[RELEASE] Red1: Poisoned lands "aww yeah :-)"
#1 Posted 20 October 2013 - 07:40 AM
After driving through the endless desert for hours, you start to feel more and more nervous. Something feels wrong, something is watching you. Vague cries can be heard, barely, in the distance. Then, without a clear reason, your car breaks down. When you enter a nearby building to call for help, the sound of a tremendous explosion rips through the air. You turn around to see the burning wreckage of your car.. And suddenly, you can see them. The hidious faces. Swarms of Pig cops coming from every direction, pointing their shotguns at you, ready to fire...
A brand new map: this is a remake, loosely based on the old red1, but bigger and more ambitious. Get ready for a dark adventure!
MSDN review & download
Come get some reviews & download
-Merlijn
This post has been edited by Merlijn: 01 December 2013 - 02:59 AM
#4 Posted 20 October 2013 - 08:39 AM
Another 7 years for the Red 2 remake?
#5 Posted 20 October 2013 - 08:45 AM
Loke, on 20 October 2013 - 08:39 AM, said:
You're not supposed to fall in, the pipebombs are there to blow yourself up in case you fall down and get trapped.
#6 Posted 20 October 2013 - 09:06 AM
#8 Posted 20 October 2013 - 09:47 AM
#9 Posted 20 October 2013 - 11:27 AM
Most fantastic map. Its most shining points being atmosphere and pacing, both of which go very hand in hand.
This map has some of the best pacing I've ever seen in a Duke3D map by bringing enemies only after long quiet atmospheric moments. Worked really well throughout.
The enemy choices depending on the areas also helped with the atmosphere by making sense.
Obviously design is excellent both in its attention to details and in its sense of scale, as well as with its perfect layout alternating between cramped straightforward areas and huge places that are big just enough to give moments with a sense of freedom.
In conclusion this map has impressed me by how Merlijn showed that he has mastered every single aspect of level design. Detailing, atmosphere, layout, pacing, enemy choices and placement, supplies ratio, length, a story that's just long enough (= not too long but just enough to set the tone and give a sense of purpose), etc. Everything is Rock solid.
At the end of the map I fell down the hole in the middle of the road created by the explosion, I thought I was done for but I managed to get back up with the help of an Octobrain.
This post has been edited by MetHy: 20 October 2013 - 11:38 AM
#10 Posted 20 October 2013 - 03:26 PM
Centaurious, on 20 October 2013 - 09:47 AM, said:
That's Princess Madeline from Sweden I think.
#11 Posted 20 October 2013 - 05:33 PM
*ahem* I'm talking about Centaurious. Dude, go away already.
#12 Posted 20 October 2013 - 08:44 PM
Liked the beds in the upper room.... thought they were HRP models (cause I'm playing with that), but no.
Great sprite and texture goodness!
Even didn't know that this bed texture exicsts.
Especially loved your "Rock" restaurant... lots of nice details.
#14 Posted 22 October 2013 - 07:54 AM
#15 Posted 22 October 2013 - 09:40 AM
OK, enough for the rant, let's pretend the first two-three minutes of the map don't exist, and playing the rest:
Now, the rest of the level is really ambitious, and a fantastic work of art. Merlijn always find new ways to surprise the players with spectacular traps, and put monsters in places where they are the most effective. It's really the influence of the modern shooters, but enemy placement is now not a random one, they actually attack in waves and in a logical way. The best part is when the octabrains appear after the big falls in the bathroom in that middle earth mayhem. It's not a difficult battle, in fact it's rather lukewarm, but the beautifuly atmosphere compensates. I always pictured a big falling to middle earth mayhem styled map like this, but never seen one that does it perfectly, until now. Besides, I'm getting older, and slower too, so I don't care for kill-a-ton loud shooting bonanza anymore. The general scenery, including the long road is very well done too. Not that I haven't seen such thing before, but it looks more mature and realistic now.
On the other hand I actually enjoyed that not-that-great Red1. As I'm getting older, I appreciate those oldschool maps more and more. While I'm looking for a Red 2 remake that fits to the rest of the episode more, the original level of that one is really an enjoyable one, and shouldn't be considered as old crap. No, it's really part of Duke history, in a good way.
My score is 95 (should have been 97 without the opening mess).
This post has been edited by Nancsi: 22 October 2013 - 09:42 AM
#16 Posted 22 October 2013 - 09:45 AM
ck3D, on 22 October 2013 - 07:54 AM, said:
glad it's only a minor complaint because most people probably went past that bridge and climbed the rocks instead
#17 Posted 22 October 2013 - 10:31 AM
Unlike Nancsi, I didn't mind the opening but that's because survival horror is my favourite video game genre and that first part was pretty survival-ish in a way.
Still, it would have been cool to have them all blow up in a giant explosion (or something...) after the player jumps and reach the other way, like Nancsi, I tend to have that autistic "kill everyone" completion need, and I believe lot's of people who play video games do.
