[Quacken]

In case you ever wanted to know: I usually play the maps I'm reviewing at around 9:30 PM AEST, and do the reviews immediately after. I'd also like to make a small addendum: After squinting at the automap for a while and cross-checking with some of the Sunstorm signatures I know of, I can pretty confidently say that Carnival of Terror is authored by Robert Travis. His little star above his initials is there, and you can make out a T below it. From now on, I'm going to list maps as "Unknown Author" if I don't know who they are.

Big Bertha's
Bill Buchalter

Map Progression

Spoiler

Run into the back of the blue truck first to get a Scattergun, then go into the general store. At the cash register, you can crouch down to turn a switch which opens the door to your left. At the end of this freezer is Key 1. Key 1 opens the doors to the restaurant. There's a button that when pressed opens a door that will take you back into the general store, but the other openable door so far is a bathroom with Key 2 in it. In the general store, if you take that aforementioned door and turn left, you'll find Door 2, which is the shooting gallery. There's four panels you can slide back and forth. The third on on the left (that's the Billy) can be slid forward to reveal a secret entrance. Follow it around to the left and you'll find Key 3 (and a ton of ammo). Door 3 is back at the restaurant, it's the third and final door in that area. Head through the kitchen, and at the north-eastern corner you'll find Bubba hanging around.

Congratulations, Bill Buchalter! You were one of four people smart enough to make their signature on their map they made actually legible. Unfortunately, your map is less impressive. Big Bertha's feels like a cutaway from base Redneck Rampage. It's short, is pretty mute on lighting and is also very flat. There's also not that many interesting bits and bobs. The huge sign out the front both spins and blinks like it's losing power. The shooting gallery with the panels you can slide back and forth looks pretty funny, and the secret entrance you can find here is pretty nicely integrated. Somehow, even if the target was right up against their face, I doubt a fat and drunk redneck could actually shoot them. This map also brings back two of the concerning "paintings" from J. Clucks (although this map has janitors they keep on a payroll this time around), and there's more than one Dog this time around. Unfortunately, Big Bertha's is another dud in terms of combat (get ready to hear me say that a lot of times). There's one less Sheriff here compared to the previous map, and no new monsters are introduced. Bummer! Big Bertha's is thankfully properly signed, but it's a rather mediocre map that can be breezed through in under 10 minutes.

6/10.

Big Billy's Brewery
Unknown Author

Map Progression

Spoiler

Open the gate and inch around it to pick off three of the Billies with your Casull. Run for the Scattergun on the left and use it to kill the other four Billies in this area (including the ones near the Cow Pie secret). Use your Casull to kill everything else (including the Dogs and the Billy on the other side of the fence that wakes up when you go for said Cow Pie secret). To get Key 1, jump on the truck, then jump to the left to get it. Past Door 1, the map branches off into two different areas. There's an outdoor section with a big warehouse made entirely out of bricks, and there's an indoors room with a flood switch. The outdoors area should be cleared first, because you can get an Alien Arm Gun. First, you'll need to leap over the Souvenirs desk, break the vent and climb through. Push the lone crate at the end of the next room until it touches the wall, then use a Dynamite found in this area to blow up the wall. You can kill the Hulk here by crouching in the dumpster just outside the hole. Key 2 is in the warehouse. There's a pillar with a little nook in it that has the key. The room with the floodswitch can be found off to the right, with the "Tour" sign I believe. You'll need to go up a flight of stairs, flip the flood switch, then hop into the tanker to the left and swim down to get Key 3. Now, once you've got all three keys, you'll need to go left at the Souvenirs desk and then to the right. There's a conveyor belt and a gate here. If you crawl and follow the conveyor belt, you'll be taken to the other side of the gate. Door 2 (or 3?) is off to the right, and Bubba is behind it. Don't ask me where the other Key goes.

You ever play a hospital map in another game and think "Man, where is all the health in this map where in universe it normally administers the health supply for your character"? Yeah, this is the Redneck Rampage version of that question. Big Billy's Brewery bars beer and boozy brethren save for a secret Whiskey and a non-secret Six Pack, and it doesn't really have much food either. This map introduces the remaining two monsters and is a noticeable uptick in difficulty compared to the previous two maps. I managed to get killed multiple times here, mostly due to the start, which becomes quite tricky without you carrying all of the unnecessary weapons from MAP03. Even past the start, I always feel like I'm going to choke on killing the Vixen in the brick stronghold, and there's a Coot in the Souvenirs stand that can shoot you through a huge bottle standee that doesn't have collision. The Alien Hulk is in a pretty easy spot to cheese unfortunately, it would have been much better if it was put just a little further back beyond the fence. Once you kill the Hulk, you get the Alien Arm Gun, which lets you kill the remaining Vixens and Dogs with relative ease. You even get Teat Guns in the manager's office, which you can redeem to freely kill any Vixen you want. There's also some more good use of props and textures. Billy the Beer Drinking Bison may have signed its death warrant the moment it was born, but it makes for an entertaining thing to stare at, and I also again like the sign out the front of the building. Big Billy's Brewery is flash in the pan fun.

7.5/10.

[Quacken]

Hi. By the way, I'm doing all of these levels saveless. I've died about eight times on Slaughterhouse and it's starting to tick me off.

Flea Market
Most likely Ty Matthews (Signature is similar to the one from Twin Dragon's Prison Camp)

Map Progression

Spoiler

Follow the dirt path around, and try to ignore the Vixen. When you get past the gates and enter the Flee Market, going in roughly a north-eastern direction will kind of sorta just let you stumble into Key 1. This place is a big maze, and the only real landmarks are near the key itself. You may also be able to locate it using the jukebox music. Key 1 is in the rightmost shooting gallery, on the conveyor belts. You might have to wait around briefly for it to come into view. Door 1 is back at the Swaporama, which you passed while running away from the Vixen. Kill everything inside first before going for Key 2. To get Key 2, you'll need to jump on the cabinet in front of the front door, then on the bookshelf, then onto the bookshelf with the black trim. You can then jump from that shelf to the ledge and drop down the hole to land in the bathroom with Key 2. Door 2 to your right takes you back outside. I don't quite remember where Key 3 is as I kind of picked it up subconsciously, but I think it's somewhere near the brick structure. Door 3 is the left big barn door. Follow through that building and you'll find Bubba.

Flea Market reminds me a lot of Dairyair Farms, which this map takes its slot: It's flat, boxy, one of two maps that are bright as day, and it's less annoying than that map. The so called Flee Market has a lot of unique props in it, but there's not too much to do inside. Nothing's destructible, likely because this mapset was made in like two months, so everything on the tables are suspiciously well kept. Are the aliens even a threat to the residents of Hickston? They haven't broken anything in this map, haven't ransacked the houses and most of the other property damage could have been conceivably done by one of the actual residents. Suspected map author Ty Matthews uses a decent amount of monster variety. He throws a Vixen at you from the word "go", and his one Hulk in the Swaporama can do a decent job of locking down the front door. Unfortunately, this is a map that kind of just ends. You walk into a barn, fight some Billies and Turd Minions, and then Bubba's up a flight of stairs. It's not textured very well and it feels like an afterthought because Matthews couldn't come up with enough ideas for the flea market. This is an uneventful yet inoffensive map.

6/10.

Slaughterhouse
Cho Yan "Tempest" Wong

Map Progression

Spoiler

Make a left when you're in the building, then go right and continue going down the hall. Pay attention to both the little hall that contains Door 2 (the one you can hear the constant gibbing sounds come from) and that warehouse area you pass by, you'll need to go back there for Door 1. At the door at the very back, you can open it and walk down the grey path until you find a furnace with a Hulk next to it. Key 1 is on a brown crate in the corner. Alternatively, you could first go up the stairs to get some secrets, and then drop down the railing near where the drums are to get a Ripsaw. With Key 1, go to the warehouse and open up the door. Door 1 is in the north-western corner. Near the doors you open to grant access outside, there'll be a long hallway which is where Door 3 is. Follow the hall from Door 1, and when you get to the rectangular room, use the grey door on your left to find Key 2. Now go back to Door 2. Three Hulks will try to ambush you in this tiny room, and in the monster closet they came from you can find Key 3. Behind Door 3, you'll find Bubba.

Slaughterhouse is actually a pretty good map, and for sure is an improvement over J. Cluck's. Out of all the Sunstorm team, and perhaps even Xatrix, Cho Yan Wong seems like they get the memo the most out of all of them. They give you lots of Dynamite, a not too difficult to find Teat Guns secret and plenty of ammo and opportunities to use both, to kill hard to reach Turd Minions and lots of Vixens to bulldoze. The warehouse and outdoor area contain some pretty decently large scaled fights, and The Incredible Jumpscare x3 is a lot more immediately threatening than just the one in Nut House. This map's visuals are pretty rudimentary though - as far as I can tell there's only one sign that's new here, and the rest of the map is mainly just Smeltin' Plant and J. Cluck's textures. The cow slaughter conveyor belt past Door 2 is not only very disheartening to look at, but there's also no way to turn it off. The sound bleeds through the walls so you'll be scratching your head trying to figure out where those gibbing sounds are coming from. Despite this though, Slaughterhouse's greater freedom of movement, improved pace and monster diversity and Cho Yan Wong's professionalism make Slaughterhouse one of Route 66's highlights.

8.5/10.

[Quacken]

Got another addendum to make on Big Billy's Brewery - you can type the cheat RDSHOWMAP to toggle on the automap. While it's illegible from the automap seen when you load a new game on a user map, you can use RDSHOWMAP to find that there's an "E.B." in the very bottom right corner. EB probably refers to Eric Boltjes (who made Weapons Research Centre from Twin Dragon). I don't know any other Sunstorm or Level Infinity alumni who use the initials EB. For my own convenience to refer to, here's every map in Route 66, and whether or not they have a credited author:

Hit the Road - N/A
Carnival of Terror - Robert Travis
Big Bertha's - Bill Buchalter
Big Billy's Brewery - Eric Boltjes (?)
Flea Market - Ty Matthews (?)
Slaughterhouse - Cho Yan "Tempest" Wong
Fun Park - N/A

Gassin' Up - N/A
House of Ill Repute - N/A
Mystery Dino Cave - N/A
Campy Crystal Lake - Legion D. Payne (may or may not be their real name, if it isn't their real name it's not shown anywhere on the automap)
Bigfoot Convention - N/A
Hoover Dam - Robert Travis
Oddity Museum - Robert Travis

As you can see, counting Boltjes and Matthews, there's only six unique authors known in this mapset. Kind of dumbfounding that we know everyone who worked on Deadly Kiss, the SW expansion that never got officially released, but we don't know everyone who worked on Route 66...

