Duke Map/Mod of the Month Club - March 2024

2 Pages
1
2
→

You cannot start a new topic
You cannot reply to this topic

Duke Map/Mod of the Month Club - March 2024 "Redneck Rampage VS Shadow Warrior"

FistMarine

#1 Posted 01 March 2024 - 02:33 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, Shadow Warrior: Wanton Destruction and Redneck Rampage Rides Again: Arkansas have been chosen!

Wanton Destruction is the second semi-official expansion pack to Shadow Warrior. It was created by Sunstorm Interactive and was meant to be released in stores back in the early 1998 (according to the timestamp of game files, Wanton.exe and WT.GRP are dated 28/01/1998) but unfortunately, due to Shadow Warrior's poor sales, it was cancelled by the publisher.

Many years later, when WD was discovered on an archive CD by Anthony Campiti (former president of Sunstorm Interactive), he contacted 3D Realms about that and WD was released for free on various websites on 9th September 2005. Its original installer can still be found on a couple websites but most of the original links have died over the years. The expansion pack is also bundled with the digital versions of Shadow Warrior, including the remaster Classic Redux, which features several bug-fixes done to the addons.

Wanton Destruction features 12 Single Player levels (split across two episodes, each episode featuring a secret level), 4 Multiplayer levels (3 DM and 1 CTF), some new Lo Wang quotes, some new art, as well as two "new" enemies, which are basically just reskinned ninjas and guardians.

It is important to know that the original version of the addon has some game breaking bugs, including bosses failing to spawn on the two easier skills and one secret being unreachable in one of the maps. These issues were fixed in the digital versions and also the fixed version by ProAsm. But if playing the original version of the addon in DOS, then you must play on either Who Wants Wang or No Pain No Gain skill level in order to fight the bosses and finish the game.

Story: The add-on chronicles Lo Wang's adventures after the original game. He visits his relatives in USA, but is forced to fight off Zilla's forces again. The game culminates with a battle against Master Zilla above the streets of Tokyo, which ends with Master Zilla's death.

And once Lo Wang finishes his mission of defeating Master Zilla once and for all, Leonard and Bubba are coming back in the official standalone sequel to Redneck Rampage!

Redneck Rampage Rides Again: Arkansas was created by Xatrix Entertainment, finished on 26th March 1998 (according to the timestamp of game files) and released in stores on 13th May 1998 by Interplay Entertainment. The game features 14 SP levels (split across two episodes), 7 DM levels, new Leonard talk, two new weapons (Slingblade and Chicken Launcher, the former is available since the start of the game by pressing the "1" key twice, the latter is only available as alternate ammo for Crossbow and then pressing the "6" key twice), two driveable vehicles (both having their own weapon/ammo, the vehicle ammo can only be picked up while on a vehicle), a whole bunch of new enemies and much more!

Although it doesn't fix any issues from the original game (or rather, attempts to fix a few of them), it does have a couple changes, such as the difficulty levels being arranged from 0 to 4 (instead of 1 to 5), partially fixing saving when attempting to overwrite a save, fixing the quit prompt (it no longer glitches when quitting the game) and the best of all, fixing palette enemy spawn, meaning that every enemy can be spawned with any palette applied to them, which wasn't the case with Duke3D and the original RR.

Despite the fact Rides Again was released a few months after Route 66, it is the direct sequel to the main game with Leonard and Bubba crash-landing the UFO in the desert and finding a way back home. And despite the many improvements it brought to the RR series, it wasn't very well received, as it was released back in 1998 when Quake 2 was already out, Unreal was just releasing into stores and Half-Life was getting released later that year. Still, that didn't stop Xatrix to release the game, to make an official mission pack to Quake 2, as well as to make a game on Quake 2 engine the next year. Afterwards, Xatrix Entertainment would be renamed to Gray Matter Interactive and then they would work on much better things, such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which is considered one of the best Wolfenstein games ever.

Wanton Destruction was released several years after Redneck Rampage Rides Again but WD was finished about two months before RR:RA was finished, if we judge from the timestamp of the game files. Therefore, we will play through Wanton Destruction during the first half of the month (preferably until 12-13th), while Rides Again will be played during the second half of the month (preferably since 14-15th). Of course, people are free to start with whatever game they want but the posting schedule should be followed, so if someone doesn't want to play Wanton Destruction and just wants to play Rides Again and review it, then they can start posting on 14th.

DOWNLOADS

3D Realms Legacy (RELEASE NEWS) - https://legacy.3drea...for_shadow.html
FilePlanet (ORIGINAL LINK) - https://www.fileplan...-Expansion-FREE
DukeRtcm (MIRRORED LINK) - http://www.dukertcm....addons/swwd.exe
ProAsm (FIXED VERSION FOR JFSW) - http://www.proasm.co...antdest_v14.zip

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

Wanton Destruction:
1) Insert the Shadow Warrior CD, install the game or just copy the swinst folder from your CD, then rename it to WANTON.
2) Download the swwd.exe file and run the installer, then point to the game's directory (WANTON in this case).
3) Once the game is installed, run Wanton.exe and select Single Player at the launch window.
4) Alternatively, if you are on a newer OS and swwd.exe fails to load, then extract the contents of the installer with 7-zip inside the WANTON folder. Then run Wanton.exe from within DOSBox.
5) When you are in game, select the episode WANTON DESTR and the skill level to play.
6) When playing in a source port, you should use WantDest.grp instead of WT.GRP.

Redneck Rampage Rides Again:
1) Copy the REDNECK.INS file from your Redneck Rampage Rides Again CD or Redneck Rampage Family Reunion CD, create a directory named RIDES on your hard drive, paste the REDNECK.INS file into that folder, then extract it using 7-zip. Just like with the main game, it will keep the original timestamps of the game files. Afterwards, go into SETUP.EXE to configure the game. Once done, run AGAIN.BAT file which runs RA.EXE, then enjoy watching the intro cutscene before the game starts.
2) When playing in a source port, you just need to have the REDNECK.GRP file. Note that both Redneck Rampage and Rides Again have the main data file named REDNECK.GRP, so the one from RR:RA may need to be renamed to RIDES.GRP, at least that's the case for installing and playing in RedNukem. Or if you bought the games digitally, the source port will find the data in the installed directory.

NOTES

1) FilePlanet may act strange since a few years ago and may download other unwanted exe files. However, when I tested the link myself earlier today, it seems like it works as intended as it did before 2021, as long as you click on the Download button that says Direct download. No login. No virus. and refuse the offer to download Opera browser. If you are concerned about that or unsure about the download link on FilePlanet being safe, then please get swwd.exe from DukeRtcm instead.
2) If you really want to download from FilePlanet, then keep in mind that I am NOT responsible if FilePlanet will mess up your PC! I only provided the only remaining original download link for historical purposes. All the other original download links are dead, so a mirror on Dukertcm was provided if you really insist to get the original version of the addon and not want to risk downloading from FilePlanet.
3) The installer swwd.exe may fail on newer OSes. If that's the case, you can extract the files using 7-Zip and then copy the extracted files into your SW directory to play the addon in DOSBox. Before doing that, it is recommended to make a copy of your SW folder and rename it to WANTON, to keep the original SW folder clean.
4) If you are playing in a source port, you just need the WantDest.grp file to play, which is the fixed version by ProAsm.
5) WT.GRP is the original GRP for the DOS version of SW, while WantDest.grp is the fixed version by ProAsm for SW source ports. WD.GRP doesn't actually exist, as the developers abbreviated WanTon instead of Wanton Destruction.
6) Not fully sure but I believe the version included on Classic Redux is either based off the original WT.GRP or the fixed version WantDest.grp by ProAsm.
7) As mentioned above, the original version of Wanton Destruction (WT.GRP) cannot be completed on the easier skills because the bosses will fail to spawn on the later levels. The game can only be completed on Who Wants Wang and No Pain No Gain difficulty settings. This was fixed in the other versions of the game, so it is possible to complete the game on all skills.
8) Redneck Rampage Rides Again can be found on GOG, bundled it with the main game, cuss pack and route 66, costing 10 euros.
9) Redneck Rampage Rides Again can also be found on Steam but only as an individual product, also costing 10 euros. Please don't buy this overpriced product and get the GOG version instead!

GAMEPLAY SCREENSHOTS

png]

png]

Have fun!

This post has been edited by FistMarine: 01 March 2024 - 02:48 AM

Quacken

#2 Posted 01 March 2024 - 04:08 AM

Hi! The Shadow Warrior wiki is really bad, but it credits the authors for the Wanton Destruction mappers, so that saves me having to look around my computer for WD's text file. For this playthrough of Wanton Destruction, I'll be playing it on Classic Redux. In my opinion it's better than DOS in pretty much every way, right down to the convenience of going to Steam and clicking on it.

Also, I don't believe I mentioned it the last time Shadow Warrior got played over a year and a half ago, but R.I.P. John Galt. Very recently passed the two year mark since he died, on 22 January 2022.

Chinatown
Matthew "Mattcake" Harris

Grab a palette of ice for your preferred pointer finger and have your auto aim toggle at the ready. Chinatown is short and non-threatening but is still rather enjoyable, and nowhere near as exasperating as Seppuku Station. The start can be a bit tricky if you're an idiot like me who forgot to turn auto aim on for the Hornets, and it takes work to punch out the Rippers and chew through the Ninjas in the truck with the Uzi. Finding the Missile Launcher and the Yellow Key basically guarantees your victory as Matthew Harris practically gives you one explosive for every monster in the map. As if that wasn't enough, you also get two Nukes, one of which can be used on the ambush outside the Duke Burger, and the other one can be used on either the Mama Ripper in the alleyway near the Green Switch, or carried into MAP06 (the next map, which takes MAP06's slot as this map takes MAP05) if you're playing single segment. Now's the time to explain the story! Lo Wang is in San Francisco to visit relatives. Last I checked, the only confirmed relative Lo Wang had ate a nuclear warhead for their last meal, so I'm confused on who he's visiting. Does Lo Wang have relatives in the reboot games? My personal headcanon is that the reboots are all prequels, which would explain Lo Wang being much younger and having a different voice actor. Moving along, with the change of scenery, Sunstorm changed some of the monster sprites around. The Ninjas are replaced with even more stereotypical looking hoodlums who shout "Damn you!" at you. For the remainder of the Wanton Destruction reviews, these guys will be renamed to Banditos. You can tell Banditos apart by the colour of their hat, rather than their pants. Guardians have been replaced with a variety of different monks who have the old Guardians as heads on sticks. They aren't as interesting as the Banditos and I kinda wish the old sprites remained as I think they are better quality. Chinatown is as low to the ground as you can get for Shadow Warrior, but this game lends itself well to power fantasy maps.

6.5/10.

This post has been edited by Quacken: 01 March 2024 - 04:13 AM

NightFright

The Truth is in here

#3 Posted 01 March 2024 - 03:23 PM

Over at the Raze forums, I posted a fixed version of Wanton Destruction which includes the three maps that didn't work on lower difficulties. Further down in the thread, the same thing can be obtained in form of a patch which you can load after your regular groupfile if you don't want to use an edited version.

Quacken

#4 Posted 01 March 2024 - 09:07 PM

Here I am again.

Monastary
Robert Travis

Robert Travis makes his return with this pleasant jaunt through an ancient temple. Monastary is mis-spelt and rather lacking on action, but is made up for with its much more solid visuals and a surprising level of exploration. This map has a lot of optional content, with plenty of Koi being hidden in subterranean lakes. It can be a little annoying having to hop between the Bronze Door elevator and the secret areas over and over again, but you'll want to do it at least once, because this map's super secret trivialises things. The super secret at the bottom of the waterfall gives you a king's ransom of shells, clips, Ripper Hearts and grenades, as well as enough Smoke Bombs to theoretically get you through every fight in the map, if you didn't have to sit through the elevator ride every time. Find the secret Grenade Launcher by jumping down the pit with the shootable switch and that's another map that ends earlier than intended. This is a running theme you're going to see with most of these maps - find an explosive weapon early and the map can't really cope with it. This map has a variety of cool visual elements. Robert Travis experiments with background elements such as watchtowers in out of bounds space and waterfalls off in the distance, and the world turns to fiery hell when you get the Gold Key as a Serpent God tries to ambush you. Finding the secret exit isn't really hard, but it is pretty annoying. You have to find a hidden door, then jump down a triple secret consisting of three ledges. Monastary is pretty slow-going, but its exploratory spirit and mapping wizardry make it one of Wanton Destruction's hallmark maps.

8/10.

