffer from uncontrolled farting which alerts nearby enemies. In fact, confusing food items (unless you farted) allows you to sneak up on enemies, which is something that wasn't possible in the original Duke Nukem 3D!
9) Health items are the following: Whiskey bottles contain full 100% (which are used in increments of 10%), while Beer and Cow Pies are given in a 6-pack (each usage gives 5 HP) and Large Pork Rinds are basically the equivalent of Large Medkit from Duke3D, it is immediately consumed on pickup and gives 30 HP. When you come across an inventory item, make sure the one you are carrying is fully used before grabbing the new one or else you waste precious health points! There are also the Delicious Goo-Goo Clusters that are basically the Atomic Health equivalent for this game but unlike Duke3D and other similar games of the era, they are incredibly rare and mostly found out inside secret places.
10) XXX Moonshine is the game's Steroids equivalent, giving you a speed boost and even a slight damage reduction. When it reaches 0% and disappears from your inventory, it resets both of your Alcohol and Gut meters to zero. This is a great way to clear the drunkenness immediately!
11) If you get drunk from consuming too much alcohol, you can consume food to lower the alcohol levels, as long as you are below 100 health.
12) If the level contains a toilet, you can use it to pee like you did in Duke3D (gain 10 HP and quickly lower the alcohol levels) or even take a dump by crouching on the toilet (completely lowers the gut meter but sadly no health increase).
13) There is a "Yeehaw!" button bound by "Y" by default. Pressing it causes Leonard to say "YEEHAW!" and gain 1 HP if his health is less than 100. This can be done anytime and anywhere. Just take into account there is a delay of about five seconds before the next "YEEHAW!", so this is a very boring and slow way to recover your health if you are stuck in an unpleasant situation.
14) There is a "Piss" button bound by "~" by default (the tilde key below ESC). Pressing it once in a while causes Leonard to pee, lowering the Alcohol level and gain 2 HP if his health is less than 100.
15) Try building up your Alcohol and Gut meters in the green zone. If having either in the green zone, you will absorb 25% damage and if both are in the green zone, you will absorb 75% damage! Note that, much like the armor in Duke3D, this only works if your health is high enough, otherwise, you will still die from fatal shots.
16) Alcohol and Gut meters are reset on the next level. It is possible to end a level while drunk and in the next level, Leonard will be back to normal.
17) Having either/both of the meters in green zone will nullify the damage done by fire, drowning and getting attacked by chickens/pigs, etc.
18) Crates of Dynamite and Powder Kegs can be exploded by gunfire. If you are caught in the explosion, you will die instantly, regardless of whether you have the meters in green zone or not. The only way to survive is to have more than 100 health, since the explosions in the game deal EXACTLY 100 damage!

Source Port Hints

Meters/Numbers in Rednukem and Raze source port if played with the EDuke32 HUD enabled:

Between 0 and 30: Yellow - No side effects
Between 31 and 65: Green - Minor side effects and damage reduction
Between 66 and 87: Orange - Moderate side effects
Between 88 and 100: Red - Major side effects

Have fun!

[NNC]

Meh....

The game had it's potential, as the central theme is good enough for a few good levels (I guess like 20-25 levels in two episodes). However there were a lot of annoyances:

First, level design. One of the main designers is Sverre Kvernmo, who was the man behind some of Doom Master Levels truly annoying maps, like Mephisto's Mausoleum. This is not top class stuff, like maps from Blum or Romero. Z axis is limited by theme, but most maps, like the infamous sewer one are just flat out mazes, and really dark and hostile ones with lots of dust and feces everywhere.

Second, while I adore the high resolution graphics here, the key/button stuff certainly don't help. Keys are easy to miss, they are small and grey, look like some debris of sorts, the doors are also hard to find as no sign and colour to indicate their importance. Switches are also very small and easy to miss.

Third, enemies. Some, like that big alien bastard with high pitch voice and the alien arm gun is terrible, not to mention the many annoying hitscanners or the fecal nuances. Even dogs are kinda terrible, they are overpowered. The basic enemies are fun, but they clearly overstay their welcome. Would have loved to see more city folk variants.

RRRA is somewhat better. It still had annoyances, and the levels there look like they are shot in distant planets, but it has nice stuff like the swamp boat or the motor bike.

Also the humor is limited. After a while, a fart joke is not funny.

Overall, I have to say, this is a miss. Maybe one day I play it again.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, but the food and alcohol balance is actually interesting, and it would be nice to see something similar in Duke.

[Quacken]

Two options here, and both take a personal hit to my dignity: I either spend $15 on Steam to play Redneck Rampage once, or I put on my eyepatch and find my best sea shanty. Decisions, decisions... I guess I'll be making a decision tomorrow morning.

[Merlijn]

15 dollars is a pretty steep price, especially for a game you probably won't enjoy too much. I'm actually surprised it's not cheaper.

As mentioned in the previous thread, I have a lot of nostalgia for this game. Me and Maarten would play it a lot in the 90's (but even back then we noticed the flaws and starting using cheats at several points).
You see, the points raised by The Watchtower are all valid. Especially the annoying enemy types (the dogs and the vixens especially) and most of the maps having bad sign posting / outright cryptic progression.
The keys should have been much more visible and visually distinctive from each other. The sewer map is one of the worst of its kind, and that's saying something.

Still I enjoy the game for its unique theme, the artstyle and some great level design (mostly talking about layout and visuals here, not the map progression).
The alcohol/food system is actually quite original, even though the execution could be better). And the first 5 maps are a lot fun to traverse, save for some annoyances.

I would say Redneck Rampage Rides Again is much better, while it doesn't fix everything it is a lot more fun to play and has some really impressive design. Also the vehicles are pretty cool.

[Forge]

Watchtower and Merlijn assessments are accurate.
My biggest complaint is level design.
Rides Again is better, but still not exactly great.

tl;dr
Don't spend money on it if you are looking to buy something else. Buy the something else instead.

[Quacken]

Merlijn, on 01 April 2023 - 05:51 AM, said:

15 dollars is a pretty steep price, especially for a game you probably won't enjoy too much. I'm actually surprised it's not cheaper.

God forbid if I wanted to play Rides Again, I'd have to pay another 15 dollars for that. There's no bundle for both games on Steam. I don't even think Route 66 is bundled with RR1, which means I'd have to find that too if it were to get nominated.

[Quacken]

Well, it might have took me a little while, but it's time to get reviews done for Redneck Rampage, played using Raze. I'm going to do these one at a time because I'm planning on spoiling the progression on each level. Doing this means I can retain as much information as possible. Also, starting from this map onward I'm going to play my own music in the form of the Master Levels MIDI Pack. It seems fitting considering Sverre Kvernmo is a part of this game. Anyway:

Taylor Town

Ah, the countryside of Arkansas... you could put this on a postcard. Come visit the sleepy respite of Taylor Town, where there's only two houses, killer mosquitoes and your neighbours are either as skinny as the Slim Jim Guy or are overweight and have a double barrel shotgun. The game's story says the aliens have been cloning the residents of Hickston in their plot to invade the surrounding areas, but I don't doubt that most of these people would probably attack me in a drunken rage regardless of extraterrestrial influence.

Atmosphere aside, Taylor Town is surprisingly enough a decent starting map. You get pretty quickly used to the gameplay loop. The Casull has miserable DPS due to its low fire rate, but you should still use it anyway because it can knock out the Old Coots in three or four shots. Unless you know where to look, shells are at a premium here. The Scattergun is honestly pretty decent. It's actually pretty comparable to Blood's shotgun. It's unusable at anything but close range like the Sawed-Off, but when it's used at extremely close range it can reliably kill Billy Ray Jeeters (will be referred to as Billy or Billies from now on) in one click. Otherwise the Casull is good at poking them from far range. I like the visuals a lot. There's a good use of lighting and texture usage, and I also like the sound design. Without the music, it's pretty cosy just walking around and hammering away at locked doors to try and find out where to go. There's quite a few places in this map that seemingly just exist only to hide enemies, which can make going for 100% kills a bother. Don't forget to kill the mosquitoes, they count as kills. The pigs and cows don't however, so what they really do is they block your shots.

Here's how you move through the map: Find some Dynamite, then hightail it for the barn. Use the dynamite to blow up a hole in the granary (it's marked with a target). Kill the townsfolk inside, go up the stairs and on the haybale is your first Skeleton Key. Mash jump up the ladder to get onto the roof and jump down. There should be a stack of crates nearby you can use to break your fall. Take your key to the general store, and when you go past the locked door there, there'll be another key right in front of you. Pick that up, and then go to the building with the fences on both sides and the mud patch out back. There should be a sign outside which disallows entry to anyone but gun owners. The exit is off to the right, so take out your Crowbar and give Bubba his first of thirteen migraines. Taylor Town may be an ominous sign of things to come, but for what it is right now I think it's pretty solid.

7.5/10.

[NNC]

Btw. the blowup of the gas station and the sector changing was a very cool Build engine trick. I guess it's not possible with Duke, and don't know if that ever happened in any other Build games.

[Quacken]

Hello again! Because of the fact that these progression guides are probably going to get really long, I'm going to start putting them at the front and marking them with a spoiler tag to keep things concise.

Lumberland

Map progression:

Spoiler

At the start of this map, keep walking forward until you reach the lumber processing facility. Kill the hitscanners, and then at where the big pipe embedded into the ground is, there'll be a switch you can use. Hit that and then swim down to where the pipe meets the water, where some bars open. Swim up the water, and when you surface, follow the sewer until you get to a parking lot. Go in the door and follow the corridor. Instead of taking the next set of double doors, turn right and go into the boiler room. After walking around here for quite a while, you should see a small area with a Coot in it. Kill him, and then hit the switch in there to open up another room nearby with the first key. Now, turn left to go back into the office complex, and the first door you should see upon leaving the boiler room will have a locked door inside. Opening that takes you to the sawmill. To get past the big spinning saw, go to the left, climb up the debris and use your Casull to shoot the button, which lowers the saw temporarily. Locate the storage room past this point, and mind the rampaging forklift. Go to the left and platform across the wood and bricks to find the second key. Go through the big door that leads to outside, and the next switch is straight ahead but slightly obscured. After the big doors open, keep going down the path and you'll find a cracked wall. Make peace with the cow who you will unfortunately have to sacrifice in order to proceed, and blow up the wall with Dynamite. The way forward should be pretty simple now. You'll have to step outside of a window a little later on, follow a narrow pathway, go through a blue door and find Bubba. Man, these walkthroughs are getting longer than my standard review length, and it's only E1L2...

