[zykov eddy]

Hello everyone! For almost a year, I've been doing a remaster of one of the biggest and earliest DN3D mods ever, Mystique: Ages in Time. If you've never played it before, this is a great time to give it a go. In the remastered form, it basically became a new build engine game. This was one of the first TCs I played as a kid, and because I have a lot of affection for it, I decided to update it and make it into a much better experience. If you aren't familiar with it, it's a fantasy themed TC, released in January 1998, and hugely inspired by Heretic, Hexen 1 & 2, and Quake. It was made by a large team of developers and features 30+ levels, new graphics, sounds, and an original soundtrack. Not to mention, a big story and new gameplay mechanics. Interestingly, it features textures from Layre family of mods (which also include Realms of Grune and Nuclear Winter). Some of the developers went on to successful careers in the gaming industry, and later went to work for companies such as at 3D Realms and Ritual Entertainment, where they worked on cult games like Prey, Sin, Heavy Metal, and others.

I converted Mystique: Ages in Time to a standalone status, by removing 99% of Duke 3D assets and replacing them with original ones. Just unzip the package and play, no installation required! Also, I'm not gonna lie, I don't recommend playing the original 90's version of this mod. It has a great atmosphere and is very impressive in scale (especially for 1997-1998, damn), but I get the feeling that it was released unfinished, because it has tons of bugs (including game breaking ones), tons of unused content, unfinished levels, broken game balance, etc. When I was uncovering and fixing all of it, I was surprised that this TC even ran at all! It's so rough and broken, you wouldn't believe. Thankfully, I was able to polish it up, and now I enjoy playing it much more, and I hope you'll enjoy it too. Here's the big list of changes in remastered edition:

• Hundreds of bugs fixed, including messed up textures, unplayable levels, broken sound files, poor level geometry, nonsensical code. etc, etc...
  
  
• Game balance has been reworked. It now plays much smoother, and difficulty increases as you progress through the levels. In the original version, mosters constantly spawned weapons and health items, so playing it was very easy and extremely boring. Not anymore!
  
  
• I updated all 30 single player levels, and now they look and play much better! I even added new areas, objects, enemies, etc.
  
  
• EDuke32 visual updates have been introduced, such as new weapon animations, effects, etc. If you don't want to play with these effects and would rather stick with vanilla code, simply remove "EDUKE.CON" file from Data folder, it won't affect the gameplay.
  
  
• Game was converted to widescreen.
  
  
• Almost all unused content was put back into the game. I think, about 1/4 of files weren't used in the original version for some strange reason, including sounds for enemies, important voice lines, lots of textures, and even a couple of original music tracks.
  
  
• I also added some new gameplay mechanics and new enemy types, for a much needed variety.
  
  
• I reshuffled the music tracks and even remixed some of them for better sound quality. This game features some amazing compositions, and they are better showcased in this version.

The world of Mystique awaits you, brave warrior. Time to get medieval on their asses!

Download














Please help me convert this TC to DOS! I wasn't able to do it, due to it crashing.

[Mike Norvak]

Congratulations Eddy!

[stillTodd]

Looking forward to this and thank you @zykov eddie !

Just a quick fyi - as of this moment the above link redirects to

https://www.mediafir...origin=download

and mediafire reports "Upload still in progress… Download not available yet because the upload for this file is still in progress."

This is on Firefox with some addons enabled, as well as Chrome with no addons, so I don't think it's an issue with my local computer (but I keep an open mind about such things).

[Jamesfff]

Still unable to download today. I'm getting the same redirection & error message that stillTodd got yesterday.

[zykov eddy]

Download link fixed!

[pepsodent]

Screenshots looked nice so I decided to check it out, got hooked and finished ep1 in one sitting. Its pretty good!

The maps start off small, feeling more like doom clone dungeons (a pretty one though), but then few levels in open up into some whimsical journey, I liked the snow map the most. There is no terrible level design choices I expected from such ancient project, sometimes the maps are kind enough to give you a quick portal to a door you just got a key for. The accompanying music was nice too, wasnt annoying for longer maps which is important. For some reason I experienced deja vu when playing through one map, even though I never heard of this TC before nor played anything similar to it.

I dont know what to say about new enemies, they are unique and challenging. Have their weaknesses and strengths etc etc. I liked the shapeshifting creature, thats a very cool concept and works well here. The ep1 boss has terrible AI but at least it does some damage when it hits you.

New weapons are great, you can feel some duke DNA in there but new changes make them stand out. The starting sword (duke's pistol) is a bit weak but the rest is much better. This TC turned tripmines into your ultimate weapon, thats amazing, never thought a shitty situational item could get such a glow up. My favourite are the gas bombs though, the pipebombs of this TC, they leave a damaging gas cloud and because pipebombs were always destructible it makes it easier to chain up explosions since the cloud can damage your own bombs. Be careful not to blow yourself though! New and updated items are nice too, I like the glowing orb and how you throw it on the ground to lit up a dark place and the new light storm spell is insane, I have found only 1 though and wasted it just to test it out. There is also an item that makes you invincible.

