[NightFright]

Secrets of the Acropolis:
This one has a refreshing setting in general. Ofc there is the question why there is modern weaponry scattered all over the levels for you to find in ancient Greece, but let's just ignore this. It's great in general except for three obstacles which can be overcome if you use a guide (like the one included in the addon compilation):
1) "The Erechtheion": That handprint switch hidden between the trees which you have to find to progress through the level.
2) "The Parthenon": It's not super clear that you have to blow up some pillars on the outside of the temple to get inside. But well, there's a pipebomb right next to it, so...
3) "Hades' Passage": This is a quite vertical level. Everything depends on you finding the jetpack. The yellow keycard is hidden a bit too well in that dark room for my taste. Also it's not easy to find the red access panel (and with it the exit).
Besides those three potential showstoppers, it plays well and maps look great. 4/5

Vacation Cove:
It's basically "Life's A Beach", but with easier level design and less user art (e.g. no customized weapons or pickups). Everything is simpler and straight-forward. There were only two places where I had to look longer to find the keycard, one in "Island Hotel" (a door leading to the red keycard needs to be opened with a small button on a hotel room nightstand) and another in "Fun Park" (handprint switch inside an open crate opens an area with the blue keycard). Usually it's clear where you have to search more thoroughly to continue, also because there are no other places to go to instead. It's hard to really get lost here, which is good. I also want to emphasize that the music is well-chosen and fits the atmosphere perfectly. All things considered, an easy 5/5.

[NightFright]

Roch Series:

I had been a bit reluctant replaying this since I remember these maps as looking nice, but with confusing puzzle-style gameplay with wild keycard and switch hunts. During my replay, without knowing any more how the maps were meant to be played, I had little to no difficulties at all getting smoothly through everything.

While all levels are great, my favorites are the last three, either because of their iconic architecture (that highway bridge in ROCH6 remains my personal highlight of the series) or their non-linear progress (blue keycards in ROCH7+8, allowing you to visit buildings in any order you like). Design is also quite vertical - often you have to climb on top of roofs, sometimes to find keycards, other times for finding secrets. While there is only a single jetpack to be found (AFAIK) which only helps you elsewhere if you play the series as a continuous episode, it's rarely useful. Pretty much anything can be reached by jumping somehow, if you are supposed to get there. Continuity between levels is also important - you feel like you are making progress. Especially from ROCH7 to ROCH8 it's done remarkably well - a spaceship landed in the same place you just liberated, unlocking a new area by removing the glass loaded on the truck which blocked you in the previous level.

Sometimes some switches are small and can only be seen when looking thoroughly, but you adjust to the author's designing manners quickly. Soon it's no problem finding the numerous access panels, switches, buttons and what not. I considered this confusing years ago, but I didn't get stuck anywhere like I do in some modern maps these days. Also makes you memorize places so you can do the backtracking quickly, plus there are many info screens pointing you in the right direction.

Overall, these maps are all amazing, even decades after release. Easily among the best city maps for classic Duke3D with enjoyable, well-balanced fights and keycard/switch hunt done the right way. If there is anything to criticize, it's that there is no ROCH9. A pity the author lost interest in continuing this. Anyway, a well-deserved 5/5 for the entire series.

[geomancien]

I tried to mix several mods to see what it was like, and here is the result:


https://youtu.be/PFNJnZrh8m4

[Ninety-Six]

Fatal Atomic is just maps and music, but how were you able to mix Brutal and Kickass?

[ck3D]

Ninety-Six, on 07 May 2021 - 04:18 AM, said:

Fatal Atomic is just maps and music, but how were you able to mix Brutal and Kickass?

From the looks of it, he's using the same script that makes it so that if your video doesn't get enough attention on Duke4 the first time around, then it gets reposted a second time.

Geomancien : je chambre mais j'ai maté tous les playthroughs co-op, en tout cas je te conseillerais de partager tes vidéos de ta chaîne dans ce topic à partir de la prochaine : https://forums.duke4...e-nukem-videos/ plutôt que de t'éparpiller, sinon les gens vont galérer à suivre et c'est plutôt ça qui va te faire perdre des vues si c'est ce que tu recherches.

[geomancien]

yes sorry I will post here now thanks for the advice, regarding the mixture of the two mods, I did it by pure chance, I am trying to fix the few bugs that remain.