[FistMarine]

Thanks everyone for the reviews so far! I really appreciate all that info provided, Quacken. I'm curious about something. Since you are playing without saving, are you actually playing on the hardest difficulty? Seeing as that setting disables saving and loading, I'd say it makes sense to play on that skill when doing pistol start without saves and there might even be a few more enemies present in the maps when compared to Skill 4. Yes, there are in fact more enemies present on the highest skills, as you can see below.

Anyway, I guess it's time to start reviewing Route 66. A couple notes before the actual review begins:

1) I didn't mention this earlier but if you plan to play the original DOS version of Route 66, then you should make a copy of your REDNECK folder, paste the contents of the ROUTE66 folder from the CD (or just follow the install instructions carefully) into your copied REDNECK folder (I recommend renaming it to ROUTE66) and then run the ROUTE66.BAT file to run the game. It will temporary modify RR.EXE to apply the R66 changes and to load the new files without overwriting anything.
2) If the new enemies (alligators) don't show up and you get floating vixens, then you did NOT install the addon correctly. Delete your installed copy and try again, this time following the steps more carefully.
3) I read that the GOG version (and maybe Steam version as well) is quite glitchy in this regard and the R66 files will overlap with the base game files, so you will end up with some art/sounds overlapping from Route 66 when playing the base game. At least that's the impression I got from reading some comment sections and watching videos on YouTube.
4) Unlike the base game which had skills 3-5 identical in terms of enemy placement (except the final level that seemed to have even more enemies present on Skill 4 compared to Skill 3), Route 66 actually goes through the effort to add more enemies on Skill 4 (and maybe Skill 5 as well) compared to Skill 3. This means each difficulty setting has its own amount of enemies in most of the levels, except for a few levels where the enemy placement seems identical on Hard Ass and above, pretty much like the base game.
5) As I already mentioned before, Delicious Goo-Goo Clusters only appear in ONE map early in the second episode. Because of that, I advice to carefully balance the meters and to finish each level with 100 health, since some of the levels start you already under attack and can make you lose about half of health without even realizing.
6) There is a new screen shown when a level is loading. It's based off the original loading screen with Leonard and Bubba's ugly close up faces but now with a ROUTE 66 sign added in the left lower corner of the screen. There are no new ending screens for either episode and the game's logo remains unchanged at the main menu (on the Box Art, there is a new logo) but there is a new ending cutscene played when finishing the final level of the game. More on that later.
7) Much like with the previous commercial works that were covered over the Duke Map/Mod of the Month, I am not going to post the secret guide. So if you want to find the secrets, here are some Route 66 playthroughs/walkthroughs on YouTube:
Walkthrough by LY203 Productions (DOSBox, Wuss skill) https://www.youtube...._BOB7YTMcmWo9ht
Walkthrough by Nametag (DOSBox, Hard Ass skill) https://www.youtube....D84IZecpunDBQuc
Walkthrough by pagb666 (GDX, Killbilly skill) https://www.youtube....LOoCJDFs-QuDYGP

I played Route 66 in DOSBox 0.74-3, Killbilly (Skill 4) with saves, keyboard only controls. It's the fourth playthrough or so I've done so far, thus I'm already familiar with the expansion. I will be mentioning the amount of kills and secrets found on each map, as well as the map's filename as a bonus. No, I don't have the soundtrack enabled this time around. Because Route 66 doesn't have its own soundtrack, so I didn't feel the need to have the soundtrack enabled this time. I will definitely have the soundtrack enabled for the time Rides Again gets chosen, since that game has its own soundtrack.

The episode/level structure is pretty much identical to the original Redneck Rampage. Route 66 is split into two episodes with 7 maps each. The only difference here is that the first map is an intro map and the rest six are the actual maps. Oh and there are no demos playing in the background, so there's nothing to watch.

And sorry if I repeat myself at times, seeing as Quacken already mentioned a lot of stuff in the R66 maps reviewed that I will also mention in this post. I wrote part of this message during the weekend, so I'm keeping it like that for the most part. Let's begin!



ROUTE 66 - PART 1

Hit The Road (START.MAP)

Kills: 0
Secrets: 0

Very short map. Approach Bubba to finish the level. You don't have to hit him with the crowbar this time.

Funnily enough, shooting and killing him with the pistol and quickly reaching the car will still end the level without any penalty. Though you still don't get credited with the kill, so don't bother doing that. I only wanted to point for fun.


Carnival of Terror (CARNIVAL.MAP)

Kills: 84
Secrets: 6

The first proper map is a huge improvement over the base game's Taylor Town. It is pretty well designed and has some fun moments, especially later in the map, as the new textures look very nice and complement the default RR textures nicely as well. I don't really like how you start the map already attacked by THREE pistol guys behind you on the Killbilly skill setting while you already have to deal with a Shotgunner in front of you. As far as I know, the differences on the other difficulties in the first area: Hard Ass will only have one pistol guy shooting behind you, Meejum will remove the pistol guys altogether but still keep the shotgunner in front of you and Wuss will most likely remove all the enemies in first area. After clearing the starting area, you will be probably left with 43 health or less. You will want to get some health quickly if you want to have a good chance at beating this map without dying. That and how often you get hit by the enemies in the map will dictate your fate, as is the case with every RR map.

Anyway, the map is packed with over 80 enemies and six secrets (way less enemies than Taylor Town, though same amount of secrets) and getting an early secret Whiskey bottle will greatly help. Besides the usual hitscanners, you have to deal with two Sheriffs that are appearing at some points (they are spawned into the level, so they show up on all skills). And besides dealing with all these hitscanners, you have the only one new enemy in the mod: the alligator! They seem to have 100 hp (I think) and deal 5 dmg when they bite you but they aren't that much of a threat. I don't know if they count as enemies or even add to kills but they will easily die to five pistol shots and it's recommended to kill them anyway.

The only confusing part of the map is reaching the area that leads to the House of Horrors, as you need to jump on a ledge that is easy to miss and have you run around the whole map not knowing what to do. I certainly remember getting confused on the first playthrough many years ago. And as you will quickly realize, there aren't any health boosting items up until one level in the second episode. I guess they wanted to make the expansion much harder by forcing you to have 100 health maximum but at least most of the levels are fairly generous with the health items. Be sure to balance the meters accordingly to have a good time when playing. Oh and of course Bubba will not be doing anything to help you. Thanks anyway for the two health items in the back of the car, at least.

Overall, this was a fun starting level that gives plenty of "Duke Caribbean" vibes. The House of Terror segment is probably the main highlight and my favorite part of the map. Hopefully the rest of the package is just as good as this map.


Big Bertha's (TRUCKSTP.MAP)

Kills: 87
Secrets: 2

A shorter and less confusing map but still starting you under attack. After you clear the initial area filled with enemies, you will have a pretty good time with the level. There aren't any confusing parts from what I can remember and there's some interesting design choices, such as the Shooting Range. And also the way the trucks are designed are also pretty interesting. Just be careful with the damn animals, they like getting in your way and screwing up your autoaim. No, you don't get the option to disable the autoaim in DOS version for obvious reasons but if you are playing in a source port, you can disable the autoaim if it bothers you.

Bubba is found behind one of the trucks. Be careful to not shoot him by accident. And also make sure to explore the back of the trucks, as you may find some goodies and other stuff hidden inside. I don't have much to say about this map, it's fine.


Big Billy's Brewery (BREWERY.MAP)

Kills: 74
Secrets: 3

Another decent map that's actually quite tough at times, due to the tougher opposition and the somewhat limited amount of health items. You also face one Alien Hulk and a couple vixens of varying types at some points in the map, so get ready. The enemy placement in general is usually okay but there are some dickish moments and while you don't get attacked immediately at start, there are a few hitscanners and dogs awaiting you on the next alley.

You will find the rest of your arsenal in this map, though the Alien Arm Gun is placed in an unofficial secret place. If you don't find it, you can still get it from the slain hulk later in the level but I recommend getting the non-secret one early to deal with the vixens, after the ammo runs out for the Tit Gun.

Died about five times, mostly thanks to those damn vixens (blue and brown ones) and the Alien Hulk. I appreciate that they also decided to use the weaker Green Vixen variants, they are quite underused in general when comes to RR maps, as most people prefer to use the default blue powerful variant. But even if I got my ass kicked towards the end of the map, I liked how I spent most of the first half with just 53 health and not taking a single hit. It was a bit risky but it paid off, especially when I consumed the items with care.

Oh and of course Bubba just drank all the beer, leaving you nothing to drink. That damn bastard! I wish there was slightly more health available, especially beer pickups because this is a brewery after all. Having Bubba drink all the beer is not an excuse and more likely annoys the player instead of amusing him, even though the mapper's intention was to amuse the player here, I am not easily amused when playing Redneck Rampage, especially when comes to a character that's useless and doesn't do anything to help you.

On the bright side, the lack of health wasn't that bad this playthrough because I ended up with full health when I got to the end (after backtracking for ammo and other stuff) but in past playthroughs I often left the level with around 80 health after consuming all pickups in the level, not counting what was available in the inventory.

I really don't have much else to say about the level, it was fine. The interiors with the new textures were especially well designed.

[NY00123]

Route 66

According to old save games, my sole complete play-through of Route 66 was done around mid-September and early October of 2018. I haven't really checked videos of it since then, so I don't remember a lot. I did recall a thing to do with a carnival or close to it; And on the other hand, something (unsure exactly what/how) about the final boss, compared to the base game.

