Duke Map/Mod of the Month Club - February 2024

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Duke Map/Mod of the Month Club - February 2024 "Duke's Fantastic Shovelware Adventure"

FistMarine

#1 Posted 01 February 2024 - 04:24 AM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Previous 2024 Editions

Spoiler

Previous 2023 Editions

Spoiler

Previous 2022 Editions

Spoiler

Previous 2021 Editions

Spoiler

For this month, Duke!Zone II has been chosen.

If you are familiar with the Zone! series and the Duke Nukem 3D's addons, you already know that Duke!Zone II was a commercial (and semi-official) addon for Duke Nukem 3D released in early 1997. It was developed by Simply Silly Software (the same people who would make Duke: Nuclear Winter later that year) and published by WizardWorks.

Duke!Zone II not only includes the first Duke!Zone as well (which contains 500 user maps for Duke3D) but also THREE unique episodes designed for all versions of Duke Nukem 3D! Featuring 21 levels of dubious quality, split across three episodes, Duke!Zone II would go down in history as one of the worst addons ever created for DN3D. Nowadays, it is considered abandonware and can be downloaded for free from various sources.

Duke!Zone II was also included (without the first Duke!Zone) in various compilations such as Duke: The Apocalypse, Duke Nukem 3D: Kill-a-Ton Collection, the old 3DRealms Anthology digital release and the digital release of Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition available at Zoom-Platform. The latter even includes the first Duke!Zone as a bonus.

Duke!Zone II is also available for free as an addon designed for EDuke32, featuring various bug-fixes done by NightFright. Changes include making E1L7 available as a secret level, which previously could only be reached by using command line parameters. For more information regarding changes/fixes and installation, consult the readme file.

Installation

If you are playing the DOS version of Duke Nukem 3D and have the Duke!Zone II CD (or Apocalypse CD or Kill-a-Ton Collection CD), all you have to do is copy the contents of the DZ2 folder (if running Duke3D 1.3D) or DZ2PP folder (if running Duke3D 1.4/1.5) and paste the contents into your DUKE3D directory.

It is recommended to make a copy of your DUKE3D folder, rename it to DZ2 or DZ2PP, depending of your version of the game and paste that folder's contents into your own. Then, when using DOSBox (or a retro PC), you can start the launcher D!Z2.EXE and select the episode and difficulty, then play.

A small note regarding the launcher and the mod's confusing difficulty. If you press the EASY button, the game will launch on Let's Rock difficulty. If you press the HARD button, the game will launch on Come Get Some difficulty. You can choose any episode and skill in-game but the episode names will not be replaced if playing the original 1.3D release, so here are the equivalents of DN3D and DZ2 episodes if you are playing the original 1.3D release and don't know which episode is which:

L.A. Meltdown = Arctic Assault
Lunar Apocalypse = Alien Abby
Shrapnel City = Monkey Shines

The mod's difficulty is pretty damn hard, at least for the first two episodes, regardless of what skill you pick. That's because the mod has a couple levels without much thought put into the difficulty settings. Some maps take into account all difficulties (yes even a few extra enemies available on Damn I'm Good skill level, good luck beating the mod on that skill) but others only have like one or a few extra enemies on higher skills and that's pretty much it. And I haven't even talked about how some levels feature heavy enemy spawns, which are unaffected by difficulty levels.

On top of that, the harder levels are front-loaded, with the game becoming much easier as you progress past the first two episodes. By comparison, episode three is much easier with better and more straightforward design, with exception of one level halfway in the episode (you will know when you get to that level).

I advice to save your game often (have a backup save for each level and have multiple saves for the current level) and progress cautiously. If you are playing continuously, it is recommended to finish the levels with as much health and armor as possible. While the ammo is usually abundant in each level, the health/armor can be a bit scarce in some levels and having some extra from the previous level can help a lot. And that's without taking into account the many death traps present in some of the levels. You have been warned!

If you are playing in the original 1.3D release, be careful of the paletted enemies appearing in some levels. Those enemies have twice as much health, making the combat even more frustrating. Also, if you are playing the original 1.3D release, when finishing an episode and returning to the title screen, the game will quit trying to play the first demo while it tries to find E2L8.MAP, which doesn't exist in the mod (the second and third episodes are only defined up to E2L7 and E3L7 respectively). The solution is to simply delete the two original DMO files and the three new demos will now play.

Speaking of which, there are three new demos that will play if you quit to main menu. They are only compatible with version 1.3D and are played at the Come Get Some difficulty.
DEMO1 -> E2L2 -> Player does surprisingly well and eventually he gets killed by an enemy horde.
DEMO2 -> E1L5 -> Player does well until he gets killed by a pig cop.
DEMO3 -> E1L2 -> Player does okay until demo desyncs and he gets killed by a pig cop, then the rest of the demo is shown with the player dead in slime.

If you are playing in EDuke32 or any other source port, all you need is to download the fixed version of the addon and forget about playing the original version of the addon. Or if you have bought the version at Zoom-Platform, then that version may also include its own bug-fixes. Not sure about that, I don't have Duke Nukem 3D at the Zoom-Platform to confirm if there are any changes.

And finally, if you don't have Duke!Zone II at all or you aren't interested in getting the full version for some reason (you can find the original at archive.org), then you can just download the DEMO VERSION! It only features a slightly modified version of DZ2's E1L5 without any exit. When you get to the end, instead of fighting the boss, you get a message telling you to buy the full version.

Downloads

Duke!Zone II - Demo Version
https://www.dosgames...ile.php?id=1259

Duke!Zone II - Fixed Release
http://www.duke4.org...c/dukezone2.zip

Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition - Zoom Platform
https://www.zoom-pla...-atomic-edition

Screenshots

Screenshots from the actual launcher.

Have fun!

This post has been edited by FistMarine: 01 February 2024 - 04:30 AM

Quacken

#2 Posted 02 February 2024 - 02:00 AM

Hi! I tried to find the mapping credits for this mapset but there wasn't anything. I wonder if the original text file that doesn't come with the "Fixed Version" might have it...

Outskirts

There's two things in life I will swallow up without question: Hawaiian pizza, and 90s WizardWorks shovelware. Outskirts is the latter, but unlike Nuclear Winter I'm not really seeing the comedy factor here. Outskirts is a rather typical (you might even say stereotypical) late 90s joint with only 32 monsters. Fortunately, whoever made this map was nice enough to make it only take one key and for it to only last under 4 minutes. And even the key is optional. You can skip the Red Key, however easy it may be to get, by jumping from one of the barrels in the tunnel up to the catwalk above. The only part of the map that rubs me against a cactus is the damaging floor donut with Sentry Drones. The switch to proceed is blocked by tripmines that will kill you instantly. The switch is close enough for you to just barely stand outside of the tripmines and press it though, so you just gotta Neo it. Outskirts is out in 5 minutes and skirts the line between being funny and being annoying.

5/10.