[DNSKILL5]

Recently, I've been playing random Duke 3D user maps on Damn I'm Good. Most of them so far have been from the late 90s to early 00s. I wanted to talk about a few that I thought stood out, but if you'd like to view the full playlist, you can view it here. I will add to it from time to time, and tend to organize it by duration (shortest to longest).

(1998) CITYHELL.MAP by Kurt Karlson - While at first it may seem like just any old city user map, this one has quite an interesting encounter with the Battlelord. Duke ventures into some sort of Tron-like arena. There's also a funny part that I did not show in the video. In one of the buildings, you can walk into a hallway and at the end of it is a sprite of the Cycloid Emperor pasted onto the wall, and Duke screams when you reach it. Plus, if you fall into that pit found in the center of the level and live, you have to fight another battlelord down there to get out.

(1997) ABYSS3.MAP by Kyle Galaz & Mitchell Hurd - This level feels more like a challenge level, and less like a normal level, but there are three possible endings. Once you can figure out how to survive and get to these portals, you can choose to face one of the three registered version bosses. There are two Battlelords though, and if you time it right, you can likely find a way to kill them both before the game cuts to the cinematic.

(1997) KTITHQ.MAP by Eric Boltjes - I really enjoyed the combat in this one. It is a well made level in my opinion, and feels pretty on par with the original game. The main street offers challenge throughout because you have to travel back to it a few times to progress.

For convenience if anyone was interested, I've attached the map files for these three, because I'm unsure where they can be downloaded. Abyss3 did not come with a text file, but I was contacted by the author to record that map.

 3 user maps.zip (83.44K)
Number of downloads: 174

[Aleks]

Haven't posted here in a while, so here's some stuff I've played during the last weeks besides the brand new releases:

• Passenger Jet by Jason Bredhauer. This is one of the abandoned Duke is 007 TC levels and it's one of the finest examples why keeping super tight by realistic scale doesn't work too well in Duke. While the plane design was pretty neat, the level was cramped to the point of some of the sectors killing me upon entering them. Combat was also no fun with these tight corridors and more like a chore. It's still much better than Shadow Warrior's Wanton Destruction plane level though...
• Docking Doom by Girl_Online. Considering the year this level was released, the design is brilliant, looking like a BobSP level in space. There's lots of cool details and spriteworks, and even the theme is quite original. I've had one serious problem with this level though - it was super counterintuitive to navigate and took much more time to complete than it should due to random switches opening random doors at the other end of the map etc. I still have no idea how the final puzzles within the levels functioned, but they worked and opened some unmarked door either way... Still it's one worth recommending.
• Undesirable Elements by Puritan, which also goes by the name Voyager Ultimo: Frontiers on Europa. Another space level with cool design, but quite obscure progression. The level was centered around a Cycloid Emperor which was encountered a few times before you could actually kill him, and especially the 2nd encounter - which happened quite surprisingly and I theoretically could fight him, but had super limited supplies - was quite painful, as progressing further within the map required some weird tricks. Also there's some doors that could have been potential showstoppers. I really dig the design, being somehow a mix of early user levels with 2004's level of detailing. Also there's lots of cool concepts, besides the cycloid - also an elevator that can move between 4 different floors!
• Preparing for Christmas by Mister Sinister - point & click in Duke, done in the right way. I really enjoyed the chilling atmosphere of this level and the puzzles, which reminded me of stuff like MOTAS (Myster of Time and Space) game. I had a little problem with one of the final puzzles (ATM code) which was mostly due to EDuke bug I think, as one of the viewscreens with hints was pretty much inaccessible - but managed to blind guess part of the code there.
• Duketroid by Alex Beyman - more a proof of concept rather than actual level - Metroidvania type of level which is really fresh, but still doesn't use up all its potential. The design is stellar though, very clean with some eye-candy like the "tipped" corridor made entirely of sloped sectors shown in MSDN screen.

[geomancien]

Hello everyone, I'm posting episode 2 here:
Tell me what you think



https://youtu.be/IDp1raGIWSA

[MusicallyInspired]

Various Doom maps made for Duke. I particularly like how the ones labelled REMASTERED have extra content added to it to flesh it out. I really like how they added a Duke Burger and cafeteria to the Military Base secret level.

https://steamcommuni...s/?id=279013754

[ck3D]

Gerolf, on 26 May 2021 - 08:25 AM, said:

Recently, I've been playing random Duke 3D user maps on Damn I'm Good. Most of them so far have been from the late 90s to early 00s. I wanted to talk about a few that I thought stood out, but if you'd like to view the full playlist, you can view it here. I will add to it from time to time, and tend to organize it by duration (shortest to longest).