Quacken

#5 Posted 03 March 2024 - 03:18 AM

...So how's your day been today?

Redwood Forest
Matthew "Mattcake" Harris

Wanton Destruction's first secret level is quite interesting. Aside from farming Cursed Heads from the Sumos in the later maps, Redwood Forest features the highest kill count in the mapset and is probably the longest map to boot. It has a lot of interesting ideas, but Matthew Harris often gets trifled by Shadow Warrior's own game logic. Grabbing the Red Key is meant to unleash three Coolies on you in a dramatic fashion, but they'll come pre-damaged via the explosion that is produced upon triggering the trap and freeing the Coolies out to come try to get you. In the most funny case, one or two of them will get automatically killed. The rocky maze in the dark would be fine if it weren't for the fact that the automap takes the light levels of sectors into consideration, so you're looking at a maze you both can't see the walls of, can't trivialise with the automap, and you're also being shelled by Hornets and Brown Banditos. On the plus side however, this is the best looking map in the set so far. Navigating the forest at the start may be bothersome, but the illusion of the forest being bigger than it is is satisfactorily convincing. The treetops after the Red Elevator offer some great height variation and also allow you to do sequence breaks to other ledges at the cost of health, of which there's plenty in this map. Finally, the final roofed forest section features a respectable double Serpent Lord fight, and the entire area is covered in coloured lighting that turns the Coolie Ghosts, your weapons and even the voxel-formed Medkits a neon green colour. Then, it's capped off by an unorthodox yet cool-looking setpiece where you shoot a poor stone sap in the face, causing a pillar of blue light to burst out of a coffin. Redwood Forest is ambitious, moody and is begging to be explored more than it is, and it's one of the finest maps that Sunstorm's ragtag group of mappers has ever produced.

9/10.

This post has been edited by Quacken: 03 March 2024 - 03:25 AM

Quacken

#6 Posted 03 March 2024 - 11:22 PM

Just doing my job at this point...

Trolly Yard
Cho Yan "Tempest" Wong

Another misspelt map title is an unsure omen indeed. Cho Yan Wong demonstrates good fundamentals in this open-ended arena map, but it doesn't have the same amount of polish as Monastary or Redwood Forest does. The cable cars use a very nice-looking set of custom textures, and the trademark Sunstorm sign is always a pleasure to see, but the rest of the map is nothing but red bricks and brown crates. It's very easy to get caught running in circles, and unlike their comrades, Cho Yan Wong gives you mostly crumbs to handle all of the 58 monsters until you get the Blue Key and get access to the Grenade Launcher. This map continues Wanton Destruction's tradition of spontaneously combusting Coolies. The one in the Blue Key building exploded as soon as I looked at it and it took out a hole in the wall, and a Coolie from high up in the glass room with the Portable Medkit exploded prematurely, most likely due to one of the Coolies on the ground I was fighting. Coolies are just really weird in general. If we ever get to play base Shadow Warrior then I have a lot to say about the monsters and weapons. Trolly Yard is rather unpleasant on replays, and is a rather forgettable map in the grand scheme of things.

5/10.

Quacken

#7 Posted 04 March 2024 - 04:32 PM

I took my first three (four?) proper deaths on this next map.

Resturant
Tyler Larsen

I'm pretty sure this is the last title that is misspelt, which ought to count for something. Resturant is a mean little zinger map that finishes quickly, but will kill you just as fast. It's a map you really have to Shuriken start to get the full experience. If you bring a Grenade Launcher from MAP06 you can trivialise all of the fights with it. If you didn't, then you'll have to contend with using the Riot Gun, five Sticky Bombs and a single Uzi for an awfully long time until you can find the secret Missile Launcher. From there, the only truly bothersome trap is the Gold Key alley with three hitscanners placed in highly awkward spots. Jumping down into the pit is just asking for disaster, so rather than do that, I like to hang around the exit of the vent and toss Sticky Bombs in the general direction of the monsters. I took my first death here, and then took my second at the map's start trying to get back to where I was. It was then I decided to make save states. Resturant won't take too much of your time if you're playing single segment, but Shuriken starters and new players will be restarting enough times to greatly draw out the playtime.

6/10.

Quacken

#8 Posted 07 March 2024 - 05:08 AM

Double feature!

Skyscraper
Tyler Larsen

Tyler Larsen's second speedmap is unfortunately a dud. A big complex of skyscrapers seems like a fun map to traverse through, but while Larsen can make the map flow okay, he couldn't have a harder time not killing you. Before you get to the Sumo you'll have 20 Missiles and many Grenades to kill it, and when you leave you'll have 50 Missiles and all the Rail Gun ammo you won't need. I have a theory that this Sumo was meant to be a Boss Sumo, but Tyler Larsen forgot to give it the correct palette to assign it the Boss status. I have to say, even if that was a boss, this map would still be a joke. This map also loses points for its sky texture. For literally no reason at all, rather than in Duke 3D where the sky texture stretches to match the actual sky sectors, in Shadow Warrior, the sky texture tiles vertically ad infinitum, unless you raise the floor of the sky sector and add a texture to the bottom half. This effect is noticeable in Chinatown and Monastary too, but here you've gotta look at this Christmas wrapping paper skybox while you're doing platforming over bottomless pits. The secret exit isn't any difficult to find at all. Just jump through a vent on the bottom floor near the crane, jump through a fake wall, and there you go. This map had potential, but it's too short and easy. By the way, Part 1 of Wanton Destruction has both secret maps.

4/10.

The Docks
Tim Nolan

Look, it's a "The"! In Wanton Destruction, that "The" is one of a kind. Jokes aside, The Docks is bland, sleep-inducing and rather amateurish. I don't really know what circumstances lead to this map turning out the way it is, but I'm sure it's probably not Tim Nolan's fault. This map is blocky, covered in water, big on vehicles with explosives on them, and mostly a joke save for the fish market. Shadow Warrior could have really used a Cacodemon clone, because the only thing you'll ever see on the waters are Coolie Ghost clouds, which are slow and bothersome to take out. Not even the huge yacht you use a Repair Kit on later really helps. The damn thing is extremely large and gets caught on the pier you steer it out of. Good on Apogee for the sector-based vehicle logic, but it's a bit telling when Hara-Kiri Harbour's speed boat, the smallest one of them all and the only one with a hitscan attack, is the most fun one to use for me. There's also a variety of quirks to this map that seem like an attempt to pad time, such as the odd sequence to get the Bronze Key and the fact that the doors to the forklift only open with a sound cue. The Docks may have a fantastic sign, but it could have been better if it just had two more hours in the oven.

3.5/10.

Quacken

#9 Posted 09 March 2024 - 01:17 AM

Airplane
Charlie Wiederhold

Charlie Wiederhold's Airplane is an exhibition - a concoction of the purest grade black tar Build jank you can muster, and Wiederhold even decided to throw in a free map to go along with it. Aside from its one claim to fame, Airplane plays rather averagely. Banditos are placed behind fake wall curtains, which is highly annoying and disruptive. You would think the Grenade Launcher right at the start would help, but it really doesn't. The seating compartments have too much geometry everywhere, and the hitscanners like to crouch behind the cues, making grenades much less effective. This is also the most crowded map in the whole set, so trying to escape your own grenades or using the secret Missile Launcher is very risky. The cargo bay at the bottom floor brings back Killer Rabbits and is the only part of the map that is actually well lit, and you'll need to hold your breath when getting the Red Key and jumping back to safe ground. You'll need to hold your breath even harder for when you go for the Yellow Key, because you'll need to do an even more precarious jump to land on the top of the airplane safely. I'm glad there's no Coolie Ghosts on the outside of the plane, because cutting down the gremlins on the wings is bothersome enough. This map is a pony with one really good trick.

6.5/10.

Quacken

#10 Posted 09 March 2024 - 10:04 PM

Military Base
Matthew "Mattcake" Harris

Matthew Harris' final contribution to Wanton Destruction is Military Base. It's definitely his most substantive map, but that's only really in terms of length. For four keys, Mattcake only has a bunch of long techbase corridors and 94 monsters to show for it, when this map could have easily fit 130 without Coolie Ghosts adding to the kill count. As a result, this map feels underpopulated, and its emphasis on backtracking to and from elevator rides to reach the key switches can make first timers potentially prone to getting lost. In terms of visuals, Harris experiments a lot more with coloured lighting in this map, and Landwaster is an unexpected fit for this map's song. Most of the Shadow Warrior soundtrack is pretty sleep inducing, but Landwaster is one of the few tracks to really stick in my mind despite how little it has going on. The only fights that are really worth mentioning are the triple Mama Ripper stampede which Harris hands you a Gas Bomb and a Smoke Bomb right before to dispatch effortlessly, and the balloon of Hornets that spawns in the tunnels after getting the Blue Key is satisfying to pop with the Grenade Launcher. The other monsters in the map don't have anything on your Riot Gun, which Harris dispenses Shotshells for like an explosion being set off in a candy shop. Military Base feels rather uninspired and empty, and borders on being a filler map.

6/10.

Quacken

#11 Posted 11 March 2024 - 03:42 AM

Train
John "Kasai" Leonard

Okay, I would have preferred "Station" over this map's actual title. Train is John Leonard's only work he did for Sunstorm, and I think he did relatively good considering the recent mediocre streak of maps. This is another map that feels underpopulated and could have benefitted from more playtesting. There's five keys in this map but only a maximum possible total of exactly 100 kills. A lot of these areas seem like prime opportunities to be repopulated with new foes, but I guess setting up teleporter traps in Build is time consuming. I feel you from over the pond, but still. As a result of this, a lot of this map is basically just walking to and from the key doors, and not even Kasai's insistence on Mama Rippers provides enough chaff to punch through. Where's all the boss enemies? The last two of them were in MAP03! It would have helped use up all of these grenades that Kasai absolutely gorges you on. There's not enough good things to blow up with it, so you'll max out before you get the Yellow Key. This map's visuals are fairly creative and varied though, and the music helps to alleviate the lack of things to kill. The train at the end is a definite highlight, with how the rails move and all. Though, past the rails is an endless fog of city lights, which doesn't look great. I also happen to like most of the manga and anime posters that are on the walls. Concerning the ones that look like screenshots, I've always wondered what the original series were. Train is creative visually, but it lacks in terms of combat and is way too easy for being MAP08.

7/10.

Quacken

#12 Posted 12 March 2024 - 12:54 AM

Lo Wang do Super Kung Fu Jump^TM!

Auto Factory
Cho Yan "Tempest" Wong

I tell you what, Cho Yan Wong always puts their best foot forward. Except that one time in MAP03... Auto Factory is a rather signature run and gun fest set inside a big rectangle. And it's pretty fun! If giving the player 30 grenades at the start was some kind of mandate from Robert Travis, then you might as well put them to good use. This map has lots of corridors at 90 degree angles and plenty of office cubicles, which makes them prime targets for blowing up. The lack of vision caused by the black fog being set too close to your face is 1 not actually that bad, and 2 it's mitigated when the room you're in is constantly flashing from you spamming explosives. There also happens to be quite a bit of height and lighting variation, and a handful of moving sectors, whether it be cars strutting along on conveyor belts and spontaneously exploding, or trucks colliding into stacks of crates at 4 MPH and combusting into flame. You also get handed a Smoke Bomb early on which can be redeemed to clear out the Yellow Key room. The monster variety is also greater than usual, with all five Banditos making their appearance, two Orange Rippers and the final fight with two Serpent Gods that can't ever hit you. I wonder what would have happened had Cho Yan Wong stuck around the Build scene a while longer. The early 2000s probably could have used their talent.

8/10.

Skyline
Charlie Wiederhold

You're back in Japan now (or you were back in MAP09, which makes no sense at all), now you have to go beat up Zilla again for some reason. Skyline is short and not that interesting, sporting a solid gray skybox, wonky lighting and 36 monsters. Charlie Wiederhold gives you all the resources you need to... fight two singleton mini bosses. I'm pretty sure these are also meant to have their palette changed to be boss enemies, but that was probably never implemented before Wanton Destruction was cancelled. Zilla is even more of a pushover than he is in the base game. Not only can you access an extremely easy secret with three Nukes in it, not only are there about seven Portable Medkits and four Fortune Cookies in this map, not only is there a Smoke Bomb and a Gas Bomb before this fight, but you aren't trapped in the arena with Zilla. You can back out of there by climbing up the crates and crawling back through the vent. Back to that secret with the Nukes, or back to the Medkits where you're able to heal to full health. The only fun thing to do in this map is flirt with Zilla's secretary. I'm impressed that they were able to do a replacement for one of the babes, and that they got a voice actor for it. The mic quality is very questionable, though. As is tradition for the Sunstorm expansions, I have to talk about the ending cutscene. This one's pretty good, on par with Duke Caribbean's cutscene. It has a lot of frames in it and it manages to tie back into the plot of the mapset, with the ultimate payoff of Lo Wang finally confronting the old lady that has been stalking him. Skyline is a rather lame finishing map that feels like a pulled punch.