Lumberland takes you to an active lumber mill. It seems like the aliens really like their timber, as they've instructed all of their clones in the ways of performing an honest man's 9 till 9. Where are the real Billy Ray Jeeter and Old Coot while you're defending Hickston? Are they huddled in fear in an unknown location or did you kill them back in Taylor Town? This map introduces some more elements that you'll get very used to. The Dogs show up in this map, and they're probably the worst enemies you'll fight in Episode 1. It's not that they're hard to hit or anything, but they simply have too much health and they do like 20 damage back to you. The best way I found to kill them was to use the Casull while jumping over them when they get close. They can survive one Dynamite also, so another way to kill them could be to get a half decent Dynamite in and then try to use one or two Casull shots to do the job. Aside from the impressive looking starting area, quite a lot of this map is pretty boxy with bright yet mute lighting. The boiler room is the first of probably a few sections that are literally just fancy mazes, which can make it a bother to find your way out of once you've got the key, even with the automap. While most fights in Redneck Rampage generally blend together as they do in Duke 3D, the Dogs especially can be hugely annoying, and they often take a majority of your attention during the sections they appear in. Lumberland is mostly fun with a few hiccups along the way.

7/10.

[ck3D]

The Watchtower, on 02 April 2023 - 03:13 AM, said:

Btw. the blowup of the gas station and the sector changing was a very cool Build engine trick. I guess it's not possible with Duke, and don't know if that ever happened in any other Build games.

I had to take another look at a video to refresh my memory and make sure, but from what I could see I think one could achieve something comparable in Duke even if that's using a different set of tricks to match the game's capabilities of rendering what's cosmetically the same thing. Most people just tend to think interactivity on a micro level and so on the scale of entire buildings or complex structures is rare, it takes both the technical practice and then acquired wisdom that is not fixating over aesthetics to instead consider basic form (of a structure) as an absolute. The more complex the structure the less people will be drawn to attach interactivity to each and every associated sector or sprite or at least not in the context of the whole stucture as the bigger picture, unless they've planned everything beforehand and built everything around the intended effect(s) and desired interaction in the first place. Way more people just build on the go and then worry about effects later because it's more natural and accessible of a process when just trying to have fun with the editor. On the other hand, if one is trying to come up with this type of larger scale sequence then actively staying away from the editor unless they've thought about how they'd like the whole of the design and its singular elements to work in detail and so can use that as their guideline already when tackling construction of the structure will do wonders.

It's funny how reminiscent of the LameDuke gas station that one RR piece is on the conceptual level, by the way (and I want to say it also looks pretty close in execution).

[Merlijn]

Ah what the hell. I still had the game installed from a playthrough a few years ago. So I decided to do another playthrough. Difficulty set to medium, because the game gets too annoying on higher difficulties IMO. Things generally stay reasonable on medium.

Taylor Town

Gotta agree with Quacken here, this is a pretty solid opening level. Most of my nostalgia for this game stem from the first 5 levels, things get a lot more dodgy after that. In fact, the first red maps were very much inspired by this game and this map in particular (the original title of red1 was 'redduke', like some hybrid between Duke Nukem and Redneck Rampage). I must stay this map is still a pretty pleasant trip down memory lane, a lot of that has to do with the presentation but still. The red sky contrasting with the silhouette of the woodlands make for a nice back drop, the ambient sounds are a perfect companion to the visuals, and there are some fun environmental details (my favorite being the outhouse that's directly connected to the well.. very hygienic ). There are several buildings scattered across the map, but they're all distinctive enough so it's shouldn't be too confusing. There's the general store, a bar, a pig sty, a barn and so on. Also as a mapper I have to mention the creative use of sector-over-sector, it's used to it's full effect here to suggest real 3D space. This game is at its best when it fully commits to its theme and the first map is exactly doing that.

The keys should have been handled better, as has been mentioned before. I understand colored keycards won't work in this setting, but at least they could have a gold, silver and bronze key (or something in that vein) instead of having 3 identical keys that are hard to see. The alcohol/food system actually works pretty well and managing your alcohol levels is kinda fun.

Giving this one a generous 8/10

[oasiz]

The Watchtower, on 02 April 2023 - 03:13 AM, said:

Btw. the blowup of the gas station and the sector changing was a very cool Build engine trick. I guess it's not possible with Duke, and don't know if that ever happened in any other Build games.

RR has a "sector copy" effector, something like this exists in SW and Fury.
It also has some ROR projection effectors, in one case there is a reverse projection section even.

The guys really knew how to technically utilize the rendering tricks to their advantage.

There is something similar/different in Aftershock, pulling off a different trick: https://nitter.net/v...8091333222400#m


Even if RR / RRRA gameplay is not for everyone, if you want to see some technically quite impressive stuff (and some ideas way ahead of it's time), I would check these games.
Use cheats or something.

[Quacken]

Here I am again.

Junkyard

Map progression:

Spoiler

Keep following the pathway until you get to the large gate that separates you from the junkyard. Along the way you'll see a lot of enemies emerge from obvious secrets, so after you kill them all, go where they came from to get some goodies. Once you're at the gate, go left, and there'll be a small opening where the dog house is. Kill the dog, then go into the dog house to be lowered into the sewer. Follow along the narrow tunnel to eventually get the first key. On the way back, kill the Turd Minion behind the grate. Now that you're outside again, go back to the gate and use the key to open it. The next key is in a big, square and black trash compactor near the back end of the map. Pay attention to how the crusher operates by using the switch a few times. Once you're confident, use the switch to raise the crusher, quickly go under the bars and get the key. Then, hug the bars and use the Casull to shoot the switch. If you're quick enough, you should be able to make it out without being killed. Use the key on the only other door in the junkyard, which is in the tunnel that should be easy to spot. Kill as many of the Billies as you can before you go and fight the Alien Hulk, because they're the real mini boss here. Circle strafe the Hulk and shoot him until he dies. If you somehow don't have an explosive despite there being a crate of TNT in the boss arena and plenty else in the rest of the level, the final key is in the crane, and the door and Bubba is on the right-hand side.

Junkyard is much smaller in scale compared to Lumberland and Taylor Town, and for that reason I think it's objectively the best of these maps. The Billies and Coots coming out of the trees will test your reflexes and your attention span, but even on a Pistol start they won't give you much trouble at all. I like the skybox in this map a lot. The stars graciously twinkle in the night sky with a nice shade of blue. Redneck Rampage doesn't really have a lot of continuity between its levels, but the skyboxes are the little bit of continuity that exists which I appreciate. The titular junkyard is a big slab of texture vomit, but I do like that there's a decent amount of space to move around in. Using your jump that might as well not even exist, you can hop up rectangular cars, crawl underneath more rectangular cars to find secrets, and even access a vent made out of trash. The final arena against the Alien Hulk is notable only for introducing the Hulk as a recurring monster and for the cool crane. You'll get the Alien Arm Gun after killing the Hulk, and if you're playing on a Pistol start like me you won't get to actually use it in a meaningful capacity for another two levels after this one. Junkyard is linear, shorter and more concise than the average Redneck Rampage experience, which makes it a notable map in the lineup.

8/10.

[TheDragonLiner]

I played the games quite a lot a few months ago. And I grew a particular liking towards it, not only because it gets so much hatred, which I find unjustified (partly) but also because I eventually started to have some genuine fun with them.

Main problems being :
_keys being too small and easy to miss,
_The ScatterGun's spread being exaggerated. Not as useless as people claim it to be, but it sure could use some tightening of the spread.
_Many levels give WAY too much ammo for certain weapons, namely 2, 3, 6 and 8. While having so much ammo for 8 and 6 is good when you discover the game and help preserve health, especially when you're not up to date with the armor system, but once you know it, it becomes unsatisfying, especially as using them on Coots and SG Dudes that make up 60% of the enemy count feels like a waste to me >_>
_Some enemies like the Sherif being way too rare, and the Coots/SG Dudes being way too omni present.
_Gut Meter depletes too quickly.

I'm not mentioning the uncolored keys because GDX allows you to color them Brown, Blue and Red.


However the positives to me are : _Maximum originality in concept.
_Maximum creativity in map themes and representation. Some of the most believable areas in official Build Games.
_Good soundtrack.
_Good ambiance and some technically high quality stuff. I've started playing it with an upscale pack ... which only affects enemies. Because the rest of the game looks too high quality to justify an upscale pack >_>

_The Armor system is unique and I believe this might be the one thing that lets me cling onto the game. You see, in most games, you're trying your best to avoid damage. BUT in RR, taking damage is kinda part of the game ! You have to take some degrees of damage in order to build up your protection with the 2 gauges, and then it's all a matter of ballancing how much you take, and how much you maintain a gauge or another. I genuinely feel satisfied when I complete a level, having spent the majority of it with bothe gauges in the Green and reaching the end with 100hp (or more but quite rare).
The ultimate satisfaction is managing to find at least 1 Goo Goo Cluster while having both gauges in the Green. Top stuff !!

The only problem this brings, is that Goo Goo Clusters are too scarce and the global health mechanics of the game doesn't click too well with this Atomic Health equivalent, unless you go out of your way to save them, build up your meter, and then come back.
I find that Starting a new level with over 100HP isn't the best way to use them, as you take too much damage too easily, and you can't build up your meters until then ...


Anyway, that's my main thing about the game. Surely it's not on the Podium of the Build Games, but it takes 4th place very easily compared to others.

[Quacken]

Next map! We're at the halfway point of Episode 1 already. So far so good!

Drive-in

Map progression:

Spoiler

After the opening fight, go left at the fork in the road. You can go past the bowling alley to go to the trailer park, but you can make a quick detour here by going around to the right side of the bowling alley to pick up the Hunting Rifle. Regardless of what you do, enter the trailer park. At the first chance you get, turn left. The first key is in the third trailer on your left. Go into the bedroom and pick up the key. Now, go back to the front door of the bowling alley and enter it. Go to the right to find the bowling alley's kitchen, and there will be the second key. If you want to get 100% of the kills, thoroughly clean out the rest of the bowling alley as well. Now head back to that fork in the road you found at the start, and head right (or straight ahead, since you're coming from the left). Use the second key on the door to the drive-in. Run for the very back of the next section. When you've killed everything, locate the large box and slowly push it to the left. Then, jump from the box to the ledge facing perpendicularly away. To get the AAGs from the Hulks on the other side of the board, jump onto the lip of the opening from the previous ledge, then jump around to the other side. Then, jump into the opening. Get the third key and walk through the dark section. With your third key, go into the building near the entrance to the drive-in and use the key on the chainlink door. When you're upstairs, jump out of the window onto the small ledge just outside. Walk around it, go onto the roof, and there's Bubba waiting for you.