It's ZeroHour

Regarding Zero Hour, I originally completed it by the end of June 2012 with DOS v1.5; Last September, I tried it twice, first in a cooperative game via NetDuke32, and later completing it again in a solo play-through using Rednukem. I wrote about this in the matching thread for October:

https://forums.duke4...834#entry379834

I'll repeat again with a bit different wordings and/or details. I didn't recall a lot from the 2012 play-through, short of a bit of the very beginning (small subset of the first map, with the screamers initially seen outdoors); Maybe also the sentinels, to an extent.

Cooperative game (using NetDuke32)

By the beginning of last September, I started with a cooperative session, going through ZeroHour. Using a NukemNet IRC chat log for counting the players, we started with 6 players + one separate VPS player in NetDuke32. Due to connectivity issues, one of the players left, so it was down to 5 (+ VPS). It went down to 4 after just a few minutes. About 30 minutes later, another player left. 18 minutes for another one, reducing this to a 2 players game. After about 40 more minutes, the last one other than me left.

I recall observing the giant spider climbing on one of the other players' Duke character (Noldor Ranzou's in that case); Not something I see in Duke3D every day, especially not in an old TC from the 1990s. The last map to be completed with at least 2 players was "Oasis City...Part 2". Probably a good spot, because during the follow-up single player play-through, I found out that it could be easy to get stuck in "Oasis City...Part 3".

Even in earlier maps, navigation could be confusing for players at times. Generally speaking, I find the few cooperative sessions I've taken a part in to be, let's say, more chaotic. In a single-player games, I can plan what to do at my own pace, while in cooperative games, it often feels like getting to the exit is really the sole goal.

Solo play-through (using Rednukem)

I went into my second solo play-through of ZeroHour during September's last week, using Rednukem. This time, as written earlier, I could go through the maps at my own pace, including also secret hunting. Let's bring the two "Ancient Realms" maps for one example. I recall "Ancient Realms...Part 1" to be the kind in which you need to backtrack after getting an access card, albeit you can take a shortcut if you have a jetpack. I can't say for sure, but good chances are that the aforementioned spider climbing incident was in this map (or at least, a nearby one).

For "Ancient Realms...Part 2", I seemed to have just a bit of an unusual experience, due to the preceding cooperative game. For each map with a briefing room, only the 1st player spawns there when the map loads, with the rest residing near the initial teleporter's destination; Maybe just a bit further if not there. While "Ancient Realms...Part 2" lacks a briefing room, all players short of the first start near the pyramid. So it was different to find myself near the gate in the single-player session from the very beginning.

As written in the other thread, I did get impacted by a (nowadays fixed) bug in Rednukem, making Duke immune to explosive weapons. The repackaged PK3 file generally had the files intended for use with version 1.4 or 1.5 of Duke3D. Additionally, though, there was also a v1.3d-compatible DMO file. Rednukem didn't start a demo, but was still trying to read a bit of data from the file in ways that could impact gameplay, without reverting the changes. The important one in question was toggling cooperative mode's "friendfy fire". This persisted even into a game started from the menu, and thus, into saved games.

Will finish with a few words about Oasis City. As hinted earlier, it looked to me like if you went in part 3 the wrong way, you could get stuck; Emphasis on that pool of water in part 3, from which you can get to a locked door. I also recall wondering if it was a bug or not that part 1 had unreachable areas. In practice, these were really meant to be in part 2 and/or 3. It may indeed be a different experience to prepare 3 variations of the same map, with differing accessible areas. This seemed to lead to a few unexpected bugs at times, like areas that should had probably not been accessible in all parts while they are, especially with a jetpack. But maybe at least a subset of these were there on purpose; Clearly the sections of part 1 intended to be re-visited in part 3.

[Quacken]

We're finishing up Part 1 tonight.

Fun Park
Unknown Author

Map Progression

Spoiler

Jump on the truck, then jump on the platform with the Dynamite on it. Don't use it all in one place! Use one to blow up the cracked door. In this next area, you'll need to locate the huge TV with the Hulk texture on it. From the automap with Rotate Mode off, it's in the bottom right corner. If you gravitate towards the left side of the building, you'll eventually find your way to it. Key 1 is in a set of booths to the left of the TV. Door 1 meanwhile is a blue coloured door that's near the bathrooms. Head right up the stairs and follow this hallway all the way around. Down the grey ramps, and you've got a crossroads. Turn right here to enter the mini golf course. You'll find Key 2 at hole 3. Go back, and now go straight at this crossroads. To your right, you'll eventually find Door 2. Break the window and jump out. Climb up the garbage truck and you'll find Bubba.

We end Part 1 with the shortest map so far. Fun Park is not too much fun and could have ran with way more custom textures and props. I like the arcade machines, I like the signs, I even like the minigolf flags and the flamingoes, but that's mostly it. This is more of a map that's good with sectors anyway. The mini golf course is definitely the highlight, although a brighter green texture for the pitch would have been nice. You kind of have to squint at the holes to find where they start and end. This is one of a handful of commercial RR maps that doesn't need more than three keys to exit, and to be honest it feels pretty weird. I ended this map with 57 out of 69 kills, so I was kind of wondering where everyone else was. I heard a Vixen through the walls in particular and I was stumped on where she was. The combat is another menagerie of hitscanners. Only the Vixens pose a real threat here, and even then there's plenty of places to hide, so Scattergunning them is very doable. I've kind of run out of things to talk about here. I can't even really talk about the author, because they're a ghost. Fun Park gets a 2/5 on Google Reviews.

5/10.

Gassin' Up
Unknown Author

Map Progression

Spoiler

Go left! Then walk forward LMAO.

Gassin' Up is the intro level to Part 2, and it doesn't have a cool sign in it so I don't really care. I do like that tapping on the ladies' room plays a sound effect though.

5/10.

[Quacken]

 FistMarine, on 21 November 2023 - 05:15 AM, said:

I'm curious about something. Since you are playing without saving, are you actually playing on the hardest difficulty? Seeing as that setting disables saving and loading, I'd say it makes sense to play on that skill when doing pistol start without saves and there might even be a few more enemies present in the maps when compared to Skill 4. Yes, there are in fact more enemies present on the highest skills, as you can see below.

I'm still playing on Killbilly. I'm playing on Killbilly just in case I get bodied too many times by a map so that I decide to break my no saving rule and make a save anyway. By the way, playing on Killbilly in Raze doesn't actually disable cheats.

[Quacken]

I've broken my save state rule twice now (once on Slaughterhouse and just now on House of Ill Repute), but funnily enough when I make the save state I don't actually die for the rest of the map, so it never actually made a difference. Guess I'm just lucky?

House of Ill Repute
Unknown Author

Map Progression

Spoiler

Grab everything from the truck, then turn left and follow the path. The brown house on the right is the one you can open right away. This isn't a very complicated section. You just have to go up the stairs and get Key 1 near the Sheriff and where the Vixen behind the wardrobe is. Door 1 takes you into the white building. Pay attention to those gates as you walk to the white building, that's Door 3. The door to the cellar to your left needs to have some explosives tossed in it. You'll most likely break everything you need to while you're fighting the monsters here. Walk through the tunnel you created, then make two lefts. You'll need to flip a Flood Control switch. Back out of that room and go left, and you should see that a pipe has opened up. Follow the pipe through and you'll find Key 2. Get out of there and go find Door 2, which is the big barnyard doors. At the end of the fork, turn right and you'll find yourself in a chicken coop. Within some of the coops there are buttons you need to shoot with the Casull. Some of the coops are blackened out with a solid texture, which gives you a clue on the other coops you need to investigate. Shooting all of them opens a timed door. Platform up the hay to find Key 3. When you get past Door 3, you can see Bubba once you make a left turn.

That truck full of supplies may have given you confidence - rest assured that is a false positive. House of Ill Repute is among the meanest maps in commercial Redneck Rampage - probably the hardest honestly. It's not very long and I only managed to kill 46 enemies, but if most of those are Vixens, then that adds up to a map I died probably six or so times on. Trying to get past the start is a stress test. Just in this start you have five Vixens, and you only have 50 Teat Gun Ammo, one Whiskey and a couple of awkward Pork Rinds to clean everything up. Thankfully, the start is the worst of it. The brown house isn't too difficult to clear out owing to the great amount of cover, but the cellar fight in the white house makes you kill a Sheriff, a Vixen, a Dog and a Billy at an extremely silly angle right next to a staircase AND a door that can use the power of Build to crush you. This map's visuals are about standard. The Seedy Sally's sign looks more like a Sunstorm sign to me, but the Choking Chickens one is pretty good. I don't really like the barn all that much though. It's enough to just find all the buttons and shoot them, I don't need the door that opens to be timed too. Especially when there's two more Vixens behind it that I need to kill. House of Ill Repute is a kick in the jaw to those who are unaware of its difficulty, but its fights border on being memorable.

7/10.

Mystery Dino Cave
Unknown Author

Map Progression

Spoiler

To the right is the so-called Mystery Dino Cave. Go through the spinner. I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't really know where Key 1 is on this map, I only know that it's in the cave. Exploring everywhere and killing all of the Turd Minions (and two Vixens) may or may not result in you stumbling into Key 1 on accident. You'll want to locate the pool of water with the T-Rex in it. Submerge in it and follow the underwater path, and you'll eventually come to a large pit. Press on the switch texture to slowly extend the bridge on the other side outward. It's a pretty straight shot to Key 2. You just have to shoot the Powder Kegs in front of the wall after dropping down from the ladder to make an opening appear, then climb up the ladder on the other side and you'll emerge in a mineshaft-looking area which has Key 2. Heading out of here through the door in front of you will take you near to where Door 2 is. You'll have to platform up to where the window is, break it, then jump in. The room with Door 2 is to your left. It's the room with the dog holding the Rest in Peace sign. Go through the vent on your right. You should be taken to a hallway, and if you follow that hallway and don't jump over the wall, you'll come to a weird looking room with a machine and a chain. Flip the switch here first to stop the conveyor. As you climb onto the conveyor belt using the chain, you may notice there's a deadly saw blocking your way. On that machine, there's a bright red button you can snipe with the Casull. That causes the saw to temporarily lower, and it will let you past without you dying. Key 3 is on the other side. If you ignored the vent and went down the stairs instead, you would have eventually found the central room with the Vixen - there's a corridor coming out of that room which has Door 3. Behind Door 3 is Bubba.