I wonder, how much of this praise I should give to original TC or to this remaster? How much was updated, I know the fancy shading is part of remaster but what else? Didnt find any big issues, except one visual bug, the dragon enemy turns into a pixelated mess when trying to attack you in close combat

edit: oh I just noticed the list of changes in the OP, maybe I'm blind or maybe it was updated later. That clarifies some things I was wondering about

[Merlijn]

Somehow, I never heard of this mod before! I must say the screenshots look very good and I like the general vibe. WIll surely give this one a go

[zykov eddy]

pepsodent, on 08 February 2026 - 07:21 AM, said:

Screenshots looked nice so I decided to check it out, got hooked and finished ep1 in one sitting. Its pretty good!

Thank you very much for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and hope that you'll also dig EP2 and 3.

pepsodent, on 08 February 2026 - 07:21 AM, said:

The maps start off small, feeling more like doom clone dungeons (a pretty one though), but then few levels in open up into some whimsical journey, I liked the snow map the most.

From what I understand, first two maps are made by the person who originally started the project, and he only made these two maps. That's why they are very different in style from the rest. I really like them for the atmosphere, but they are very clumsily made, and you can feel that even in the updated versions. I tried my best to polish them up, but them being very cramped is something that I couldn't change. I imagine that the protagonist was simply dreaming them up, and from the third level onward, the game really begins.

pepsodent, on 08 February 2026 - 07:21 AM, said:

There is no terrible level design choices I expected from such ancient project, sometimes the maps are kind enough to give you a quick portal to a door you just got a key for.

This TC originally had tons of terrible design choices, and I did my best at fixing these issues. For example, the portal you're talking about wasn't there originally, the played was expected to walk all the way to the door by himself. No enemies, no new routes, just a long, boring walk. But there are also a ton of great ideas as well, which are very forward thinking for 1997 (the TC was released in january 1998, but almost all of it was made in 1997).

pepsodent, on 08 February 2026 - 07:21 AM, said:

The accompanying music was nice too, wasnt annoying for longer maps which is important.

I agree, this TC has some great music, expecially in levels 3 and 5 (snow level). But originally, a lot of the tracks were misplaced, or mixed horribly. If you compare the music tracks from level 4, level 8 and secret level (in the original it was level 9), my version vs the originals, you'll hear the difference. I also relocated the most annoying, broken MIDIs to the deathmatch episode. You can check them out by selecting levels from Episode 4. The one with the bagpipes drove me insane!

pepsodent, on 08 February 2026 - 07:21 AM, said:

For some reason I experienced deja vu when playing through one map, even though I never heard of this TC before nor played anything similar to it.

Secret level Eve of Combat originally was included in the older mod Nuclear Pack, but was converted to this TC by the author. Originally it was placed at level 9, just before the boss, and since it's a very easy, small level, I decided that it would be best if I made it a secret level. It never fit this TC, in my opinion. Episodes 2 and 3 also had levels like this, which are very small, easy, and stick out like sore thumb, expecially Eve of Combat, which heavily featured DN3D textures.

pepsodent, on 08 February 2026 - 07:21 AM, said:

I liked the shapeshifting creature, thats a very cool concept and works well here.

The Doppelganger is a great concept for an enemy, especially for a free DN3D mod from 1998. He was wasted in the original version due to bad programming, but I did my best to fix him.

pepsodent, on 08 February 2026 - 07:21 AM, said:

This TC turned tripmines into your ultimate weapon, thats amazing, never thought a shitty situational item could get such a glow up.

In the original version, they spawned weak flames, which were moving in one direction, and they never hit anyone. I reworked them, and I have to agree, they are a lot of fun to use now!

pepsodent, on 08 February 2026 - 07:21 AM, said:

I like the glowing orb and how you throw it on the ground to lit up a dark place... There is also an item that makes you invincible.

I added these two items into the game, since originally, they were simply reskinned Holoduke and Night Vision Goggles from DN3D. I thought it would be wise to replace them with something new, which would better fit the fantasy aesthetic.

pepsodent, on 08 February 2026 - 07:21 AM, said:

I wonder, how much of this praise I should give to original TC or to this remaster?

You can find out by playing the original version with your copy of EDuke32 and DN3D Atomic, I left the files in the folder. I don't think it matters much, the main thing is that people could enjoy this TC in its best form.

pepsodent, on 08 February 2026 - 07:21 AM, said:

Didnt find any big issues, except one visual bug, the dragon enemy turns into a pixelated mess when trying to attack you in close combat

Can you show me a screenshot?