Drive-in is fine. After an uncomfortable shoot-out in a random baseball pitch, Drive-in takes you to some pretty random and disjointed locations. The trailer park has a lot of nice looking houses, but then the tornado appears. Not only are there two different tornados, they are laughably under-detailed. They have only two different frames of animation they cycle between each frame and they follow you as if nature itself had a personal vendetta against you. Trying to use them to get the only secret in the map is also quite frustrating and unreliable. The bowling alley is cool, but the actual lanes you can play on don't really have a gameplay function, as the bowling ball does no damage to enemies. The drive-in the map is named after can also get pretty tedious. It's not hard to dodge the projectiles the Hulks shoot, but trying to step around their mines they lay when they blend into the ground gets quite hard. Then once you step into the room where the third key is, you're greeted by two Dogs barrelling at you in the dark. By the way, the Dogs don't count as kills in this game. I understand why they're not, but at the same time you should gun them down with the Hunting Rifle. The Rifle is the new weapon introduced in this map, and it's probably the best weapon you can reliably get at the moment. It does good damage, stunlocks anything you shoot it at and is probably the best gun to use against Dogs. It kills one of them in about 22 bullets, which is pretty decent. The only issue you have to manage is the kickback, which is fairly negligible as long as you're smart with using it. Aside from introducing the Rifle, Drive-in is a pretty sluggish and uncomfortable map that I could have definitely gone without playing.

5/10.

[Aleks]

Started playing yesterday, I’m using Rednukem port and .ogg music pack (shout out to NightFright whose rip I’m using, thanks!). Playing on Killbilly difficulty and no autoaim.

Since this is the first time I’m playing this game at all (I remember as a kid only trying it for a couple of minutes somewhere, but all the details have eluded me besides “RDELVIS” cheat), I’ll start with the general impressions about the game. I’m trying to do a real and proper “first time playthrough”, so I plan on not spoiling myself and checking out levels/weapons/enemies and rather discovering them myself. First off, I really like the art style and attention to details. The higher texture resolution is put to good use here, but the graphics are still kept in this comic book-like style, the wooden-planks font is great and the characters use a lot of details. The drunk/gut gauges are conceptually nice, but the way they work don’t seem to click much with how the level design in this game seems with lots of walking and looking for tiny keys, so even if I get them both on green, it’ll be over by the time I see another enemy. So unfortunately, I just stopped giving a shit about it rather early on since it was only more of a nuisance than anything to be concerned about. The visibility seems to be very low (I had to turn up the brightness a notch to be able to see anything), which is kinda meh with large and open levels. The guns are fine – the revolver seems very accurate, has a nice punch and deals significant damage to be the mostly used weapon so far. Scattergun is pretty bad except for point blank range, but also very satisfying to use (even on mosquitos), there’s also plenty of ammo for both weapons. And finally dynamite – the first time I tried using one, I blew myself up (which was my only death so far), since I’m too used to the intuitive approach of “hold longer to throw further” with these kind of weapons Also I’ve noticed you can blow crates of TNT laying around instead of picking them, which is a nice detail. The animals just wandering around are a cool addition, also I really like how the pigs chase you if you start attacking them or how chickens leave feathers everywhere. The humor is quite consistent, but the enemy sounds are a bit repetitive/annoying because well, they just keep repeating the same phrase rather than a random grunt, so it shows more. Not as annoying as in Shadow Warrior, but still.

To be honest, after playing SW and RR (and also IF), I really got to fully appreciate the mastery of sound design in Duke 3D and how much it is on another level compared to all these games, with enemy sounds being far more “natural” and “organic” or working in a lot more ways (e.g. how a distant Battlelord roar can still send shivers down one’s spine, after 25 years). Even the only speaking enemy (Commander) with his taunts works well because of how good they sound.

Now let’s move to the first level – Taylor Town. It starts quite similarly to SW, with a car running something over. I’d argue it’s more effective in this case, due to how feathers spread all around, great way of introducing the game. As I mentioned, I didn’t like the low visibility, but other than that, the level looks really good – with how the bright red sky contrasts with dark brown/green streets and bushes. I can certainly see how this has inspired the earlier Red maps. I also appreciate the creative uses of SOS, put in a lot of good use here (although there’s a visible bug on the roof of the granary). I liked some small details like the uneven stairs leading to the basement of one of the buildings. However, I don’t think it’s a good opening level for a game, because of how obscure it is. Despite being an outside map, it’s very confined and the 7 areas, even if interconnected in many ways, are still rather separate and secluded. The only thing that makes it an “outside” map is the parallaxed sky, as it’s really just long “corridors” leading to different “rooms”. The gameplay doesn’t feel too hard, but gets repetitive quite fast, as sometimes there’s just fat shotgunners almost stacked on top of each other behind some dark corners. The mosquitoes are surprisingly nice enemies, I was expecting something as annoying as SW wasps, but here they are just low-tier flying enemies done properly, which I appreciate. Surprisingly, my favourite part of the gameplay was exploring and searching for the keys, which felt very satisfying after finding the first one (the other 2 were quite easy, obviously). Finding a way into the grain silo was obscure as hell, don’t think it’s a good presentation of the wall-blowing mechanism and especially if done in the first level – I guess I can kinda see now how The Watchtower had problems in Death Row with blowing up a crack, as I only blew up the silo randomly after basically checking every other location for the key. It didn’t help that out of all the locations, 2 were just completely optional. But yeah, since that exploration felt quite satisfying, I really liked it.

Finished with 4/6 secrets and like 10 missing enemies.

[Quacken]

With this review, I've caught up my reviews to where I'm actually at in Redneck Rampage. Guess I gotta play some more maps soon! Also, I forgot to say this, but I'd say I've died a total of five times so far. Once on Taylor Town trying to learn the gameplay loop, once on Drive-in because I got completely bodied by the final area, and three times on Dairyair Farms. I got killed twice by the Hulk after the first house, and once from the Dogs near the second key.

Dairyair Farms

Map progression:

Spoiler

Quickly switch to the Scattergun once you pick up the Ripsaw to kill the hitscanners in front of you. Mind the Powder Kegs on the floor as you can shoot them while trying to fight everything and kill yourself. Then, go left to enter the house. When you make it through the house and end up in the backyard, go into the barnyard. The barnyard is an optional area, but on a Pistol start it is the first chance you'll get to obtain explosives to kill the Hulks. Now, from the backdoor of the house, go right and down the long path, minding the enemies. There's another fork in the road. Going right will eventually lead you to a little area with two sheds and a well. Going down the well will eventually lead you to the Hunting Rifle. To the left leads to a brick warehouse. At the back of the warehouse is a switch you can flick to open up the door in the front. Go inside, kill the Hulk, then get the key. Now, go all the way back to the start of the map. From the front of the house, turn left and you should see a large gate with a Hulk standing there. Get past him and open the door to the gate. Keep going down the path, and eventually there'll be yet another fork. Go right this time to find a pretty large building with some signage on one of the walls. Hug the right wall in this section and you should see a hole in a barn with a fence and a hay bale you can jump on to get into the hole. Try not to immediately die due to the Dogs in this small box, just get the second key and leave. Go back to the fork and take the other direction. This area has two grain silos. Use the second key on the chainlink fence guarding a switch inside the shack, which opens up a small hatch on the side of the left-most silo. Go in there, climb up and get the third key. With the third key, go back to the fork, and use the key on the chainlink fence guarding the entrance to the next map. Jump in the hole to finish up.

God, this map is bad. Following a clumsy hot start which forces you to balance auto-switching between two completely new and equally useless weapons, Dairyair Farms tours you through a slog of locations. This map is unexpectedly drab and basic visually. You might think the tree textures and skybox make for a relaxing daytime romp, but when you strip it down, Dairyair Farms is functionally just a sequence of corridors and flat boxes strewn together. The difficulty also gets racheted up to a pretty harsh degree. There's not a lot of health in this map and plenty that can kill you. You might not have realised that the Hulks have Battlelord mines, but if you're not prepared for the Hulk far down the road past the first house, you're going to be sniped by an explosive and get instantly killed like you're playing Blast Radius. Whoever put the two Dogs in the same building that the second key is in needs to get their head examined. Both of the Dogs are able to combo you and take your health to near zero and you can't bomb the area before going in because the Dogs spawn behind the cow pen and that absorbs the explosion, so this makes for a pretty luck-based section. I'd definitely recommend quicksaving before entering here.

This map also introduces the final weapons of Episode 1, the Ripsaw, the Dynamite Bow and the Powder Keg. The Ripsaw is pretty useless. I think it's trying to be a rocket launcher, but it has a miserable rate of fire and even worse damage. It takes 16 saws to kill a Hulk, and the Shotgun, the Alien Arm Gun and the Casull are all better for killing hitscanners. The Dynamite Bow is fine but feels pretty janky to use, and the Powder Keg is just impractical. Drop an explosive in front of you! That you can't detonate from afar like a Remote or Proximity Detonator from Blood. Awesome. Dairyair Farms is sluggish, painful and downtrodden. A sign of awful things to come or just a bad outlier? Well, next map is Sewers...

3/10.

[TheDragonLiner]

Quacken, you can actually find the first CrossBow in the Drive-In, it's just that it's hidden behind the huge door you open into the drive-in itself.


RipSaw, personally I like it but it indeed has 2 major flaws that make it barely useful. _1 It's missing a tiny bit of damage because it sometimes can't even kill an SG Dude ! _2 Hit Detection is awfull on it T_T
Also it's got an alternate Melee mode but why the hell would you use it ? Apart from spicing things up with Bubba that is >_>

PowderKeg, there are one or two places where it can have its usefullness ... but it's not the kind of use that can turn the tide, so it remains meh regardless. One of such places is in the Final Level of Ep1. At some point you go passed Rails, and there's Stairs on your Left. And an Hulking Alien appears in the distance alongside Turd Monsters. I usually use some 6th weapon to clear out the Turds from afar and then start the Hulk with 8. But at some point I just drop the Keg next to the Stairs and wait to shoot a 6th weapon at it when the Hulk is there.
In the end, the Keg is an interesting idea done bad >_>

[Aleks]

Played the second map, Lumberland, and it's a complete disaster

Now I start to get what all the conundrum about the obscurity of the progression in Redneck comes from, as it seems that it isn't marked in any way that you have used the key to open a door, so if you didn't know before that you need a key for some door, you will have no indication of your progress. This resulted in me wandering around for a couple of minutes looking for a proper door that would be opened by the key I found in the basement maze. Then there's a fascinatingly cryptic progression for the 2nd and 3rd key, which led me to believe I am going for a secret only to end up in a locked room I couldn't enter from the outside, as it needed yet another mysterious key. Finally, the ending itself requires you to either jump on a very tiny ledge and crawl through a window (which I did, but it didn't seem like the intended progression) or blow up a cryptic marking on a wall (this time it's a crack instead of a target, way to teach the players the visual identification of key spots in your game...). Then there's also dogs, resembling grey, early-3D-games representations of Snoopy, which are ridiculously fast with erratic movement and have seemingly tons of HP, dealing 20 damage upon arbitrary contact with you. BTW, I've only noticed there isn't any damage indicator in this game (red tint on the screen or something) or for some reason it's turned off by default, which may lead to funny stuff like randomly having your health drop very low because you didn't notice a dog. I liked the forklift and the saw that could be turned off, but other than that, the design in this level was a step down from the first one and the layout seemed to be purposely based around confusing navigation. Let's hope the next level's a bit better...