This map reminds me a lot of TNT Evilution MAP25. It's long, confusing, repetitively textured and is big on tunnels, uneven geometry and making you run in circles. Only this map has Ghost Dogs! I don't really like this map. The Dino Caves could have been way cooler but having to chew through such a large surface area with waves of Shitmonkeys that I don't have enough Rifle clips for sucks out all of the fun this map could have had. There's a lot of places you can get stuck on and equally as many places where your Dynamite can bounce around and then somehow hurt you and no one else. Even when you're out of the caves, you have to climb up and down several ladders, contend with stupid death traps and monsters teleporting in front and behind you. I think this is the only map in commercial RR where you can actually see the frames that flash when a monster teleports in, which is interesting. Oh yeah, did you know the Alligators are back? Yeah, the new monster they introduced in MAP02 and didn't use again until just now. There's a bunch of them in the cave, and not killing them again was the only fun part of this map. Mystery Dino Cave is too janky, long and amateurish for me to enjoy.

4/10.

[Quacken]

Dear diary: Tonight I committed an atrocity. I killed one Alligator on accident. Since I'm now well and truly on track, I'm going to do single features for the rest of Route 66.

Campy Crystal Lake
Legion D. Payne

Map Progression

Spoiler

Hug the right wall and you'll eventually come to a fence with two Dogs and a Coot behind it. To your left are a couple of gizmos - you can jump on them to get up to the balcony. Then, after you clear the path with Dynamite, you can jump over the fence and get Key 1. Door 1 (or Gate 1) is near the cabin with the Ripsaw secret in it. You have to follow the path that branches off to the right. There's a shooting range here - on the side of the targets, where the Hulk is, is Key 2. Gate 2 opens up the Crystal Lake. You may have already found the mess hall while you were looking for supplies - if you hop into where the Billies are in this area and look out, you'll see Gate 2 on the left. Head up to the watchtower on the beach, climb up the ladder, and flip the switch. Despite being told not to, you'll need to submerge into the lake and swim through the tunnel that's below where the dock was. Submerge, and you'll come to a very weird looking grey area. Platform up those tiny pillars and you'll find Key 3. There's an easy way to get to the forest, which leads to Gate 3. Go back to the start, and go into the brown cabin that's next to the bathroom. There'll be a bronze box thing that you can press the use key on to open up, revealing both a secret Dynamite and two Pork Rinds, as well as a shortcut to the forest. If you turn left here and keep going, you'll eventually find Gate 3, and thus Bubba.

Okay, did this map really need to exist? Blood beat Route 66 to the market by about 7 months. Sunstorm themselves made a Blood expansion before making this! Anyway... Campy Crystal Lake has better signs than its obvious inspiration, but Blood's E4M4 is better in every other way. Not just because Blood is a better game on all accounts, but also because this map is flatter, spams Dogs at you, doesn't have as atmospheric lighting (or any lighting at all really), has confusing optional areas and features some head busting fights. I don't really know why Legion D. Payne decided to put two Dogs into the area you have to drop into to get Key 1, with the only way to escape being to do a precise jump from a box. Their use of Alligators as disfunctional landmines is an interesting idea, but without a way to really fight back you can do melee dances with them and not take damage. What is this gray area you visit while going to get Key 3? It's one texture and the platforming required to get the key is entirely arbitrary. The teleporter that continuously spawns monsters broke for me as well, so I had to shoot the walls with Dynamite until I killed everything in the monster closet. There's also two random teleporters connected to this area that just feel weird to me. Something about taking teleporters in RR feels wrong. These people barely have working televisions, what makes you think they've mastered teleportation? Campy Crystal Lake is a wholly uninspired map that's over in 10 minutes or less.

5/10.

[FistMarine]

@NY00123: Thanks for the information. Since you know more technical details than I do, I wanted to ask the following questions (sorry if I go slightly off-topic):

1) What actually happens when RedNukem tries to load 1.3D data? According to what you said, there were some side effects when it tried to play that 1.3D demo that came with Zero Hour, though the bug was eventually fixed. I was wondering if "vanilla" source ports should ever fully support Duke3D 1.3D one day, though I don't know if it's feasible. I know that Duke source ports are based off the Duke3D Source Code release which is actually based off a version of Duke3D in-between 1.4 and 1.5.

2) Is it true that Redneck Rampage is based off a Duke3D version in-between 1.3D and 1.4? I ask because I read years ago some posts on the internet saying that it's based on Duke3D 1.3D code and others say it's based on Duke3D Atomic code but neither it's true. Since I grew up with Duke3D 1.3D, then later in 2007 I got Duke3D Atomic and found plenty of differences between the two and when I finally got to play RR in summer 2017, I was surprised to see that it shares behaviors with both Duke3D 1.3D and 1.4, albeit RR being a lot buggier than either Duke3D version. This is probably due to 3D Realms sending Xatrix the Duke source code during summer of 1996 when Duke Plutonium/Atomic was still in production and I guess the RR development started shortly after. This is my theory on that.

3) Has anyone tried to document ALL the differences between ALL official DOS Duke Nukem 3D versions, especially between 1.3D and 1.4/1.5? I could help with that because I was working on such a list a while ago but it wasn't finished, might try to finish it in the following weeks if I try to remember everything, then I will make it public.

@Quacken: Ah, I see now. My guess on why cheats are being allowed on Killbilly is most likely because Raze uses only one codebase for Redneck games (Raze uses RedNukem code if I'm not mistaken), which could be based on the Rides Again's skill handling code (in RR skills are counted 1 to 5, in RA skills are counted 0 to 4). I don't know any more details, as I'm not familiar with how RR behaves in the source ports. I only base my knowledge on the original DOS versions and there were a few differences even between RR and RA, much like how there were between Duke3D 1.3D and Atomic 1.4/1.5.

Also, if you are having trouble with enemies teleporting, keep in mind that having the gut meter above zero will put you into Stealth Mode and that means the enemies can become inactive if they aren't facing you, allowing you to take them by surprise from behind (this doesn't happen in Duke3D since the enemies will become immediately active if they can "see" you, even if they are with their backs turned at you). Farting will cause you to alert the nearby enemies, even the enemies behind walls that haven't seen you yet.

Don't know how all this works exactly and if monster closets can break (this was an issue with original game as well, especially levels like Smelting Plant and Uranium Mines, as it was impossible to get ALL the kills due to how enemies stayed hidden behind walls or spawned somewhere at various points) but I think I managed to get all the kills in pretty much every map, maybe with very tiny exceptions aside, which is why I show how many enemies I killed, to compare with people playing in source ports that have in-game stats. I only wish the kill count wasn't that buggy and you didn't have N/A kills remaining at the end of the level when played on Skill 4 (Killbilly), so then we would know if we got all the kills or not.

Oh and something to add in my earlier review, the Route 66 playthrough by Nametag is NOT a 100% playthrough, it is in fact a Let's Play and can be humorous at times watching him complain and fail at times. The guy also did a Rides Again playthrough back in 2020. But if you are looking for a 100% completion playthrough, be sure to watch pagb666's playthrough in GDX for best results and for the timestamps showing the secrets for quick access.

Anyway, finished the Route 66 playthrough earlier today, so in celebration, here is the review for the rest of the first episode! Coincidentally, it's also the 26th anniversary of Redneck Rampage: Route 66 (according to the date of the executable and many other files in the directory being dated 24/11/1997, though other files seem to be dated 25/11/1997, so maybe it was actually released later in November) and 24th anniversary of Quake III Arena (the date of the executable from the original 1.11 release or at least when the game went "Gold"), so happy birthday to both of them!

Flea Market (FLEA.MAP)

Kills: 90
Secrets: 4

Another decent map that reminds me quite a bit of E1L5 (Diary Air Farms) from original game in terms of design and layout. Unlike that level, this one is actually good but once again suffers a bit from height variation and there's some things worth pointing out, like the key at the market that's on a conveyor. I recommend grabbing it as soon as possible, so that it doesn't get shifted into the ground after minutes of becoming active because it can probably become unavailable at a later time, due to a weird bug with conveyor belts in Duke3D and its based games.

Oh and there is a brown vixen right at beginning (at least on the higher skills), which makes me wonder why would you put a strong enemy right near beginning instead of later in the map? Could have used the weakest green variant because even the brown one has the nasty hitscan attack like the more powerful ones, while the green one is limited to just the weak tiny blue projectiles and teleporting around.

Anyway, I will just advice you to be careful with the animals, as once again, the designers loved putting animals in front of enemies and screwing up with your autoaim. Of course for the people playing in a source port, you can turn off the autoaim at least, so this is no longer an issue. In rest, the fights are decently challenging, though again it depends a lot how often you get hit and how well you build up your meters. I really don't have much to say about this map. It's fine.


Slaughterhouse (SLAUGHTR.MAP)

Kills: 70
Secrets: 4

A pretty tough map that's filled with plenty of high tier monsters. There's like FIVE Hulks and a couple vixens that infest this meat processing plant. Luckily, there's plenty of ammo and health pickups available to balance your meters in the green zone and be ready to kick ass, as you will need every bit of it. Design wise, it's actually quite similar to E2L3 (J.Cluck's). Yes, I know that Quacken has pointed all this stuff but since I was writing this message in a text document from last week, I am keeping like this. Besides, I think it is easy to tell that these maps will remind you from those maps in the original game.

Anyway, the only advice I can give is when entering the room where the cows are getting slaughtered and the THREE hulks blow up the walls, you may want to hide in the left side of the room, so you don't get up by the crates exploding nearby. I remember on past playthroughs suffering a random death like that. The crates don't always explode, I guess it depends a lot if the object "sees" you first. If they don't, they are inactive and aren't affected by explosions until they "see" you.

Yes, the explosions can be insane in this game, especially since the player dies immediately from a TNT box or Powder Keg if caught in the radius. Instead of the damage decreasing over distance, it always seems to inflict 100 damage on you (even the Billy Ray who has 100 HP will sometimes survive the explosion), which is instant death (unless you have consumed the Delicious Clusters but unfortunately they aren't present here). Doesn't mater if you have the meters in green zone or not. The armor glitch inherited from Duke3D bites you in the ass really hard here.