[pepsodent]

ah so you did most of the heavy lifting, thank you for that.
I finished ep2 and unfortunately it doesnt do much new stuff. I got 2 new weapons, powerful lightning spell I liked and not so good fire spell. Sadly thats all the new things ep2 introduced, with ep1 boss coming back as an uncommon enemy. There are still some memorable maps, but there is no theme going on to differentiate both episodes so it all blurs together. The ep2 boss was more interesting this time, I even died a few times. The lack of new enemies halts the pacing of the game though (I just remembered the new palswap of common enemy but it doesnt do much except have more HP), so I got bored at end of it. Despite maps still going for something interesting nothing much was changed or mixed into the formula the game had going since ep1... Oh and you mentioned secret maps, I suspected there would be secret maps in this TC, but I havent found them. Time to warp.

I also took a peek at the start of ep3, finished first map of it and took a look at 2nd one. It looks very promising so far and I will report on it later.



About the visual bug, it looks like it was some kind of corruption? I tried to replicate it on my new session but it didnt appear this time. Unfortunately I wasnt quick enough to catch a screenshot of it when it happened.

[zykov eddy]

pepsodent, on 09 February 2026 - 10:47 AM, said:

I finished ep2 and unfortunately it doesnt do much new stuff. I got 2 new weapons, powerful lightning spell I liked and not so good fire spell. Sadly thats all the new things ep2 introduced, with ep1 boss coming back as an uncommon enemy. There are still some memorable maps, but there is no theme going on to differentiate both episodes so it all blurs together. The ep2 boss was more interesting this time, I even died a few times. The lack of new enemies halts the pacing of the game though (I just remembered the new palswap of common enemy but it doesnt do much except have more HP), so I got bored at end of it. Despite maps still going for something interesting nothing much was changed or mixed into the formula the game had going since ep1... Oh and you mentioned secret maps, I suspected there would be secret maps in this TC, but I havent found them. Time to warp.

I have to agree, Episode 2 is probably the less interesting on the three. I added new enemy variations and introduced new weapons to the player (in the original, you could get all game's arsenal by the end of level 1), but I couldn't make new enemies from scratch, so, there's that. Two levels before the boss also were one of the worst in the TC in terms of quality and I put a lot of work into them just to make them feel competent. The castle level especially, it was a pure dumpster fire before I fixed it. I strongly recommend you compare AITE2L9.MAP in the original vs remastered version.

pepsodent, on 09 February 2026 - 10:47 AM, said:

I also took a peek at the start of ep3, finished first map of it and took a look at 2nd one. It looks very promising so far and I will report on it later.

Episode 3 is definitely the best and by far the most ambitious, especially levels 3, 6 and 10. It also had the most amount of game breaking bugs, since two levels in the original version were impossible to complete. I had the most fun fixing this episode, it really shines now.

pepsodent, on 09 February 2026 - 10:47 AM, said:

About the visual bug, it looks like it was some kind of corruption? I tried to replicate it on my new session but it didnt appear this time. Unfortunately I wasnt quick enough to catch a screenshot of it when it happened.

If it appears again, please let me know!

[pepsodent]

I have finished ep3, the final one. It is by far the best episode of the game, nearly every map is great and memorable in some way or another. As I was playing through the TC I've noticed that maps can be sorted into few themes - a doom style dungeon, a town map. a castle map and a big open journey type of a map. Of course the themes do get mixed together sometimes for variety. Episode 3 does these themes/types the best. A doom style dungeon is no longer boring because its usually mixed with something else, for a town there is a fantastic underground settlement that reminded me of a game called Hedon, the castle is a big church this time and its probably my favourite map of the whole TC just for the choice of music alone, and more open journey maps are also the best in the package. You got a big forest as opening map of the episode, a nice looking desert map with some dungeons bellow the pyramids as a follow up, and then later there is another forest with some nice vistas and a little bit of dimension hoping into different biomes, a mountain hike map with small puzzle I liked, and yet another great forest map (with yet another neat town at later half of it for a change of pace) as a penultimate challenge before the finale. Now the finale itself was rather underwhelming and I didnt like its mechanic of blind dropping between different floors though the final boss itself was a decent challenge and not shit as it usually happens with fps games. The weakest map was the Ironforge, or something like that I dont remember the name, which looked nothing like a forge, had terrible layout and was just overall boring in comparison to everything else.

Sadly not much new enemies or weapons so the average gameplay is barely changed from what you did all the way back at the start of the game. There is 1 new weapon, the lifesteal ring, neat and helpful with nice visual effect but a bit to loud in use. There is an actual new enemy this time, a very fast big spider that can fuck you up fast if you are not ready for it, but the game never mixed it up with other enemies for some cool fights. There's also few more palswaps of a wizard enemy that have different types of attacks, nothing interesting but the one that throws bombs can be pain the ass because those bombs stay forever and will blow up on touch. The enemy count is higher in this episode but I still feel the game is very easy on the player, rarely if ever challenging me (played all episodes on skill 3).