3/10.

Closing Thoughts

So: Once thought to be forever lost to the sands of development hell, Wanton Destruction was saved by happenstance. While game preservation is always a win in any case, this is in my opinion a contender for the weakest Sunstorm expansion. Although it's fully playable, it definitely feels unfinished, and it lacks playtesting. Most of these maps are barren and uninteresting, and the ones that can make up for that with their visuals are usually way too easy. Like the map makers stuffed the map with ammo to make testing easier and couldn't go back to remove it later, because a very smart company decided to release their Build Engine game after Quake II had released. It's an interesting time capsule, and I'm glad both it and Twin Dragon finally got their due dilligence when Classic Redux ported them, but what a difference could have been made if the mappers could have gone back to touch up their maps like what happened for Twin Dragon. My final rating for Wanton Destruction is a 6/10. Now can SOMEONE please make Deadly Kiss playable already? That unused banner for it in the Classic Redux artstyle looks really cool.

This post has been edited by Quacken: 12 March 2024 - 12:57 AM

Quacken

#13 Posted 12 March 2024 - 11:02 PM

This segment was brought to you by the letter M and the number 3. I can't find a manual for this game online so I can't use that to find the names of the monsters. Did this game even have a manual? Also, I found out that playing on Psychobilly on Raze doesn't disable saving and loading like it's supposed to. So I'm playing on Psychobilly now, which means the maximum number of enemies are present.

Area 69

Walkthrough:

Spoiler

What Area 69 lacks in flagrant optional areas, farm animals that absorb your hitscan and fancy moving sectors, it makes up for with a lack of health, sparse combat and a bunch of switches that don't tell you what they do. I'm a bit torn on the visuals. The new textures contribute less to the uncanney valley look of RR1, and the wall art along with the textures for the plane instead opts for more of a street punk or Mad Max aesthetic, which isn't nearly as interesting. I do like the insistence on bloody floors though, and I also like the bright yellow alien tubes deep into the bunker. You can even break them, which adds to more of that oh-so desired Build Engine realism. I didn't even know the Joe 9000 computer existed the first time I played this map, but he's pretty funny to listen to too. In terms of combat, aside from a brutal hose down with the Hunting Rifle when trying to approach the UFO, there's not really much to say here. The map maker must have really liked Bikers, because they're everywhere here. Hey, Neighbour! And speaking of Bikers, this map introduces three of RRRA's new monsters. Frank the Biker is a bit of a glass cannon. He likes to rapid fire Shotgun you, but one meatshot with the Scattergun has a good chance of putting you on top. Yep! Counting all five Vixen variants as individual monsters, that's nine enemies in this game with a hitscan attack.

Anyway, Frank is pretty borked. He attacks you unrelentingly, even if you're behind walls, and won't let up for a good 8 to 10 seconds. This makes approaching him dangerous if you failed to kill him before he starts shooting. On the other hand, this actually makes Frank a pretty solid infighting tool, even in this game where there's no infighting. Wake up a Frank in a room where there's a corner or a wall you can hide behind and listen to other dipshits walk into his line of fire. He carves up Coots really well in particular. Jackalopes border on being an ambient enemy. Unless you're fighting a Mama Jackalope and she is constantly spitting them out at you, they're too slow and stupid to ever get a bite out of you. Daisy Mae the Cheerleader is rather nimble and throws spinning things of fire at you. They can bounce off of walls, so watch out for that. They also have enough health to survive one Scattergun meat shot, so there's a good chance they'll be able to retaliate at you. Sometimes, you'll find a Daisy and a Frank getting it on, which is very ethically questionable, but it also gives you the opportunity to beat them both over the head with the Crossbow. Area 69 is a lot of screaming and a lot of aimless switch hunting that isn't very fun to traverse.

5.5/10.

This post has been edited by Quacken: 12 March 2024 - 11:02 PM

FistMarine

#14 Posted 13 March 2024 - 05:35 AM

Thanks everyone for the comments so far and especially thanks Quacken for keeping the topic alive! Looks like it's my turn to review WD before we are moving to RR:RA.

@Quacken: Indeed, it is very sad that John Galt died back in early 2022. He actually died on 29th January 2022, which marked 26 years since Duke Nukem 3D Shareware Version 1.0 was released back in 1996. And if we take into account that Wanton Destruction was finished on 28th January 1998 (but unreleased for nearly nine years), this is a rather strange coincidence, even stranger if WD was finished a day later. But yeah, RIP John William Galt, you will be missed!

I'm not very familiar with the Shadow Warrior reboots but I think they are all prequels to the original game. And I believe Wanton Destruction is pretty much acting like the unofficial sequel to the original 1997 game, while Twin Dragon acts like a side-story, still not sure if either addons are actually canon. No idea what to say about the unreleased Deadly Kiss, hopefully it will see the light of the day, maybe the day when a better Shadow Warrior remaster gets announced/released with exclusive new content, bug fixes, etc.

On that note of SW ports/versions, I prefer the original DOS version (for playing original game, addons and most old user content) and JFSW (for playing repacked versions of addons and probably other newer custom content). I think Classic Redux was decent back when it came out in 2013 because there weren't many options available to choose from when comes to playing Shadow Warrior besides DOS version, you had JFSW which was okay and the buggy-ass SWP that could corrupt your saved game. In the 2020s, other better source ports came out (GDX, Raze, VoidSW) that I feel like a better remaster is also much needed.

@NightFright: Thanks for letting me know! I didn't know there was a fixed version you made. I guess there are now three different versions available or four if we count the digital version included in Shadow Warrior Classic Redux and Shadow Warrior Classic Complete on GOG but I don't know if any of those made actual changes to the GRP file, so I'd like to know what is the checksum of those digital wanton grp files (and TD.grp in Classic Redux, which is the only official grp'ed version of Twin Dragon).

If we ignore the digital versions included in Classic Complete and Classic Redux, which I'm not sure if they are changed or not, we have the following versions of Wanton Destruction:
WT.GRP -> Original version by Sunstorm Interactive (dated 28/01/1998, 46.4 MBs)
WantDest.grp -> Fixed version by ProAsm (dated 17/09/2007, 9.11 MBs)
wanton.grp -> Fixed version by NightFright (dated 22/04/2021, 2.85 MBs)

Now I feel like replaying Wanton Destruction using the version provided by NightFright in Raze source port, just to complete every version available, though maybe another time.

Anyway, I have already finished Wanton Destruction in past year in DOSBox 0.74-3 on Who Wants Wang difficulty and noticed I still had the installed folder on my laptop. I was thinking to replay it on No Pain No Gain difficulty but I remembered I haven't played the fixed version by ProAsm, so I decided to do WantDest.grp in JFSW on Who Wants Wang difficulty, just to refresh my memory on the levels and mentioning a couple random facts.

Though note that the screenshots are taken recently in the DOS version, at default brightness because the saved games overwrote my current brightness settings, as I still had the saved games around in a separate backup folder, so I could just load them up to take some screenshots. As far as I can tell, there isn't that much of a difference in enemy count between WWW and NPNG skill levels when I compared with those YouTube gameplay videos, it's just about 5-10 enemies difference in each level.

Also while playing through the "Fixed" version, I have noticed a couple glitches, some caused by the JFSW port (such as other "Lo Wangs" appearing on the automap for some reason) and others caused by using WantDest.grp by ProAsm, probably a side effect of cleaning up the duplicate stuff and ended up removing Lo Wang's new quotes.

Before I start reviewing the first couple levels, here are the secret guides (Steam and YouTube):
https://steamcommuni...s/?id=160571620 (Secrets Guide on Steam - Part 1)
https://steamcommuni...s/?id=161753747 (Secrets Guide on Steam - Part 2)
https://www.youtube....TSXLqjOkvYf7tXs (Wanton Destruction Playthrough by pagb666)

Oh and I just remembered there is a DEMO version of Wanton Destruction, released in mid October 1997, which only contains two levels (garden.map and wtrfight.map), the first being for SP and the second for MP.

Wanton Destruction Teaser can be downloaded at the following links:
Archived Link (Original Link) -> https://web.archive....es/wdteaser.zip
DOSGamesArchive (Mirror Link) -> https://www.dosgames...ton-destruction

The second link also includes a mirror download of the full version of WD. I wish I had posted this in the OP but I completely forgot. If you want, feel free to check out the demo version of WD.

I will review the first four maps for now and I will also specify each map's filename, as the expansion follows the original game's level naming for the most part.

WANTON DESTRUCTION

Chinatown ($WHIRL.MAP)
by Matthew "Mattcake" Harris

An interesting and rather tough opener. Lo Wang has to jump off his apartment while getting stalked by the old lady. Reminder that this apartment can't be visited again (at least not in this level), so grab the Uzi and shotgun shells before jumping. You then have to deal with a bunch of hornets, as well as the mafia men and guardians. Note that some of mafia men wear colored hats (like Ninjas wore colored pants in the original game), which means that they can have explosives on them, be careful!

The progression can be a bit confusing, like that switch in the laundromat that opens the gate in the garage that contains the red key. Oh and then there's the sewer part, which actually got me killed once by a guardian in dumb way because my fists weren't hitting him when I got cornered. As a punishment, I restarted the map and did better the second time. Even then, I did a lot better than the first playthrough in DOSBox where I died a bunch of times but that's because this time I was more familiar with the map, compared to the blind playthrough at that time.

There are two Gray Armors available in this map, so the health loss can be softened a little bit. I wish the armor stacked like in Duke3D, so picking them up both would have resulted in having 100 armor. But hey, 50 armor is better than nothing, considering that many levels in this addon don't even have the courtesy to include any armor pickups, I am grateful that any armor pickup is available in these few maps, considering how easy Lo Wang can die from explosions even at 100 or more health.

Overall, this was an interesting opener, although the difficulty was a little bit over the top for being the first level, at least for the Who Wants Wang difficulty, which I'm still not sure if it's supposed to be the Medium or Hard difficulty (or somewhere in-between), considering it's the default selection in the main menu and SW is a tough game no matter the difficulty chosen, as the damage dealt/taken is identical across all skills.

Monastary ($TANK.MAP)
by Robert Travis

This map is also included in the Wanton Destruction Teaser, released back in mid October 1997. I remember reading a few years ago, a post on the forums comparing the differences between the demo and final version of the map but I can't find that post after searching for an hour.

As for the map, it is pretty good, even if it got me killed a few times this time around, mostly from random explosions. But I also dislike the lack of armor, even though you get plenty of health and ammo, as is the case with pretty much every map of this addon, it's only the armor that is mostly neglected.

The visuals are pretty impressive and the gameplay is also pretty good, like the part you get to fight the Mini Serpent, which is quite easy because he dies pretty quickly and makes me wonder if he wasn't supposed to be a full sized boss, at least for the harder difficulties.

Just remember that the area cannot be accessed again after defeating the mini boss and exiting the building, though luckily the secret is still possible to reach because the entrance is not blocked, only the arena is blocked and can't be entered again, so be sure to grab all the supplies when defeating the serpent.

And also note that this map contains the first secret exit, which is located inside one of the secret areas near the end and requires you to take fall damage twice to reach the hidden cave. If you are playing continuously and want to finish with as much health possible, then heal up to 200 after eliminating the enemies and finding every other secrets, before jumping down the ledge, though a teleporter is provided anyway if you want to backtrack for more secrets but you need to jump down again and lose more health. In best case scenario, you will finish the level with around 150 health, since falling damage hurts quite a bit in SW and there is no armor in this level to mitigate the damage.

Overall, this was a nice large map.

Redwood Forest ($SHORE.MAP)
by Matthew "Mattcake" Harris

First secret level of the addon is pretty well designed but is it worth visiting? Do you get any significant rewards upon finishing it? Well, you get plenty of stuff and even an armor at some point but chances are you already picked up earlier, so it probably gets destroyed before you even reach the exit.

I need to mention that at the halfway point in the level, in the room that contains Lara Croft, the previous parts of the level are blocked. It seems you can resume backtracking upon reaching the end of the level, so don't panic if you missed a secret somewhere, at least from the testing I've done.