[Quacken]

Back with the penultimate map of Episode 1. Oh boy...

Sewers

Map progression:

Spoiler

When you get to the intersection at the start of the map, turn right. Then make two more rights, which should get you to an area with waterfalls on each side. Climb up the right-hand waterfall and look for a little until you see a semi-obscured passageway. Follow it and there'll be a spot of water you can submerge in. Follow the water passage until you get to a circular room with a switch. Flipping that opens up both a set of bars which take you to the area you were just in, as well as another door which leads to the next area. If you're curious about the open pipes in the water section, the second open pipe on your left can be dived down to find an underwater nook with a Turd Minion, Moonshine and Beer. In the new area you discovered, drop down and go right. You'll see some bars with a switch to be activated. Use the switch and the bars open. Straight ahead, you should make a jump for the opening in the wall that has the Large Pork Rinds on it. Then, still on the platform, turn around and look up. There'll be a button, which you shoot with the Casull. Shooting that button opens four doorways on the outer ring of this area. There's a switch in each of them. To open the exit, look for Emergency Release Valves C and D, as noted by the sign on the overhangs of the switch boxes. Activate those switches specifically, and don't bother with Valves A and B. If you're still stuck, as you got to this area you passed by a map which tells you what you need to activate. A0 and B0 means those valves need to be off, while C1 and D1 mean those switches need to be on. Then, when you've activated the right switches, a room opens up in the centre of the area. Jump over to there, and then jump down the hole to finish the map.

Sewers is an objectively simple map to navigate bogged down by a literal shitheap of optional content. If you don't know what you're doing it's very easy to become extremely lost in this maze of gray tunnels, which greatly expedites the map's length and makes the lack of music become extremely apparent. Don't go to the left like I did on my playthrough, go to the right instead. You can't return to the intersection after you drop down, so if you go left you'll have to eventually contend with an awful maze of copy-pasted ladders. This section has very little supplies to justify its size, and is overall a huge waste of time. Ladders in this game are in general quite screwy as you have to spam the jump key up them, but nowhere is that more apparent than here in Sewers. I think Xatrix knew the ladders were an issue in this section, because they purposefully made it so you couldn't simply just jump between all of the raised sections. You have to go down to make progress, then go back up and repeat, because they really wanted to laugh at you for dropping 40 bucks on this game in 1997. Don't even get me started on the combat. There's 70 monsters in this map, and all of them are Turd Minions. Like the Dogs, their attack doesn't give you damage feedback, but does reset your vertical aim, making fighting them more than two at a time very clumsy. Lots of them are also waist deep in water, which makes shooting at them while staying on dry ground nigh impossible. I recommend getting in the water with them, crouching down and taking your best shot, which usually worked out for me. In terms of whether I disliked this map or Dairyair Farms more, this map took longer to complete, but Dairyair Farms gave me more of a headache. Let's call it even.

3/10.

[Quacken]

Time for the final map of Episode 1!

Smeltin' Plant

Map progression (Text dump warning):

Spoiler

Go straight ahead at the start, then go into the door and up the ladder. Take note of the door with the Sewage Control sign above it, because you're coming back to there shortly. After you killed the hitscanners, go through the big double doors. Turn left and keep walking until you see a large pipe embedded into the ground. There's a door behind that pipe you need to go in. Once you're inside, turn right the first chance you get, and go down the elevator. In the next section, there are a lot of boxes. Throw some dynamite up to the top left of the stack of crates to open up a hole in the wall, leading to another small room. Open the door and then throw some dynamite to open up a hole in the crate, which is where Key 1 is. Go back up the elevator and then run towards the door that's straight ahead of you. Off to the right is a room with a locked electrical box, which is where Key 1 goes into. Hit the button and backtrack to the door with the Sewage Control sign, using the door from before as a shortcut. Locate the switch in there and use that. Now, go back through the double doors and follow along the path, going past the door and stopping at the gray hole. You'll see that the mechanical gizmo with caution tape opened up, so go into the next section. Stay submerged in the water section until you eventually come to a large room. Go up for air and you'll be greeted by a Hulk, who is standing on top of Key 2. Kill the Hulk (or let him drop into the water), and go to where the Hulk originally came from. In the corner is Key 2.

Do the second-to-last run through this section, and at the very end will be the door you need Key 2 for. Go left at the tunnel. This section has a lot of Billies and a second Hulk, so tread lightly. You should spot a flight of stairs going up, as well as a flight of stairs going down. Head to the stairs going up, go through the door, then go up the next flight of stairs. Follow the path through the next door and up the ladders in the crate section. Go left up the ladder, and then drop back down. Straight ahead until you get to the next door. When you open that door, you're now on the upper rim of the boiler room. Key 3 is here, so do some platforming to go get it. Careful not to fall! Either jump down here or jump out of the window in the crate room, and then find your way back to that set of stairs going down. Use your new key to unlock the door. Follow the path for a while until you come to an area with two pipes. Hit both of the buttons first, then go into the left pipe. Submerge, then go up through the square opening that's just in front of where you came. There'll be a switch you can flip. Then, go back and de-activate both buttons before going into the right pipe. Submerge, go up the square opening and the way to a second switch will be opened, which opens the way to the spinners. Climb up the chain to get up there. The "mud" in this section slows you down even while you're in the air. Jump onto the rim of the middle spinner and walk across it. Then, when you're right next to the ledge (and I mean right next to it), jump across, and you should make it. Go in through the doorway on this side, say hi and bye to the last Hulk of Episode 1, then flip the switch. A passageway opens inside the middle spinner. Submerge in the "clay" until you reach the bottom and find the pipe. In the very tall pipe, swim up first to flip a switch, then submerge down to find that another passageway has opened. Follow that through until you eventually have to swim up again. Drop through the hole now. Hi, Ass Face! Kill them to finish the map.

Smeltin' Plant is a lot to take in. This behemoth of a map is probably most comparable to Shadow Warrior's Dark Woods of the Serpent. Sporting 173 monsters and every kind of weapon you've seen in Episode 1, Smeltin' Plant is by far the longest and most involved a map can get in Redneck Rampage. Though it can sometimes be a little too cryptic, I also think it's the best map I've played thus far. Smeltin' Plant's visuals are a step up from the previous few maps. The rustic brick and metal appearance combined with the pounding machinery and dark gray skybox make for a very interesting and foreboding atmosphere, and the indoor buildings are at least decently visually varied. The combat is surprisingly also not blended together and spat out at me. There's a total of six Hulks in this map, and unlike Dairyair Farms none of them besides the one at the very end give me a headache. They're actually placed pretty well and are fun to fight. This is about the time where I learned the Alien Arm Gun is excellent against Hulks. It does high damage and is really ammo efficient. One AAG both kills a Hulk and gives you about 20 ammo for it, so you end up gaining tons of ammo for it. Shells and Hunting Rifle clips are also abound, making the other monsters trivial encounters. The map's progression can unfortunately be very cryptic. This isn't just a long map, but you really have to use your intuition on all of the big switches, as some of them don't even give you sound cues for what they do. I had to look up a guide that was in 360p just to find out how to get to the passage where Ass Face is.

Ass Face is the "boss" of Episode 1. Don't laugh, that's just how they were born. Ass Face is basically a non-fight. It throws the projectiles the Turd Minions throw two at a time and they have a melee attack you will never see. By now you'll have maxed out ammo for the AAG, so click MOUSE1 a whole bunch until Ass Face shrinks down into nothing. I like Smeltin' Plant a lot. Its long and ambitious, but not overly so, and it feels fitting as a grand conclusion to Episode 1.

8.5/10.

[Merlijn]

Great stuff Quacken, I very much enjoy reading your reviews! I'm curious about your thoughts on episode 2, IMO this is where the game gets really annoying/uneven but still there are a couple of interesting maps in there. I also think the opening map 'Downtown Hickston' had some influence on user mapping, to my knowledge it's the first map to recreate an entire town in build.

I blazed through episode 1, must say playing on medium is notably less tedious than playing on hard. Only had a couple of deaths.

Lumberland

The 2nd map takes you to sawmill, which is a proper theme. In good build tradition, the entire map is based on 1 locale and does it's best to make it a believable place. There's a docking station, the upper offices, the sawmill itself, a warehouse etc.In terms of visuals and layout it does a good job, but yeah progression and gameplay have their flaws here. The dogs are the biggest offender here, their HP is really high and will deal a lot of damage with poorly telegraphed attacks. Best way to deal with them (until you get the hunting rifle) is to back away and keep your distance while unloading several pistol clips into them.. until they finally go down. It's tedious but it works. Once you know where the keys are, the progression itself is not that cryptic or illogical. But the game itself suffers from lack of signposting. The locked doors are indistinguishable from regular ones, so it's easy to loose track of them - they could have easily fixed that by creating a special door texture with a lock on it.

PS. Alex I don't know if you're aware but certain objects in this game can be pushed - most of the times it will be a crate but for example in Taylor Town you can push a shelf out of the way in the general store to reveal a secret 2nd floor. In some maps this will be mandatory for progression, the end of Lumberland has one of these crates that you need to push in order to reach a switch.

6.5/10

Junk Yard

A map that takes place at night, the woods combined with the blue starry sky make for a sweet backdrop. I also appreciate all the 'build-cute' details here, like the car being rammed by a truck and the road crossing the rapids. Some really nice usage of lightning as well. The junk yard itself doesn't look that interesting (a lot of squares of crushed metal) but make for a nice hunting ground for secrets. Pretty much every nook and cranny here will lead to a secret area, it's quite fun. My junk yard section in CBP 5 was also partly inspired by this area. If you don't go looking for secrets, the main path is very easy this time. The final area plays very different on medium, as it doesn't contain the Alien Hulk. I think that's for the better, since you are not given the proper weapons to deal with them yet. Overall a fun map with nice visuals.

8/10

Drive in

This was always my favorite RR map, it contains 3 memorable locations and the howling wind combined with the dark sky create a more tense, foreboding atmosphere. The tornadoes used to scare the crap out of me back in the 90's, but honestly you can avoid them alltogether by going straight to the trailer that contains the key. The build-cute is strong in this one, the trailers are nicely designed but at the same time show clear signs of decay and degeneration. I don't know if this is supposed to be a dig at 'trailer trash' or if it's the result of the alien invasion. This game is very light on story, even for a 90's shooter. The bowling alley is this game's answer to the pool table in DN3D, just a fun little distraction to show off the interactivity of the build engine. I also love the design of this place, with cute little details like the neon sign and the rotating sign that's creaking in the wind. It would have been cool if you could kill your enemies with a bowling ball though, that's a missed opportunity.