I got the visual glitch again, and have a screenshot of it this time. Dont know what caused it, it just appeared after I warped to a secret level using console, corrupting some enemy frames and few decorative sprites. The secret maps suck ass and its good I never found them, weakest maps in the whole game.

[zykov eddy]

Before I answer your post in detail, I've noticed that your EDUKE.CON file didn't load (there needs to be a shield counter on bottom right), so I wanna ask, did you remove it from the data folder as a preference, or it didn't load for some reason? This issue could also be connected to the sprite corruption I suspect.

[pepsodent]

zykov eddy, on 11 February 2026 - 06:09 PM, said:

Before I answer your post in detail, I've noticed that your EDUKE.CON file didn't load (there needs to be a shield counter on bottom right), so I wanna ask, did you remove it from the data folder as a preference, or it didn't load for some reason? This issue could also be connected to the sprite corruption I suspect.

I didn't change anything in game folder and left it as it was packaged. I don't have my pc at hand right now to check it all again but if I remember it right the shield counter appears only when I have some armour on me

[zykov eddy]

pepsodent, on 11 February 2026 - 12:15 PM, said:

I have finished ep3, the final one. It is by far the best episode of the game, nearly every map is great and memorable in some way or another. As I was playing through the TC I've noticed that maps can be sorted into few themes - a doom style dungeon, a town map. a castle map and a big open journey type of a map. Of course the themes do get mixed together sometimes for variety. Episode 3 does these themes/types the best. A doom style dungeon is no longer boring because its usually mixed with something else, for a town there is a fantastic underground settlement that reminded me of a game called Hedon, the castle is a big church this time and its probably my favourite map of the whole TC just for the choice of music alone, and more open journey maps are also the best in the package. You got a big forest as opening map of the episode, a nice looking desert map with some dungeons bellow the pyramids as a follow up, and then later there is another forest with some nice vistas and a little bit of dimension hoping into different biomes, a mountain hike map with small puzzle I liked, and yet another great forest map (with yet another neat town at later half of it for a change of pace) as a penultimate challenge before the finale.

I'm so happy to hear that, glad that you enjoyed this episode! Interesting that you mentioned the puzzle in the mountain hike map. Originally it had no obvious solution, so I made it much more logical.

pepsodent, on 11 February 2026 - 12:15 PM, said:

Now the finale itself was rather underwhelming and I didnt like its mechanic of blind dropping between different floors though the final boss itself was a decent challenge and not shit as it usually happens with fps games.

It's not actually blind, but I can see how this map can be confusing.

Spoiler

Did you find the secret in the dungeon?

pepsodent, on 11 February 2026 - 12:15 PM, said:

There is an actual new enemy this time, a very fast big spider that can fuck you up fast if you are not ready for it, but the game never mixed it up with other enemies for some cool fights.

This enemy didn't exist in the original, I just found spider graphics in the files that weren't used in the TC, so I decided to put them in good use. Some beta testers found the spider way too difficult, so I rarely used it.

pepsodent, on 11 February 2026 - 12:15 PM, said:

There's also few more palswaps of a wizard enemy that have different types of attacks, nothing interesting but the one that throws bombs can be pain the ass because those bombs stay forever and will blow up on touch.

Actually, bomb throwing wizards are introduced in episode 2, but I suppose you destroyed them before they could drop any bombs.

pepsodent, on 11 February 2026 - 12:15 PM, said:

The enemy count is higher in this episode but I still feel the game is very easy on the player, rarely if ever challenging me (played all episodes on skill 3).

I tried to add more enemies and also boost their HP and add more attacks to make the gameplay more challenging, but also wanted to preserve the 90's level of challenge. Duke 3D is too very easy nowadays, but in the 90's was considered a decent challenge.

pepsodent, on 11 February 2026 - 12:15 PM, said:

I got the visual glitch again, and have a screenshot of it this time. Dont know what caused it, it just appeared after I warped to a secret level using console, corrupting some enemy frames and few decorative sprites.

This glitch also happened to me a very long time ago when loading various mods from zip rather than grp. This TC is loaded from grp, so I suspect it's just a minor the issue with the version of EDuke32 that I included, or maybe it has gone slightly crazy because I messed with it in resource hacker. I don't think it's the worst bug, and none of the testers mentioned it, but I'm still thankful for the info that you provided!

pepsodent, on 11 February 2026 - 12:15 PM, said:

The secret maps suck ass and its good I never found them, weakest maps in the whole game.

They're pretty damn bad indeed. That's why I decided to keep them secret instead of leaving them in the main campaign like it was in the original. I can only say that they used to be so, so much worse, especially Land of Despair, a secret level from Episode 2. It originally was a third level of that episode.