There seemed to be an optional area with a few more enemies in the forest, so be sure to thoroughly explore to find everything. As monsters can easily blend in the background, making you wonder where are the last enemies alive.

Also died a couple times, sometimes to enemies and sometimes to random bullshit like when submerging in the water sector or just running into a tree. Build Engine in a nutshell. And that's why I save the game often.

Overall, while the level was nicely designed, it was also quite annoying and confusing at times. At least you end up having everything at full by this point, minus the armor and Repair Kit you can find in next couple levels.

Trolly Yard ($BOAT.MAP)
by Cho Yan "Tempest" Wong

Probably one of the shortest and easiest maps in the entire addon. It is decently designed and there isn't any difficult part with the exception of an occasional powerful ninja getting lucky or a coolie blowing up nearby. In this playthrough, I died twice from the same damn Rocket Ninja that happened to get lucky with the hit. Such bullshit, I nearly did the level without dying, though I did it in previous playthrough.

I even managed to get some good use of the nuke against the two sumos at the end but that left me with 20 HP left thanks to the giant blast radius. Good thing I had gray armor I picked up earlier, it saved my life and that's why armor is important, it is a lifesaver. And finally, speaking of which, this is the first level to contain the Red Armor that gives the full 100 points, so it is nice to have it for the next level.

Overall, I found the level fine, as well as a nice break from the previous two longer levels. Looking forward to what Sunstorm is cooking next.

This post has been edited by FistMarine: 13 March 2024 - 05:38 AM

Quacken

#15 Posted 13 March 2024 - 11:53 PM

Something I've noticed is you travel noticeably faster crawling than you do walking in this game (and not in RR or Route 66). Why is this a thing? I don't know! But it makes the most optimal way to play this game is to become a snake and slither around everywhere, which is pretty funny.

Camino Del Diablo

Walkthrough:

Spoiler

Camino Del Diablo is RRRA's dedicated motorcycle map. This provides me with an ample excuse to talk about the motorcycle. It's not very good. You can travel very fast with it, and the Teat Guns it comes pre-packed with are definitely nice, but it's incapable of turning on a dime and you can only get off if you come to a complete stop. There is a way around that though - ordinarily, crashing into walls will cause you to lose some health, but if you brake by holding S as you are driving into a wall, you'll be able to make a stop without losing health. And since you have a motorcycle, it's only right that your self-proclaimed "neighbour" Frank the Biker gets one too. Motorfranks are probably the most difficult monsters to fight in this game. They're way faster than you unless you've got a ride of your own, they can do a lot of damage very quickly and they have the potential to split into two more enemies upon breaking the motorcycle. One Frank and one Daisy depending on if the mapper feels like it. Also introduced here are the Fiery Turd Minions (not their confirmed name, but if they did have one this seems appropriate). They're like regular Turd Minions, but they throw the Cheerleader's projectile. They're also all in pits of lava where no weapon can hurt them without having to step into lava yourself, so I'm putting all of the ones in this map in the "just not worth it" list.

The actual map itself is less than stellar. The road is way too long even with the motorcycle or slithering around on the dirt giving you a considerable speed boost, and the way to get Key 2 boggles the mind. I made it seem like less of a big deal back in the RR and Route 66 reviews, but this is why you colour your keys and make trim textures. If you went into the cave earlier, you could have seen that there would have been a door with a coloured trim, and Key 1 would have told you to backtrack. Without that, a first time player would probably just keep riding forward and eventually run into Door 2 at the end of the map. The road isn't a full circuit. If this happens to you, you have to make the long and painful trip back to the cave with Door 1, and then go back the same way you came. Of course, this hypothetical situation only applies if a first-time player found the cave and didn't just pass by it, because it blends into the rockface. Map design is my passion! This map is silly, and the only reasons I'm not giving it a 1 are the spinning sign and the MIDI I chose in the absence of one.

2.5/10.

This post has been edited by Quacken: 14 March 2024 - 03:51 AM

FistMarine

#16 Posted 14 March 2024 - 04:14 AM

Glad to see the RR:RA reviews. There will be a lot of things to talk about the game when I get around replaying it soon. And about crawling making you faster in RR:RA, I noticed the same thing happening in DOSBox years ago (only in RA, not in main game). For now, here's four more map reviews for WD.

Resturant ($GARDEN.MAP)
by Tyler Larsen

Just like with Monastary, the level title is misspelled. I actually didn't notice this level being misspelled in game but seeing as Quacken mentioned it earlier, I double checked and then noticed the mistake. It's misspelled in ProAsm's fixed version as well.

Anyway, this is another short level with cramped combat but if you use the Grenade Launcher carefully, you end up clearing the rooms without exposing yourself. Progression is mostly straightforward as well. Just watch out for some traps, like the Coolie spawning in your face when opening some doors.

I don't like the lack of armor and that only one Fortune Cookie can be found inside secrets, so at maximum you can have 150 health. Despite that, I managed to do the level without dying, as I did in previous playthrough.

I like how there are some colored Guardians as well, even though they are just palette swaps, which means they don't have any unique abilities. The rest of the level is great and the grenade launcher makes for a great weapon to clear rooms as long as you take cover. Plus, I don't know if I have mentioned before but the combat in SW is incredibly punchy and satisfying. The melee weapons are great too, on par with the ones in Hexen: Beyond Heretic when using the Fighter character.

Overall, aside from the cramped combat and lack of armor, this was a nice little level.

Skyscraper ($OUTPOST.MAP)
by Tyler Larsen

Yet another somewhat short level, as long as you don't get stuck trying to find one of the cards/slots. However, in terms of gameplay, I found it quite frustrating at times due to those upgraded mafia men, like when you start the level and take the elevator down, you get ambushed by about five of them that you die almost instantly when one decides to fire the grenade/rocket at you, without mentioning the others shooting at you with their uzis and the Coolie waiting nearby. I certainly died a couple times before I got through this section. And that's with 150 health started from the previous level.

I like how you get to revisit the apartment from the first level, that's a neat detail. There is also one optional room near regular exit that contains two more ninjas, as you may be wondering where are the last few enemies. And finally, you don't need to repair the forklift to access the secret area with Portable Medkit. Just doing a long strafe jump from near window is enough to reach it but you may need a few tries until making it.

Secret Exit can be found by going through the vents, as Quacken mentioned. Indeed, you find the second secret exit already in the first episode, which makes me believe WD was originally planned to be much longer (15-16 SP maps) and the episodes would have been better streamlined.

Overall, the design is pretty nice but the confusing parts and frustrating gameplay dragged down this map a little bit. Seriously now, I was quite sick of the instant death bullshit caused by those Rocket/Grenade mafia guys. Could have also used some armor to soften the wounds, though at least health is plentiful but even then, it still doesn't help when an explosive hits you in the face and deals 100+ dmg, instantly gibbing you. Makes me appreciate being able to save anywhere and whenever I want, so I can go back and try that encounter again. Now let's see how the secret level holds up.

The Docks ($AUTO.MAP)
by Tim Nolan

Second secret level is fine, I guess. But the design is not as remarkable as many other levels, in fact it feels a bit bland at times. And there isn't a whole lot to talk about it.

Gameplay wise, it is decent and gets bonus points just for including one armor pickup and even a fortune cookie, so you can leave the level with 150 health and 50 armor. Which isn't that different when you compare to entering this level with 200 health and no armor but considering how rare the armor is, you might as well go for it, as even having as little as few armor points can make a difference between life and death. More on that much later in the following days when giving the conclusion to WD.

This level is worth visiting at least once, just to see what's about. But it's not a very memorable level, although I appreciate its inclusion at least.

Airplane ($HIDTEMP.MAP)
by Charlie Wiederhold

And now for the infamous Airplane level, which is greatly designed but has some truly frustrating bits in form of annoying and confusing gameplay.

Design wise, it reminds me a lot of Passenger Jet user map for Duke Nukem 3D, which was actually played back in December 2023 edition of the map/mod club, so the map is still fresh in memory. However, that map was released in 2002, whereas this one is from 1998, if we judge by the original finished date and not by the actual release date of Wanton Destruction.

The problem with this map is the cramped combat combined with many annoying mafia men that are mostly explosive variety, lack of armor that makes every attack more painful than it should, even if you carry the armor from secret level, it will get melted almost instantly within the first minute.

And the fact the enemies can see/shoot through curtains but you can't even see them, which makes for added cheap difficulty. I realized while playing that you are meant to lob grenades around the corner and clear the rooms safely because if you try to approach the rooms directly with fists, sword, uzis or whatever, you will get chewed instantly.

And then you get to the hidden buttons/switches and the way you collect the cards, mostly talking about the Red and Yellow cards. Okay, the Red one is not that bad to get if you remember to jump backwards while climbing the stairs but the Yellow one will surely test your limits and patience, as you need to jump on the airplane and hope you don't fall off due to the strong wind. Additionally, there's two fortune cookies on the airplane, so you should try grabbing them if you want to have as much health as possible.

Oh and I suppose I should mention how JFSW (2005) crashed once while I was gunned down by a ninja while having 1 HP left. It's not the first time JFSW crashes but it's the first and only time it crashed during this playthrough of WD. And the fact I got my ass kicked quite a bit on this map that I ended up using two Portable Medkits while I was left with just 2 HP. I'm glad the level is generous with health, as you will get hit a lot by those damn mafia men and even the rippers in the cargo bay can do quite a bit of damage. Oh yeah and the Killer Rabbits are back but only for this map.

Notes:
1) All three secrets require you to press on the electrical sign to open the secret nearby.
2) Be sure to explore, you will find hidden Portable Medkits, like inside the toilet or when opening a small window.
3) There is no way back when going into the cockpit, so be sure to explore and collect everything in advance.
4) During the airplane crash sequence, stay crouched in the right side, the explosion will NOT hurt you!

Overall, this level is incredible in terms of design. But in terms of gameplay, it is fucking annoying with all those explosive ninjas that get a cheap shot on you, the hitscanners hidden behind curtains, the hidden switches and the effort required to get some keys. And I suppose the point of no return is also worth mentioning but seeing as it is literally at the end, it's not that bad if you have gotten everything in advance. Just note that the following three maps also have a point of no return right at the end.

This post has been edited by FistMarine: 14 March 2024 - 04:24 AM

FistMarine

#17 Posted 15 March 2024 - 02:45 AM

Double post to get the remaining WD SP maps reviewed and some random SW trivia, just in time for the weekend.

Military Base ($PLAX1.MAP)
by Matthew "Mattcake" Harris

Another fine level, not too easy but not too hard either. Again, the combat is cramped at times and there is no armor but instead there's tons of ammo and health, far more than you will ever need. If you can deal with whatever enemies show up in the corridors, you shouldn't have that much trouble with the level, honestly.

Oh and be careful with the turrets at beginning and when getting the first secret by jumping inside the tree. The turrets can't be destroyed but they don't count as enemies either. Just quickly grab the key and enter the base.

Notes:
1) One secret is IMPOSSIBLE to register, as the sector is too small for Lo Wang to fit inside, though the fortune cookie can be still grabbed. Thus the maximum amount of secrets you can get is 5/6.
2) The bugged secret still persists in the fixed version by ProAsm. I don't know if it was fixed in Classic Redux but according to NightFright, it was fixed in his version.
3) Using the Blue Card will lower the elevator to the exit button. However, there is NO WAY BACK, so grab everything before activating the exit elevator.

Overall, despite being the only map with an unreachable secret, this was a fine map.

Train ($BATH.MAP)
by John "Kasai" Leonard

An interesting level centered around a train station. It is much easier than many earlier levels but there are some tricky parts as well.

I'm not sure if this level needed five keys in total. There's all the four cards and one gold key to be found, the latter replacing one of the cards on the HUD when picked up. I don't think this has any effect during the gameplay and Lo Wang still has all the keys in inventory. But I think that just using either four cards or four keys on a level is enough, considering that SW has EIGHT key types (Four Cards and Four Keys) in total, though some earlier levels mixed the cards/keys just fine.

The interior of the Train is also pretty and the map ends on a bang with those baby rippers and the guardian in the exit room. Better get your fists ready!

Notes:
1) Inside the bathroom where you find the Red Card, press on one of the stalls to spawn two mafia guys behind you. They are required for 100% kills.
2) When hitting the switch inside the train, there is NO WAY BACK, so grab everything before activating the switch.

Overall, this was an interesting level.

Auto Factory ($AIRPORT.MAP)
by Cho Yan "Tempest" Wong

Another very interesting level and action packed without being frustrating, this definitely feels like a map you'd find in the original Shadow Warrior.