Combat on medium is perfectly fine, the drive in introduces you to the first Hulk but you can take him out quite easily by keeping your distance and using the crossbow (don't forget to pick it up, it's somewhat hidden but it's right next to the entrance). Only dickish moment is the dog next to the final key, the room is almost pitch black which makes for a terrible combo with this particular enemy.

I'm clouded by nostalgia, but will give this one a 9/10

Dairy Air farms

This is kind of embarassing, but I didn't notice the 'dairy air' pun until Civvie11 pointed it out. This map takes place in broad daylight and, obviously, on a farm. Like Taylor Town it creates a cozy atmosphere. But revisiting this map made me realize how extremely flat it is. Perhaps it's more noticable now because we often discuss verticality when talking about user maps, but yeah.. at some points it almost feels like Wolfenstein 3D, with the woodlands basically being tight and flat corridors. Now you could say the same about Taylor Town, but at least that map had more variety, buildings with multiple stories and some wider areas. This map is mostly quite cramped. There are still some nice details like the house in the beginning (appreciate the fact that you can visit every room), seeing the car from the first map again and a couple of cool locations like a chicken coop, a beehive etc.

Gameplay is mostly ok, except for the weird hot start in the beginning. The powder keg is indeed useless, but the saw works quite well to quickly take out Billy's that are further away.

7/10

Sewers

Luckily I memorized where to go with this one, this makes it far less painful. Still, this map was a bad idea. Generic location, annoying maze-like layout, only turd monsters to fight and 1 very obscure button that's really easy to miss. The less said about this the better.

2/10

Smelling Plant

By far the most complex and difficult map of the first episode. But for the most part it's well done, I think it's similar to Lumberland but executed better. Only 1 key is really easy to miss because it's tucked away in a corner. The sewage plant makes for a very bleak and oppressive environment, which makes sense for a final level. Although it lacks the cinematic quality of 'The Abbys'. In good build fashion, the final boss is a joke.

7.5/10

[Quacken]

I'm actually nearly done with Episode 2, I'm about to start Beaudry Mansion (E2L7). I actually think Downtown is really interesting. I couldn't quite shake it but there really felt like there was an unmistakable air of uncanniness to everything, to the point where I'm genuinely really enjoying playing it. I didn't really enjoy playing Nut House (E2L2) as a map, but the start with the phonograph playing purposefully awful music, the electrical coils firing and your spawn room being nothing but a black couch cushion texture gave me the right kind of uneasiness in my stomach. Then later on in the level you have the busy chatter lurking in the walls. It felt like half the time there was a ghost in the walls, and it had better things to be doing instead of watching me.

J. Cluck's (E2L3) is another map that really stood out to me. One thing I really like that probably goes unnoticed is that every single portrait in the game that doesn't contain one of the monster sprites (like the portraits with the Old Coot or Sheriff on them) are in grayscale. Why was that, I kept wondering to myself? And all of the portraits contain warped proportions or features that were clearly drawn on later. Bearded men with frowny faces drawn on them with a sharpie. Strange moustaches and goatees. Even the founder of his own restaurant chain, J. Cluck himself, is looking away from the camera slightly with a wide smile and no teeth. You might think "Oh, haha, the people in the portraits are all weird because they're in a rural town in Arkansas that no one cares about". And that might be true. But somehow, I don't feel like that's the case. The actual map itself is another point of contention to me. There's blood everywhere. There's a production line which is actively decapitating chicken heads as you walk around, producing sick sounds. It's filthy, decrepit and somehow not decrepit at the same time. Like this is a building that was in active use the day before the aliens came to Hickston. I'm probably speaking out of my ass here, but I keep thinking there's a deeper meaning to everything in this game than there actually is.

[Aleks]

Played Junkyard and it's by far the best map out of the 3 yet. The progression is a lot more clear, didn't have any problems with the keys and the place is really well sold. I had a lot of fun exploring to find all the secrets (well, 3 first one in the bushes are kinda handed out to the player due to having enemies there), especially in the junkyard itself. The gameplay was also a lot more reasonable, nothing that seemed unfair (although moving back while fighting the dogs in the junkyard was kinda meh due to a lot of cars getting in your way), there was a lot of dynamite that helped with that as well. Didn't have any problem with the Hulking Alien, was just tedious, but I got him stuck inbetween some stuff and just threw dynamites at him from a safe spot, not caring for a dog barking underneath and some lessers enemies trying to shoot me from behind the fences around. I ended up being kinda surprised that the end happened so soon really. The alien arm gun seems like finally a really decent weapon, so it will definitely come in handy in the future.

Also I'm starting to get more used to the songs, as I've been catching more on the lyrics during continuous listens, which are quite hilarious. They also fit this game just perfectly.

[Aleks]

Hate to double-post, but seems Quacken already did it in this thread, so it's not exactly a virgin territory

Finished Drive-In and must say I liked it, at least in general. The tornadoes where quite annoying, especially when they mangled me inside the bowling alley corridors for some reason, but then they could also be used as a kind of temporary and very risky to use "jetpack", at least to get the single secret in this level. As Merlijn mentioned, there are 4 quite distinctive locations, of which all are quite well done (maybe the baseball field is the least noticable/impressive, of course). Besides the two dogs (at least that's how it is on Killbilly) in the dark "behind the screen" passage which is just the worst level design pick ever, the gameplay felt quite fair and less repetitive than in the previous maps due to more enemy and weapons variety. The fight with the two hulks and some minor monsters at the cinema was quite challenging, but nothing too difficult, turns out the dynamite crossbow deals with them quite nicely. The alien arm gun was introduced in the previous level, but I didn't get much chance to use it, so had some fun with it here as well. This level also introduces the bowling balls, which are fun to play with in the bowling alley (unless the tornadoes join the party), I did have some fun with them, but never managed a strike. The last gun introduces here is the hunting rifle, which shoots fast, but also has a huge punch, so ideally should be shot in short bursts. The dynamite crossbow is my favourite weapon in the game so far though, also very good for dealing with dogs. Overall, it's so far one of the better levels I guess, probably second only to Junkyard.

Also started the next level, at least to the point of clearing the initial ambush. I really don't like the idea of being thrown with a crowbar (after hitting the retarded fatass brother to end the previous level) in the middle of a complete roster of enemies, including the dogs. You do seem to get the ripsaw right at the beginning, but I chose the strategy with running away and testing out the moonshine, which worked. Also got rid of a single hulk in an alley not far from the start and that's it for now.

[Quacken]

Hello again! Let's get into Episode 2.

Downtown Hickston

Map progression:

Spoiler

Go into the gas station first, get the Hunting Rifle, then shoot one of the gas tanks to blow up the building and get an easy secret. Then, keep going straight to reach town. I'd recommend going left, going past the bank and heading to the bar first. You'll know you're at it because of the rock music playing. There's a lot of health in here, so you can duck inside when things get too hot and you need to heal. After that, go to the street where the bank is, and then at the end, find your way into the sheriff's office. Break a window to get inside. Then, make your way up to the windows near the bookshelves, break them and jump across. You'll want to kill that Hulk on the roof before you do anything, so go left and make a detour by breaking the windows into the fire station. This is an optional area, but you'll get a Crossbow and a lot of Dynamite for your troubles. Kill the Hulk by either using the Crossbow or by using a combination of all of your Ripsaw ammo and the Scattergun, and then jump into the window to land in the hotel. Go downstairs and then go to the left. The room intersecting the room with the Vixen in it has Key 1. Now, jump out of the hotel window and head back to where the bar was. The building to the right is where you use Key 1. Inside of that building, to the right is Key 2. Now go back to the sheriff's office, and the door that requires Key 2 is next door. It's a red brick building with a flight of stairs. Key 3 is in the first office block on your left. If you were exploring the town killing everything, you would have seen the grocery store. This is where Key 3 goes. Go in through the blue door into the pig pen. Jump on a pig and use them to get a boost onto the crate, then jump onto the ledge and finally the rooftop. Go into the vent, break both ends and you'll end up in the other side of the police station. Flip the lever next to the door to open it, then there's a button behind the desk you need to press to open up the cells in the back. In the cell the Old Coots are in, use an explosive on the right wall to blow open a path into the bank. Kill the Hulk and the Vixen, then go behind the desk and press the switch which opens the vault. Bubba's in there, which finishes the map.

Downtown Hickston is a fresh day and a fresh experience. After blowing up the gas station in an admittedly really cool effect that wouldn't be really replicated until Shadow Warrior's MAP13, you're straight into the city. The opening fight is chaotic at its best, but calming at its worst. If you're looking for help, you can always head into the bar to recover all of the health you need, and getting to the sheriff's office and finding the Crossbow in the fire station isn't too difficult. If you didn't get enough training using the AAG in Smeltin' Plant, then here's your chance to get the most out of it. The AAG trades positively with Hulks, giving you around 18 to 20 more ammo. There's a lot of them in this map, so you also have ample resources to kill the new most threatening monsters: The Vixens. Vixens have a good amount of health, a shitty projectile attack that will never hurt you ever, but most importantly, their Teat Guns are a super machine gun that will shred up your health if you stand in their line of sight for more than a second, even with proper Alcohol and Gut management. The Hunting Rifle can potentially stun lock them until they die, but not only can they turn temporarily invisible to avoid taking damage, there's always a chance that they can shoot you back with their machine guns that can instantly kill you. The best strategy I found is to constantly shoot them and hide behind cover after doing large burst damage, like how you'd fight an Archvile. The AAG is definitely the best weapon for peekaboo strats, but if you have Teat Guns of your own, their greater rate of fire compared to the Hunting Rifle can also nearly guarantee stunlocking them.

Downtown Hickston is visually varied as well. All of the indoor buildings look nice, and I also think they're fun to run around in. The other monster introduced in this map, as well as the final one in the game, is the Sheriff. Sheriffs are essentially just lesser Vixens. They have a rapid fire hitscan attack but with a lesser rate of fire, less health, and they're also a lot noisier, making them easy to track. At least they're pretty funny to listen to. Downtown Hickston makes a great impression for Episode 2. Its action is a noticeable step up in quality compared to Episode 1 despite its lower monster count, and its visuals are sharp, neat and well lit.

8/10.