[pepsodent]

 zykov eddy, on 14 February 2026 - 04:23 PM, said:

It's not actually blind, but I can see how this map can be confusing.

Spoiler

Did you find the secret in the dungeon?

I know there was a hint showing there's a key in one of the cages between floors, but its not something players would pay attention too unless they knew what was coming. As for the spoiler, no I haven't seen it during my playthrough. Now I checked it and what about it? I remembered that I heard it opening during my playthrough but I didnt bother to look in there again.

 zykov eddy, on 14 February 2026 - 04:23 PM, said:

Actually, bomb throwing wizards are introduced in episode 2, but I suppose you destroyed them before they could drop any bombs.

I seen them in ep2 so thats 1 point to that episode introducing something new. I just thought back then that it was another attack the wizard could do, turns out its a replacement. The difficulty was fine overall and I'll take it over anything overpopulated or dickish. Ep3 was just when enemy placement got a bit more interesting, mixing up different types and throwing slightly more enemies at me.

Some last few closing words on the whole TC. It was pretty good and fun so you did a good job remastering the mess that it probably was. Maps look nice, the shading is good, layouts are mostly fine. Plenty of actually great things about it, some maps I liked a lot and new items and arsenal were very refreshing. Its consistent for a TC, there's plenty of art I recognized from other games but there is nothing that feels out of place. I'm gonna be honest I didnt think I would even play it, I thought I'd look at 1-2 maps and be done with it thinking its old and crap. Not the biggest fan of fantasy and wasnt interested in old style of this level design but here I am writing about it after finishing it completely!.

[Merlijn]

Played the first episode - so far I'm liking it a lot! The enemies are a lot of fun to fight, it's especially satisfying to kill those wizards. Might be their death sounds, IDK. Slaying dragons with the crossbow is also just cool on a primal level

As for the weapons, you definitely can tell it's Duke's arsenal, just reworked to fit the theme. Not neccesarily a bad thing, for example swapping the explosives with crossbows was a neat idea. And the gas bombs are very useful. The lightning hand being an obvious chaingun sprite swap is kinda hilarious though. But it's a mod from the 90's, it kinda fits that vibe.

The levels are cool, I especially liked the bigger outdoor maps. As pepsodent noted, it's pretty impressive to see this type of scale in such an old mod. Level 4 and 5 were my favorites. I especially liked how level 4 handled the transition to the snowy mountain top, that was nice touch. Some very cool scenery in the ice map as well. Going over a snowy hill only to see 2 dragons in a sea of burning corpses was a very memorable set-up. Difficulty wise, the mod still goes pretty easy on you. Having 250 HP makes a lot of difference: I never died from the enemies, only a couple of times from the environmental puzzles.

Speaking of puzzles, one of the maps has a 10 button combo. I looked everywhere for a clue but couldn't find it. Are you supposed to brute force it, or am I missing something? It's also worth noting that button nr. 6 isn't working..


That's my only major gripe so far, this is a very enjoyable playtrough so thanks!

[pepsodent]

Merlijn, on 16 February 2026 - 12:24 PM, said:

Speaking of puzzles, one of the maps has a 10 button combo. I looked everywhere for a clue but couldn't find it. Are you supposed to brute force it, or am I missing something? It's also worth noting that button nr. 6 isn't working..
duke0000.png

There is a full 'password' written on a wall in some side area, can't miss it.

[Merlijn]

I guess I'm blind, I can't find it. Also forgot to mention the music; most of it is really good! But the music in that particular map was very grating to my ears, I had to turn it off.

[zykov eddy]

Merlijn, on 16 February 2026 - 12:24 PM, said:

Played the first episode - so far I'm liking it a lot! The enemies are a lot of fun to fight, it's especially satisfying to kill those wizards. Might be their death sounds, IDK. Slaying dragons with the crossbow is also just cool on a primal level

Thank you!! I'm so happy that people are enjoying this TC so far.

Merlijn, on 16 February 2026 - 12:24 PM, said:

As for the weapons, you definitely can tell it's Duke's arsenal, just reworked to fit the theme. Not neccesarily a bad thing, for example swapping the explosives with crossbows was a neat idea. And the gas bombs are very useful. The lightning hand being an obvious chaingun sprite swap is kinda hilarious though. But it's a mod from the 90's, it kinda fits that vibe.

I was thinking about completely reworking the weapons to give this mod a fresher feel, but decided to keep the original vibe. Instead, I simply cleaned up the weapon sprites and made wall mines much more useful, everything else has stayed the same. Chaingun being replaced with hands is very funny, I have to agree. Also, since the sword is a pistol replacement, in the original it would reload. I thought it looked goofy, so I removed the reloading animation, but slowed down the fire rate very slightly to compensate.

Merlijn, on 16 February 2026 - 12:24 PM, said:

Going over a snowy hill only to see 2 dragons in a sea of burning corpses was a very memorable set-up.