Oh and at the end, there was a dog locked in the room with Bubba. How the hell Bubba wasn't dead when you get to him, I don't know. I understand this was done for gameplay reasons, as in-game the enemies ignore Bubba (probably for the better, as he would have been dead just as soon as you'd start the level) but it just doesn't make sense for me, especially when you take into account Bubba is somehow ALWAYS getting ahead of you. Video Game Logic at its finest.

Overall, this was a pretty interesting level. It was quite satisfying to complete it without dying this time around.


Fun Park (MINIGOLF.MAP)

Kills: 67
Secrets: 4

Another decent level, taking place at a fun park, as you can tell from the title. The main highlight of the map is the Mini Golf section, which is actually what the map's filename is called. I feel like that's the most memorable part of the level and even has a couple interesting fights. The damn vixens seem to be only present on the fourth skill level, according to a playthrough I have watched on YouTube.

Speaking of which, I died twice because of the bitch inside kitchen, killed me through the door the first time and second time she didn't get stunned by my weapons and immediately killed me. Third time was the charm and things worked in my favor. As you can see, sometimes you need luck to make it through some encounters.

Oh and be careful with the last area with those two pesky dogs, I remember giving me quite a bit of trouble last time, especially with their attack having no feedback, allowing them to sneak on you and "silently" kill you. Then as you are done with them, climb on the Garbage Truck to find the useless buffoon standing in the stinky garbage. If you want to backtrack, now it's your chance to go back and grab everything because once you enter the garbage truck with Bubba, you can't jump out of it anymore.

Once you are ready, hit the dipshit in the head with the crowbar to temporary kill him. No really, he disappears upon being hit with the crowbar this time around. My guess is he replaces the shitty boss from the first episode of Redneck Rampage but still uses Bubba's con coding and that's what seems to trigger the level ending and the E1 cutscene at same time.

Oh yeah, I need to mention that there is NO new cutscene! In fact, there is no cutscene at all. And the ending picture is just the original episode ending picture (which itself is based off the loading screen picture), doesn't even show the new Route 66 loading screen or an unique picture or anything. They chose the laziest way possible and for that, they deserve to be nitpicked. Or I should say they probably ran out of time. Either way you can't deny that's a lazy ending.

Overall, the level was okay, though the ending was quite disappointing. But don't worry, because things aren't gonna be getting any better soon. In fact, if you thought the first episode was a mixed bag, wait until you see the second one, which is even more of a mixed bag, at least in my opinion.


E1 Overall: Pretty good and I like it a lot better than the original Redneck Rampage Episode 1. Levels aren't overly long or too confusing and their design is pretty good, though they can be quite difficult at times, depending on how often you get hit and how aggressive are the enemies. This is actually an issue from the original game how it was balanced, not a problem with levels themselves, so it is luck based on how a level can play for you. Play through a level five times and I guarantee each time or most times it will be a different result (without dying, dying 1-5 times or dying shitloads of times).

I'm speaking from my own experience, though this can apply to other games as well but Redneck Rampage is notorious for having many hitscanners that deal shitloads of damage. Despite that, I only died about seven times in the first episode of Route 66. There's lots more deaths in the second episode, though I don't think it exceeds 50 deaths in total. We will see that next week when I get to review the second episode.

As we are approaching the end of the month, here are the nominations for December:

Back in Business + The Conundrum + Maps by Aleks Pistol (Ledsbourne)
Maps by Jason Bredhauer + Maps by Juha Laaksonen + Maps by Kevin Cools +

First option is what was nominated in previous two editions. Second option is nominated now for first time but the suggestion was actually given by Aleks back in June when he suggested various mappers and I decided to pair these together, as per his suggestion when I asked which mappers should be chosen for a month. Kinda strange to have his own nominations competing against his own maps/mods but whatever, I don't make the rules.

Plus, he said in last month that he will release another new map soon and we'd play through all his stuff at that time, most likely will be the perfect candidate for January. From Aleks' own words in the October 2023 topic:

Quote

I'm planning to release a new level soon (but not necessarily next month) so might be a better opportunity to nominate them then

Not to mention, I really don't want to remove that nomination, plus there isn't anything else I'd like to nominate for now. I guess I will leave the nominations like that and vote for the trio of mappers instead. I just thought that those seemed to fit better for December (some of their maps are very Duke3D Atomic inspired), which is also when Atomic Edition was released, as well as the winter holidays coming and then there's two Christmas themed maps made by Kevin Cools.

Plus the mappers have something in common with each other, such as collaborating on some maps or contributing to a TC that never materialized (though the maps themselves were released at least). So you will know what to expect, especially if you have played those maps before or checked out some of authors' other works (Jason Bredhauer also made half of JJ Duke Nukem 3D, which was covered last year).

Have a nice weekend everyone!

[NY00123]

 FistMarine, on 24 November 2023 - 07:00 AM, said:

@NY00123: Thanks for the information.

You're welcome!

Quote

1) What actually happens when RedNukem tries to load 1.3D data? According to what you said, there were some side effects when it tried to play that 1.3D demo that came with Zero Hour, though the bug was eventually fixed. I was wondering if "vanilla" source ports should ever fully support Duke3D 1.3D one day, though I don't know if it's feasible. I know that Duke source ports are based off the Duke3D Source Code release which is actually based off a version of Duke3D in-between 1.4 and 1.5.

I've had a look now. As suspected by me, Rednukem isn't compatible with 1.3d's CON. In particular, the syntax of the "gamestartup" command changed, with the Atomic Edition adding a few more parameters: https://wiki.eduke32...iki/Gamestartup

Quote

2) Is it true that Redneck Rampage is based off a Duke3D version in-between 1.3D and 1.4? I ask because I read years ago some posts on the internet saying that it's based on Duke3D 1.3D code and others say it's based on Duke3D Atomic code but neither it's true. Since I grew up with Duke3D 1.3D, then later in 2007 I got Duke3D Atomic and found plenty of differences between the two and when I finally got to play RR in summer 2017, I was surprised to see that it shares behaviors with both Duke3D 1.3D and 1.4, albeit RR being a lot buggier than either Duke3D version. This is probably due to 3D Realms sending Xatrix the Duke source code during summer of 1996 when Duke Plutonium/Atomic was still in production and I guess the RR development started shortly after. This is my theory on that.

It's a bit of both. As discovered by Nuke.YKT's own reconstruction efforts, the Build Engine revision is the same as in Duke3D v1.5, while the game code is somewhere in-between 1.3d and 1.4. Looking at Nuke.YKT's reconstructed RR sources, I can see that the command "ifangdiffl" does not exist in RR at all, while a "clipdist" command was added just for RR:RA.

Quote

3) Has anyone tried to document ALL the differences between ALL official DOS Duke Nukem 3D versions, especially between 1.3D and 1.4/1.5? I could help with that because I was working on such a list a while ago but it wasn't finished, might try to finish it in the following weeks if I try to remember everything, then I will make it public.

Actually, I don't know if there's one website covering all differences, outside of the official change log. Certain details related to versions earlier than 1.3d can be found over at the TCRF, but there's surely more. Even shareware and registered versions 1.3d differ in ways that people might not know or recall; For instance, shareware v1.3d (like the earlier shareware versions) still uses Lameduke-era graphics for the cinema projector's switch in E1L1.

What's naturally more difficult to find is all differences in code, especially without available sources. While v1.3d is not covered, 1.4 and later are, using source reconstruction works of Nuke.YKT and me, along with misc. Build Engine files released with Ken Silverman's permission:

https://forums.duke4...-exes-versions/
https://bitbucket.or...ver-recreation/ -> The relevant repositories as of now are build and duke3d (and audiolib).

[Quacken]

I'm nearly there.

Bigfoot Convention
Unknown Author

Map Progression

Spoiler

Make your way to the Anomaly, then go past it. When you get to the huge "BIGFOOT LIVES !!" sign, go through the right entrance you can see from the bleachers. Go straight through the Bigfoot exhibit, and you should eventually see four outhouses. If you look inside the one that's furthest back, you'll notice that it's actually a hole you can drop down through. Wade through the pipe once you drop down and you'll eventually drop down into a questionably coloured lake. On your left is the next path. You'll shortly find a stump with a Hunting Rifle on it, and regardless of which direction you take at this fork, you'll eventually find a big house in the middle of nowhere. Behind the house, there's a broken fence. Walk through there and you'll find yourself at the back of the stage. Door 2 is up those stairs, but you can climb up that next to it and Key 1 is at the end of the walkway. Door 1 is the front door to the house from earlier. As you head up the stairs, you'll find a door you can't open - directly parallel from that door is another one that's been broken down. There's a window you can jump out of here, and you can land on the roof. Follow the roof around to the right and you'll come to a window you can jump into, which leads to the locked room. Key 2's in here. Now run back to Door 2, and you'll find Key 3 on the stage. Backtrack to the RV show and go the other direction this time. You'll find that where there was once a rock wall, there is now an open space. This dumb section requires you to shoot all of the grey buttons that open grey doors ahead of them, which you have to beat with the help of the rushing water. Shoot only the grey buttons, those red ones are just there to waste your time. You'll drop into a shallow lake at the end. Climb up the rock face and you'll find Bubba.

Besides the stupid ending, I actually kind of like this one. It might have been the MIDI I put on, but this was just a chill map to play through. Bigfoot Convention has great use of custom textures and props, as well as some humorous setpieces. I like the RV that both breaks the laws of reality and is also called "The Anomaly", the BIGFOOT LIVES !! sign that uses Comic Sans is very funny, and the prop they created for Bigfoot both looks authentic and also has a clever use of some Bubba sounds. I think in-universe, this is just a guy that they got to dress up in a costume that vaguely looks like Bigfoot. Whether or not he's here consensually is yet to be confirmed. I wish that these people actually signed their maps, because I'd like to complement them more on the maps they made instead of providing general comments. And yes, I am checking every automap with RDSHOWMAP now, just in case I missed a signature. I haven't. The ending is stupid and is a blatant attempt to pad the run time though. You need to be carried by river rapids while shooting grey buttons with the Casull. That would be fine, if it weren't for the fact that you have to do this section twice to get all of the kills, and potentially three or more times if you missed a Coot behind one of the doors. Bigfoot Convention is a simple, yet oddly endearing map that is more enjoyable than it looks.