#18 Posted 22 October 2013 - 10:58 AM
Thanks to Mikko, Forge and Sanek for their reviews, I've put them in the first post.
About for the beginning: I can see why it bugs some people. But you can always pretend that the later pig cop/liztroop wave (after the house section) comes from the same group, finally catching up to you. And that the 2 commanders at the end are the same 2 that are shooting at you from a distance in the beginning. It's one of the things I was going for: a bit of a cat and mouse game between you and a group of aliens, constantly try to ambush you.
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They are, but finding them is very rewarding. One of them shouldn't be too hard to find. I was sure most people would find at least one of the harder secret places, but it seems no-one has found any of them so far.
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Liked the beds in the upper room.... thought they were HRP models (cause I'm playing with that), but no.
Great sprite and texture goodness!
Cool, glad you enjoyed it! It's always good to see new faces and hear new perspectives. And if one of my spriteworks gets mistaken for a HRP model, I'll take it as a huge compliment.
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Thanks, I love using vertical progression (descending into an underground section, having to climb/swim your way up again etc.), so I'm glad it doesn't go by unnoticed.
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That house-section (or at least the first floor) is one of the oldest sections of the map, hence it's a bit more cramped. I could have replaced it, but I really liked the design and figured it would indeed fit the claustrophobic, creepy atmopshere of the place. I added the second floor this year, so I had to work with the confined rules of my older self. If that makes sense.
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I don't concider Red2 to be crap either. In fact, Maarten and I have been working on a 'remake'. But instead of starting from scratch, it uses the old map as a template and improves the design (more realistic outdoor terrain, better trimwork etc). The gameplay pretty much remains the same. I might release that one as well, even though it won't be radically different from the original.
#19 Posted 22 October 2013 - 01:15 PM
the one i never found was the rpg (or devastator if that's what you decided to put in)
#21 Posted 27 October 2013 - 10:37 AM
Forge, on 22 October 2013 - 01:15 PM, said:
the one i never found was the rpg (or devastator if that's what you decided to put in)
That's a pretty big hint heh, glad you found one of the secrets. I'm not going to tell where the RPG is though, there are some (small) hints to where it might be, but it's easy to miss them.
BTW, did people like the music? It was composed for this map by my brother Maarten.
#23 Posted 27 October 2013 - 11:56 AM
#24 Posted 27 October 2013 - 12:16 PM
I think there was really nice sprite usage, nice buildings, etc.
But also, I think it was extremely easy. Almost no monsters at all, no need for brains, just run straight forward.. Maybe map details were more important?
And what also bothered me; lack of secret places and _really_ much stretched textures.
Overall, really great map. Nice to see so high detail map.
#26 Posted 27 October 2013 - 08:16 PM
Merlijn, on 27 October 2013 - 10:37 AM, said:
That's a pretty big hint heh, glad you found one of the secrets. I'm not going to tell where the RPG is though, there are some (small) hints to where it might be, but it's easy to miss them.
BTW, did people like the music? It was composed for this map by my brother Maarten.
You're welcome!Sorry about being late on that.Yes,I did like the music.Thought it was great.Your maps are always good anyway!
#27 Posted 13 November 2013 - 04:01 AM
Merlijn, on 27 October 2013 - 10:37 AM, said:
Great job. It haunted me till the end. I kept telling myself "I know this song". Well I guess I was wrong. To me it was something between Black Sabbath's Under the sun and Sopor Aeternus's Shadowsphere. That was fantastic.
#28 Posted 17 November 2013 - 06:37 AM
@PWM:
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Thanks for your comments. I know it's not a very action packed map, that wasn't the intention of this level. It's an immersive/spooky adventure and it's the first level of a series.
To me, gameplay is much more then just the enemy count, it's also about atmosphere, layout, flow etc. In other words, the whole package is important (methy's post also explains it pretty well).
If you want to play a similar looking level with more action, I'd recommend Clear the coast. It's an older map of my and my brother.
(Here's a link to CGS)
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There are 5 secrets, which is more then the average user map I think. 2 of them are pretty big too. But they're also hard to find.
#29 Posted 14 April 2021 - 12:26 AM
Also I know the subject has been touched before but it's really obvious to me right now how you really should wrap up the whole series with a Red 6 sometime, all the other ingredients are already out there for it to be a full episode with a conclusion. Or it would be amazing if somehow the ending of the SG series tied in with the one of the Red series so that one same last map would work as proper closure for both! Some parallel universe/alternate continuity thing. Most players would probably just think the idea is cheap though, I guess, but I think that would really tie your whole career together.
This post has been edited by ck3D: 14 April 2021 - 12:32 AM
#30 Posted 14 April 2021 - 01:46 AM
Yes I do care about the plot in a Duke user map series fight me
In seriousness it's good to see this get some attention from a youtuber. This remake is legitimately one of the single best user maps I've ever played, in contention only with It Lives (which was inspired by Red 5 so that's a nice little bow if I've ever seen one).
This post has been edited by Ninety-Six: 14 April 2021 - 01:47 AM