(1998) CITYHELL.MAP by Kurt Karlson - While at first it may seem like just any old city user map, this one has quite an interesting encounter with the Battlelord. Duke ventures into some sort of Tron-like arena. There's also a funny part that I did not show in the video. In one of the buildings, you can walk into a hallway and at the end of it is a sprite of the Cycloid Emperor pasted onto the wall, and Duke screams when you reach it. Plus, if you fall into that pit found in the center of the level and live, you have to fight another battlelord down there to get out.

(1997) ABYSS3.MAP by Kyle Galaz & Mitchell Hurd - This level feels more like a challenge level, and less like a normal level, but there are three possible endings. Once you can figure out how to survive and get to these portals, you can choose to face one of the three registered version bosses. There are two Battlelords though, and if you time it right, you can likely find a way to kill them both before the game cuts to the cinematic.

(1997) KTITHQ.MAP by Eric Boltjes - I really enjoyed the combat in this one. It is a well made level in my opinion, and feels pretty on par with the original game. The main street offers challenge throughout because you have to travel back to it a few times to progress.

For convenience if anyone was interested, I've attached the map files for these three, because I'm unsure where they can be downloaded. Abyss3 did not come with a text file, but I was contacted by the author to record that map.

3 user maps.zip

I've actually noticed your videos popping up in my YouTube Duke 3D searches, good stuff, I especially like how you're tackling older, less popular maps (so far).

Not maps I've played, but the other day I ran into this StarNukem's YouTube channel and spent a while looking at their maps before I realized it was StarCraftZerg's new alias, and I was looking at (mostly) released levels of theirs that just weren't on MSDN and only available on the Workshop originally. These two in particular caught my attention, but there's more:

[FistMarine]

Hi guys, I'm back! I have played a bunch of Duke3D related stuff these days:

2000 TC - I remember playing just the first map a few years ago but lost interest quickly, not sure why. I recently picked the mod again, restarted from beginning (redoing the first map which is short and easy), and I am currently on third level! An interesting early mod, mostly on the easy side. Some weapons are now stronger (the shotgun kills pig cops and enforcers in one hit), the kick is stronger too and the new machinegun replacement (which is kinda ugly) is also much stronger and holds 500 ammo!

Anarchy City (Atomic Version) - Replaying the first AC (by our friend ck3D/MRCK), this time the version for Atomic v1.5, it felt a lot more frustrating this time around, I must have died at least 10 to 15 times (mostly due to lack of health in the beginning and the fact the map is really dark) until I managed to get enough supplies and after that it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it at all this time because I felt a lot of deaths were just unfair or simply bad luck. But I can say that the newer releases after that are much better. I played ck3D's earlier works last year (including stuff like Clerey) and some of them didn't hold up very well, sadly. It pains to say that because I'm on good terms with ck3D and don't want to disappoint him, though I may have told him that in an earlier PM when I had recorded those YouTube videos (which I took down few months ago). But the AC series are the beginning where ck3D has started improving mapping and then the maps that came after, like Filler, Rural Nightmare, Roch Island, AMC Pleaser and so on (all of which I will replay soon, after a long time), are much better.

Duke's Revenge - An old crappy unfinished mod from 2002, falls into the category "So Bad It's Good". I played it for first time many years ago in EDuke32 and it was really glitchy (especially the chaingun replacement was very buggy), may have briefly tested in DOSBox (in 2016-2017?) to see if there's less glitchy (it is but the level design still sucks) and only last few months I went to play it in DOSBox and tried getting everything in each level (finished it last month). Some levels are very unfinished (Such as the third level that has no exit) and some maps contain lots of inaccessible secrets, ugly and confusing level design, some weapons are overpowered (which in turn also make pig cops overpowered for instance) and hold hundreds of rounds (600 for first 3, 900+ for rest), Duke has 250 max health but the atomic health max is also 250, meaning you can only pick up atomic health when less than at 250 HP, therefore maximum health you can have is 299. Some levels also appear to be stolen from the internet or from old TCs, like the already mentioned 2000 TC. I think the fourth level in Duke's Revenge is directly stolen from 1999/2000 TC. Just compare the third level of 1999 TC with the fourth level from Duke's Revenge.