Slime Station

Choo choo! All aboard the slow-the-hell-down trains! The gimmick with this map is there are two trains that move as if they'll be dead tomorrow. Trying to board them is like trying to stick your dominant hand into a hippopotamus, and trying to fight the Pig Cops on the trains is like trying to take the hand back out without losing it. The secrets are laughably simple to find as you can find an RPG pretty easily, and they are ludicrously overpowered, containing way more supplies than you'll ever need to finish the map. You can also find the Jetpack, which... doesn't even make boarding the trains any easier! I get a lot of ironic enjoyment out of this map. It's so stupid in its concept that I can't help but love it. Here's hoping that Duke!ZONE II maintains the same level of "quality".

7/10.

Aleks

#3 Posted 02 February 2024 - 04:49 AM

I haven't touched D!Z2 since 2012 or so, but decided to give it another shot, using the "fixed" version (mostly for regular access to 4-Way Stop). Of course it isn't peak quality of level design, but I do remember it quite fondly from back when I first played it - maybe because it was quite early (around 1999 or so) when I would just cling into anything, but I do remember some of the maps being actually good and fun, plus there's a lot of cool concepts - so I wouldn't necessarily call it shovelware, at least I honestly prefer the quality here over e.g. Nuclear Winter (besides Santa Claws, which was a great boss enemy). Played a few levels last night. Using Rednukem and EAC fixed version.

Outskirts
I remembered the beginning of this one, with the jump from the helicopter, which was pretty cool. The rest of the map is OK - the texturing obviously could have been better, but the spriteworks and all that are surprisingly good. It's a walk in the park regarding the combat, besides maybe the donut with sentry drones mentioned by Quacken - I didn't die in the trap, but got softlocked in the place where you get the pipebomb needed to blow up the trip mines.

Slime Station
For some reason, any memory of this map completely vanished, which is surprising considering it's a pretty good one, at least conceptually. The trains are fast and raging, so getting the keycards might be a bit tricky. I did use jetpack a lot for easier traversal between the different cliffs, it also helped with grabbing the keycards (only later did I spot the red and blue arrows for suggested boarding spots). Fighting the pig cops on the trains was rather amusing IMO. The ending could have been an epic battle against octabrains and pig cops, but apparently 2 well-placed RPG rockets did the job without much hassle.

Cop City
This one did ring a bell here and there, for example the pond trip mine trap with devastator (which I miraculously not triggered) was definitely something I remembered. Not bringing the jetpack from the previous map here can result in a rather cumbersome experience with potential softlocks in the sewers and not being able to access one of the secret places I think. The design is surprisingly good, especially the corridor in the brothel is a fine work, with cool trimming and particularly detailed shadows. There's plenty of convoluted SOS in the map - some of which seems a bit buggy due to having same physical locations on more than 1 Z-layers, but nothing that would affect the gameplay. The final battle is wild and caught me a bit off guard, I really liked it - especially how the battlelords would aggressively march into the police station building. There's a secret exit somewhere in the sewers.

Quacken

#4 Posted 04 February 2024 - 04:28 AM

Back with two more maps of Episode 1!

Cop City

Well, they weren't kidding, there are definitely a lot of Cops here. There's a lot of softlocks, too. Cop City is the "best" map of Duke!ZONE II so far, if by "best" you mean "it's playable and also tries not to be a joke". This is baby's first city map. It hits two of the standard city map locations being a movie theatre and a barely held together police station, throws 98 monsters and pitch black darkness at you, then prays you don't stumble into the sewers accidentally and get softlocked. The only time I actually don't like this map is the final fight, where three Battlelords hit you over the head. They like to get stuck at the doors to the police station though, so take advantage of that. Cop City would be bad if it wasn't also five minutes long.

6/10.

A Quickie

This is the first time I've entered a secret level since August, and to be honest, I'd be happy extending that dry spot for another month. A Quickie goes beyond being a harmless joke and instead becomes an agonizing problem. I'm sure whoever made this map felt really proud of their five Commanders in tight moon rocks, ledges you need to climb up that you can't see, teleporters that take you back to the previous area, and overuse of symmetrical design. A Quickie is over and done with in four minutes, but even that can't save it from its own misery. There's a line between bad but funny maps and just plain bad maps, and this map crossed it.

1/10.

Aleks

#5 Posted 04 February 2024 - 07:00 AM

Finished Arctic Assault, which IIRC is the best episode of D!Z2. Here's the remaining maps' write-ups:

A Quickie

I agree with Quacken about this being perhaps the low-point of the episode, but can't say I've had a miserable time. It took me a while to figure out a way out of the initial area to the "moon" part, since there was invisible blocked wall, but I had a jetpack from previous maps to fly there into the hole. Later, it turned out you can also just jump in the central yellow teleport to go through another way. Then there's the part with commander spam, which was pretty challenging and maybe for all the wrong reasons, but hell I liked it a lot, at least something else than your super regular pedestrian kinda gameplay. The platforming to the nukebutton was quite competent too.

Opening Night

This is the most memorable and probably the best level in the whole addon, at least definitely the best one design-wise. The architecture and layout of the opera looks convincing enough and some of the texture picks are completely exotic, but also very fitting at the same time. The battlelord at the balcony fight is certainly one moment I've always remembered about this map and the whole addon itself. The combat relies heavily on respawning enemies, which makes it pretty dynamic and fast-paced. Not really much critique about this one. The placement of extra secret nukebutton by Night Fright seems to work well, this place looks just like it's supposed to be there anyway. There's one pretty mean tripmine/explosive trap which I set myself on solving and coming out of with more HP than I entered it with, and managed to do it despite how dickish it might seem. Still, the architecture of the opera building, both inside and outside, steals the show here. The shadows are also noteworthy for sure, I assume this map was done by the same person who made Cop City.

4-Way Stop

This level is a "big 1996 city map" with a fairly large layout where it's easy to get lost. The design is rather poor, with lots of random textures just sprawled around, but I kinda like the "slaughterhouse" intense combat - there're monsters everywhere and in large numbers, but also you're given enough ammo so that the whole level is completed in about 5 to 10 minutes. The only part I didn't like was the dark room with shadow enforcers, but that can be partially blamed on me for not using the NVG.

Showdown

Another pretty good level, which I'd assume once again was made by the guy who made E1L3 and E1L4. This time, we have to traverse a series of rooftops, each spawning a new and different wave of enemies - up towards the final, tallest one where a cycloid sits and waits behind triple keycard doors. The keycards (as well as both secret places) are quite naturally collected along the way. The scale of the map and of the combat encounters, sometimes spanning a couple of rooftops over fairly large distances, works surprisingly well. Once again, we are given enough ammo for the heavier weapons - but not an abundance that would make you go cowboy style - to make the encounters smoother. I'd probably get rid of some of the sentry drones, as they tend to just dive all the way down to the street level. The boss at the end is piss easy, as he won't move at all and the rooftop gives you plenty of decent cover - just run around and blast him. It also seems the distances between him and you is rather unfortunate, so most of the time he might have problems on deciding whether to use rockets or octablasts. Fun level with surprisingly open, yet very clear progression and entertaining combat.