[Aleks]

Finished Dairyair Farms and it's another pretty good map. The start is kinda crazy, but then it gets better, even the dogs aren't that annoying since there's usually more room to maneuver around them (besides one barely accessible shed with two dogs in it, which costed me a lot of dynamite being thrown through the window, only to realise there's literally nothing inside!). The fights with hulks are a lot more fun, as they would usually chase you down the narrow streets, in particular the one that spawned with turd minions seemed fairly nasty as it managed to get out of the building. The ripsaw doesn't seem like the most useful weapon, so far I find that the dynamite crossbow is the best gun for the hulks, rifle works well on the dogs when there's enough room (but sometimes either of the dynamite guns have to be used) and AAG is just a powerful "everyday use" gun, since it's always dropped by the hulks anyway. The map indeed felt a bit flat (besides the part with the silos which had some pretty immersive SOS usage and a few nice ways for platforming around for secrets - I used a chicken to jump on some ledge there, but another possibility was a gutter on the wall). I liked the new item as well - sort of "protective boots" that allow you to walk regularly on muddy grounds. While the point at which I found it was quite useless as I basically was past all the mudfights, but the mechanics is nice, as it only drains the energy when you actually move.

In general, this level was a bit similar to Taylor Town in the way of being quite interconnected with dirtroads, fences and whatnot. Had no problem with finding the keys and the progression felt quite natural this time.

Quote

PS. Alex I don't know if you're aware but certain objects in this game can be pushed - most of the times it will be a crate but for example in Taylor Town you can push a shelf out of the way in the general store to reveal a secret 2nd floor. In some maps this will be mandatory for progression, the end of Lumberland has one of these crates that you need to push in order to reach a switch.

Also forgot to answer this, but yes I learned about this mechanic after trying for too long to move the shelf hiding one of the secrets in the first level after I noticed there's something behind it and checked a guide on how to open it It's a neat mechanic as well, as it enables you to push things gradually and in two directions, which is more than our slide door-pushing objects in Duke 3D.

[FistMarine]

Hey everyone! Thanks for the comments so far. It was interesting to choose another Build Engine Game for a month, even if said Build engine game has a rather infamous reputation, although it seems most people in the topic are quite positive on the game. Now it's my turn to review the game and levels. And as of the moment of writing, I finished playing through the game once again (this was the third time I completed RR in my entire life). I also took a bunch of screenshots for each level.

I played the original DOS version in DOSBox 0.74-3, on skill 4, getting all the secrets and kills (in latter's case, getting as many as possible, yes I'm killing all the farm animals as well) and this time around, I had the soundtrack loaded, which really added to the atmosphere! Though sadly, I realized the CD image I had, contains two censored tracks, so they were not heard in the game or rather, they were just ambient sounds. You can read this twitter post by fellow Marphy Black, who posted this a couple years ago (I only found about this recently): https://twitter.com/...100095376662528
Although it's the same game/version, it's only two tracks that were censored. The Family Reunion compilation has the two censored tracks, unfortunately.

I will also be offering a short walkthrough due to the confusing nature of the game, as you may inevitably get stuck at certain points. Note that I wrote this walkthrough since months ago (currently rewriting parts of E2 reviews) but it seems in the meantime, Quacken already offered his own walkthrough, meaning that I will be repeating some of the points.

But first, let's address a few comments made earlier:

I am aware that Sverre is one of the level designers for RR and he has made some of those painful levels from Master Levels for Doom II. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly who made each level in RR, as the level designer credits weren't shown to the public. We can only guess who made each level, if we try to compare the levels. Anyway, the three main credited level designers are: Alex Mayberry, Mal Blackwell and Sverre Kvernmo.

Levels can be a mixed bag indeed. Most of them look really good and are even more memorable than some levels in Blood and Shadow Warrior. But they have various annoying flaws in them, which drags the whole experience down.

Keys are easy to miss, as they are tiny and gray, often blending into the background. They are also looking identically and you never know which one opens which door. Not helped by the generic "AIN'T GOT THE KEY" message you get upon trying a door without the right key (trying key switches without the key will bring different messages on screen). And like Merlijn said, I also wish we got Bronze, Silver and Gold Keys. That would have been the best decision, though sadly it looks like they got lazy when they designed the game and did nothing to fix in the sequel. I also know that GDX allows coloring the keys but I haven't used any source ports to play RR, I just stick to the original DOS version, as it runs fine in DOSBox and it's the intended experience. When it gets remastered one day and gets most/all annoyances fixed, I would gladly replay the game in the remaster.

Enemies are also a mixed bag. Other than the fact they have a lot of health and deal high damage in return (though this is quite luck based, as sometimes enemies can either miss you constantly or hit you constantly) with some being quite overpowered, some of them having attacks that give you no feedback and some are glitchy and don't affect kills unless you gib their corpse. I am talking about the Dogs, Sheriffs and Vixens. You must gib their corpse to get credited with the kill. Alien Hulks don't add to kills regardless of how they are killed. Bubba and Tornadoes also count as kills but you can't kill them, because the former is required to be alive to end the level, the latter have tons of hp and not even sure if they are killable.

Humor is mostly limited to burp/fart jokes. Duke3D had toilet humor as well but it was kept to a minimum, with Duke himself pissing (and shitting on the Overlord's neck), as well as Troopers and Enforcers that could shit too. But in RR, most of the humor consists of burp/fart/shit jokes, with even some aliens (and a boss) made of shit. This may sound funny at first but then after a while you will realize how stale it gets. At least I don't get grossed by the shitty aliens, as everything is done in a cartoonish way but still, the humor in RR is more comparable to the humor in DNF rather than DN3D.

Most weapons are strong and can be satisfying if used right but there are some that you won't use much. Ripsaw is alright and better used on weaker common enemies, as it usually kills them in one hit. Just look out for the projectiles that have a habit to bounce back at you and hurt/kill you. The Powder Keg sucks, it's only worth using to blow up the corpses of Alien Hulks while getting distance to not get caught in the explosion. Otherwise, you can forget about it after picking it up, so you won't switch to it when coming across another one. The Alien Teat Gun is only found in two late levels in the game (E2L6 and the final level) and you'd want to keep it for the vixens.

RR: RA is generally seen as the better game and fixes some issues like having new content and having more enemy variety, more interesting level design but at the end of the day, the experience is mostly the same. I would have preferred if they fixed more bugs/glitches and introduced even more content (a new inventory item, maybe another new weapon) and updated the main game as well or even combine the entire game into one big package, just like how The Birth is "merged" into Duke3D instead of being a separate game/expansion. Though RR:RA has the advantage of being standalone, so it can be played on its own.

I may be missing some details because I have been writing this message since a while ago and I have a hard time to keep up with the new posts.

This post only covers E1L1-E1L4 for now. Grab the popcorn and enjoy reading!

OUTSKIRTS

Taylor Town

Kills: 143
Secrets: 6

Clusters: 2
Leonard: I'm gonna have to open a can of whoop-ass on you now!
Portrait: Leonard holding the Crowbar.

Yes, I will be showing the total amount of kills (enemy count in main game is IDENTICAL on skills 3 and above, I can confirm that, though there is one exception much later in the game). I will also show other interesting trivia, like Leonard's unique line at beginning of each level, the portrait at end of each level (a nice detail is that there's a different portrait at end of each level), as well how many health boost items exist in each level and their location, as they are incredibly rare compared to Duke3D. Most levels should contain 1-2 of them but there's a couple levels that have none of them (such as E1L4, E1L5, E2L7 and the very last level). The expansion and sequel are even worse in this regard, as the Health Boost items are even scarcer. This makes survival a lot more difficult in any case, even if you save them for the next level to start with 150 or 200 hp, the extra health will be gone within the first minute or so after getting shot, so unfortunately in Redneck Rampage, the health boosting items may as well not even exist, as most of the time you will spend with 100 or less hp.

Spoiler

When you first start the game, you will begin in an open road with various chickens getting run over by a truck, which brings us the question: Why did the chicken cross the road? On a more serious note, look out for the pistol guy shooting at you from a couple meters away. If you are unlucky, you may get 1-2 or even 3 consecutive hits, making you lose large amounts of health! This is one of the main factors I dislike at RR. It makes enemy encounters luck based, as either they can hit you from miles away or they can miss at close range!

Anyway, the pistol guys will almost drop their pistol, when you kill them. It contains 48 ammo, like you'd expect. This makes the actual pistol ammo pickups (speedloader) worthless in this game, as they each give 6 but since the pistol guys are almost everywhere and each one drops their pistol, you will end up immediately with 198 ammo (maximum) for the pistol. The other weapons you will find in this level are the shotgun (scattergun) and dynamite.

Remember that your pistol (revolver) shares the same accuracy as the one from Duke3D. It is extremely accurate and an excellent sniping tool. However, you may not be able to hit the enemies sometimes. This is because the farm animals (the chickens and the cows are notorious for this) tend to be placed around the map to screw up with your autoaim. The shotgun can be fired gently (one barrel) by tapping the fire button or if you prefer firing both, holding the fire button empties both barrels at once. The game remembers if you fired one or both barrels last time, so you may want to grab the shells carefully or else you end up firing one barrel at 50 ammo and this can confuse the player because the pistol only reloads if the number is divisible by 6 (it also reloads when firing a shot and grabbing another pistol at same time, when reaching 198 ammo) but the shotgun doesn't follow the same rules.

To use the dynamite, press the fire button to light it and THEN immediately press the fire again to throw it away. If you don't do this quickly, the dynamite will blow up in your hand which results in an INSTANT DEATH! Additionally, DON'T blow up a Dynamite crate (same with the Powder Kegs and the new explosive ammo pickups in the sequel) as not only they have insane blast radius but you also waste FIVE dynamite sticks that are very useful for blowing up cracks and corpses of certain enemies encountered later in the game.

The enemies you encounter in this level are the following: Old Coot (skinny pistol guy), Billy Ray (fat shotgun guy), mosquitoes and the farm animals (chickens, pigs and cows).
The Old Coot is clumsy and not that big of a threat at first but don't underestimate them because they can sometimes hit you continuously and lose large amount of health! They have 50 health.
Billy Ray Jeter is pretty much the Pig Cop equivalent of Redneck Rampage. He has 100 health and carries a shotgun that can deal up to 49 damage. The only differences he never drops used armor (obviously there is no armor in this game), he only sometimes drops a shotgun (can contain either 2 or 4 shells) and he sometimes stops to scratch his ass, in which case makes for an easy kill.
Mosquitos are almost harmless and have only 1 HP, they are a bit glitchy, difficult to hit and deal very little damage (about 4 damage).
Chickens are very difficult to hit (you can usually hit them with crowbar while crouching) and attack in self-defense for 1 damage if you happen to hurt them. They are often annoyingly placed in front of enemies, to screw up with your autoaim. They have 10 health (I think).
Pigs are the only useful animals in this game, as they can be used to reach certain locations that normally can't be eached by jumping on them (they are even required to access a few secrets in E1L5 and intended progression for the last part in E2L1). They have 75 health and attack in self-defense, much like the chickens but unlike them, the pig will chase you and gnaw at your feet. They also count as enemies (not initially counted but will inflate the amount of kills when killed). Unlike the chickens, their hitbox is big and they can be easily hit with your pistol.
Cows are harmless and are more of a nuisance than anything. They constantly mess with your autoaim and even when they die, their corpse remains solid and autoaim still targets them. It's best to just blow up their corpse with a dynamite to get rid of them entirely. They have 50 health.