DukePlus (2.51) - Returned after a long time and finished the last 6 or so maps, in past few weeks, including the bonus/unused maps (FBTB, Sewerside, WGDPDM and some random test maps like DP!, DukeBike, Dukebike2, SpaceJump, etc) which I finished recently, so DukePlus is pretty much done for now (and ready for the rest mods by Danukem). The mod is still pretty good after all these years, though it really shows its age. Just wish it wasn't quite glitchy (and laggy in some places), mostly due to the changes that occurred in last couple of years to EDuke32, since the mod was made for late 2000s/early 2010s EDuke32 builds. And some changes broke over time. For more details, I will make a new post to DukePlus topic to not get off-topic because there's a lot to talk about it.

Duke Nukem 64 - Started playing it recently in RedNukem port (the last December 2020 build) on CGS skill and I'm having a blast! There are new places to explore in the existing levels and all the changes they did are pretty cool (new quotes, new graphics, new weapons, etc) are quite refreshing, plus the ability to save babes, kick corpses to gib them and so on! It feels a bit like an official Duke3D expansion at times (you know exactly what I mean). I finished the first two levels so far and got to Duke-Burger secret level (some E4 levels are now secret levels to be found in certain levels). A must play!

Roch Series - Started playing the first few Roch maps for the recent Mega Club event (Thanks Aleks for hosting the event!). Still pretty good after all these years! For now I finished the first two and for first time I 100%'ed them (I never found all secrets before).

[duke3d.exe]

I've played The Division and it was one of the best maps i've played in a while. Why was the release thread deleted??

https://forums.duke4...e-the-division/

[geomancien]

Hi everyone, I invite you to come and see this totally insane third level.
https://youtu.be/1A3978b811k

[ck3D]

duke3d.exe, on 03 June 2021 - 11:25 AM, said:

I've played The Division and it was one of the best maps i've played in a while. Why was the release thread deleted??https://forums.duke4.net/topic/11580-release-the-division/

The author requested the thread to be deleted for personal reasons, but I'm certain he would be happy if you PM'd him your impression, or shared it on here. I have yet to play this map myself and so thanks for reminding me about it actually, I've been meaning to.

geomancien, on 04 June 2021 - 07:00 AM, said:

Hi everyone, I invite you to come and see this totally insane third level.https://youtu.be/1A3978b811k

I would like to encourage people to check out this combination of mods, purists aren't going to like it but honestly with the new weaponry in addition to the modified levels with more enemies, as a whole it seems better than just the sum of its parts and a fun way to replay Duke 3D like it's your first time as a little kid and progression is an actual wall. That being said, I can be quite into wild slaughterfest-type gameplay at times (it's not my favorite but I enjoy it in small doses), and here at times it's really fucking, if not downright laughably brutal. I was wondering the other day though, not that people should care but doesn't the inclusion of the (albeit modified) original maps make the existence of Fatal Atomic technically illegal?

[geomancien]

I fully agree with you. (I did the wrong vote for your job, I was wrong, sorry)

[ck3D]

^ No worries it's cool, 'tis just a number on the Internet!

In other news, Gerolf just put up a video for this map from 1998 (which means he probably intends on sharing it here himself and I'm just getting ahead of him):



And boy what an intriguing user map. My impression the whole time was, this was made by someone who really can't map, and yet can kind of map, or should have mapped more. The design and execution everywhere is horrible (so bad I'm tempted to think that if you replicated that map 1:1 in modern Mapster32, the editor would almost fix it for you) and yet some of the basic ideas are pretty cool, mostly within the first minute of the video with that helicopter, plane, spaceship and rocket attack sequence, and then the fucking police car that comes at you sideways before blowing up tripped me out. Dude was sweating it implementing a few really cool effects and cinematic scenes all the while treating everything aesthetic as an afterthought (if that). Duke's skycar at the end is also really cool, I'm fascinated by the contrast between the overall quality and then those few little gems from the past. Also lost it when later on the player enters the destroyed building and sees the immaculate rocket on the ground, as though it somehow went over the author's head that when something explodes it actually explodes.

[Ninety-Six]

ck3D, on 04 June 2021 - 09:46 AM, said:

I was wondering the other day though, not that people should care but doesn't the inclusion of the (albeit modified) original maps make the existence of Fatal Atomic technically illegal?