This post has been edited by Aleks: 04 February 2024 - 07:00 AM

slacker1

#6 Posted 05 February 2024 - 09:53 AM

I remember seeing this mod back in the day in the stores but never actually owned it. I had 'Duke Assault' which had ~1500 user maps instead. I'm assuming the user maps included in this one probably contain some duplicates of Duke Assault though... Anyway, the idea of a new episodes intrigued me though so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I originally downloaded from the link to Night Fright's fixed version but Firefox warned of a malicious download and then when I extracted the zip, it the grp file was only 721kb. Not sure if that's right and I was suppose to use it with the official grp file or something like that.. Loading with just that small included grp didn't work but searching on the web for the official version worked fine though the episode/level names are all still the original DN3d ones. (I'm using the previous replies to get the names of the levels)

Anyway...

Outskirts

The helicopter jump at the beginning was pretty cool and reminded me of other maps that have started in a similar way. I'm not really sure what this level is suppose to be, I'm guessing just some base located somewhere in the arctic. The only part I didn't like was that reactor core doughnut section with the hurting floor. Even with 100hp and sniping the sentry drone to the left before jumping in, I had just enough health to make it to trip mine switch door which thankfully contains boots. If you run in and back out quick enough, you don't set off the trip mines as they take a second to 'start up'. Then I ran back to get the pipebomb and blew them up and flipped the switch.

The rest of the level is pretty straight forward. Like said in previous replies, the red card isn't really needed as you can side jump from the slime barrels to the higher platform. The outside section looked pretty decent and the follow up underwater secret area that gives you the RPG was a nice touch (doubling you back to the lower half of the earlier room in the base). The lizard troopers flushing invisible toilets as they stood up from the couches in the last room had me wondering what other lack of attention to details were awaiting ahead of me.

All in all, in grading from A to F, I'd give this one a D. Not bad for the time but that reactor core room could have used at least some safe ledge or something somewhere in it to make it less of headache.

Slime Station

I had fun with this level. It was a bit dark playing in the day time but overall it was a decent layout. Having some boots left over from the previous level helped and thankfully there's more boots to be found in the level itself. Getting the enemies on the train I felt like was easiest with using the pistol with the shotgun as a runner up. I appreciated that all the ledges had little steps next to them so you didn't get stuck in the slime or have to double back to some start platform every time you fell down. There's also a bunch of areas hidden in cracks in the walls that contain extra supplies.

The level is pretty straight forward and doesn't overstay its welcome. Hit the switch in the one cave, collect the two key cards on the trains and exit. I actually ended up not using the trains that much except to grab the red and blue key cards and jump to the exit room. They wiz by too quick to get a good look at what platform I'm trying to jump on (at least for me). Getting the key cards from the front train car is probably the hardest part of the level. If you misjudge the jump even a little, you're insta-killed and have to restart the level. Having to do this twice without dying can be really nerve wracking.

For me, this one is a solid C.

This post has been edited by slacker1: 05 February 2024 - 09:57 AM

Aleks

#7 Posted 05 February 2024 - 12:18 PM

slacker1, on 05 February 2024 - 09:53 AM, said:

I think this one has all new maps created by Wizard Works, it was a commercial addon and the maps seem to follow some continuity, at least in the first episode. It was the original Duke! Zone that was shovelware compilation of random, low quality user maps.

Quote

The helicopter jump at the beginning was pretty cool and reminded me of other maps that have started in a similar way. I'm not really sure what this level is suppose to be, I'm guessing just some base located somewhere in the arctic. The only part I didn't like was that reactor core doughnut section with the hurting floor. Even with 100hp and sniping the sentry drone to the left before jumping in, I had just enough health to make it to trip mine switch door which thankfully contains boots. If you run in and back out quick enough, you don't set off the trip mines as they take a second to 'start up'. Then I ran back to get the pipebomb and blew them up and flipped the switch.

The boots can be found earlier in the level, now I'm not sure where exactly, but I've had a pair before entering the donut room (I think they were next to the red key door). The floor makes a quick work of them either way as you have to fight sentry drones, I ended up jumping while shooting at them to save up on boots.

slacker1

#8 Posted 05 February 2024 - 01:48 PM

Aleks, on 05 February 2024 - 12:18 PM, said:

Ah... the download I stumbled across contained both the large amount of user maps and the new episodes so I guess I got 1 & 2 in one.

Aleks, on 05 February 2024 - 12:18 PM, said:

Omg, I wish I found them on my play through. Glad to hear they're there. Boots beforehand would have made that section more bearable I had just come from playing Bright's 'fake abyss' slaughter style map so the extreme difficulty of going in there boot-less didn't strike me as odd enough to think 'There's got to be a better way than this...' haha

This post has been edited by slacker1: 05 February 2024 - 01:48 PM

NightFright

The Truth is in here

#9 Posted 06 February 2024 - 02:08 AM

Recent posts about people having issues getting the addon working inspired me to rework DZ2. Version 2.1 has been released which is now "vanilla proof", i.e. dukezone2.grp has been converted into a real groupfile and doesn't use any special features any more. It's a bit bigger again now (2.8 MB), but in return it should work better for everyone.

Quacken

#10 Posted 07 February 2024 - 04:59 AM

I'm back again. But only for one map, because I am really bad at time management.

Opening Night

Opening Night would be rather inoffensive if it weren't for the fact that the map is constantly trying to assault my ears at every corner. What is up with the Atomic Health deathtrap? No matter how slowly and carefully you take it, you'll always lose more health going in than you do coming out. Not to mention, it's an explosion that gets thrown up in your face without a warning. The "opera" "house" is on fire! Unfortunately, whoever made this map decided to use the ROTT flame trap instead of the fire object. The ROTT flame trap is unused for a reason, placing four of them in a crowded box in pitch black abyss is a recipe for a headache. What also gives me a headache is having to chip off a Battlelord's block with no useful cover, and if you run out of rockets you have to go scrounging in the lava to find the second RPG. Besides the opera house, this map plays around a little more with teleport traps, but a lot of them are pretty mute stuff. Commanders go down pretty easy if you have a bunch of room to work with. This map is less awful than when I played it two days ago, but I still don't like it very much.

4/10.

slacker1

#11 Posted 07 February 2024 - 06:54 PM

Cop City

I actually got turned around in this one for quite a bit. It took me almost 18 minutes to get through the level because I just could not find the first key. The first time I fell down into the sewers and snaked my way to the teleport to head back up, I woke up the Battlelord by the exit on accident. (Didn't know it was there) I ran into the teleport to avoid getting hit scanned to death. It wasn't until combing over the rest of the map multiple times (even unlocking the police station via the other switch in the sewer) that I finally found the yellow key I missed right on the opposite side of the teleporter.

I actually didn't mind the design of this level. It reminded me of one of the many open style city levels from the late 90s but a bit more focused. Some subtle new tiles and sprites were a nice touch too and didn't seem out of place. The final ambush was more or less just spamming the RPG until everything was dead. Not terrible, but also not much strategy in it. The secret level was also pretty easy to find... or maybe that's just because I was searching everywhere for that damn keycard. Also, now that I'm thinking about it... I think the whole movie theater section is pointless right? There's nothing in there but a single atomic health secret from what I can remember...