7/10.

[Quacken]

Penultimate map!

Hoover Dam
Robert Travis

Map Progression

Spoiler

Hang a left after exiting the elevator. Bye, Bubba! Around the other side of this square building, there'll be a ladder you can climb up. Up the ladder, there's a vent which you can break with the Crowbar. Drop down and then walk along the pipe until you get to the next ladder. You eventually want to get to the little sidebar area with the Cow Pie and Ripsaw. Nearby is a ladder you can climb up with two Vixens at the end of this room. Door 1 is here too. Remember this area for later. Turn the switch and you'll see that a door opens from across the bars. You'll need to back out of here and make two lefts to find yourself at the foot of the ladder to that door. It has a bunch of Turd Minions in it. Climb up the ladder and follow the path to the right. This path ends with a locked elevator, which you can unlock by locating the vent next to it, breaking it and entering, then crawl along the crawlspace until you find a switch. Keep going down the halls and you'll find a switch which floods the entire place, along with Key 1. Flip that, then go up the elevator and turn right. Now you need to locate that box with the two Vixens in it again, which you can see from the bars. Surface up where the ladder is and head for Door 1, which now works, taking you back up to the start. Now the water level in the dam has raised, which allows you to walk across the gap to the other side.

This other side has two Vixens, another ladder you need to climb and another vent you have to break. When you drop into this next area, you'll fall into a pool of water that will slowly rise up. Just wait around until you can get to the ladder. When you're up after the ladder, hug the right wall and you'll come to a switch. Flip that, and an opening emerges from the brown pipe you passed by on your way to here. You should also pay attention to Door 2, which is the dark gray metal door. This next area is sort of a boss arena. You need to climb up the three ladders and press on the switch at each of them to open the way forward. Don't forget to get Key 2, it's on one of the dry gray ledges. When you've done everything here, another closet opens which has a a ladder to climb up. That takes you back to where Door 2 is. Going through the door and flipping the switch starts the second flooding sequence. Climb up the ladder, break the vent and crawl through it. Then swim out and surface up at the top, on the bronze ledge. Run for the elevator, kill the Sheriff, then reach around his desk to find three buttons you can press that open up all of the jail cells, one of which contains Bubba.

Hoover Dam is quite an adventure - starting off on the left side of the dam, you witness Bubba being slowly abducted by a Sheriff, and you having to go down a vent and land in the belly of the beast. Hoover Dam is a very gray maze stuffed with concrete, machinery textures, water and pipes, not to mention Turd Minions. It also only has a very minimal resemblance to the actual Hoover Dam. This map only has 49 monsters, but it doesn't really feel like that. Robert Travis throws you a mix of some decently enjoyable scuffles and others that are superbly annoying without resorting to cheese. The two Vixens near Door 1 are damn near impossible to kill without finding the Hunting Rifle that's out of the way at the start, and the Hulk and Turd ambush after the first elevator is highly mean and only handleable on a Casull start if you manage to squeeze by and get the Teat Guns. The mini boss arena in the second half is a good concept though. I think it would have been much better if there were monsters on the ledges to push you away from them. As it stands its kind of simple to camp out the Hulks. While it would have been incredibly easy to turn Hoover Dam into an incomprehensible mess, Robert Travis keeps the runtime decently short while still exercising plenty of ambition, making this one of the highlights of Route 66.

8/10.

[Quacken]

You Slapped Her Down Hard! The custom credits at the end of the mapset upon beating Oddity Museum confirms Ty Matthews and Eric Boltjes' involvement. But it also lists Ryan Isenberg, David Payne (most likely Legion D. Payne), Scott Haslam, Keith Hazelet and Paul Jury. It still doesn't credit each mapper with the maps they specifically made though, so that's still a mystery. Ryan Isenberg did sign his map he made for Twin Dragon (Toxic Waste Facility), so I have no idea why he didn't do the same here. I also don't know why Sunstorm signed on Paul Jury out of anyone else from BDP Team.

Oddity Museum
Robert Travis

Map Progression

Spoiler

Follow the billboard and take the next left to find the Oddity Museum. The next required door after entering the building is to enter the I-MAX theatre. On the side, you'll see four seemingly random symbols. What you have to do here is to go up to the observation deck to take note of the symbol etched into the ground. Then go back and press on the correct symbol. That opens up the theatre. At the lowest level of seats (where the Vixen is) is Key 1. Door 1 is the blue door at the reception desk. Follow the hall, go outside, go back inside briefly and then go outside for real, hug either wall to get around the huge rock, and you'll find a huge alien mothership. Jump in, platform across the shapes, and you'll land in a blue maze. Use the automap to solve it, I'm not gonna tell you what directions you need to take. You'll eventually be able to look out and see a huge abyss with several Coot textures pasted to the walls. Turn left at the end of the path here and keep walking. You'll suddenly be teleported to the boss arena. Beat the Vixen Queen and make sure to not die. The map ends after that.

Oddity Museum is a rather quiet conclusion to Route 66. It firstly actually looks quite nice. There's quite a few unique textures here and some cool setpieces. The Alien head first appeared in MAP02 in the Freak Show but it's now the headlining signpost of the museum. There's also the panels on the side of the I-MAX Theatre, and the observation deck has some neat sector art. Tying the observation deck to the panels was just good enough of a puzzle to get me stuck on my first time playing this map for about 10 minutes. The mothership after Door 1 is quite impressive, but I don't like that there's four Vixens in yet another golf course, where it's entirely too easy to be shot at from long distances. I didn't even register Vixens can snipe you until now. The halls of (presumably) clones to be deployed and sent to Earth was definitely a bother to make, and so would the big setpiece with the blocks of incubated Coots. You're also just dropped into the final boss arena without a warning, which seems pretty awkward to me. The Vixen Queen is as she was in the base game. The jump kick attack gets a little more mileage here because she likes to use it for momentum as opposed to doing damage, and there's less cover, but playing your ammo smart will give you maxed out Teat Guns. One last thing I want to point out is the new credits screen, which is pretty well put together and features a slideshow of Leonard and Bubba goofing off in each map. All complements to Dave Manuel for doing the new textures, which are the best thing about this mapset. Oddity Museum is a simple ending map, but not terrible, and an obvious improvement compared to Close Encounters.

6.5/10.

Closing Thoughts

Route 66 is the expansion that didn't need to exist, and honestly didn't have the right to exist. It certainly has some great characteristics - it has a decently stacked roster of late 90s mappers, and in terms of visual fidelity it is probably the strongest of the three commercial RR mapsets, with custom textures for nearly every map. Sunstorm also designed their maps with much more kindness for the player than Xatrix' three goons did for RR1, which resulted in my walkthrough posts being much shorter and easier to write. However, for everything Sunstorm did to try and improve on Xatrix's foundation, it's ultimately just RR1. I keep thinking about what would happen if Sunstorm were told to wait for RRRA to come out and then to make an expansion for that game. Or if Xatrix actually started their game in 1994 like 3D Realms did and thus didn't have to make RRRA... and also have to rush that game too. Route 66's combat blends together for the most part, and without music the only real thing to distinguish any of these maps is their visuals. While these maps all look great, visuals are usually not the lynchpin to a map. It was definitely worth the two playthroughs I've now done of this mapset, but like with RR1 it is a hugely acquired taste. My final rating for Suckin' Grits on Route 66 is a 6/10.

And, here's my vote:

Back in Business + The Conundrum + Maps by Aleks Pistol (Ledsbourne) +
Maps by Jason Bredhauer + Maps by Juha Laaksonen + Maps by Kevin Cools +

[FistMarine]

@NY00123: Cool. Thanks for all that information. So it looks like I was partially right, though I may have meant that both are correct instead of neither theories being correct, sorry for the confusion caused. Either way, it is interesting to know that only the RR game code is based off somewhere between Duke3D 1.3D and 1.4, while the interface is based off Duke3D 1.5. This also explains why game behavior is much closer to 1.3D with some 1.4 bits, while the interface (game startup, main menu, save/load menu, etc) has more in common with 1.5. I guess when RR was getting finalized, Apogee/3DRealms gave Xatrix the updated Duke3D source code, so it would be more stable than whatever they were given before. And obviously RR:RA being built on top of RR, while RDH (Redneck Deer Hunting) was built on top of RR:RA.

@Quacken: Very impressed by how fast you finished/reviewed this whole expansion and even provided a short walkthrough for each level, which I appreciate. I didn't do walkthroughs this time since the Route 66 maps are far more straightforward, so that a walkthrough is not needed, especially with the YouTube playlists provided in my earlier review. And as usual, I'm quite behind with my reviews, so let's fix that.

Anyway, yesterday was my birthday, so let's celebrate with a review of the first half of second episode of Route 66!

ROUTE 66 - PART 2

Gassin' Up (GAS.MAP)

Kills: 0
Secrets: 0

The first Episode 2 map takes place at a Gas Station. It is slightly more detailed than E1L1 (Hit the Road), though the bathroom appears to have been taken from E1L7 (Fun Park). You start inside the bathroom, so feel free to use the toilet to gain 10 HP, assuming you finished the last level with less than 100 health.

Bubba will be waiting you at the car. Once again, you just need to approach him to finish the level. Same rules apply from before where you can kill him and then quickly run to the ending sector but you still won't get credited with the kill, so don't do that.

Since this is the start of the second episode, you can also select this map from the main menu by choosing "ROUTE 66 - PART 2" at the episode selection screen. This is incredibly useful if you are playing on the hardest skill setting where you can't save your game. If you manage to finish the first episode, then you basically have a checkpoint here and can continue playing directly from the second episode at a later time.


House of Ill Repute (RANCH.MAP)

Kills: 74
Secrets: 5

Jesus Christ! What was the mapper thinking with the enemy placement here? Looks like the Alien Vixens are haphazardly placed at nearly every corner, sometimes even facing 2-3 at once. I mean sure we are playing on the fourth skill level, so it's supposed to be hard as hell but I'm sure there are plenty of them even at the lower skill levels, so regardless of the skill, you still have to face many of them.