I added this scene in! Thank you <3
This map originally felt empty, so I added stuff to it for variety.

Merlijn, on 16 February 2026 - 12:24 PM, said:

Difficulty wise, the mod still goes pretty easy on you. Having 250 HP makes a lot of difference: I never died from the enemies, only a couple of times from the environmental puzzles.

Do you think that it could be a good idea to turn the HP down a little? Maybe make it 200.

Merlijn, on 16 February 2026 - 12:24 PM, said:

Speaking of puzzles, one of the maps has a 10 button combo. I looked everywhere for a clue but couldn't find it. Are you supposed to brute force it, or am I missing something? It's also worth noting that button nr. 6 isn't working..
duke0000.png

Look for the cracked wall, there's even a little hint spark sprite near it.

[Merlijn]

I'm glad you removed the reload animation for the sword, that sounds a bit too goofy indeed. Sounds like you struck the right balance between keeping the original vibe while making a couple of neccesary changes. I'm not that well versed in coding, but perhaps they didn't have the tools to change the behavior of the weapons back then? I remember Borg Nukem had a similar issue.

Quote

I added this scene in! Thank you <3
This map originally felt empty, so I added stuff to it for variety.

That's great, stuff like that make the map more memorable. I guess most of the more advanced terrain design is yours then?

Quote

Look for the cracked wall, there's even a little hint spark sprite near it.

So this pretty much confirms I was being blind For some reason I didn't register the crack as something I could blow up.

Anyway, I've played a bit more. I'm at map 4 of episode 2 now. From episode one, the map where we blow up the dam is another standout (the NPC's standing on cabinets to stay dry was a funny touch ).
So far, episode 2 feels more Quake-like, all maps so far are pretty compact and mostly take place in castles. The first one in particular feels a lot like a Quake level. Third map introduces the mini-boss version of the episode 1 boss, she was a bit annoying to deal with but also easy to cheese.

The 2nd map is my favorite so far, I like the castle/village theme and the open nature of this map.

[Merlijn]

I finished episode 2 - I actually liked this one a bit more than the first. It just feels more sure of itself, none of the maps are weak and they get more experimental towards the end. There's also a darker tone compared to the first episode, which is right up my alley. We see more instances of innocent people being tortured, held in cages etc. The overall environmental storytelling is well done (I don't know how much of that is from the original and how much you added).

I especially liked the final stretch, starting with "The Beholder". This is easily the strangest map yet and goes into some weird places. Really enjoyable! The Precipice is another standout, basically a massive castle map with some great details. Only for some reason there are a lot of invisible walls in this map. The boss map is also very cool, entering the dragon's liar felt very cinematic and the boss arena was really well made.

Only thing I didn't really like was the red knight variant - it's just a tankier version of the original enemy and doesn't add much besides being a bullet sponge.

Based on previous comments, the third episode is the best one. Can't wait to play it!

[zykov eddy]

Merlijn, on 19 February 2026 - 12:18 PM, said:

I'm glad you removed the reload animation for the sword, that sounds a bit too goofy indeed. Sounds like you struck the right balance between keeping the original vibe while making a couple of neccesary changes. I'm not that well versed in coding, but perhaps they didn't have the tools to change the behavior of the weapons back then? I remember Borg Nukem had a similar issue.

In the days before EDuke32, these was no way to change weapon behaviour and animations. Modders only could change the stats of bullets and projectiles. Some mods used clever tricks to disguise this limitation, such as Critical Mass TC with its dual pistols, Quake 2 railgun and Doom BFG, but that's about it. Even in the earliest versions of EDuke there was no way to change weapon animations, as demonstrated in WW2GI, which only changes the behaviour.

Merlijn, on 19 February 2026 - 12:18 PM, said:

That's great, stuff like that make the map more memorable. I guess most of the more advanced terrain design is yours then?

Actually, I barely changed terrain at all. To me, it felt like the map, like many others in this TC, wasn't finished. The terrain was almost complete, but the mapper probably didn't have time to place many enemies and objects. I mainly worked on fixing that. The worst examples of that are The Precipice in episode 2, and Sun God & Realms of Disarray from episode 3.

Merlijn, on 19 February 2026 - 12:18 PM, said:

So this pretty much confirms I was being blind For some reason I didn't register the crack as something I could blow up.

It's also pretty weird having to blow walls up with a gas cloud, but that's what the developers have decided. I guess they just had to include cracked walls because it's a DN3D TC.

Merlijn, on 19 February 2026 - 12:18 PM, said:

Anyway, I've played a bit more. I'm at map 4 of episode 2 now. From episode one, the map where we blow up the dam is another standout (the NPC's standing on cabinets to stay dry was a funny touch ).