Rating: C+

A Quickie

Not really much to say about this one. Some nice sector over sector work in the first section. I also liked the Quake I episode select style teleporter in the second area. I didn't even think to use the jetpack to get into the hole in the wall where the water was flowing out of. That would have made it a bit easier to get in though running and jumping wasn't too bad. I did find it weird that they put blocking walls on edges that weren't the sprite walkway on that water area. I suck with the RPG and Devastator in tight quarters so the second part of the map was a good challenge for me. (I only ended up blowing myself up once!

) All in all, I liked this one.

Rating: B-

This post has been edited by slacker1: 07 February 2024 - 06:57 PM

Aleks

#12 Posted 08 February 2024 - 03:23 AM

Started episode 2...

Graveyard Shift

I like this map, so much that I almost completed it twice. Well, I did so because of getting softlocked - watch out not to destroy the trashcans in the "bathroom" before using them to reach the vent that leads to the exit or else you're fucked. Besides this one issue, the map is pretty good - I remembered the graveyard at the beginning and the layout into the crypt, using some SOS, is nice work. Throwing the player right into the battle at the beginning works well, there's enough room to maneuver, weapons and ammo and cover. The pig cops slowly walking up to you while you deal with assault troopers attacking from distance is a nice touch. The crypt and underwater part is pretty nice too, but I don't care too much about the traps and finale. It's still a rather good map that's mostly dragged down because of the softlock potential.

Started playing Spelunking, but I also got softlocked there, maybe a bit of my own fault due to having gone to part Z instead of A first... I remembered this map and there being something particularly weird with elevators, but it seems fixed in this version - but IIRC it was still possible to finish in the original release. Other than that, the map is rather unimpressive randomly textured geometric shapes with some nasty combat and nice verticality.

This post has been edited by Aleks: 08 February 2024 - 03:23 AM

slacker1

#13 Posted 08 February 2024 - 08:58 AM

Opening NIght

This was a nice level and had a good amount of attention to detail. Those benches looked pretty good! The idea of an opera house as the location of the level was a nice change of pace and a somewhat of a spin on the over used movie theater levels. I only ever remember one other opera house themed level and I think it might have been on the Duke Assault CD but I might be mistaken.

The flow of the level also worked well. The spawning enemies in was fine as the flow of the level has you twisting back around through previous sections quite a bit. The only thing I wasn't super crazy about was the hidden wall you had to jump through to get the first key. It seems rather unintuitive. The only reason I knew it was there was because a lizard trooper shot at me from there earlier when I below it. I did find it interesting though that the inside of that window was the inside of the first secret area in E1M1, like exactly copied and pasted in. (Edit: Now that I'm thinking about it... I'm guessing this might be a nod to the movie theater level spin into an opera house instead...)

My only other minor complaint would be that the inside of the opera house was a bit dark and as previously said, the use of the ROTT flame throwers was an 'interesting' choice.

I was actually able to get the atomic health death trap! You have to walk up to the last step, then turn around and jump backwards onto the atomic health. As soon as you pick it up you then jump forward again as the wall opens and the trip mines set up. I managed to do it without setting the trip mines off at all though it took me a few tries to figure out what to do.

Rating: B

Showdown

Rooftop themed levels seem to be a level location you don't really see much anymore though I remember a bunch of them back in the 90s. It's been a long time since I played a rooftop themed level so this was also a nice change of pace from the usual locales. I had the jetpack which would have made moving from building to building easier but I opted not to use it as I was afraid it was going to break the progression or just cheese the whole level.

Three keys are needed to open the end boss area and you pick them up pretty organically along the way. I felt the fights were well thought out and played out quite well. I think I'm finally getting okay at using the RPG without blowing myself to smithereens! The last fight before the final boss had me sweating a bit with all the commanders and drones and such on such a tiny ledge. I ended up using the pipe bombs to get the enforcers and pig cops on the ledge above me to save on health. Because I was so RPG happy throughout the level, by the time the boss came (which I wasn't expecting...) I was almost out of RPG and Devastator ammo. I think this was the first time I've ever mostly killed the cycloid emperor with pipebombs. lol

There were a few issues I noticed details wise with this one. There were two instances where I ran across default textures with elevators. Also the lighting was a bit odd. Some had a light source from a doorway but if you closed the door, the light would still be there. Also, trees on explosive barrels and then hover after the barrels get blown up. Also, not a styling oversight, but the interior sections of the buildings were verrrry corridor-y and blocky. It would have been nice to have a bit more variety of rooms inside.

I think I've rambled enough for this post..

Rating: B+

I missed the secret level 4 way stop. I'm guessing because I'm using the unpatched original version. I'll have to go back with DNSCOTTY and give that one a try. I have to say, I went into this map set expecting things to be really awful but I'm actually liking most of the maps so far. They're not super polished but they've been solid fun nonetheless.

This post has been edited by slacker1: 08 February 2024 - 09:01 AM

Quacken

#14 Posted 09 February 2024 - 04:26 AM

Okay, this time I've got a real excuse for only doing one map tonight, again: I spent most of the day colouring in a TITLEPIC for my new Doom WAD.

Showdown

High AND mighty, I want to give whoever made Showdown a pat on the back, because this felt like it could have been released yesterday. Set on various rooftops, Showdown is the first map in DZ!2 that manages to establish a halfway decent atmosphere. This MIDI that plays usually puts me to sleep whenever I hear it in E1L6, but here it sets the tone for office complexes under a moody night sky very well. There's also greater emphasis placed on lighting and making the buildings feel more like real places. The combat features a lot of teleport traps, and most of them will give you a licking. Though there's a lot of hitscanners, there's never enough to the point where it gets overwhelming, and the king's ransom of ammo you get makes it so you always have two ways to beat a fight. The secrets continue to be ludicrously overpowered and even easier to find, but you'll need to rely on them because there's not a lot of health in the map otherwise. The final fight against Ol' Cyclie is a bit disappointing though. He can't move out of his little box he's put himself in, so it's easy to run circles around him and plug the box with Devastator missiles. I also managed to softlock myself by breaking one of the elevators after I had to go back down from the key platform to get the Blue Key. You wouldn't expect it coming from bargain bin WizardWorks software, but Showdown is a hidden gem.

8/10.

Aleks

#15 Posted 09 February 2024 - 04:59 AM

A couple more from me as well.

Spelunking
Finished the level on the 2nd playthrough - it's still pretty short and heavily populated, but really just looks like random doodles when looking at the automap. IIRC the broken elevators where not the ones leading to A and Z zones, but the triple ones towards the end, where you have to jump between them. This map feels more like a slaughterfest, but nothing too mean either and the design is quite poor.