I mean to be honest here, hasn't the mapper asked themselves that maybe, just MAYBE, there are a tad too many vixens? And of course most of them are the common powerful blue (blonde hair) variant who has 1000 HP. But there is also the extremely rare blue (orange hair) variant who has 2000 HP! She appears in this map once and at least one or two more times in the penultimate map. I don't think this variant ever appears in the original game but here she does and it's just an even more overpowered variant with no other extra attacks, just having twice as much health compared to the common blue variant.

Seriously now, even the original common blue variant is quite overpowered if used too often. So why not use the weakest green variant more often and then an occasional brown and blue one? Why couldn't the mappers realize that the green one is the weakest one? At least the green vixen is somewhat fun to fight, since she has only 500 HP (on par with the Sheriff) and lacks the bullshit hitscan attack. The brown one has 750 HP and has most attacks available, while the blue variant has 1000 HP and has similarly most attacks available as I already mentioned before. Therefore, the "orange hair" variant has no reason to exist, since we also have the boss variant who has 3000 HP, appearing only at the end of the game with a different appearance, an added jumping kick attack and ending the episode upon dying. So yeah, there exist FIVE different variants in total and most of them are just slight variations of each other.

Anyway, after ranting about the vixens and how unbalanced they are, let's see how is the map after all. As is the hardcoded behavior of Redneck Rampage, you will lose ALL your weapons at the start of E2L2, though you get to keep the inventory items at least. As a fun fact, if you die and restart the level, you get to start with the pistol (though the inventory items will be lost). This happens in the original game as well. No idea how the source ports handle this but this was worth pointing out just in case. Luckily, the truck has a whole bunch of goodies inside that you can get. And you will need them because of what awaits you next.

Design wise, the map is actually okay and I like how the houses are designed but gameplay wise can be miserable, even though this is the ONLY map in the entire expansion to feature the Delicious Clusters. There's actually THREE of them (inside secret areas), as TheDragonLiner mentioned, so if you are resourceful, you can save two for the end and finish with 200 HP, assuming you aren't pistol starting each map. Though from what our fellow Dragon says, you are better off making use of them when combined with meters in green zone for best effect possible. Otherwise, if you hoard them for the end, you will have 200 health when starting the next level but due to meters resetting to zero, you will be taking full damage until the health drops below 100 and then you can start consuming the health items to build up the meters.

What's funny is that I was actually doing fine in the first half of the map with one cluster picked up from a secret place but then things went downhill starting with the basement. Even though I had 122 HP and meters in the green zone, I got instantly killed by a blue Vixen just in same second the Gut meter went into the yellow zone. Just complete bullshit bad luck here and the sewer sections weren't any better. They were actually the lowest point of the map and could have been better without them, as either I get killed by the sneaky vixen or blow up myself with the explosives, mostly because I try to kill those Poop Minions as fast as I can before they self-destruct or somehow warp inside the walls.

I wasn't a fan of the barn sections either, as there's even more vixens to be found, one being that rare variant described above, who can take about 100 ammo from your own Teat Gun to put down. And then there is the puzzle with the buttons, which simply requires you to shoot them all to temporary open the door. You then fight TWO more vixens at once: one green and one blue. Good luck not getting slaughtered by them or the Powder Keg exploding nearby. After taking care of them, grab the key, then get out of the place. Eventually, you should see the useless buffoon waiting for you.

Overall, this level was kinda meh, despite the interiors being well designed. The gameplay just wasn't very enjoyable to me here due to the abundance of the alien bitches. Hopefully the next map is better.


Mystery Dino Cave (COFFIN.MAP)

Kills: 98
Secrets: 3

Another meh map. It is quite confusing at times and there are some difficult fights that gave me a hard time (random deaths caused by hulks and vixens), even though I started this map with 200 health (the only time in this expansion), I found myself running a bit short on health at times (mostly halfway through the level) and that's without taking into account the deaths caused by accidentally blowing myself with the crossbow because I wanted to make sure I kill those shitty monkeys as fast as I could inside those caves. If they get stuck inside walls or self-destruct, then you can no longer get all the kills. Not that it matters here because of the "N/A" varmints left at end of level stats but still worth pointing out if you want to kill everything that moves.

Another annoying thing about this map is that one secret is UNREACHABLE! It seems that one sector outside of map was accidentally tagged as secret. It is the only unreachable secret in the entire RR series. Therefore, the maximum amount of secrets you can get here is 3. The only other notable thing is that there are Ghost Dogs in this map. Outside of that, I don't have anything else to say besides shooting Bubba once in anger at the end with the Shotgun and then as soon as I crowbar him, he dies and so do I. Good thing I saved earlier before doing that. And while I admit that was my bad, he deserved getting shot for not helping me. Though I appreciate the single can of Beer that he didn't get to drink but since I was already at 100 health with the inventory items at full (Whiskey, Beer and Cow Pie), my only response is "Thanks for nothing!".

In the end, the various annoyances (including the unreachable secret) dragged down this map considerably for me. Next map please.


Campy Crystal Lake (CAMPY.MAP)

Kills: 82
Secrets: 4

This map is slightly better than the previous two maps. And I realize that Blood already had a similarly styled map done by about seven months in advance. The effort that Sunstorm did here is still appreciated.

The progression is slightly confusing at times but not more so than the previous maps or the original game which had a few truly confusing maps. And the fights can be quite a bit challenging at times, with enemies ambushing you at some points while you may not expect them, like when you surface into that cave and find yourself surrounded by hitscanners around you. Though in general the fights are pretty interesting and the map is fun to do with the meters in green zone, especially since it is generous with the health items that allows you to balance the meters correctly.

Oh and as for the teleporters existence in Redneck Rampage, I'd like to believe it's the aliens that set up the teleporters, as those people would be too dumb to even know what's a teleporter. I also don't think there were any broken monster spawners for me, I believe I should have gotten all the kills but I have no way to tell since it reads "N/A" enemies left at the end of level stats and the GDX playthrough with the level stats enabled I followed, isn't always helpful due to some enemies not adding/counting as kills and the player who recorded the videos doesn't gib the corpses to dogs, sheriffs and vixens, all of these enemies only crediting you with one kill if you gib their corpses (if you don't gib their corpses with an explosive, you aren't credited). In most of the levels I was able to tell I got everything but in some I couldn't figure out if I did or not. And yes I learned this information in past few years and since then, I always gib those corpses to get the maximum amount possible.

Also funny how there is a corpse of Bubba you can find around in the map, though obviously that can't be the real one because you find the real one at the end who is waiting near the car. In the end, despite some questionable design choices, this map was decent and provided a mostly good time, considering I only died about three times in total, as opposed to the previous two maps killing me about 10 times each.


The rest of the episode will be reviewed in next two days. Have a nice day.

[Quacken]

Happy birthday FistMarine! I didn't actually know about the Burnt Sienna Vixen. (I'm officially coining the term Burnt Sienna Vixen because it's a mix of blue, their skin, and orange, their hair.) Another way you can tell them apart is that they have some added voicelines that even the Vixen Queen doesn't have. I know at least one of their new lines is "I don't bite..."

There's no new Deathmatch maps by the way, which is pretty unfortunate as all of the other Sunstorm expansions have new Deathmatch maps. Some of these maps could have featured good segments to be cut down into DM maps too - removing access to the cellar would have made House of Ill Repute a decent DM skirmish, sealing the lake and trapping people inside the cave would be a nightmarish yet still fitting DM map based on Mystery Dino Cave, and a DM map based on the flee market in Flea Market seems like an obvious choice too. Maybe the maps themselves were designed for both Deathmatch and Single Player.

[FistMarine]

Thanks Quacken! That's a funny name you gave to that Vixen variant.

From what I know, the five variants can usually be identified just by looking at their color. Haven't paid much attention to their voices. I only wish the weaker variants were more often used but it seems all RR games and especially user maps suffer from using the blue variant way too often, which isn't helped by the fact it's the default variant (pal 0). Also one thing to add to the last post, in Campy Crystal Lake, you don't have to hit Bubba with the crowbar to finish, just approach him to exit.

Anyway, here is the review for the rest of the Route 66 and the overall conclusion. It is quite a lengthy post, so grab the popcorn and enjoy!

BigFoot Convention (BIGFOOT.MAP)

Kills: 59
Secrets: 4

Another map I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, the location is interesting and the trailers are pretty nice, especially the one whose interior is bigger on the inside. On the other hand, the design is quite bland, the combat is okay though somewhat repetitive and the puzzle at the end is a pain in the ass with keyboard only controls, since the pistol is not very accurate when hitting switches (same problem as in Duke3D) and that's without taking into account the one secret located at around the same place (shoot one of the red buttons to get the last secret near you).

If you are having trouble completing the puzzle even with the mouselook, just ask yourself how people back in the day did it, especially keyboard only. Although I didn't play this game back in the day (I played a lot of Duke3D though), I am doing it old-school style with arrow keys and such, so although the puzzle can be difficult, it's still doable, thus you have no excuse to not do it with modern controls. I still recommend doing a bit of save-scumming, especially since I had one nasty thing happen to me in one past playthroughs where one of the timed doors/walls close on top of me and squished me.

As for the gameplay, combat can be a bit difficult since the pistol guys continue to be annoying with their insane accuracy sometimes, like the one time I got shot 2-3 times in a row by the same guy. But despite spending most of the time with around 30-50 health and occasionally using the toilet in one of the trailers at the beginning of the level, I still managed to survive to the end. Plus there weren't as many food items as I wished, so the toilet was useful to lower the Alcohol meter when it was in the orange zone. I found that standing near the toilet while drinking and pissing is the best result since it will lower the alcohol meter quickly, usually into the left side of the orange zone but after a while it goes into the green zone.

Oh and having to rescue Bubba at the end because he can't deal with a single alligator, I am still not amused by that, even though I appreciate the mapper's intention of adding a bit more to the "story". And the fact backtracking is allowed is also a positive in my book, especially if you want to get all the kills, even if this means having to redo the puzzle again. I don't like that the water sector at end is a hard surface, so you lose a bit of the health upon dropping down. However I learned recently if you drop to the right side, you can avoid the fall damage and finish the level with 100 hp.