This map is defenitely memorable, even though the original version was pretty rough. Such clever ideas are one of the reasons why I decided to remaster this TC in the first place.

Merlijn, on 19 February 2026 - 12:18 PM, said:

Third map introduces the mini-boss version of the episode 1 boss, she was a bit annoying to deal with but also easy to cheese.

This was my inclusion as well!

Merlijn, on 19 February 2026 - 12:18 PM, said:

The 2nd map is my favorite so far, I like the castle/village theme and the open nature of this map.

I agree, it's a very fun map, and very competent in terms of mapping. I barely had to change it at all. Vedran Jelenic was an experienced DN3D mapper by the time he got involved with Mystique, and it shows!

[zykov eddy]

Merlijn, on 22 February 2026 - 05:20 AM, said:

The overall environmental storytelling is well done (I don't know how much of that is from the original and how much you added).

I mostly worked on fixing bugs, adding details and making maps more fun to play, so credit for environmental storytelling goes to the original developers. I just made it more appealing.

Merlijn, on 22 February 2026 - 05:20 AM, said:

I especially liked the final stretch, starting with "The Beholder". This is easily the strangest map yet and goes into some weird places. Really enjoyable!

Yup, it's a really weird map, especially the area with the kids. In the original, they used a shrinked NPC sprite for the kids, and I replaced it with an actual baby, because it felt very off. The mapper only made two maps for this TC, the other is The Organ of St. Kelly in episode 3, and it's just as strange.

Merlijn, on 22 February 2026 - 05:20 AM, said:

The Precipice is another standout, basically a massive castle map with some great details.

I'm glad you enjoyed this one! It was one of the hardest maps to fix, because the original version was very, VERY rough, and even broken in a lot of areas. I suggest booting the 1998 version of this TC in Duke 3D and opening AiTe2L9.map just to see how much I changed it. Boy was it a hot mess! It was made by Andrew Huppatz, by far the worst mapper involved with this project. Although, I give him credit, he came up with very cool ideas for environments, it's just that his mapping was very sloppy.

Merlijn, on 22 February 2026 - 05:20 AM, said:

The boss map is also very cool, entering the dragon's liar felt very cinematic and the boss arena was really well made.

I added some cinematic elements, but besides that. it's mostly unchanged. Fun fact, in the original version, if you used explosives to finally kill the boss, he would be jibbed, and the map wouldn't end, because there would be no corpse to start the level ending sequence.

Merlijn, on 22 February 2026 - 05:20 AM, said:

Only thing I didn't really like was the red knight variant - it's just a tankier version of the original enemy and doesn't add much besides being a bullet sponge.

This one is a very weird case. In the original, this variant had the same color at the regular knight, and it was only used in one of the levels in the whole TC.

Merlijn, on 22 February 2026 - 05:20 AM, said:

Based on previous comments, the third episode is the best one. Can't wait to play it!

Hope you'll enjoy it!

[Merlijn]

I've played the first 4 maps of episode3, so far it's on par with episode 2 for me (which mean it's good!). The opening map feels like a step up in difficulty at first, but once you have your full arsenal again it becomes less challenging again. To go back to an earlier point: 250 HP is quite a lot, but the dragon flames can do a ton of damage so in the end I think it's fine. The dragons and wizards remain the most fun enemy to fight, also the doppelgangers are used in better ways this time.

Spoiler

I think it's the first time I saw a tree change into a doppelganger, and it managed to catch me off guard! Cool stuff

All 4 levels are good so far, the desert map seems a bit out of place but it does offer some variety so it's all good. Some nice puzzles inside the pyramid, mostly very simple ones. I didn't read the super long backstory so perhaps it explains why there's an Egypt map in here My favorite so far is the 4th map, which has a mountain hike and a nice looking forest. The nature scenery really shines here, and I digged the clock-themed puzzle at the end! Felt like a better version of the button puzzle in episode 1. Which is my overall experience so far: I feel like episode 2 and 3 are improving on the concepts introduced in episode 1, which makes the first episode almost feel like a test run.

Also, I love the multi tiered waterfalls:

Quote

Yup, it's a really weird map, especially the area with the kids. In the original, they used a shrinked NPC sprite for the kids, and I replaced it with an actual baby, because it felt very off. The mapper only made two maps for this TC, the other is The Organ of St. Kelly in episode 3, and it's just as strange.

Yeah, this scene was just really weird, I didn't know what to make of it. It's some kind of daycare but it also has a bathhouse? I wonder what the thought process of the author was IIRC this is also the map that had the weird boat/maelstrom section.

Also, I found a playthrough of the original TC, I'll definitely check some of the differences:

[zykov eddy]

Merlijn, on 01 March 2026 - 03:49 AM, said:

also the doppelgangers are used in better ways this time.