The Abbey
This one is taken right out of doom. The combat still relies mostly on stuffing as many enemies in a room as possible, but there's enough ammo and cover to easily deal with it all, the map is short and fast paced, so I kinda liked it. The layout is simple and blocky. The only potentially meaner part this time was the commander trap when getting the first keycard, but it wasn't anything too difficult or challenging either. The map contains another secret exit, which is a fact I didn't remember, but it's pretty easy to find it. Another slaughter type map.

Turn About
This looks like proto-Conundrum a bit - you'll be jumping on rotating gears, conveyor belts etc. while fighting monsters, but there's nothing too difficult and besides falling off from the last rotating thing, it's quite difficult to get killed in this one. Doesn't change the fact that the level feels a bit like a chore and some of the rotating gears are clipping into each other. The combat might not be too creative, but I did have some fun with the commander conveyor corridor thing. Don't forget to grab that atomic health right at the beginning, hidden behind one of the viewscreens.

slacker1

#16 Posted 09 February 2024 - 08:46 AM

4-Way Stop

I 'DNSCOTTY'd my way into this map so it was a pistol start. The first battle was a nice challenge even if it was mostly just lizard troopers due to the lack of ammo and guns. As Aleks said in his post about the map, it's a very unremarkable looking city map straight from the mid 90s. It looks like most city maps from that era so there's nothing really exciting there or even very good. Game play wise though, I actually really enjoyed it. The level looks pretty 'bleh' but the fights and enemy placement is quite good. Though starting with just a pistol had me low on ammo at first, I quickly had almost too much ammo as the level progressed. I used the RPG and Devastator for almost everything I could and still left with ammo left over. I originally thought all the cameras in the level were positioned wrong on accident but later realized that they were suppose to be hints on where the exit switches were.

The things I didn't like in the level were pretty small. The dark room with the invisible enforcers was only really hard because it was unfair. If they had a night vision goggles drop somewhere in the map at least you could argue that the strategy was to grab those first but there aren't any. I also wish the switches you flick to open the level exit made an 'unlock' sound effect once you switched the last one. I had no idea I got them all until I noticed the hole in the wall opened up in a random unmarked place. (I'm guessing that big door on the city wall was a fake out exit...)

I also could not figure out how to open the jail cells to get the RPGs for the life of me. Maybe you just can't... I guess you really don't need the ammo anyway.

Rating: Design: D- Gameplay: B : Overall: C

On to episode 2!

Graveyard Shift

Starting battle on this one was pretty good. It's a wide open graveyard but because lizard troopers throw projectiles instead of being hitscanners, it's not too bad. By the time you get to the enforcers on the other side of the cross, you have the shotgun to deal with them. The crypt first area was also designed quite nice. I liked the idea of the flooded crypt. That said, I had issues finding the switch to unlock the underwater 'sewer' section. I thought I had thoroughly checked the underwater section and figured it had to be outside at one of the graves. Anyway, a bit of wandering around until I found it behind the one pillar underwater.

The middle sewer section was 'okay'. I liked the simple puzzle aspect of it though the design here was a bit lacking. The final section I think was maybe suppose to be a haunted house or at least was until the mapper went sideways on it. You start in a bathroom but then after you leave (and jump over the cheap death pit) it's a bunch of plain dark winding corridors to an outside almost industrial section that doesn't really fit the rest of the level though looks nice enough. I thankfully didn't manage to get softlocked on this level thanks to Aleks' warning above about the trashcans.

There's a secret exit behind the toilet but I've yet to figure out how to open it. I'm guessing there's a hidden switch somewhere in the darkness. Speaking of, I don't know if I mentioned it but this level is dark in spots. I have the blinds down and the contrast/gamma up a little and it was still almost impossible to see in parts. I get that it's a horror themed map but it could be just a tiny bit brighter.

Rating: C

Quacken

#17 Posted 10 February 2024 - 02:58 AM

I'm gonna tell you a secret: I've played this game for three years and I still don't know what the Holoduke does.

4-Way Stop

Well, it may not win any beauty contests, but 4-Way Stop isn't actually too bad. Considering the maps it's surrounded by, anyway. 4-Way Stop is a big box filled with extremely fragile trees and 83 monsters. The huge amount of rockets in this map seems like it emphasises using the RPG to clear most of the waves, which I'm certainly not complaining about. The two Battlelords in this map are deliberately stuck in spots where it's hard to see them, which makes running into them while fleeing from the other monsters result in certain death. The indoors sections are also comically under-detailed, even for DZ!2 standards. This map was altered and later turned into Santa Match, a deathmatch map in Nuclear Winter. That explains a lot about this map and why it was probably shoved into E1L7. 4-Way Stop is over quickly and gave me a decent amount of enjoyment from rocketing everything, making it a perfect midnight brain cleaner.

6/10.

Graveyard Shift

Ugh... after a rather short opening fight in the titular graveyard, Graveyard Shift breaks about six different John Romero level design rules and is generally speaking not a very fun map to play. This map is mostly just bland darkness, uncomfortable fights against two to six monsters tops and cheap traps that will have you scratching your head. I was glad that slacker1 inadvertantly bailed me out of the flooded pillars area, because I would have definitely gone back out into the graveyard and checked every tombstone for the switch. The only area that's any fun to fight in is the final area with the bridge, and even in there you can softlock yourself by blowing up the explosive barrels, or accidentally getting a monster to detonate them while you're fighting. Or you can softlock yourself by destroying the trash cans near the exit vent, which will require you to take the secret exit instead. Graveyard Shift is an uncomfortable teeth gritter that's not easy on my eyes or my mind.

3/10.

Aleks

#18 Posted 10 February 2024 - 10:11 AM

Waterslide
Spoiler: luckily, the titular waterslide doesn't spread for too long and the map takes place in some surrounding that are actually less annoying to explore. Anyway, while the combat in this map is, once again, quite busy and tense, the design seems to be all over the place, with alien-type corridors and some industrial slime area. This is culminated by a random secret exit nukebutton, the 3rd one in the episode, which will take you again to Spelunking, so it's quite pointless. The fights around the slime pit with all the bridges are probably my favourite due to a good use of flying monsters and generally being more swarmed than usually. The final trap is quite intense as well. Otherwise, this is a completely unremarkable level that I had no idea existed, despite playing this addon a couple of times before.

Landing Bay
This one is very similar to Waterslide, although I think I liked it a bit more - the design still is all over the place, between abstract Doom-like layouts through alien bits to finally the last room resembling something at all. Combat is quite heavy - the waterfall room with battlelord and assault captains (what's with all the captains in this episode and no regulars troops btw?) can be a bit dickish. The landing bay area is nicely designed - for a change - and has some fun combat, mostly because of how vast it is. However, this is still a rather forgettable map.

Forge

Speaker of the Outhouse

#19 Posted 10 February 2024 - 05:29 PM

Quacken, on 10 February 2024 - 02:58 AM, said:

I'm gonna tell you a secret: I've played this game for three years and I still don't know what the Holoduke does.

it's a decoy for use in dukematch

This post has been edited by Forge: 10 February 2024 - 05:29 PM

Danukem

Duke Plus Developer

#20 Posted 10 February 2024 - 06:40 PM

Quacken, on 10 February 2024 - 02:58 AM, said:

I'm gonna tell you a secret: I've played this game for three years and I still don't know what the Holoduke does.