If you are going for ALL the kills (which is required to finish the demo version, well it doesn't have a proper ending but the message mentioned in first post will pop up on the screen), take into account that the truck can run over the enemies at beginning. This will NOT register as a kill, much like how in Duke3D, enemies ran over by trains deleted them from the game. In this game, enemies don't get deleted (they also don't get squished by doors or collapsing walls) but they still don't add to kills. This applies to the forklift in next level as well. I don't know if this is fixed in source ports.
Either way, you may not be able to get all the kills in all levels because many enemies are bugged and have to be killed in a certain way to add to kills and others don't add at all to kills or there are actors that count as enemies (Bubba and the tornadoes in a later level) but they shouldn't count at all. If playing on higher skills, just forget altogether about the enemy count and only find the secrets.

To describe this whole level, it will take me all the day, as it's unnecessarily long and confusing. So I will just point out the essentials. You must find THREE tiny identical looking keys to open various doors in this map. This is another one of the game's main flaws. There are THREE identical looking keys in nearly every level in the game. The keys are often hidden or lying around in hard to see spots. They blend into the background and can be easily missed. If you found a key, expect to backtrack in the whole map and try every door until you find the right one. The doors are NOT marked and you never know which key opens which door. The door will always tell you "AIN'T GOT THE KEY!", which implies that there is a single key, notice how the message is worded. Occasionally, you will come across key switches that tell you one of the following: "SOME KIND OF KEY REQUIRED", "SOME OTHER KIND OF KEY REQUIRED" or "YET EVEN ANOTHER KIND OF KEY REQUIRED!".

This confusion with the keys and doors was NEVER an issue with Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake and other classics of the era. They always had their keys and doors marked.
By comparison, in Redneck Rampage, all 3 keys look the same. They are all tiny gray keys. They could have easily made the keys differently colored into Bronze Key, Silver Key and Gold Key. But they didn't and it's one of the game's MAJOR flaws.

Oh yeah and another annoying thing, the player's jump height sucks. It's very short and you need to time jumping perfectly in order to reach certain locations.

To progress after you have cleared the whole map, you are supposed to go into the large area with those cows and blow up the silo! The only hints you get are the dynamite sticks lying on the floor and the bullseye target on the silo. Many players will miss this and get stuck wandering the whole map for a while until they find the way or give up in frustration. But the more curious players should have no problem finding this, especially after years of playing Duke3D user maps. Anyway, blow up the silo, go inside and eventually you will be inside the big barn. Here is where you will find the first key. You need to use it on the locked door INSIDE the store, where you will find the second key lying on the floor and THEN you have the choice to push the shelf from one side (reveals a secret area) or go further to the locked basement door that contains the third key (that basement also has a secret area you can find). Once you got the third key, go to the area with fences to open the locked door and then clear all those shotgunners and find Bubba. If he didn't spawn, walk around the whole place inside that barn until he spawns. When you find Bubba, whack him with the crowbar! I recommend saving in advance, in case you want to find the missing secrets or whatever you left behind!

Overall, this wasn't exactly a great first impression/introduction to the game, as the level was much longer and confusing for being the first level of the game. Hopefully the next one is better!



Lumberland

Kills: 107
Secrets: 2

Clusters: 2
Leonard: Damn, reckon I'm up shit creek now!
Portrait: Bubba getting hit by the Crowbar.

A somewhat decent second level (despite what Aleks said earlier), makes me wonder why wasn't this the first level of the game, as it is much shorter and less confusing. The level is also much easier to navigate but still has a few annoyances that should be pointed out. I will give some extra credit that there is a bit of level continuity (yes, RR does have level continuity, though mostly the first episode and certain E2 maps). If you remember how the previous level ended, this seems like the starting area is connected to the ending of the previous level.

Spoiler

Kill the first couple enemies, press the switch near the pipe, then swim (you will notice the bars have lowered) and now go UP! Don't go down, as there is a deep hole that contains NOTHING and you will most likely drown! When you surface, grab the Scuba Gear equivalent nearby (it is called Vacuum Cleaner Hose Snorkel System), it is easy to miss but it will help you in later levels if you play continuously.

Kill the enemies, find and press the switch and go to left side to climb upstairs. You will get in an area with a parked truck and a bunch of rednecks surrounding it. Interestingly, the back of the truck shows some HOMs (missing textures). Though the truck looks nice at least.

Clear the next rooms. There is a hidden button behind a desk, it reveals a secret area behind the fridge, it contains various goodies. Go to the tunnels underground, kill the enemies, press the switch and go to the nearby room which is now accessible. Watch for hidden enemies around corners. Jump on the barrel and then on top of the shelf to pick up the FIRST SKELETON KEY! This will be needed to open one of the locked doors.

You will also come across FOUR switches. You must press TWO of them in diagonals (not sure exactly which ones, try to see which combination works). Doing so reveals a nearby secret containing Cheap Ass Whiskey and Delicious Goo-Goo Clusters. You should be saving the health boost item for the end of the level (you can find another one hidden somewhere on top of crates, so you can get 200 health again in this level).

Go to the locked door earlier or if you want, go through the main door (it doesn't require the key). Kill the various enemies. Unless you are playing on the easiest skill, here you will encounter the annoying Dog for the first time! The dog is stronger than it should be and it has a glitchy attack animation where you will lose up to 30 health from a single bite that normally does 10 damage, unless you have damage resistance, in which case you will take 7 or even as low as 2 damage from the dog's bite.

What's even worse is their attack gives you no feedback that you are losing health (screen doesn't flash red) and it's a common problem in the game with other enemies as well (the sequel has the same problem too). Sure, Leonard says "Ow!" and you will notice the health dropping quickly but still, the screen should have flashed red!

Anyway, after taking out the damn dogs (and blowing up their corpse to get credited with the kill, yes certain enemies require their corpse to be blown up to get credited to kill counter), look out for the enemies firing from windows. After clearing the outside area, you will come across the switch that tells you "YET EVEN ANOTHER KIND OF KEY REQUIRED!". Go back to the building earlier and enter the locked door.

Open the door, clear the room, press the switch to unlock the garage door leading to the truck near beginning of level. Climb those crates to get inside the vent and collect the health boost item (should be saved for the end of the level).

In the next room with the saw, after clearing it from enemies, there is a short puzzle you have to complete to advance. I recommend saving beforehand, just in case!

Shoot the button with your pistol and then immediately run where the saw was earlier. The button temporary disables the saw. If you are too slow, you will be sliced in half! After making to the next room, kill the rednecks near the inactive forklift and press the switch to open the garage door in the last area you reached. This is why you should clear that area in advance but this will also be a shortcut when you collect the keys and come back here to use the switch to open the big gate.

Eventually, you will come across a room with a moving forklift. The room is filled with hitscanners, so be careful! I don't know if the forklift is deadly to the player but it can sometimes kill the enemy that is standing in front of it. Just take into account, much like the first level (and a behavior inherited from Duke3D), an enemy killed by a vehicle will NOT ADD TO THE KILLS!

Save and approach the room carefully. Grab the goodies around if you need them. Eventually, jump on those wooden planks, go through the vents and you will reach a tiny room. This room contains TWO Skeleton Keys on the desk! One will open the locked door that allows you to escape and the other will be used on the switch that required the key earlier. Behind the chair, you can also collect some Ammo for Rifle but the Rifle is not available until E1L4. This only benefits the continuous players.

Insert the key into the switch. Notice how the weapon raises again when inserting a key? The game lacks the "insert key" animation that Duke3D had, though at same time, the key is NOT removed from the inventory. Kill more dogs and hitscanners. Get rid of those animals blocking the way. Now you must blow up a crack near the dead cow and where an enemy was standing earlier.

Afterwards, in the next room, PUSH THE BOX, so you can jump on the box to reach the Whiskey bottle and the switch that leads towards the end of the level. It is still possible to do the jump even without pushing the box, though it may take a couple attempts to reach that switch.

Eventually, you will see Bubba! Jump through windows to reach him. You don't need to whack him with Crowbar to finish the level, as he is placed within an end of the level sector. Just approach him to exit the level. But before doing that, be sure to grab EVERYTHING (health, ammo, etc) in advance, as once you drop down, there is NO WAY BACK!

Overall, this level was actually somewhat decent and an improvement compared to the first level, as it was shorter, easier to navigate and more compact. Maybe the level design continues to improve further?
(side note, I took a screenshot of the save/load menu as well, since I usually get a glitched save game screenshot at beginning of each level, sometimes it shows up after I die and load my save as well)



Junkyard

Kills: 70
Secrets: 11

Clusters: 2
Leonard: Don't make me break my foot off in your ass!
Portrait: Leonard holding the Shotgun and Bubba holding the Crowbar.

Another okay-ish map but also quite glitchy at times. When starting the level, be sure to take out the pistol guy shooting behind you at the beginning. He is only present on Medium and higher skills. He has a habit to get run over by a car, so you may not notice him but still worth pointing out if you want to get all the kills.

Spoiler

Proceed carefully and kill those assholes hiding behind the secret bushes/walls and SAVE before crossing the bridge. Due to RR's glitchy nature, this part can cause your game to freeze for a while and if you wait it to unfreeze, the game's textures get fucked up. I've had this happen at least once in the first playthrough back in summer 2017 but strangely, this never happened again in the last playthroughs (probably helped by saving and quitting the game at start of each level, to clear the game's internal memory). Source ports shouldn't have this problem, though.

Later on, kill the dog and get into its shelter to activate a hidden elevator that you will lead you to the first Skeleton Key! You will also encounter the Turd Minion for the first time. I don't feel I need to explain what they are. They appear quite frequently and are an annoyance. They don't deal too much damage but getting hit by their projectile resets your aim and glitches the screen flash for a few seconds. They are pretty much shittier versions of zombies from Quake. Just be careful if you plan to get all the kills, as they occasionally do the alternate "self-destruct" attack and if this happens, they will not add to the kills, so you will not get all the kills anymore.

Open the big gate and kill all those rednecks around the whole place. This level is packed with many secrets, so be sure to explore!