It's also nice to know this level is very generous with the armor pickups, as you get THREE of them (two gray and one red), making it the second level you get the Red Armor in the entire addon and it's made by the same mapper too.

Yes, I know that the armor is still only found inside secret areas but why couldn't the other mappers just place one armor somewhere in some secret area? At least Cho Yan Wong did his homework properly and knew the gameplay is much more fun when you put some armor in the level, so the powerful enemies don't one shot you.

I'm not going to talk too much about the level as Quacken already said it better than I could but I want to note that before fighting the Snake Mini Boss at the end of the level after inserting the Green Card, there is no way back upon dropping down the platform. So make sure you've got everything in advance. Kinda funny that there's FOUR levels in a row with a point of no return at the end.

Overall, this was a surprisingly fun map. It is challenging without being frustrating and I beat it without dying on both playthroughs, mostly thanks to the generous health and armor pickups. Let's hope the final map is also going to be great.

Skyline ($VOLCANO.MAP)
by Charlie Wiederhold

Before I begin the actual review, allow me to mention that the fixed version by ProAsm seems to have accidentally deleted the new Lo Wang speech during the cleanup process.

The reason is the original WT.GRP was as big as SW.GRP due to keeping all the original game's unmodified assets as well as the new assets. The same applies to Duke!Zone II which was played in previous month and I forgot to mention earlier for those interested in knowing some trivia.

So anyway, in WantDest.grp, instead of saying a new quote at the start of level, Lo Wang says: Oh, what have you been eating baby?
This reminds me the time I watched a gameplay video of Wanton Destruction final level years ago, Lo Wang said at beginning: Ugh, stink like dead baboon in here! :lol:

Before facing Master Zilla himself, Lo Wang has to jump and explore a few buildings, as well as defeat two mini bosses and talk to Zilla's Secretary before the final fight with Master Zilla himself. Honestly, that Shadow Ninja near the end gave me far more trouble compared to Master Zilla who barely hurt me with his uzis, though be careful if he chooses to railgun you, as that one attack hurts like hell and mostly kills you in like two hits at 200 health. No, you don't get any armor in this level if you are wondering.

And yeah, I know, the final boss himself is quite underwhelming, especially since you can retreat to previous room during mid-fight, though I only found about this recently. Zilla attacks with uzis, homing and non-homing rockets, as well as railgun but he seems to be slow and rarely attacking you, especially since you can take cover behind the pillars.

With all the ammo gathered, you will have absolutely no problem to put him down in just one or two minutes. Just 30 or so rockets and he is dead. Be also sure to hit the barrels while he is near them, as he takes extra damage from them. Or you can do the easy way and turn invisible and punch Zilla until he dies but also make sure to not die in the process caused by his exploding body.

The way the boss endings in SW work from my experience is that there is a delay after defeating the boss and even if you somehow died during that time, the screen will fade to black and the ending will play anyway, partially because of the original behavior when player dies and level restarts, there is a split-second where Lo Wang respawns (like in multiplayer mode) before level restarts.

Additionally, you can save during the battle when Zilla's health is low and reloading will work as expected but do NOT save when Zilla dies because if you reload that save, then you get stuck in the level with no way to finish it, as the boss death trigger won't happen again afterwards if you choose to reload the save to see the ending again. Only the first time the ending will work and to see ending again, you need to defeat him again instead of reloading the save where he is dead. Hopefully you have an earlier save.

Yes, this hardcoded behavior is weird and can even lead to results like loading game while boss dies and when game is loaded, game ends anyway after a couple seconds even if Zilla is alive, which has the side effect of having one enemy missed. Or you know, dying and restarting the level while Zilla dies will also immediately skip to ending cutscene. This weird behavior may have been fixed in some newer source ports but in original game and older source ports (including Classic Redux I suppose), this can lead to game ending earlier than intended or even softlocking you entirely.

Overall, this finale was interesting though somewhat underwhelming. At least the new cutscene is pretty good and wraps up the things nicely with the twist being the old lady stalking Lo Wang throughout his journey.

I will come back with the Wanton conclusion (including the cutscene pictures) and DM/CTF maps reviewed at the same time, next week. Then I will eventually get to replaying and reviewing RR:RA.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

This post has been edited by FistMarine: 15 March 2024 - 02:50 AM

Quacken

#18 Posted 15 March 2024 - 03:48 AM

So what did Alex Mayberry, Mal Blackwell and Sverre Kvernmo all do wrong to be replaced in the map design team in RRRA?

El Peso

Spoiler

Why are we in prison again? This one has even less sense than in Nut House. My best guess is that you were pulled over for speeding on the motorcycle, and so the law enforcement of the town decided to throw you in the slammer. Not Bubba, though. He's been a good man. Despite still being linear, this map happens to do a good job of having the illusion of being non-linear, owing to its plentiful optional areas and relatively free-roaming navigation. It plays kind of like a baby's first Downtown, if that's even possible. The combat mostly blends together like usual, even with the new monsters. Considering how small and stupid the Jackalopes are and how open this map is, having piles of Jackalopes run at you like Boom Lost Soul clouds would have made for an interesting fight. Save that for next map though, I guess. Rhett's River Rapids are no fun to traverse at all because this game still elects not to use UFOs as proper enemies, and the black tar water texture is used instead of something more appetising so it looks like you're sliding on oil.

I'm nearly done with all of the new features in Episode 1, here's the new weapons. The Slingblade is a weapon that you just have for some reason. Was this on the alien mothership? You always start each map with it and you can toggle between the Crowbar and the Slingblade by pressing the 1 key. Usually if you have multiple weapons, one is slower and has more DPS, and vice versa - the Chainsaw and Berserked Fist from Doom, and funnily enough the Katana and Fists from Shadow Warrior are the two main examples I can think of, but here the Slingblade has the exact same firing rate, has a completely unrelated man groaning when you switch to it, and it gibs whatever you kill with it. The downside is you literally just have to press 1 twice to get to it. Chicken Dynamite is a new ammo type for the Crossbow. It turns your rockets into disfunctional homing rockets that will never hit anything for useful damage and it will always just be better to hit them directly with the regular ammo. It does sound funny though, so I will have to give it points for that. Maybe if Leonard had a Nuclear Chicken he could strap to his Crossbow, it would be a better alternative. I happen to rather like El Peso. It's very chill and rewards you a lot for exploring.

7/10.

This post has been edited by Quacken: 15 March 2024 - 03:55 AM

Quacken

#19 Posted 16 March 2024 - 01:50 AM

Jack 'O Lope Farm

Walkthrough:

Spoiler

A secret map in everything but placement, Jack 'O Lope Farm has 94 Jackalopes and counting, 1 Mama Jackalope and 2 Coots who are just happy to be there. Extra attention is placed on the Hunting Rifle here, and that was a good choice, considering having to hack through Jackalopes with the Casull and Scattergun would have been a terrible idea. You'll still have to do that anyway though on a Casull start, because there's not enough ammo to go gun crazy with the Hunting Rifle. Some of the visuals are rather notable. There's a new portrait of an ugly-looking eggheaded fellow with terrible lighting, one of the sign textures randomly uses a 3D face model that isn't pre-rendered in the same way I imagine the sprites are, and the other signs look serviceable but are a little rough to the eyes. There's also the Jackalope spitting machine, which seems to be the first time that an alien cloning device has actually been seen in action. And even then, it's clear this is only being used for food. This lends credence to my personal headcanon that you are playing as the villain in this game, and the aliens are misunderstood tourists who don't have bad intentions. The final monster of Episode 1 is the Mama Jackalope. She has much more health compared to the regular Jackalope and she can spit small Jackalopes at you, but in this map specifically you get a Crossbow which cooks her. Right, when's the next time this monster appears? Oh, a filler map? Awesome. Jack 'O Lope Farm is a pretty funny gimmick map that I happened to enjoy a fair amount.

7.5/10.

Quacken

#20 Posted 17 March 2024 - 04:15 AM

Waco

Walkthrough:

Spoiler

Now, I'm from Australia, so I'm not really experienced in the topic of American genocides, but I took a quick look of the Waco siege on Wikipedia and nowhere did I see anything about the colossal network of caves, tunnels that lead into death pits, agonising usage of one texture to paint the walls and floor with, and 49 less kills than there were after the siege concluded. The sad thing about this map is Mount Carmel Centre itself would have been a much better choice for a location if you really wanted to make a map like this. The caves didn't even need to be there, you just had to make it Beaudry Mansion 2 and then end by blowing the house up so the joke is still there. There's also way too little ammo in this map on a Casull start, which means you will have to be gunning down Cheerleaders with the Casull until you can get to the Crossbow, which unlocks your Chicken ammo. I ragged on the Chicken ammo in the last review, but one good thing about it is that it's separate from the regular Dynamite, so you can essentially double your capacity. Waco has guts for the first minute, but then spills them all out for the other five minutes.

2.5/10.

FistMarine

#21 Posted 18 March 2024 - 04:00 AM

Hi. Here is the review with the bonus multiplayer maps and the conclusion of the expansion, as well as a bit more SW trivia.

Waterfight (DM Only) (WDDM01.MAP)

A medium sized DM map taking place on the waters.

Wanton DM 1 (DM Only) (WDDM02.MAP)

A very short DM map with some driveable vehicles.

Wanton DM 2 (DM Only) (WDDM03.MAP)

A very short DM map with the lava surrounding the arena. Note that some items are found in lava and it is impossible to avoid the damage, so you lose 10 health every time you grab an item in the lava. There are some teleporters in middle that send you to the second floor where you can find even more goodies.

Wanton CTF (CTF) (WDCTF.MAP)

A short CTF map with some vehicles included. Grabbing any of the flags crashes the game in JFSW. In original DOS version of SW, once you grabbed a flag, you had a timelimit to capture it or else it exploded in your hands, which caused massive damage (could be survived with armor at least). I think this wasn't the case in WD, so that picking up the flag didn't blow you up after a while but I don't know why in JFSW it crashes the game. There is the possibility that the Shadow Warrior Source Code is based off an older version of SW (version 1.0 to be exact) instead of the retail release 1.2. This explains the very rare crashes in JFSW. I don't know how do other source ports act though, so I can't really compare.

SHOTGUN.MAP

A copy of WDCTF.MAP

TANK.MAP

A copy of WDDM01.MAP

Wanton ending pictures I didn't post last time:

Overall, Wanton Destruction is a pretty good expansion and a worthy follow-up to the original Shadow Warrior, which is a criminally underrated FPS game that deserved so much better.

While the levels aren't perfect and there are some questionable design choices, as well as the unreachable secret in Military Base, the level quality is pretty good and feels at times slightly more polished than some of the original SW levels and even some TD levels. Though if we were to compare the Wanton Destruction levels to the ones from Twin Dragon, I think they all have their strengths and weaknesses. And both games have game breaking bugs in them in their original release, though in Wanton's case only applies to easier difficulties (game can be finished on WWW and NPNG), whereas in Dragon's case one level lacks the end of level sector tag, making it impossible to finish on any difficulty without the level warp cheat.

There are still a few moments where WD lacks polish and feels unfinished at times, just looking at the level names being misspelled or the levels only including mini bosses and not a single full sized boss. I'm pretty sure even Twin Dragon had at least one full sized boss but I may be wrong about that, as it's been a while since I finished TD last time.

And despite the very generous ammo and health given in each level, why is the armor lacking in almost every level? I seriously don't get this design choice. The original Shadow Warrior and even Twin Dragon addon were far more generous with the armor pickups, rarely there was a level without any armor.

Sure, the armor melts quickly but it can save your life if you get hit by an explosion and have enough health, even having just one single armor point left, it will make all the difference. I don't know why this happens but I noticed this glitch a while ago and it is the opposite way how the armor worked in Duke Nukem 3D. Whereas the armor in Duke3D didn't save you from fatal attacks, the armor in SW will protect as long as there is something remaining and you have enough health, it will still absorb the damage.

Examples of the armor's usefulness in Shadow Warrior. Experiment done by shooting a rocket in front of wall:
100 Health and 50 Armor -> 56 Health
100 Health and 1 Armor -> 56 Health
100 Health and no armor -> Dead

Therefore, having as little as one armor point remaining will still reduce the attack's damage by 60% and the rest will go towards health as usual. Unlike the other games of the era (such as Doom and Quake), where the armor and health values are correctly subtracted. However, much like Quake 1, the armor also absorbs damage from drowning, making the armor stronger than it should be.

While the levels aren't generous with the armor pickups (except for about five levels in the entire addon, some of them having multiple pickups in same level), most levels are packed with tons of health and ammo pickups to compensate for the increased difficulty.