Someone made a tutorial a long time ago:

https://youtu.be/8m4ji7nHOYc?t=80

ck3D

#21 Posted 10 February 2024 - 11:22 PM

Holoduke actually works and can be really useful in single player too. It's not really noticeable in the design of the base game and levels, but in user maps with large environments and hundreds of enemies can be a game changer and valid strat to gather groups of monsters in a given corner before putting the whole pack on blast. Simplifies slaughterfest moments a lot and is an underrated mechanic, I wish more people realized. The way it works is if the Holoduke is closer to a monster than Duke himself, the monster will converge toward, and aim at the decoy instead. Trivializes most encounters with packs of Battlelords (which explains why so many people struggle with Duc-Man).

https://www.youtube....h82cmzb&t=12375

Timestamped demonstration courtesy of Nacho/TLOD.

This post has been edited by ck3D: 11 February 2024 - 12:20 AM

Aleks

#22 Posted 11 February 2024 - 04:10 AM

Not sure if enemies attack the holoduke if it is closer to them, from my experience it seems that as soon as they see my movement, no matter where in the map, they realise holoduke is just a decoy and start attacking me. The only place I found it useful so far was in some BattleDuke levels which had their combat pretty much designed for it (e.g. lure a battlelord somewhere and place a holoduke behind a corner, run away and focus on another one). I'd still put it in most of my maps, usually in secret places, but yeah, it's a lot more useful in Dukematches than in single player.

Few more levels:

Big Man
This is purely a slaughterfest map, although it also includes an underwater maze, which strangely feels a bit like a breather. The map throws you right into action and moving around, you will just trigger more monsters - but it doesn't really feel unfair or even difficult, since everything here dies quite fast. The last part has all the 3 bosses stuck in a rather tight room, if you dare, you can step in and grab a jetpack from there, but you can also just kill them from outside. The boundaries have sentry drones and commanders hidden in darkness which can surprise you while you focus on the bosses. Obviously, killing any of the bosses will end the episode, but the challenge is to kill them all - and since they are all in a narrow space, this is a viable task, you just have to take a lot of saves and make sure you are dealing damage in parallel. Killing two is quite easy, making sure all 3 of them die took me a couple of tries, but it's managable as well. Overall, a fun no-brainer kinda level that was made a bit more interesting by the challenge I imposed on myself.

Dining Out
This is a pretty short level that actually doesn't look completely abstract, it seems we're in some restaurant that has elaborate installations that take up two entire floors. The design is a bit better than most of E2, the only annoyance of the level is walking back and forth through the whole map because of keycards, which is a poor length padding. There's about 40 or so enemies only and nothing that's too difficult, even despite the fact we're still gathering the supplies in this one.

The Company
This level ends before it really starts, and in fact can be finished in under 1 minute by just jumping straight to the secret exit. The design is again a step up, with shadows and some nice ceiling structure in the final room, but it comes at a cost of being literally like 5 rooms tied together with 25 or so monsters. I liked the thing with blowing up the blue key room and the "no smoking" sign on the wall there. Not much else to say here.

Banzai!
This one starts with a rather interesting tunnel entrance/exit. The level is pretty much open, the exit is right behind where you start and you can just complete it anytime you want, even right away in about 5-7 seconds. But if you want to clear it from the alien vermin, there you go - there's 70 or so enemies in total, and the combat is quite neat, especially when entering the fortress and having them coming at you from different directions. The verticality/3D-ness of the layout works out well, even if the textures in the elevators can be a bit buggy.

ck3D

#23 Posted 11 February 2024 - 04:32 AM

I feel like the monsters are going to be drawn to the Holoduke if it's closer but of course that's if you don't interact with them, shooting them when they're focused on the Holoduke will have them turn back against you until they focus on the hologram again, I guess whichever player action including specific movement (e.g. jumps) might trigger this or that AI reaction may interfere temporarily. But when the Holoduke is on i think it's a fair estimation that at least 50% (minimum) of the enemy attention is focused on it and sometimes that's a lot. I literally just posted a demonstration video. It's just that the average player doesn't know how to use it and can't learn because mappers don't dare create scenarios in their levels that would be based on it, because they know and expect that the average player doesn't know how to use it and the vicious cycle only ends with a mechanic that's present but doesn't get to shine. At some point I think it's time to break the pattern if Duke 3D wants to explore fresh terrain instead of reiterating the same aspects of itself over and over, doesn't have to be drastic changes but people also have to take risks, that's something I was happy to see BattleDuke do but probably can be achieved in more subtle ways. Generally I don't understand denying gameplay possibilities/options that are there, to me that's just like the casual player complaining that a level is too hard but they only stick to the first three guns despite a complete arsenal, is just crazy. Or probably just shows that as a mapper there's a whole lot to teach/keep teaching in addition to learning.

Fun factor is higher in Dukematch now obviously, never gets old feeling stupid for falling for it or pulling it on someone else. Lots of childhood memories with it there on the 64 that to a degree are possible to translate and revive into single player, technically, again, it's just that not many care or try. But that can change.

This post has been edited by ck3D: 11 February 2024 - 04:36 AM

slacker1

#24 Posted 12 February 2024 - 07:49 AM

I sort of wish the Holoduke worked more like the clown decoy in Zombies Ate My Neighbors where the enemies are drawn to it and it has its own health. When that health goes to zero, it disappears. It also helps give a good indication when the item stopped working as decoy. 'Oh they killed it, it's done' whereas the Holoduke has a percentage that kicks down and could still have 80% left and no longer effective. The trade off there is that you can redeploy the holoduke as needed.

Side note, I found the way to open the secret exit in E2L1! You just had to

Spoiler

.

Spelunking - E2L6 Secret

Meh. I almost feel like there's no point in even saying more than that. This level is boring as holy hell. The weird mix of industrial/space and desert caves I suppose works well enough. The level is pretty abstract beyond that. There's an A and Z switch you need to hit. The A switch is possible to be missed but the Z one is right there on the very linear path to the exit. I'm glad I didn't miss the A switch because the door I think it opens is wayyy far into the level.

That brings up a big issue with this map. Soft locks. If you miss the A switch and make it all the way to the AZ door, there's NO way back to flip the switch. Thanks to no jetpack and a bunch of one way large drops, you're boned. And those cliffs that transition areas aren't the only soft locks. There's also a bunch of walls you need to blow up to progress. if you run out of explosive ammo, you're also stuck without a way to continue. Finally, the three elevator/lift section over the red lava is COMPLETELY BROKEN. I had the lava moving up and down like a lift and everything just kept sinking farther into the ground. Completely impossible to pass without DNCLIP. (I want to point out though, I'm using the unpactched original DZ2 grp file not NightFright's fixed version).