I hope not. It wouldn't exactly be the first project to do that, but you still can't play it without owning the original game.


Also, I enjoy these sorts of levels even or especially with vanilla. I might try the combination at one point but I would be more than down to play it with nothing but the vanilla weapons. I remember trying out the first couple of levels and having a blast. As someone who lives for the combat, these maps are right up my alley. In some regards I should hate them, but I think the fact that they're based on the original maps is what saves it for me. I already know the layout and general progression, and the location of every vanilla secret, which the game seems to be balanced for. It assumes you've played the original maps front to back forwards and sideways.


Maybe when I play it for real, I should record it. I've been getting into that lately.

[MC84]

geomancien, on 04 June 2021 - 07:00 AM, said:

Hi everyone, I invite you to come and see this totally insane third level.
https://youtu.be/1A3978b811k

I enjoy your playthroughs - it helps me practice my french. You speak clearly and not too quickly, so I can follow most of what you say!

[Arzca]

It's been some time I've played Duke 3d, but here we are once again.

This time, I played a short city level:

Bite The Dust by Artem Nevinchany
[MSDN review https://msdn.duke4.n...itethedust.php]


Bite The Dust is a very classic city level, following 3DR-style design and it shouldn't take longer than a few seconds for you to play the level to figure this out. Sloped dramatic shadows, open E1L1-style streets and so on. As of writing this, I've played through the map 5 or so times, and I've managed to find all of the secrets by now and you could say that I've now seen everything this level has going for it. While I enjoyed the Episode 1 & 3 style stuff created by the author, I'm still slightly disappointed because I felt that the author could have utilized the street area to expand the level considerably or at least, make some of the ledges accessible (secrets) or so.

The gameplay side is pretty easy, and if you're in a rush, you can complete this level in less than 2 minutes. I did like how you didn't get the obvious insta Shotgun or Chaingun, but instead they were placed slightly further away from the starting area. Secrets were also very 3DR-like (there's one in particular), and they offered a good amount of firepower & ammo.

At the end of the day, it is a nice map but it could have been way more larger in my opinion. Perhaps small maps like this could work out better if they were part of something bigger, like an episode. This map has a lot of potential for a good classic-style map, but that potential is left largely unutilized here.

[duke3d.exe]

https://msdn.duke4.n...owntownride.php

Just played this map, cool little city map, however I was confused that the place where the red card is counts a secret place lol

[ck3D]

duke3d.exe, on 08 June 2021 - 04:10 PM, said:

https://msdn.duke4.n...owntownride.php

Just played this map, cool little city map, however I was confused that the place where the red card is counts a secret place lol

Wow I can't believe it's been almost twenty years since I made that map. Stokes me out that people are still playing it (or any of my older releases really) despite the questionable quality like FistMarine was saying earlier. What's ridiculous is the contrast between how claustrophobic my scaling used to be compared to what I'm doing now - that apartment behind the red door in particular is such jokes, probably qualifies as one of the most cramped rooms ever made for Duke 3D. Those levels were unpractical but I guess they had their charisma which spoke to some players, I've been thinking about potentially remaking some of them (would completely rebuild from scratch though).

[Merlijn]

^Mikko ranting about the sky texture made me chuckle for some reason.

[ck3D]

Merlijn, on 09 June 2021 - 07:08 AM, said:

^Mikko ranting about the sky texture made me chuckle for some reason.

Man, Blast Radius might lose him!

[geomancien]

hi everyone, the fourth map of this demonic mod is available on the channel. tell me what you think folks.
https://youtu.be/bbaJUn5twxE

[geomancien]

hello everyone I wanted to present my video of the last level of the first episode, come see me face the battlelord, in this titanic fight, I wanted to thank you in passing for your support I thank you all very much.
https://youtu.be/c6Nw9PNBNqI

[ck3D]

Haven't played it yet but I'm glad this is a thing: there's a new map out by the author of the 1998 classic Crash TV (one of the first gameshow-based maps that might or might not have influenced Roch 4 and reminds me of Mister Sinister's Naked Dash in its basic principle), Ivan Petrosevic, twenty-three years after their formerly latest release: http://www.scent-88....d/happyland.php and it actually looks really cool, thanks to Aleks for pointing out the CGS release to me, I'm guilty of having slept on that website lately when Puritan's activity with it is precious.