I'd even say you get far too much ammo you will never use and if you have mastered Lo Wang's melee attacks, there are maps where you can just use the fists/sword for about half of the level population, meaning you don't even need all those weapons/ammo provided at all, which means Sword Starts don't sound that bad on paper when compared to other games of the era.

You still shouldn't be greedy with the ammo because in most levels you will finish with full everything at the end and health is far more precious to conserve, considering how easily you can die and the lack of armor just makes deaths more common than they should be in first place.

Oh yeah and while I really like the new Lo Wang speech (e.g. the "Life is Good!" when picking up a weapon) and the new sprites for the ninjas and guardians, the mafia guys' "Damn you!" sound gets old quickly. And I suppose I should mention that the Guardian's "see sound" being replaced will also affect Guardian Head's sound when picking/selecting the weapon.

I also didn't like how confusing were some levels, so I had to quickly check an YouTube video to see how to progress. I guess this was done to pad the length because many maps can be finished quickly if you know what you are doing and also quicksave at times to avoid having to replay the level because of some bullshit instant death that comes out of nowhere.

Some levels also had points of no return but they were literally at the end, so I don't mind them, even though there were four levels in a row that did this and made me wonder if it's just a coincidence or whatever. Just have a handy save in those levels if you want to backtrack for goodies/secrets, etc.

I mentioned earlier that there is a secret that cannot be registered in Military Base but thankfully, all remaining secrets you can get in the rest of the game, plus in each level you can get all kills as well. Unlike the main game where I couldn't get 100% kills in the final level no matter what (more on that when the main game will get chosen at some point), here you can get all kills, as long as you don't use the Ripper Heart which screws up the kill count, as a result of one added enemy when Lo Wang clone gets summoned but doesn't add to kills when it dies/expires.

Which reminds me, the Snake Boss could also screw up the kill count, if he is killed with any active skulls (aka if he isn't killed at the same time he throws his last accursed head, before he summons 12 new ones) but neither the Snake Boss, nor the Sumo Boss are used in this addon. You only fight Mini Boss versions of Snake and Sumo in some levels and that's it.

The original game used bosses occasionally and maybe Sunstorm planned to use the full sized snakes and sumos at some point but either ran out of time or they ran into hardcoded issues with the main game, like how the final level is placed on Level 20 slot and secret levels are in the Level 21 and 22 slots.

I can't offer further details because I am also not familiar with some hardcoded stuff in the original SW and I wish one day we would get a better Shadow Warrior remaster/rerelease that has all content plus new content plus bug fixes and so on, making it the definitive version of the game. So we don't have to go back to the DOS version or the Redux port that became obsolete over the years.

In the end, Wanton Destruction is a worthy addon to check out, especially to those who couldn't get enough Shadow Warrior. I will get to Redneck Rampage Rides Again soon, as that game also has plenty to talk about, both good and bad.

Aleks

#22 Posted 18 March 2024 - 01:07 PM

Quacken, on 17 March 2024 - 04:15 AM, said:

Now, I'm from Australia

So far, this is the most interesting thing I've learned from this thread

Kinda explains the "weird" hours you've been posting on, too!

Quacken

#23 Posted 19 March 2024 - 03:59 AM

I was going to make this a double feature, but this map made me too tired to play Refinery.

El Peso, Again

Walkthrough:

Spoiler

If El Peso is so "competent for Redneck Rampage standards", then why isn't there an El Peso 2? This is a map that has "this game is a rushed cash grab" written all over it. The ruin areas past Door 1 are interesting visually, but it seems like the map maker was far too pressed for time and/or couldn't think of enough ways to adhere to the visuals, so the latter half of the map is a lousy retread through El Peso that railroads you through the other two keys in less than a minute. And then, Xatrix really wanted to laugh at you for dropping your month's worth of pocket money on this game instead of Half-Life 1, so they put two excruciating ladder climbs in this map and a moronic switch relay race through an underpopulated brick box to try and pad out the runtime. Needless to say, I hope Xatrix are happy. The micro map gimmick that Sunstorm did in Route 66 only works if you scale the maps according to their size. I put 14 minutes of playtime and divide that by 57 monsters and my head doesn't agree with my eyes. El Peso, Again is everything wrong with RRRA. It overstays its welcome, is underpopulated and is choked with optional areas and one way entrances. If you want to make a sequel to your game in less than a year, you either have John Carmack on your side or you don't bother.

1.5/10.

This post has been edited by Quacken: 19 March 2024 - 04:01 AM

NNC

#24 Posted 21 March 2024 - 01:00 PM

The secret Redwood Forest map was the best one in Redwood, especially the epic segment with the spawning coolies.

I actually like the Airplane level, despite its problems. I also like the Rooftop level in the end.

Overall, quite sadly, I don't remember too many great SW levels that match the brilliances of Allen Blum's and Levelord's best ones. Master Leep's Temple and Dark Woods of the Serpent in the demo are the best ones, along with Bath House, Floating Fortress, Water Torture. This last two feels like Duke levels by their DNA.

jkas789

#25 Posted 22 March 2024 - 01:40 AM

So for this month I'm only going to play Wanton Destruction, mainly because the I already have WD installed on my computer and because I jsut don;t have the patience & time to troubleshoot installing RR.

I'm gonna be honest, I have never been a fan of WD. Like the lvels are fine. They are short and action packed so they don't really overstay their welcome like some of the original larger levels.What kills the experience for me is that the triad enemies are fucking annoying to play with, with how grating their sounds are to the ear. There is only so much high pitched "FUCK YOU" voice lines I can take before I just play it on fucking mute and get myself killed for not hearing a fucking shadow ninja. I really, really wish this expansion did not have this custom enemy.

For this run I decided to play the SW Redux release of WD with the SW Redux "Hires sprites" , voxel pack and the HiRes Sound pack. I usually play this with the Shadow Warrior Upscale pack however I thought it would be nice to play a "Redux like" experience for a change. Also this run was made on Who Wants some Wang difficulty and No Pain no Gain if I was feeling specially masochistic after coming home from work. Screenshots where taken on a lower difficulty because I forgot to do the in my first run and I just can't be arsed to play this again. Anyways on to the critique.

1.- Chinatown

What would have been a ok-ish level is made worse by two things: the fucking bees at the start and the triad. The bees because if you just through without breaking the trashcans you are going to get either mogged or waste all your ammo depending ont he difficulty you are. The triad because it paints a picture on how much punishment your ears will be taking until WD is over.

Otherwise it's a short level. I appreciate that the expansion gives you all the weapons from the start and tbqh if you are playing on the harder diffciulties than you will be grateful for it. Those two nukes are not entirely necessarily but they are very much appreciated. 5/10 average.

2.- Monastery

This level is probably my favorite of the episode. It's very aesthetically pleasing with very nice semi open areas between corridors that provide a sense of direction and give a breather to the more claustrophobic interiors. I also really like some of the puzzles like the wind chimes being a hint to the shootable switch that you can find across the window. The map is just such a vibe dudes.. The triad are conveniently placed groups that you can just kill them all together in a couple of missles/grenades. And the secrets are actually entertaining to find. I specially like the ones like the old lady in the well and the one where you have to jump to a different room. My only gripe is that this is the second level. I always skip the secret level exit because quite frankly Redwood Forest has never been that interesting for me. So on to Trolley Town.

If I had to recommend one level to play of this entire Episode, this would be it.

3.-Trolley Town

A very easy level that you can basically finish on your sleep. For whatever reason in this run the coolies where exploding without me doing jack shit. I mean it was cool I guess because I had to deal with less triad mobs when they where grouped around but wth? Aside from that the secret nuke at the end to deal with the final encounter is as always, appreciated. I really liked the Trolleys themselves, I thought the design of them was pretty cool and I would love to see them in a better train map.

4.- Restaurant

I fucking hate this level. The amount of coolies and the fucking deathtrap that is the main serving area of the restaurant is a fucking nightmare. I specially hate that area because the pillars can provide cover to the triads if you decide to use the missile launcher. So it is either grenades or SMGs or shotgun. The shotgun is useless unless you rush in which is a death sentence and the SMGS is a battle of attrition. So then you are left with the fucking grenades and I just fucking hate it. Yes you can pull a smoke grenade assuming you didn't use it earlier in Trolley Town. Or as gas bomb. Don't even get me started on how enemies respawn every fucking time you cross the table area.

This is one of those levels that I just fucking pull the grenade and missile launcher and just explode everything with extreme prejudice. The fucking refrigerator coolie death trap and the missile triad bathroom trap are just the shit icing on a shit cake. Not a fan.

5.- Skyscraper

What I don't like specifically about this one is the platforming. Not because platforming on the steel frames is actually hard but because of the way the sky boxes work, it can get very visually distracting when I'm jusmping from steel frame to steel frame. Otherwise the levels is very short straight forward, almost to a fault. I like short levels but there is something to be said about levels that are too short, no matter how action packed they are. The 666 room was a nice easter egg and the secret exit is not that secret at all. First time I played this addon I stumbled upon it pretty easily. You can always tell a false wall is around when you can't see the bullet holes on the wall.

6.- The Docks

This level is almost incomplete IMO as if this was a beta version of the map. As it is it's a barely average level with a useless fetch quest to repair a neat but useless boat. If I had anything good to say about it, I guess this secret is a nice easter egg?

7.- Airplane

I like parts of this level and some I don't. I really like the the way the level from a aesthetic point of view. I like how you actually feel like you are walking around in a plane with all the BE semi realistic charm. I also really like when you have to go out on the wings (Twilight Zone style) to get the yellow key. Unfortunately the close quarters combat really kills it for me. Specially between seating areas. It's not fun to get shot from behind two curtains and not knowing where the fuck is the enemy because you can't see them. Fuck Shadow ninjas in this very tight spaces as well. If you are going to use the grenade launcher like a maniac this is the level to do it. Just corner blast everything before peeking a room.

Finally that small platforming that you have to do to get the red key can get really annoying.

8.- Military Base

I actually quite like this level. I really appreciate how the encounters keep slowly escalating from getting down the first elevator to when you have "the final boss fight" of it. I like that it flows really well and there is just no downtime. If I had any criticisms is that there is, at least AFAIK no real way to know if a window is actually bullet proof or a clear opening so if you try and send a grenade through one of them this can rebound and kill you. Also those turrets at the start can REALLY fuck you up if you are not moving fast. Thankfully there is a cookie at the start so you can just quickly grab it from the hollowed trunk then dash to the red card or vice versa.

9.-Train
Another one of those levels that feel like it needed way more time in the oven. Just immediately as soon as you get out of the room you are blasted with the rotating ad posters on the left (which looks pretty cool ngl) and on the right the absolute disaster that is this:

Don't even get me started on how the door in that alleyway goes directly to the station's bathrooms. Anyways aside from aesthetic nitpicks the level is fine. I really like the flow from going through the train station to the seedy bar then right into the bar's aquarium.

10.- Auto Factory

I'm really struggling on this one. I just have nothing to say about this one other than that it is too dark sometimes and the car line can be confusing to navigate. Cool shadow ninja trap.

11.- Skyline

This one is basically a boss rush level. Go right, kill the snake man boss and nab the blue key card, go left and kill the sumo. There are also like 3 nukes in a secret so nobody should really struggle with this level at all. The only thing that can fuck you up is yet another shadow ninja trap as is SW tradition. Zilla is easy as always, as is SW tradition. Also for whatever reason the cute secretary didn't appear in the office. No idea what's going on there but whatever I guess. Short and to the point. I like the aesthetic of the misty rooftops however gameplay wise it's a dud.

On the topic of the reboots and what fist marine mentions here:

Quote

I'm not very familiar with the Shadow Warrior reboots but I think they are all prequels to the original game.

AFAIK the og games are on a separate continuity than the reboots, specially with how Lo Wang and Zilla rea basically frenemies by the end of the games. Kinda.

Quote

No idea what to say about the unreleased Deadly Kiss, hopefully it will see the light of the day, maybe the day when a better Shadow Warrior remaster gets announced/released with exclusive new content, bug fixes, etc.

The last thing I heard about it I believe Hendricks said it was still on the todo list. They just had to first finish Ion Fury + afaik VoidSW still needs some polishing.