I did not like this map at all. I feel like I didn't even walk out of it with any extra ammo or anything. There's 1 billion portable medkits for some ungodly reason that you don't need until you do actually need one and then there's no more at the end of the level. (Seriously, like 1 per room at the start of the map!)

Rating: F - I feel like this level is punishment for jumping to use a secret exit

The Abby - E2L2

I came into this level with almost no explosives which made the opening of this map quite a battle. I made the mistake of running once I started to get out gunned in the start area which woke up even more enemies. Thankfully I was able retreat enough and get cover in the fountain area. After the initial uphill battle, the rest of the map threw some nice battles at you but nothing unmanageable. I liked the final four battle lord room but by then I had already amassed a bunch of RPG and devastator ammo so it wasn't too much of a challenge.

As Aleks also mentioned, this level is very Doom-like. If you told me this was the author's first Duke map after creating a number of Doom ones, I'd believe it 100%. Everything from the room layouts to the enemy placement all feels extremely Doom-like. It's not technically a bad thing but I feel like the 'vibe' feels off for a Duke level. I can't really explain it.

I ended up finding the secret area completely on accident thinking I was actually going the right way.

Rating: C

Turn About - E2L7 - Secret 2

I think secret maps in E2 are just for punishing the player at this point. I'd say this one is better than the previous secret level just because it doesn't suffer from soft locks and everything in the level 'works'. By works I mean that the sector effects in the level all work as intended (looking at you E2L6!), but I wouldn't say that the way they were designed is very fun to the player. Basically it seems like this level was used as a test bed to create as many spinning gear platforms over death pits as possible and one very long hallway of runway 'people movers'. In the people mover hallway, I was actually saved by a commander who was down in one of the death pits. I managed to land on his head and ride him all the way back up out of the pit. So that was actually pretty cool.

The battles were fine I suppose but the first gear room was a bit annoying with having the hitscan enemies out in the distance. The pistol as a sniper seemed to work wonders on that though. The end battle with the two battle lords was a bit cramped but manageable. I ran out of RPG and Devastator ammo after the first battle lord but thankfully more devastator ammo spawned back in the octobrain hell room.

Rating: D+

Waterslide - E2L3

A surprisingly short water slide at the start of the level (given the level name) followed by disjointed areas that don't really fit together in style or locale. Battles are okay. I found a random 'sky box' room with an atomic health that said 'Secret Level' but there was no nuke button there. Probably for the best if it just wraps around again to one of the god awful ones from earlier.

The outside area was nice. It reminded me of the random outside area in E2L1. I wish there was a whole level with that kind of design. This level sort of reminded me of one of the many trash levels on Duke Assault but with some attention to monster placement (I think). I thought the exit door was glitched and it took me a bit to figure out how to get it opened. I immediately went to thinking it was broken based on past level issues.

I don't see myself playing this one again.

Rating: D+

This post has been edited by slacker1: 12 February 2024 - 11:44 AM

slacker1

#25 Posted 12 February 2024 - 12:15 PM

Forum won't let me edit my last post anymore...

Landing Bay - E2L4

I had zero hope for this one entering it after the let downs earlier in the episode.. also it the beginning sort of looks like crap. I'm also not really a huge fan of the 'Fusion Station' style ship levels and this is one of those. I find them to be rather ugly tile set wise. Unlike the last level, this one at least follows a theme. You basically go around an enemy ship which has a large interesting landing bay in the center of it. Level layout isn't bad and the combat was actually quite fun. The spawning in enemies kept things interesting and there was a constant supply of items and ammo to keep you going.

I was able to originally cheese the level by jumping up to the higher platform from the water section. This skips you right to the end of the map basically. I'm guessing that 'secret route' was intentional though. The only place that looked pretty 'meh' was the outdoor area that leads to the red key card. Gray walls, outside with a cityscape sky (?), and an oddly low ceiling. Also, I'm not even sure what the point of the blue key was. They give it to you once you enter the first room of the ship. It's impossible to miss.

Surprisingly my favorite so far for this episode... but maybe I'm just becoming numb to the levels at this point.

Rating: B-

This post has been edited by slacker1: 12 February 2024 - 12:16 PM

Quacken

#26 Posted 12 February 2024 - 07:56 PM

Insert coin to generate funny lead-in to the reviews:

Spelunking

Oh, goodness... Spelunking is an uncomfortable hodge podge of some of the most dim-witted low brain map making I've ever seen. This map is hideously textured, low on lighting variation and is filled with softlocks and guaranteed fall damage. The way this map works is you need to go into an A area and a Z area to flip two switches, which opens the door at the end of the cavern. Finding the Z switch is easy enough because it's on the way to the door, if you can bear a wall of Sentry Drones and a cheap gotcha trap immediately afterward which spawns four more behind you, but the A door is right at the start and not obvious at all. If you haven't gone into the A area as soon as you go for the Z switch, then Softlock City gets one more resident. I don't know why there isn't a Jetpack, but if I had to guess, I would say it comes down to sheer incompetence. The A area has Spelunking is a stupid, blubbering mess that wastes its MIDI. Skip this map.

1/10.

The Abbey

Ah yes, the age old question: What if Jonas Feragen made a Duke 3D map? If you like churning through filths of low tier monsters with only the Shotgun, waiting for Assault Commanders to give up after being peppered by eight shells and eating rockets from the dark, then The Abbey is right up your abbey. This is a map that only gets worse after the first 60 seconds. I know the comparison has already been made twice, but I'm going to go a step further and say that this might have actually been a Doom map sitting on one of the Simply Silly Software guys' hard drives that was haphazardly remade for Duke 3D. The large boxes and stairwells in the opening area would have been okay for circling around Revenant missiles or getting Mancubi to infight, but seven Commanders slowly ambling towards you isn't really a substitute. Nor is the lazy final fight which is a quartet of Battlelords that can barely even see you, let alone try to attack you. I could be thinking of anything else to do that's not playing this map.

2.5/10.

slacker1

#27 Posted 13 February 2024 - 08:18 AM

Big Man - E2L5

Another 'fusion station/overlord' styled map. Overall the level looks okay. The whole level can be skipped by killing the Battle Lord through the window in the first room. I did that the first time thinking it was just a mini battle lord and was surprised when I got the end of the episode cut scene. I played it again and went the 'right' way which included the underwater maze. I thought I was going to really really hate that section but the scuba gear wasn't hard to find and I had enough devastator ammo to make the octobrains a non-issue. Doing the final battle the 'right' way is a bit harder as you're completely inundated with sentry drones and commanders. The actual three bosses don't pose much of a threat at all as they're stuck in the center area and there's huge walls covering most of the ways they can shoot out from. Also, they tend to hit each other which makes it even easier to kill them. The level had a some good ideas but the execution of it is quite lacking as most of it can be cheesed or skipped.

Rating: D+

E2 has definitely been the low point so far in this mod for me. I'm hoping that E3 brings the quality back up at least to E1 standards.

On to episode 3....