[Ninety-Six]

Thanks to a revelation from a different thread, I learned that my experience with Last Reaction wasn't completely functional. I decided to give it another shot, using the fixed grp from the Compilation (thanks again for re-engaging the repository, NightFright! It's a lot more convenient this way, at least until someone figures out how to let the installer pick what you want).

As a brief side-note, I'm not entirely sure who completely changed the music for the Water Bases episode, but whoever did is clearly a fan of Ecco The Tides of Time. +1 respect.


Anyway, some of the fixes kinda helped? I think the new sentry drones have their normal health again, so fighting them was slightly less of a pain. The new Octabrains now only fire two blasts instead of a stream of death, though I'll admit I actually kinda prefer the broken version. It was still mostly your fault if they killed you. Being aware of them and prioritizing them accordingly was actually one of the things I enjoyed about the new variants in my first playthrough. Still, it wasn't a dealbreaker at least.

That said, the fixes didn't really fix all the level design problems which maybe I was hoping too much. That might have been beyond the scope of the restoration project. I was able to get through the levels mostly by remembering what I did the first time, plus some liberal application of the "dnshowmap" cheat to find the secrets that GWB decided should be unmarked. In fact at one point the secrets got so bad I had to open up mapster for the first time in my life. I wasn't able to make too much sense of how things fit together, but I was at least able to see a switch in a location I didn't see a switch in. And I didn't see the switch because it was a blank wall no different from the rest of it. Ugh.


And that was New L.A. too, which I heard a lot of praise about. I'll at least grant that the normal path through the level wasn't offensive in any way, but those secrets really got unfair for that entire space/moon section. Which I can't figure out because even the first three awful earth levels had reasonable secrets. It was just everything else that was obtuse. But to give credit, the last few levels had unobtuse secrets (for the most part) and level progression, minus a particularly frustrating part in the missile base where the (mandatory!) combination key unlocked an unassuming section of wall. Not opened. Unlocked. In the dark.


Another thing I'll give Last Reaction (some?) credit for is that it's one of those games that's better on the second playthrough (or at least those early parts). It still doesn't excuse the downright awful design, but it's at least tolerable to return to. ...So long as you memorize every secret because the terrible ammo balancing via required secrets remains a problem until New L.A. Yeah unfortunately my usual saveless style was just not going to cut it. I had to save at the start of every level because I was very distrusting if the next level would supply me with what I needed given that I was starved for ammunition even playing continuous.

I really hate having to rely on saves. I really do. Enough that once I beat the episode for the first time I decided to go back and do it again, this time saveless and relying on my memory of the secrets alone. I died twice, once on Khaki Space and again on Aliens' Detraining. KS was a bitch to pistol start, enough that I was considering restarting the whole run from scratch but I eventually found my footing and managed to push through. Left me drained on the next level though, which is where I gave up last time I played. AD was in the better portion of the episode so I didn't struggle too much with that one.

And of course, I found the secret level as well, which I call bullshit on due to the way it's hidden. I don't know how the author expected people to find it unless they had a death wish. Besides that it was a neat if somewhat strange level with a cool escape sequence setpiece.


I'm now four levels into Water Bases, and it's definitely a lot better. I'm going saveless again, but at least so far it seems a lot more fair than its predecessor. Secrets are unobtuse, main progression is unobtuse, and the alien-ized earth textures are a neat touch.

[Ninety-Six]

Finished Water Bases. My opinion is...hard to put to words.


First, the easy stuff. Crystal Mines is a terrible level. A beautiful level, but a terrible one. The layout is one big maze, forced superdeath floors, can get softlocked (though I'll admit I'm not sure if that's an eduke bug or not), and for some reason drones underwater in this mod always deal close-quarters blast damage like you're right next to them even if you're in another country. That led to several unfair deaths through this adventure.

Also, when you put in a dozen mini-Queens that can still deal shock damage, an RPG is not a secret weapon anymore. That becomes an essential weapon. One of the big rocket caches in the open waters should have been placed in the secrets and had the RPG there moved to be more visible. That's not an optional weapon. And there weren't any secret RPGs in the preceding levels either.