Quacken

#26 Posted 23 March 2024 - 12:01 AM

Refinery

Walkthrough:

Spoiler

At Snake River, hang around to the right to find a Biker and a motorcycle. Kill the Biker, then steal his ride and use it to ride over the gap. As you go down the road, you'll pass by a crack in the wall. Use the Crossbow to blow it up. Then, off to the right of this new area, there's two barrels with the blast radius of an atomic bomb. Fire the Crossbow at them, then get out of there so you don't freaking die. An opening will be created, which you can crawl through. Follow the path up the crushing machine ahead and make a jump for Key 1. Door 1 is near where that cracked wall was. Now that you're inside the next area, locate the ladder around the left of the two white oil tanks (your left, upon peering into the area for the first time). Climb up it, and there'll be a vent you can break and jump into. Follow the vent around and you'll make it inside the tank. Climb up the ladder and turn the switch to open the way to the other tank. Jump onto the spinning gizmo and follow it around to the next turnable switch. Down below in the underwater section, weave between the whatchamacallit and swim into the passageway into a new area. You'll notice that the water is rising here, just simply wait for it to reach to a point where you can reach dry ground. The doohickey in this area moves around, so when you jump back into the water there will be a new hole you can swim through. Now you just have to follow the path forward, and eventually you'll find yourself in a little break room. You were able to see this room on the other side if you explored the Door 1 area looking for items. Pressing the switch here opens the gate to the next area.

In this next section, climb up the boxes, then make a jump towards the broken window. Key 2 is in there. Door 2 is not far away at all. Travel up the elevator, then keep going straight until you find a blackboard. There's a button you can press behind the desk. That button opens a door near the Vixen in this area, which leads to a hallway that gives you Key 3 at the end of it. Upon pickup, it spawns a Sheriff and a Hulk, along with opening another door near where the Sheriff is. Don't try to jump down in this next section with all of the bridges, just be OSHA compliant and walk across the black path. You'll find a switch you can flick, which makes an awful sound, but also opens a console in front of you. On one side of this console is a another switch you can flick, which opens the way out. When you rise up the elevator, head right for the exit. At this next section, the left side of the donut will be a switch you can turn on the elevator with. Press the button on your way back to the centre to call the tram over. In this final room up ahead, you need to set all of the switch states to 4 (look at the texture on the wall for your clue). Get the heck out of there, because there'll be explosions. The pipe on the left will eventually clear, allowing you to jump through. Follow the way of the water to find Bubba and end the map.

Finally, a map with some meat on its bones. Refinery is... maybe just a little too recalling of Smeltin' Plant, but for what it lacks in unoriginality, it makes up for with its fun factor and visual fidelity. I'm gonna shoot a shot and guess Aaron Barber authored this map - I have no idea who Rhett Baldwin is, but Barber made my favourite map in The Gate, and Refinery's emphasis on verticality, bridges and moving pieces draws parallels to Wilderness Receiver Facility, particularly its cave section. This map also uses every monster in the game - two Vixens (one is red, so make that ten hitscanners!), the introduction of the Alien Hulk, the third Sheriff of the mapset, and Bikers around every corner. Fortunately, 80% chance to be Barber gorges you on food and alcohol, and you'll be hard pressed to be lower than 40 shells in this map after Key 1, as there's so many pickups everywhere. The visuals are also noticeably better in this map compared to the last five that it's honestly kind of comical, which is another reason I think this, the next map, Disgraceland and Brothel are all Barber's work. They should have got another Level Infinity alumni to be Barber's partner! At least they would have gotten paid for something for their last gig.

Some rooms are constructed to give lesser used weapons such as the Ripsaw and the Crossbow more useful, which is nice, and you get a relatively high amount of Hunting Rifle clips to work with, not that there's anything particularly worth using it on. And of course, the Alien Hulk gives you your first Alien Arm Gun. While there's nothing to really use it on besides the last Vixen, it's a great boon for single segment players, where it'll be much more useful in Episode 2 than here. Refinery is a great hit among a sea of mediocrity. Its visuals, spruced up combat and fancy architecture make it one of RRRA's defining maps, whatever use that word has for a shovelware sequel.

8.5/10.

quakis

#27 Posted 23 March 2024 - 07:11 PM

I only just remembered this month we were doing Wanton Destruction and actually happened to play through it all recently. Felt in the mood for some SW and because it's the last "official" Build expansion I hadn't even tried yet. Not going to get too detailed about each of these levels this time however, just focused on a casual continous run and didn't take any notes. I am curious how these play from a katana start though. I've shared select thoughts about some levels below, nothing major except those that stood out for good or bad, but I'd prefer to spend more time with all of them and stew on my thoughts. I am intrigued seeing familiar names like Mathew Harris and Cho Wong not too coming off from my "The Gate" session and review.

Didn't like the ninja sound replacements, their voices got incredibly repetitive before the first level was over. Guardians not so much but I do prefer their normal orcish designs as they stand out better. In general WD was a very mixed set of levels, very few strong cases but most of it ranges from average to lacking, not entirely impressed with it honestly and does indeed feel unfinished and undercooked. I'd also like to revisit Twin Dragon one day and see how that one stacks up against WD.

Select thoughts:

Monastery: Perhaps my favourite level, it's more on the chill side and I love the visuals and vibes going on here. Agree with jkas789 on the wind chimes being a neat hint, turned to look the moment I heard them. The layout also feels organic, loving all those spiral staircases and twisty hallways that really suits the theming. Gets a little creative with the surprise hellish mini-boss encounter. Was hoping the same quality here would stick around for later levels but seems this was the odd one out of the bunch in that regard. Didn't find the secret exit to Redwood Forest, maybe during another session.
Restaurant: This map kicked my arse more than a few times, it's compact layout and small rooms typically being packed with enemies makes it a tough one to get through without losing a ton of health. First mistake was opening the freezer door to have a Coolie explode in my face. Many deaths would usually be due to attrition and returning to some nasty ambushes. This level forced me to be more specific with my weapons and items; using gas bombs, setting up traps and using the heart if my own health is too low. Shadow Warrior didn't stick for me like Duke or Blood had, but as things got a lot more tactical during these engagements, I really grew to appreciate SW's toolset and was engaged being put on the backfoot.
Airplane: Neat environment, love the daring exterior section, but not so much the tight interior with explosive throwing Ninjas and Shadow Ninjas lurking about and those curtains blocking our view. Exploring the whole plane from passenger to the innards was nice though, just too much awkwardness during combat in general to be of any fun. Didn't like that ladder for the red key, getting back up never felt right no matter how many times I tried.
Skyline: WD has a very weak conclusion which probably should have ended during the previous level Auto Factory which was a much stronger experience. Upon starting I expected some rooftop leaping action across a city, but all I got instead was a really basic boss rush with nothing much else to it. Very easy as none of the bosses put up any real fight here.

This post has been edited by quakis: 23 March 2024 - 07:11 PM

FistMarine

#28 Posted 25 March 2024 - 07:17 AM

Hey everyone! Thanks for the comments so far. Glad to see more people joining in for writing their WD reviews.

Quote

So far, this is the most interesting thing I've learned from this thread

Kinda explains the "weird" hours you've been posting on, too!

Indeed, it was quite interesting. I will also say that Quacken's RR:RA reviews are the funniest so far, especially the E1L6 (El Peso Again) review made my day.

Quote

Overall, quite sadly, I don't remember too many great SW levels that match the brilliances of Allen Blum's and Levelord's best ones. Master Leep's Temple and Dark Woods of the Serpent in the demo are the best ones, along with Bath House, Floating Fortress, Water Torture. This last two feels like Duke levels by their DNA.

I agree, those maps mentioned were some of the best in Shadow Warrior. The shareware levels were very good and those couple maps in the third episode reminded me a lot of Duke3D Atomic maps. I also wish SW had more city styled maps instead of those boring temple maps in the second episode.

Quote

AFAIK the og games are on a separate continuity than the reboots, specially with how Lo Wang and Zilla rea basically frenemies by the end of the games. Kinda. The last thing I heard about it I believe Hendricks said it was still on the todo list. They just had to first finish Ion Fury + afaik VoidSW still needs some polishing.

I understand now. As for Zilla's secretary not showing up, I think she only shows up on the higher skills, just like with the bosses only appearing on the higher skills. It's a map bug that probably wasn't fixed in either the repacked version by ProAsm or the Classic Redux remaster. However, the version linked above by NightFright has that fixed, so for future replays I recommend to use NightFright's fixed version in a source port.

Anyway, today is 25th, which is the time for next month's nominations. And seeing as tomorrow is Redneck Rampage Rides Again's supposed 26th anniversary (shared with one forum member who often contributed in past Duke Map/Mod events), let's get the first three maps reviewed (E1L1-E1L3). But before that, here's a couple interesting things I didn't mention before:

Redneck Rampage Rides Again has only one version available with most of its game files being dated 26/03/1998.
At startup, the game is labeled as REDNECK RAMPAGE RIDES AGAIN REL 1.0 - KENTUCKY BOURBON EDITION!

Before the game actually starts, you have to watch the intro cutscene (which thankfully can be skipped), as well as the company logos. After these are finished, the game finally starts. I know, it is quite unusual compared to other games but this has the benefit to immediately skip to the demo loop when game starts or when you finish the game.

Speaking of which, you have two half-assed gameplay demos that play in E2L1 and E1L1. They are most likely recorded on the easiest difficulty setting. The first demo shows how to get the first key and shoot some enemies. The second demo shows the airboat in action. The player doesn't die in either demo, it just ends abruptly while shooting at enemies.

Most of the bugs from the original game remain, while a few are partially fixed. For instance, the save game menu picture still gets glitched sometimes, as you will see below.

Difficulty settings in Rides Again have been changed a little bit compared to the original game.

Wuss - Easy difficulty. Lowest amount of enemies encountered and lowest amount of health supplies in the level. When selecting this skill, Leonard does a retarded laugh.
Meejum - Medium difficulty. Lower amount of enemies encountered and lower amount of health supplies in the level. When selecting this skill, Leonard says "City Folk!".
Hard Ass - Hard difficulty. Moderate amount of enemies encountered and moderate amount of health supplies in the level. When selecting this skill, Leonard says "Jesus Palomino!".
Killbilly - Very Hard difficulty. Higher amount of enemies encountered and higher amount of health supplies in the level. When selecting this skill, Leonard says "Holy Shit!".
Psychobilly - Extremely Hard difficulty. Highest amount of enemies encountered and highest amount of health supplies in the level. CHEATING, SAVING AND LOADING ARE NOW DISABLED! When selecting this skill, Leonard says "Hot Damn!".

Note that while the skill levels in the original Redneck Rampage were counted from 1 to 5, in Rides Again they are now counted from 0 to 4. This has the following side effects:
-Skill levels in save/load menu are labeled as one less than usual: Wuss is written as SKILL 0, Meejum is written as SKILL 1, Hard Ass is written as SKILL 2, Killbilly is written as SKILL 3 and...well, Psychobilly doesn't let you save but would have displayed SKILL 4 if it let you save.
-Cheats are now allowed on Killbilly.
-Missed enemies are now displayed properly at end of level on Killbilly instead of showing "NA".

In short, if it's your first playthrough of the game, you want to start on Meejum difficulty, which is the equivalent to Wuss difficulty in the main game, as both are labeled as "Skill 1" and both have relatively low enemy counts in each level. I do NOT recommend playing Rides Again on Wuss because there isn't that much of a difference in enemy count, even when compared to the higher skills. Maybe there are five less enemies in each level but the health supplies are also significantly reduced, plus you take the same damage as you would take on every other skill.

As for this review, I replayed the original DOS version of Redneck Rampage Rides Again in DOSBox 0.74-3, on Killbilly, all kills and secrets (in kills' case, as many as I could get), with frequent saving, to refresh my memory and take some pictures while playing. I had first played the game back in summer 2017 and then replayed it two years ago, neither playthrough had the soundtrack loaded. This time around, I had the game's soundtrack loaded by mounting a CD image in DOSBox, which really added to the atmosphere. Yes, the sequel has its own soundtrack but it's not as good as the main's game soundtrack and I think there are less tracks available as well. Still, it's worth having the soundtrack loaded.

I'm not going to write a walkthrough for each level as Quacken has this covered and from my experience, the sequel isn't nearly as confusing as the original game was, with a few exceptions which I will point out in what I feel has gotten me stuck for a bit in past playthroughs that required me to watch a YouTube video to progress.

I will mention the number of kills, secrets and even deaths in each level. I will not mention what Leonard says at beginning of each level as I didn't understand well some of his new lines compared to the main game. And when comes to mentioning the delicious clusters (health boost items), they are even rarer than the main game, which means you will find about one or two at every couple levels. They are nowhere near as rare as Route 66 that only had them in one level.