Dining Out - E3L1

'Ah that's better...' Seriously though, this level was a very much welcomed increase in quality. It's very short and could use a little more details in the 'machine' section but overall not a terrible looking map. The sprite work on the tables was nice and so was the exit stairs to the roof even if it was very simple.

I do actually like the impossible-ness of the level's layout. From the restaurant, you head down the stairs to the utility basement to go up one floor in an elevator that brings you to a floor that should exist in the same space the restaurant did. Then from that floor you go down a flight of stairs again which would put you back in the space the utility basement of the restaurant is but it its another machine room that seems to co-exist in the same space. Weird but sort of cool.

Enemies were pretty light and easy to take care of (especially if you grab the secret behind the poster). A nice quick fresh start to E3.

Rating: B+

This post has been edited by slacker1: 13 February 2024 - 08:22 AM

slacker1

#28 Posted 15 February 2024 - 07:03 AM

I ended up playing a bunch this morning...

The Company - E3L2

Another very short level that looks decent like Dining Out (E3L1) does. I'm not sure if it was the same mapper who made both but I wouldn't be surprised if it was as the style is very similar. The machines and stairs/walkway look very similar to style of Dining Out. There was also a very small outside section with a small volcano/mountain thing outside the level bounds which was neat to see. The secret exit is super easy to find but I guess there's not many places you could hide it in a map so small. I wish this level was longer and had more to it as I liked what I saw for the few minutes it took to play it.

Rating: B

Banzai - E3L7 - Secret

Like Aleks said previously, this whole level can be skipped by turning around and hitting the exit button if you wanted to... honestly after going into the fortress and doing the battles, skipping isn't a bad option. The level design takes a decent dive in quality from the first two maps in E3. It's basically just an open air square fort with a small basement with a switched based crusher. Nothing looks particularly good but the battles themselves are set up decently for the areas they had to work with.

Rating: C-

Down and Out - E3L3

I'll admit, I was worried when the level started on a 'water' marked ground texture surrounded by a slime pit that this was going to be awful. I'm happy to say that I was (mostly) proven wrong. The abstract-ish gothic temple mixed with the canyon/caves mountains reminds me of the styling of 'The Abyss' in E1. All the texturing looks and works real well. Also, there's some neat ideas like (another) water slide, jumping up a slime stream, a set of stairs building from the ground from a switch a la Doom style. Overall, I really like the locale of this one which brings me to the unfortunate issues with the map.

It just doesn't feel like it's finished. It gives off the vibe that the deadline came and the mapper ran out of time finishing up the last bits but because it was playable it was still packed into the episode. There's a bunch of water/slime that isn't marked so they act as normal ground. Besides being a little off-putting, it sucks in spots like the water slide that drops you from a height causing damage if you didn't know to fall forward to the correctly marked sector.

Other issues include: the underwater section if you ride the slide to the end doesn't let you surface even though the ceiling is textured as a water texture. I'm guessing the original idea here was that you'd fall off the edge of the slide into the water below but the above section where you're falling got cut for time so you're just teleported underwater. Another issue is in the pillared section off of the water slide section. It has purple blocking invisible walls on some of the shadows which makes walking behind some of the pillars impossible.

I think the biggest let down for me was that it felt like the whole course of the level it was building up to a big battle lord battle at the end but then after all the hype, there was nothing there but a few commanders. Lame.

Sorry I went long on this one. I liked the level but it was just disappointing to see the lack of final fit and finish on it as it could have been one of the better maps in the whole mod.

Rating: B-

Fun House

No. Just. No. This level sucks ass. I hated every second of it. It feels like it was made by the same mapper who made the obnoxious spinning secret map in E2 (Turn About) which also sucked. The level is nothing but cheap crushers, treadmill floors that then push you into crushers, death pits over spinning stuff, and one huge super annoying sentry drone ambush. The level itself doesn't even look good. Also, there's another random bathroom that's completely normal looking in a very abstract level (Similar, to a lesser extent, the random bathroom in E2L1 Graveyard). I don't know, maybe some people like these cheap death traps... not me. I ended up save scumming because of the amount of cheap deaths I was getting. If you're a ninja, you can grab the blue key and leave almost right away, otherwise the other keys have to be obtained first. They all have a straight forward looking way to them that's an instant death trap and then another back way that's less of a death trap.

Terrible map. I did not find the secret exit yet on this one.

Rating: F

The next level 'No Where to Run' loaded up after beating 'Fun House' and just from the quick 10s I saw o fit before quitting, looks like it's going to be another stinker. Hopefully I'm proven wrong and hopefully the other secret map is decent as well. I guess we'll see though...

Aleks

#29 Posted 16 February 2024 - 07:18 AM

I already finished everything last weekend, but didn't really have time to post about the remaining maps, so here it goes:

Down and Out
Another level with a strong Doom vibe, this time with the gimmick being falling into a kind of loop pattern. It did have its fair share of dead ends and pointless optional areas, but I'm not sure if I'd classify these as "unfinished" or just mediocre level design. The only memorable part of the level seem to be the rising stairs towards the end.

Fun House
I didn't have such an overly bad time with this one, it's definitely a level designed around being frustrating, which works well in it. I managed to grab the "obvious" blue keycard at the beginning and survived, using steroids seems to be the only way it's safe though. The traps are done surprisingly competently, as they're usually impossible to pass from one (unintended) side and just slightly challenging from the other one. The sentry drone mass attack was probably the most difficult part, but kinda cool. I definitely had more fun this time around than during my previous playthroughs, but this is probably one of the more memorable maps in this addon, whether it's a good or bad thing.

Spoiler

Dying Time
This is probably the best secret level in the addon - nothing overly ambitious, just two floor and waves of monsters that are fun to kill with the plentiful heavy ammo scattered around. The map is fast paced and I don't think there's any possibility of a softlock. The spinning wheel with commanders is probably the highlight IMO.

Nowhere to Run
Another boss level where the Cycloid is trapped and completely immobile. This one is simple and can be finished at any time, as there are numerous ways leading to the big guy. The massive fight with commanders around the final area is probably my favourite part here. Just watch not to fall in one of the lava pits.

Overall, I think episode 1 is by far the best one in the addon, with the next two episodes having just a few good ideas or original gimmicks stuffed into a sea of mediocrity. Nevertheless, it was nice to refresh the memory of this one.

About the Spelunking elevators, I'm pretty sure the level is possible to complete in the original version without cheating, just requires very careful operation of the elevators at the end. Now with the "fixed" addon version I realise this was probably a bug, but IIRC there was some combination of which elevators/walls to press use on in what order to actually advance upwards.

This post has been edited by Aleks: 16 February 2024 - 07:19 AM

NightFright

The Truth is in here

#30 Posted 17 February 2024 - 04:39 AM

What would be interesting feedback from you guys for my DZ2-Fixed project: Are there any softlocks you'd still like to see fixed? (For example stuff like adding a jetpack, even if it's just a partially fueled one, in "Spelunking".) Or should everything stay the way it is now, for the sake of preserving the way vanilla maps worked? (To some degree this has already been altered, so...)