Besides that, the only other levels I disliked were the last two. Back to L.A. and Changing the Future. The former for having a one-way passage where you can run out of jetpack, and there is a secret before that point, and then for having a completely unmarked secret again. The last one I dislike because of the overbearing darkness (which BtLA also had an issue with). There's a line between atmospheric darkness, and "I literally cannot see if this is a wall or if I'm walking and I just fell 15 stories that's awesome." The new boss was neat though, if possibly way too tanky. Not a fan of the time machine code either, which you're given in the previous level. Thankfully it's in the txt too, but even so a long unbroken string of binary without any kind of separator either on the switch panels or in the txt is pretty hard to follow along.


The new enemies added on from LR were interesting. Since there were barely any pig cops these new enemies sorta picked up the slack. I thought the alien roaches were neat (minus the part where they almost always spawn a slime pool and you will take damage as duke just sits there to stomp them), the expander enforcers were neat but they only appeared like three times... and then the water octabrains which are... just fascinating.

Visually the levels reminded me a lot of The Alien Remains from Life's a Beach. A bunch of human space textures repurposed to be more alien in context. It was mildly distracting at points, I'll admit, but I also know there wasn't much that could be done about it. The choices were either seeing human textures and having to pretend they're alien, or seeing the exact same green alien textures for 8 levels straight. Between the two, this was probably the better option, so I can forgive it. It's a mostly one-man TC so we can only expect so much.

Special shoutout to Ace of Clover which had really great lighting and is the only time you can see the "sky" texture in full. It did a great job of selling the image of you being in some kind of suspended sunken base. Though I was super bummed that the one pool was totally inaccessible even for a secret. I really wanted to see what that looked like underwater, for whatever reason.

Gameplay and layout wise, I'd say it was all mostly on par with the end of Last Reaction, with both the good and the bad that that implies. Nothing worth really elaborating on, as I've already covered my bigger complaints and praises.


Now for the complicated part. Throughout my entire experience with Water Bases, the actual water bases portion in particular, I really couldn't shake off this nagging...feeling in the back of my mind. Maybe the somber Ecco music played a part, maybe the plot about Duke being imprisoned for 40 years (and somehow not losing any deadliness), or maybe some other reason and/or a combination thereof. Regardless of why, I just started to..."disassociate" I guess. I was starting to fail to see that I was still playing Duke 3D, but like not in the good way like AMC or Demon Throne or Alien Armageddon where it's "I can't believe this is all still running off DN3D code". It was more in the way of... well, this is where it gets hard to explain.

To break it down as simply as I can, Water Bases just stopped... "feeling" like Duke. I don't fully know what that means either, but it's not something I'm a stranger to. It's something that happens a lot with modding, and sometimes that's the idea. Other times, it kinda removes me from the experience. Especially in cases like these where they're trying to continue the story.


Now I want to clarify that this isn't really about the gameplay, at least not here. Not even the new enemies; I still love those and think they fit in fine. It's a matter of tone and atmosphere, I think. It just doesn't quite seem to fit in with Duke 3D. The closest analogue would obviously be Lunar Apocalypse, seeing as they're both darker episodes with an emphasis on self-contained bases. But... I dunno. As I said, it's hard to put to words. Lunar Apocalypse still feels like it belongs. Hell I'd argue DN3D would be missing something that made it special if E2 wasn't as tonally dark as it was, in contrast to the other episodes at least. The whole game has its dark moments, but E2 really sort of gave a grim backbone to the plot. It held it together, in my eyes.

Water Bases, on the other hand... I really don't know. It's hard to really pin down why but it just doesn't feel like it belongs. I'm probably alone in this.

I want to make it clear that I don't hate the episode by any stretch. It's perfectly fine and I don't regret playing it. It's just that nagging feeling was something I couldn't shake off and it was distracting me the whole time.


I have Chimera downloaded and set up, ready to go. I fully intend to play that next, and then The Hidden Lab.

[DNSKILL5]

This map by Phoenix from 2003, Taamalus, is insanely difficult. It took me some time to beat it the first time, and of course I forgot to hit record. So I had to do it again, and it really never got any easier. With that said, Duke apparently has brought the battlelord to this facility and then all hell breaks loose while he takes a bathroom break. Apparently this facility is owned by the reich? No idea, but here it is:

https://youtu.be/hTikXTRhHWA

There’s 3 ways to beat this map. I show the two exits, but chose the more interesting one. You could also try to kill the battlelord, but I was already out of RPG ammo by the end, and he’s locked in a cage anyhow. So I took off by helicopter with the key so the boss will die of starvation instead.