To get the second Skeleton Key, you need to complete a mini puzzle. The key is located inside the car crusher. You need to time it so you pick it up and escape before you get crushed! The right strategy for this is activating the switch and running inside while bars go around you. Then you must shoot that switch and escape before the crusher activates! Don't do the other way around (e.g. open the bars and then run to get the key while crusher activates), otherwise you might get surprise crushed!

After getting the key, go to the other locked door. I recommend saving now, especially if you are playing on the higher skills!

If you are playing on skills 3 and above, you will meet up the ALIEN HULK for the first time near the end of the level! They are pretty much the game's equivalent of Mini Battlelords from Duke Nukem 3D, except they are even stronger (they have 1200 health) and they have attacks that deal a shit ton of damage! They also have a melee attack that does 22 damage (much like Protector Drone from Duke3D Atomic) but it's unlikely to get slapped by them because they tend to just spam lasers at you and occasionally lob bombs at you.

Now, here are some tactics to take care of them. At this point, your strongest weapons are the shotgun and the dynamite. Get close to them and try to deal the most damage up close with the shotgun. Do this a couple times and they will fall down. You may notice their corpse is still solid and still responds to autoaim. Now it's time to throw a dynamite at them and destroy their corpse! If you don't do this in about 25-30 seconds, they will get back up! Although their health will be halved but still, it's not worth fighting them again. Just blow up the goddamn alien's corpse, which will not only get rid of him permanently but also reward you with an ALIEN ARM GUN!

Unfortunately, the Alien Hulk is bugged and won't add to kills when you kill him, so if you have an enemy missing at the end of level (besides Bubba himself that counts as an enemy), it's because of this. If you are playing on skills 4 and above, you don't have to worry about missing kills, as they read "N/A".

Anyway, back to the Alien Arm Gun (33 ammo per pickup, maximum 99 ammo), it is the most powerful weapon in the game, kills most weak enemies in one hit and takes about 5-10 shots to put down the stronger enemies. Ammo for it can be gotten by killing alien hulks but it can also be placed individually in the level (the ammo packs themselves are never seen in the main game but the weapon itself is placed once by the level designer later in E2L1).

After taking him down and those hitscanners in the area, you must do a bit of platforming until climbing those stairs in the tower, then grab the THIRD Skeleton key, drop down, open the door to find Bad Breath Bubba and whack him with the crowbar to finish the level!

Overall, this level was actually decent, much like the previous one. And it's probably one of the shortest levels in the game too. What about the next level?



Drive-In

Kills: 81
Secrets: 1

Clusters: 0
Leonard: You screw with the bull, you get the horn!
Portrait: Leonard holding something (probably the prized pig).

Another level that feels a bit amateurish with oversized open ended areas, much like the first level, though it also has some damn cool features in it! And as usual, the interiors look nice.

Spoiler

Anyway, at beginning, kill the pistol guys and the poopy aliens. When making a choice between left and right, go to LEFT side. Remember to come back later to go the right side, as there is a big gate requiring a key.

Eventually, you should come across the bowling alley. You will need a key to enter here, though. Go around it to kill a few rednecks and collect your first Huntin' Rifle! It is the game's machinegun equivalent but it has a massive recoil, so make sure to fire in short, controlled bursts. While it still has an ammo capacity of 200 rounds, the ammo/weapon pickups give only 30, so you should save it for the stronger enemies.

Now, go visit the Trailer Park, kill the enemies around here (rednecks and dogs) and admire the environment. One of the coolest features of this level are those tornadoes. The higher the skill level, more tornadoes will show up. Technically, they are enemies with lots of health (10000 health if I'm not mistaken), as you may notice they are bleeding upon being shot. They are the key to reach the level's main secret area and even an additional unofficial secret around the same area. Both secrets reward you with health/ammo pickups, though sadly this level doesn't have any clusters. Just take into account the fact that the tornadoes will drain your health quickly on top of taking fall damage, so be careful when trying to get those secrets! I highly recommend saving beforehand. After you've collected those secrets, you should avoid the tornadoes from now on. Go visit the trailers (only three of them you can enter).

After you get the first key inside one of the trailers (somewhat hinted by the bowling trophies), you get to access the building (where you find the second key) and play Bowling, which is another cool feature! This is quite exciting and is fun to play for a few rounds. You can hold only ONE Bowling Ball with you (it's placed on slot 9, shared with another weapon you find in the next level) and you have to play Bowling to access a separate optional area containing ammo packs and a few enemies.

Once you get the second key inside the kitchen, you have to exit the building and go back to the beginning of the level, then go the unexplored path and open the gates to access the cinema. You can see Bubba on the top of building surely taking his sweet ass time not doing anything to help you! If you are playing on Medium difficulty, this is where you will find the Alien Hulk for the first time, located far away on the billboard. If playing on Hard Ass or higher, you get to fight TWO of them (and also a pistol guy I guess). If you are patient, you can actually take down those aliens with just the pistol whilst dodging their fast projectiles but this takes like a full minute (about 50-60 bullets per alien) and don't forget to blow up their corpses with the nearby Crossbow pickup (DON'T MISS IT!), as the autoaim will greatly help. The Crossbow (slot 6) is the game's Rocket Launcher equivalent and shares the same ammo with Dyanmite for obvious reasons! It surely has a slower fire rate than Duke3D's RPG but I think it does the same damage overall.

Also when entering the cinema, be careful of the dynamite crates, so you don't end up shooting them or worse, the enemies shooting them!

To get the third key, you need to go behind that billboard, kill a bunch of poop minions and push a crate towards a dumpster, so you can jump and reach that place up high, then you can collect those Alien Arm Guns (assuming you killed the aliens properly with explosives) and jump into the hole, where you will find the last key but also get attacked by TWO DOGS, so be careful!

Once done, go back to the cinema, kill the various enemies you encounter, use the key to open the door, kill a few more enemies, use the toilet if you need, then jump through the window and you will get on top of the building, where you will find the useless buffoon, Bubba! If you are playing continuously, be sure to have 100 health for the next level and make a backup save here. The next level's opening section is quite tough. You have been warned!

Overall, this level was quite average and bland (sharing some problems with the first level) but the cool features turn the level into a memorable experience! Still not a great level by any means but hey, maybe the next level will be better? Find out soon!

[Merlijn]

Quacken, on 09 April 2023 - 03:34 AM, said:

I'm actually nearly done with Episode 2, I'm about to start Beaudry Mansion (E2L7). I actually think Downtown is really interesting. I couldn't quite shake it but there really felt like there was an unmistakable air of uncanniness to everything, to the point where I'm genuinely really enjoying playing it. I didn't really enjoy playing Nut House (E2L2) as a map, but the start with the phonograph playing purposefully awful music, the electrical coils firing and your spawn room being nothing but a black couch cushion texture gave me the right kind of uneasiness in my stomach. Then later on in the level you have the busy chatter lurking in the walls. It felt like half the time there was a ghost in the walls, and it had better things to be doing instead of watching me.

J. Cluck's (E2L3) is another map that really stood out to me. One thing I really like that probably goes unnoticed is that every single portrait in the game that doesn't contain one of the monster sprites (like the portraits with the Old Coot or Sheriff on them) are in grayscale. Why was that, I kept wondering to myself? And all of the portraits contain warped proportions or features that were clearly drawn on later. Bearded men with frowny faces drawn on them with a sharpie. Strange moustaches and goatees. Even the founder of his own restaurant chain, J. Cluck himself, is looking away from the camera slightly with a wide smile and no teeth. You might think "Oh, haha, the people in the portraits are all weird because they're in a rural town in Arkansas that no one cares about". And that might be true. But somehow, I don't feel like that's the case. The actual map itself is another point of contention to me. There's blood everywhere. There's a production line which is actively decapitating chicken heads as you walk around, producing sick sounds. It's filthy, decrepit and somehow not decrepit at the same time. Like this is a building that was in active use the day before the aliens came to Hickston. I'm probably speaking out of my ass here, but I keep thinking there's a deeper meaning to everything in this game than there actually is.

Those are good points, to be honest I don't think they put much thought in it beyond "let's make everything weird on purpose" but at the same time it creates an intriguing world. You're right about J. Cluck, even before you get to the factory part there's something off-putting about the place. There's that awful, supposedly happy sounding music, the pictures are all slightly off, and the photo of the woman holding the chicken basket is creepy rather than welcoming. And once you get to the blood soaked corridors, the awful music is playing again. Perhaps one of the mappers worked in a chicken plant and had to vent some frustrations?

There's also a lot to say about Nut house, but I'll save it for the review.

Quote

The tornadoes where quite annoying, especially when they mangled me inside the bowling alley corridors for some reason

I'm pretty sure the tornadoes are not supposed to go outside the trailer park area? I play in dosbox and they don't go past the trailer park sign. Perhaps a port-related glitch?

[Aleks]

Played Sewers and unfortunately I have to agree that this was by far the worst map so far and probably one of the worst levels in any Build games I've ever played, rivalling the icy level of Chimera (IIRC, might have been another TC we've played here). Ironically, the visuals and design elements in this level are very good and it definitely sells the location very well, perhaps better than most other sewers-themed levels (maybe besides Alan Page's Sewage map). Saying this map has a labrenthine layout is saying nothing. The part with ladders is not really difficult to navigate, as the Tab map deals with it quite well, but it's just extremely tedious, which is amplified by how extremely awful the ladder mechanics in this game are. The idea of using only turd minions seemed good at first - after all, what fits better in this kind of level? They also seemed quite chill compared to the previous levels, but then you get to realise that aiming at them gets kinda tricky when they're half-submerged in the water and in very confined spaces. Now while these two things are already enough reasons to complain, the progression in this level is the definition of cryptic. There seems to be some map of the final area at some point which might have been a hint, if I only knew that this was the final area - the map is extremely interconnected which isn't a good thing in this case, as the end goal/progression is not clear at any point. In fact, I'm not sure what was the point of half of the areas in this map - after going around in loops a few times and finding all the secrets, I checked a YouTube video to find there's a switch up on the lintel of some semi-secret place. This switch opened 4 gates with switches at different corners of the room, but of course there also had to be a combination involved.

Not much else to say about this one. At least I stacked up on explosions and finished with 200 HP due to all the dee-lishious random pixelated mess found in the secret places.

Merlijn, on 12 April 2023 - 08:25 AM, said:

I'm pretty sure the tornadoes are not supposed to go outside the trailer park area? I play in dosbox and they don't go past the trailer park sign. Perhaps a port-related glitch?

I'm not sure about this, I'm playing with Rednukem which in theory should be as close to the original as possible. Maybe their behaviour is just erratic enough that this is possible to happen. At first I thought they wouldn't follow me past the trailer park, but well, apparently they did. They never ventured anywhere near the cinema, but other than that, one was as far as the baseball field getting stuck in the hedges and the other one was patrolling around the entrances to the bowling alley.