Overall, this map was meh. The only good thing is that this was the only E2 map (not counting the intro map) that I beat without dying in this playthrough, since most of the E2 can be quite tough. And maybe also the location being somewhat interesting but outside of that, this feels closer to a typical RR map. Maybe the next map will be better?


Hoover Dam (HOOVRDAM.MAP)

Kills: 65
Secrets: 1

Probably the most impressive level in the whole expansion. It's also pretty good in the gameplay department, although it is a bit too vixen heavy and the mappers also decided for some reason to use not one but TWO very rare "orange hair" variants. I actually got killed a few times by the vixens in the halfway point of the map, which was getting a bit on my nerves but I handled the second half perfectly fine with the meters in green zone and losing very little health, even with other tough fights like the two hulks you fight in that spacious room and more vixens later in the map. The other deaths I've had were caused by blowing myself up with the Crossbow but that's because whenever I see groups of poop minions, I just try to kill them as fast as possible to make sure to get all the kills.

Oh yeah and although Bubba can be seen initially with a Sheriff (it's a fake one), you can't reach him by normal means, unless you use the Moonshine and crowbar him in time, as I watched an YouTube video many years ago that showed this trick. Though at the end of the level you get to fight the Sheriff and rescue Bubba. The way this is done is because there are multiple "copy-pasted" sectors throughout the whole map, like when you revisit a place that is currently being flooded, it's actually a different section of the map thanks to Build engine trickery.

Furthermore, this level is very linear and remember that there is only one secret before the control room with the vixens and big switch. It contains a Whiskey bottle and can be spotted from a misaligned wall. In rest, grab everything before advancing through the map because of the various points of no return.

This is definitely the highlight of the pack, although I wish the mappers stopped abusing the powerful vixen variants, then the gameplay would be much better.


Oddity Museum (ALIEN.MAP)

Kills: 51
Secrets: 1

The final level is interesting at least. It features some tough battles and I am still puzzled why nearly every Vixen is the default blue one. It is especially frustrating in the area with the UFO, you have to fight FOUR of them and even with meters in green zone, it was painful to do.

You can't snipe them with the pistol because it takes a long time to kill them and the autoaim will cause you to hit others when one teleports and then they will gang up on you. And as if it wasn't enough, there are TWO more to fight on those platforming segments. No, they won't die if they fall off the platforms and makes me wonder why they are even there. If you don't care about getting all the kills, just let them fall and they won't bother you anymore.

If you are trying to kill both of them without any of them falling, this will result in a test of the patience and can lead to many cheap/unfair deaths. After doing this, NOW it's your chance to backtrack (you can teleport back if you stand in the initial sector and even if you manage to make a long jump from the first platform). Afterwards, there is no way back, so I hope you picked up the map's only secret with the two TNT crates earlier, which is located around the place where you fight two Alien Hulks, before arriving in the UFO field.

Afterwards, you just do some more platforming, fight a couple more enemies, teleport to last area that has like FOUR (or FIVE) vixens. Most of them are the Brown variants and can be easily killed with the Teat Gun. The last one is the Final Boss variant from the original game, which means no new boss or anything, so don't hold your breath. It is basically a rematch of the original game's boss fight.

The fight went well initially when I killed the brown variants without taking any damage but the final boss gave me a bit of a trouble this time with a few cheap deaths, good thing I have saved in advance because I have no patience redoing fights, especially in RR due to the randomness.

Another problem with this fight is that you are only provided with a Whiskey Bottle (and two more in the previous blue maze) and I suppose two teat gun ammo pickups scattered around the arena but there are no food items to counter the drunkenness, if you happen to get drunk and also no toilets to use anywhere. However, if you arrived in the maze with the Gut meter in the green zone, there is a bit of a hope for the final battle to go smooth. Either way, after a few attempts, I emerged victorious against the bitch with just 11 health left.

Then you get to see a new cutscene or rather some credits scenes made up in Build and see everyone who worked on the expansion, as is the case with every Sunstorm expansion ending. And that's it. After you have seen the credits, the ending screen with Leonard and Bubba's ugly close-up faces and the results screen, you get the intro cutscenes and eventually the main menu, which has a chance to become a glitched main menu. Yes, that's how glitchy the original game can be. It doesn't always happen but it's still worth pointing out.

Overall, Oddity Museum is much better than Close Encounters (ENDGAME.MAP) was from the original game, that's for sure. Even if the final boss was recycled, the effort to make an actual ending map is appreciated.




CONCLUSION

Route 66 is an interesting expansion for Redneck Rampage. For many, it's what the original game should have been. Many of the levels are much better designed compared to the original levels.

Unfortunately, Route 66 doesn't fix any of the issues with the base game but at least the balance and the gameplay is usually better. And while there are still a few confusing levels, I think the progression is far more straightforward than the original game. The only problem is that it's not very consistent, especially in the second episode. And the difficulty is all over the place, especially the second episode that will give you a beating in most of the levels, mostly thanks to the overpowered Vixens. Which brings us to the issues to this expansion because it's not perfect and Redneck Rampage already has plenty of issues and the expansion obviously inherits the issues but I'm not going into detailing everything wrong with the game, so my criticism will only focus on the expansion.

I really HATE the overuse of the default Blue Vixen variant. Why couldn't they use the Green one instead? I have complained enough so far but the default blue variants are quite overpowered and not fun to fight in high numbers. If they used the Green and Brown ones more often with an occasional Blue one (not the awful orange hair one, though I think she should have appeared during the final battle), then I would appreciate the enemy placement better and would reduce the amounts of potential deaths. But as it stands, it is too much luck based whether you will survive or not, even if you are using the most powerful weapons in your arsenal and building up your meters in the green zone.

Besides new maps, new textures, a new loading screen, a new enemy and a new ending, Route 66 doesn't offer anything new. Everything else remains the exact same, despite the new levels and new textures having some effort put into them. No new weapons, no actual new monsters, no new cutscenes (besides the unique ending that plays when you kill the final boss), no new intermission graphics, no new soundtrack and so on. Though the box art features the new R66 logo and some new pictures. If you look closely on the sides of the Route 66 box, you can see Leonard and Bubba taking pictures during their vacation: https://www.mobygame...oute-66/covers/

And the reason why Route 66 wasn't made for Rides Again is because Rides Again was released months later, so it kinda made sense the expansion pack to be for the main game. If it was made for Rides Again, there would have been another expansion, probably done by another team.

Which reminds me, last year there were news revealed that Simply Silly Software (the same company behind Duke Zone II, Duke Nuclear Winter and Deadly Kiss) was meant to create an expansion for RR but in the end, it was cancelled. You can read the details on this topic here: https://forums.duke4...t/page__st__270

And while I don't agree with Quacken that the Route 66 expansion had no reason to exist, his rating of 6/10 is pretty much spot on. I would have given Route 66 a little bit more if it was released a bit earlier and had received more polish, as I mentioned above. This expansion was released just around the time Quake 2 was released in stores, so you can already imagine that most people moved on to Quake 2. Not to mention the original game was already dated when it came in April 1997 and the sequel was even more dated when it came in March (or May?) 1998. But despite that and despite the same rating (6/10) given for the main game and the expansion, I vastly prefer the Route 66 levels over the original levels.

Now I know that the original Redneck levels were slightly more impressive and pushing the Build engine to its limits but Sunstorm understood more how to make the levels more fun, more straightforward and more balanced (except for the extra health items being extremely rare), so although the Route 66 levels may lack some details or may be less impressive, they are far more enjoyable overall, even with their issues present and the second episode being less consistent.

At the end of the day, Suckin' Grits on Route 66 is pretty much more Redneck Rampage. It's both easier and harder at same time, at least if you compare some of the levels but I think I died about 50 times in total, most of my deaths coming from four levels in the second episode and 10 deaths in two levels from the first episode. And Bubba is just as useless as before, no matter how the story portrays him. If you liked the original Redneck Rampage, you will enjoy Route 66. If you didn't, there is no reason to check this out, as it's literally more of the same.

Anyway, looks like... no one has won actually. Because this month ended in a tie, I propose next month that the three mappers (Jason Bredhauer, Juha Laaksonen, Kevin Cools) will get chosen, while Aleks' maps/mods will be chosen in January. There are several reasons for that:
1) Some of those maps created by the three mappers are very "Duke Atomic" inspired, while a few others are very Christmas themed. Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition v1.5 was released just two weeks before Christmas in 1996, so what better way than to celebrate by playing these maps?
2) Aleks' birthday is in mid January, so his maps/mods being chosen for January works better as a birthday present.
3) Aleks mentioned last month that he is working on another map and it is a better idea to nominate his works then, so that the newest map is also included in the package. Because I wanted to be fair, I didn't want to remove the nomination, as it wasn't even my nomination in first place, so I kept it like that.
4) I wanted to play through the recently released 2023 maps with the latest 2023 December EDuke32 build. I figured that waiting another month will pay off.
5) I wanted to begin 2024 with a bang and what better way than to (re)play through Aleks' fantastic maps/mods? Especially since the anniversary of Duke Nukem 3D shareware version is on 29th January. So I wanted to make things more special for that month, as people are more likely to celebrate that date compared to the dates of the Full Version/Atomic Edition. Kinda like how people celebrate Doom's anniversary on 10th December, when the initial shareware version was released, as opposed to the dates when the full game or the sequel came out.

Regardless, new nominations will resume in January. Hope everyone is okay with that. Have a nice day and see you on the December edition of the club!

[Quacken]

Who would have thought that out of all of the Build Engine protagonists, Leonard could have been the second one to meet the devil? And who knew that Interplay wrote such long legal documents? My main theory for Sunstorm overusing Blue Vixens is that they simply didn't know that the different colours had different health values and just thought the colours were cosmetic. I didn't even know until about last week when you told everyone in your House of Ill Repute review. I don't know how easy it is to change palettes on actors in the old Build editor, but another reason could be is that Sunstorm were just really strapped for time and simply didn't have enough of it to switch the palettes around. However, I would say the Burnt Sienna Vixens (have to get that name in just one more time!) are intentionally placed since the map makers would have to have selected that palette and they probably would have noticed they were much harder to kill during testing.