For more information about the game, please consult the page at MobyGames:
https://www.mobygame...ge-rides-again/

YouTube Playthroughs

Wuss playthrough by LY203 Productions - https://www.youtube....PrhGOBW4CHN31bF
Killbilly playthrough by pagb666 - https://www.youtube....TCjnJckzkbtn_KN
Killbilly playthrough by Nametag - https://www.youtube....uz4fvvPRjNTWshu

LAND OF THE LOST

Area 69

Kills: 79 (5 missed)
Secrets: 3
Deaths: 4

It seems the developers haven't learned their lesson from the first game. Once more, you have a confusing and difficult intro level with a somewhat harsh enemy placement. And of course it's the infamous number 69! Climb out of the UFO wreckage and jump on the ledge. Go to the left side to look at the rednecks singing on a banjo. Right next to them is the first key, as well as some health pickups (one on wuss, three on rest skills). You can't kill them and they won't bother you either but they still count as actual enemies, as they bleed upon being hit.

Afterwards, you are immediately introduced to the first of the new enemies, the Jackalopes! They have 50 health (same as the old coot and poop minion) and are basically weaker dogs or better versions of those shitty monkeys. They move eratically while jumping around. Make no mistake as they can still deal some good damage to you if they get close and much like with the dog's biting attack, there is no feedback when you are getting hit by them, you just suddenly lose health. Thankfully, it only takes three pistol shots to get rid of them but it can be difficult to hit them due to their constant jumping.

You will also notice the Old Coot is back with a makeover, wearing some cool clothes (different colored variants too), while having some brand new quotes. Pretty cool stuff but don't let that distract as their pistols still pack a punch!

After taking all those enemies behind the gates and unlocking the doors, you are introduced to yet another new enemy, the Biker! The bikers have 150 health and wield dual sawn-off shotguns. They deal shitloads of damage quickly and if they kill you, then they will PISS ON YOUR CORPSE, making every death by them even more frustrating! On the bright side, they often drop shotgun shells, so you get a good reward upon killing them and since they are a common enemy, this means you shouldn't have trouble with the shotgun ammo at all.

There is a bit of a switch hunt you have to do at times, which isn't helped by some areas being dark and packed with enemies, mostly those annoying-ass bikers. Your main weapon in this level will be the scattergun, as you will be getting lots of ammo for it and most of the level is packed with bikers, you will be getting shotgun shells all the time.

Despite what Quacken said, there are plenty of food items to restore your health, as long as you don't mind having to backtrack long distances to get the health items at the beginning but unfortunately, the alcohol items are very scarce in this map (at least until the end of the map), thus you will not be able to maintain both meters in the green zone to reduce the damage and you will be sometimes low on health after getting shot often by the hitscanners, as is the tradition in Redneck Rampage games.

Even if you are playing on the easiest skill setting, there are plenty of bikers present in this map. According to LY203's playthrough on Wuss difficulty, there are 56 enemies in this map, which is 2/3 of the total enemy count of Killbilly (84 enemies). Thankfully, as I prefer playing on harder skills while saving often, this isn't that big of a deal to me but I feel like casual gamers will have too much trouble in this game. So my advice to everyone is to conserve health and progress cautiously while saving often, unless you are playing on the hardest difficulty, in which case good luck trying to do all this without saving, especially since there is one vixen present on Psychobilly!

Oh yeah, I didn't mention but you should also eventually come across a biker and cheerleader making up with each other. This means you also get introduced to the cheerleader, which is another common enemy in Rides Again, who is quite annoying and can do some good damage to you if you aren't careful, plus her attacks (kicks and a fire batton) have no feedback at all, your health just suddenly drops.

For some reason, she has 200 health (stronger than the biker and just as strong as the dog), often surviving a full shotgun blast up close. Why couldn't make them both less spongy, like having 100-125 hp instead is beyond me. Did I mention that you get to fight both the biker and cheerleader at once if you happen to disturb them while they are doing their thing? Fortunately, in later levels, you can kill them with a single shot from the Crossbow if you surprise them. Otherwise, use the shotgun and pray to not take too much damage while the shotgun is reloading.

I don't know where are those missing enemies other than the two guys at beginning that cannot be killed and maybe the two "making up" variants of biker & cheerleader, that leaves one enemy that probably got outside of map. Oh and there's the new Chicken Crossbow Ammo type to be found inside one secret place, which will be useful in later levels, as that ammo is separately used for the Crossbow, which requires to press 6 twice to toggle between dynamite and chicken ammo.

The last part of the level with getting the motorcycle outside the ship is interesting and ties into the second level nicely. Bubba is absent from this level, so don't bother looking for him, just open the gate and leave the map with the motorcycle. I died four times, all deaths caused by the bikers, especially the ones later in the level, despite my best efforts to try to minimize deaths.

In the end, this was a mediocre starting level. My point still stands that this level felt like it was far too long and confusing for being the very first level of the game. The bikers can also go fuck themselves with their massive damage output!

Camino del Diablo

Kills: 81 (2 missed)
Secrets: 3
Deaths: 1

What seemed like an epic adventure involving riding the Motorcycle, turned into a miserable slog. Right off the bat, you are getting shot at by some hitscanners from miles away, so I hope you started the level with 100 health if you want to stand a chance and make up for some unavoidable damage.

You will see the Motorcycle right ahead and you have the choice between using it right away or switching to the pistol and using it to snipe the majority of the enemies in the level. You can try using the motorcycle because you can shoot and run over enemies and the Motorcycle Gun uses its own ammo, which can be replenished (50 ammo contained in a box, 300 maximum) by walking over it while on a motorcycle (you can't grab the ammo on foot).

If you ended the last level on the motorcycle, you will start this one with the Rake (aka Slingblade) selected, which is the new melee weapon you ALWAYS have in your inventory (alongside the crowbar) from the very beginning of the game and it's a noticeable upgrade over the crowbar because it deals like 50 damage and can kill the weaker enemies in like one or two hits (while also gibbing them for an extra comedic effect) but unfortunately this causes old coots to not drop their pistols, so if you care about the extra pistol ammo, kill them with the other weapons. Oh and this new melee weapon can also be used on Bubba to finish the level but only if his health is higher than 50, otherwise he will die, so you may want to use the crowbar on him if you aren't sure about that.

As for the level, there isn't much to say because it's very bland, with only one cool section in the middle of the map. If you choose to ride the motorcycle all the way to the end, ignoring the enemies (most being jackalopes and basic hitscanners), you will reach the last part with Bubba behind the locked doors but then you will realize you need to backtrack all the way to restaurant and beginning, which can take minutes. Probably about 5 minutes of walking on foot.

You will also come across an orange cactus. Touching it will give a drug-like effect that messes up your view for a short time while your health will be reset to 100, no matter if you had as little as 1 or as much as 200! So if you already have 100 or higher health, you might want to wait until your health is low enough to make use of that cactus' health refill effect. Just don't touch this cactus again (or any regular green ones in the map) because it makes you lose a bit of health, just like the ones from Duke3D do.

This is one of the few levels of the game where there's only two keys present (most levels use all three keys), first key being inside the restaurant. Oh and watch out for some bikers waiting near the restaurant, one being the rider variant who has 300 HP. This enemy is a pain in the ass, as he is difficult to hit and if he turns around to hitscan you, you are pretty much dead due to the massive damage output, incredible accuracy and fire rate. If you can kill him fast with your own motorcycle or rifle, you do not have to worry again, though sometimes he can survive and then will try to kill you on foot.

A warning for completionists: do NOT turn on the jackalope machine! This will screw up the enemy count at the end of the level. Unfortunately, in one very late level in the second episode, you need to do that anyway as part of the level progression.

Oh yeah and while traveling, don't fall into lava, as it's impossible to get your motorcycle out. Lava is a new hazard introduced in RA (there were no harmful surfaces in original RR), as well as reskinned poop minions, which are called lava minions. They are almost identical to their original counterparts, except they are red, throw lava poop at you (despite what Quacken said, it's NOT the Cheerleader's fire baton) and they appear to be immune to explosives, so you can't kill them with any of the explosives, which is why the Chicken Crossbow fails against them! Just use your pistol and hope your autoaim works to get rid of these pesky shits!

Once you have the first key, go back to the beginning of the level, find the cave, get the second key, go back to the end of the level (the spawned enemies should guide you into the right direction), find a cave, press some switches to open the gates and Bubba should now be available. Whether you whack him with your melee weapon or just drive past him, the level will finish. If you want to be clever, you can run him down with your motorcycle and then quickly run to the ending sector, the level will still count as completed without you dying.

Speaking of which, I died once by falling off the cliff when trying to get one secret in the middle part of the level but other than that, this map wasn't very difficult, despite getting shot and left with around 30-40 health a few times, the level is generous with health pickups. Unfortunately, this level sucks and Bubba is still a worthless sack of shit who won't do anything to help you!

El Peso

Kills: 70 (1 missed)
Secrets: 4
Deaths: 0

For some unexplained reason, you ended up in a jail. It makes a bit of sense if you ran over Bubba with your motorcycle in the previous level but then it wouldn't explain how he is still alive at the end. Your weapons have all been confiscated, with the exception of the two melee weapons and whatever you had in your inventory. You need to find a way to escape while dealing with some shotgun guys. Luckily, the Slingblade is fairly powerful, so it will be a great use on those two shotgunners at start, as it kills them in like two hits. Afterwards, throw a dynamite to escape from one of the cells. Just be careful to not blow yourself up!

The rest of the level requires you to find the THREE keys to progress. They aren't very difficult to find, as long as you explore and find the hidden buttons. Don't forget to blow up the wooden planks at the well, this is the way that leads to the first key!

Additionally, when going for one of the keys in the building accessed from swimming in the well, there is one hidden room you can access that contains the Tit Gun. You get only 50 ammo but it will be useful for the stronger enemies in later levels. Or you can use it on the Sheriff that spawns later in this map, though personally I just sniped him with the pistol from far away and took minimal damage in return. Having the meters in green zone also helped a lot at some points in the map.

After clearing the mess that awaits in the last areas and doing a bit of platforming in the waterfall area, you will find the buffoon waiting for you. The good thing is that it is possible to backtrack from the end of the level all the way to the beginning, in case you missed a secret somewhere but you may have to climb on those ledges or run back while jumping on the water currents. I know I had to do this twice because I missed a secret and the optional room mentioned above.

Oh and believe it or not, the next map in progression was supposed to be El Peso Again. I found this information in past 1-2 years in a comment section on the YouTube playthrough by pagb666 and wanted to share in this topic. More on that tomorrow when reviewing E1L4-E1L7.

Overall, this is one of the best maps of the entire game and possibly one of the best maps in the entire RR series.

Here are the nominations for next month:

FM1X: New York Rebellion + FM2X: Orbital Oblivion + FM3X: Anarchy Village +
Merc 2 + Murder: The EDF Conspiracy + Pray Your Prayers 2000

Aleks' nomination remains and I would have voted for it...if it wasn't April when it's the official Build Engine Games' month, specifically Duke's anniversary. WW2GI nomination disappears (it was one time only, as it was a Build Engine game, a rather obscure one too) and in its place I decided to nominate the FMX Trilogy by Fernando Marquez! There's a couple reasons for that:
-I have never played MERC2, MURDER and PYP2000 before and while I'm interested in finally checking them out, I feel like they may be a better choice suited for May.
-FMX series may have been mentioned before in the past club events (back in 2022-2023) but I have waited until the right moment to nominate them.
-The first two FMX episodes may resemble the original 3DR episodes/levels a bit too much but the third episode is an unique take on Shrapnel City, while the fourth episode goes even further for its unique take on The Birth. Note that the fourth episode is not included in the nomination due to already being enough maps for a month, so that episode will be saved for later this year.
-FM3X/FM4X is a vanilla-compatible, Full Game replacement for Duke Nukem 3D! Perfect choice when wanting to replay Duke Nukem 3D and got bored of the original levels.
-FM3X/FM4X feels like an actual Duke3D expansion pack that you could buy in stores back in late 90s.
-As someone who has played through (nearly) every version of the FMX series before (except FM4X, which I will definitely check out at some point), I can say they are absolutely worth checking out if you enjoyed the original levels and want to try Fernando's own take on the classic styled levels, basically an alternate universe Duke Nukem 3D or Duke Nukem 3D The Way 3DR Did! Just be wary on a couple maps that can be confusing at times, especially on a first playthrough.

As usual, add a + next to your choice, highlighted in bold. I voted for FMX trilogy. Have a nice day.

This post has been edited by FistMarine: 25 March 2024 - 07:26 AM