Spoiler

I think it's the first time I saw a tree change into a doppelganger, and it managed to catch me off guard! Cool stuff

Yet another of my new additions to this TC. I found the tree and NPC transformation graphics in the files, but for some reason, they weren't used in the game. I thought it was a waster opportunity, and implemented them. Even the sound effect is one of those that were in the files but weren't used.

Merlijn, on 01 March 2026 - 03:49 AM, said:

the desert map seems a bit out of place but it does offer some variety so it's all good.

Funny how it proceeded by a snowy section in the previous map

Merlijn, on 01 March 2026 - 03:49 AM, said:

Some nice puzzles inside the pyramid, mostly very simple ones.

I think, the lack of cool puzzles is a wasted opportunity in this map, but I couldn't come up with anything better.

Merlijn, on 01 March 2026 - 03:49 AM, said:

I didn't read the super long backstory so perhaps it explains why there's an Egypt map in here

Nope, no explanation at all!

Merlijn, on 01 March 2026 - 03:49 AM, said:

It's some kind of daycare but it also has a bathhouse? I wonder what the thought process of the author was

Now that you mention it, I finally realised how weird it is... The daycare section also has a small bath. And the cages with people in them... What the hell they were thinking.

Merlijn, on 01 March 2026 - 03:49 AM, said:

Also, I found a playthrough of the original TC, I'll definitely check some of the differences:

Can't wait to hear your opinion on it!

[Merlijn]

Quote

Yet another of my new additions to this TC. I found the tree and NPC transformation graphics in the files, but for some reason, they weren't used in the game. I thought it was a waster opportunity, and implemented them. Even the sound effect is one of those that were in the files but weren't used.

Great addition! It added a bit extra tension to the maps.

Quote

Nope, no explanation at all!

Seems like an excessively long backstory tbh, especially since not much happens inside the game storywise (we get to see civilians rounded up and tortured but not much more of what's happening). I do like some environmental details like the big stone statues of the bad guy though. Would have been cool if he had a more active role within the game, perhaps a few taunts here and there (Dr Proton style).

Finished episode 3, it's about equal to episode 2 for me. This one felt less dark, but that's thanks to the the bigger focus on large outdoor maps. Stand-outs for the last part of the journey: Realms of Disarray. This one goes into different scenes and also cranks up the intensity a lot. Even the episode 2 boss makes another appearance at the end. This one might have worked better as the penultimate map, due to the size and intensity. The next map is the church map, and by comparison this one felt empty and largely devoid of enemies (until we get to the large church itself that is). I Ffelt that some areas in this map were too big for what they offered tbh. But the fights in the church are cool.

After this, we get a nice forest map, with yet another town at the end. Gotta say that these mappers had a good grasp of using sector-over-sector! The final map was a good one as well, I like maps where ascending a structure is the main theme. And the idea of reaching the top of a multi-leveled tower to fight the big bad is always nice. Final boss was no pushover either, and a pretty good last note to end on. Love the extremely 90's jank cutscene haha (reminded me of the ones in Blood).

Some final toughts: this game reminds me a bit of Blood at times, but with a fantasy theme and overall easier gameplay. Most of the game is pretty chill to play, with a few occasional spikes in intensity. Having no hitscan cultists around helps a lot of course I didn't mention the voice acting yet; it's not that great. The protaganist sounds a bit bored and disinterested for most of his lines. Although I do like the "Dragon schmagon, I make boots outta ya" line. I think you did a great job with the remaster, this feels like a consistent product with only a few rough edges (but that's part of the 90's charm). The enemies are fun to fight, not too frustrating but can be dangerous when you're not careful. The weapon roster is good, although at times I missed the possibility to shoot explosives into a crowd. The lightning spell gets close but it's not quite the same as blowing up a cloud of liztroops hehe.

I would like to see a sequel some day where some of these ideas are further developped. There's still a lot of opportunities. For example, I was thinking of a weapon system where fire spells wouldn't work on the dragons, arrows wouldn't work on the armored knights etc. But I understand it if you would rather move on to a new project.

Thanks for this release! I wouldn't know that this mod even existed if you didn't drop this remaster

[ck3D]

You people are making this sound really fun. I haven't played a full-blown TC in a really long time, I'll make sure to check this one out sometime when I can find the focus. Thanks Eddy for the work on top of the original authors'.

[Merlijn]

You can give it a try, it's a lot of fun to play!

I played the secret maps now, I found the secret entrances in the first 2 episodes and warped to the last one. They're indeed nothing to write home about, pretty short and uneventful maps. I can see why you demoted these to secret map status. Eve of Combat especially looks amateurish, with small and boxy rooms. Land of Despair had one notable feature: the only mirror in the game. So we can finally get a look at our derpy protagonist

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[zykov eddy]

Download updated. Mostly fixes to the maps & music files. Also, added three 1997 demos, which you can play with EDuke32. Interestingly, none of the maps in the demos were used in the final product.