Wolfenstein: The New Order Dev Releases New Level for Original Quake

[ffronw]

Wolfenstein: The New Order Dev Releases New Level for Original Quake

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1332/1332162.jpgThe original Quake turned 20, and a Wolfenstein: The New Order dev Machine Games made a new level to celebrate.

Machine Games made a name for themselves with Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein: The New Blood. They're also rumored to be working on a new installment in the series [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167694-Wolfenstein-The-New-Colossus-Teased-Early-in-Bethesdas-E3-Presser]. But for today, they've done something far more important.

They've made a new episode for the original Quake to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the venerable shooter.

The new episode comes as a RAR file. All you need to do to play it is to extract the file to a new folder named DOPA in your main Quake directory. For Steam users, that's [Steam directory]\steamapps\common\Quake. Then add this: "-game DOPA" to the command line you use to launch your the game (In Steam, right-click the game name, click Properties, Launch Options, and add that text into the box provided). Once that's done, you should go straight into the new episode when you start the game.

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/machinegames/status/746363189768650752]

For those of you that don't own Quake (for shame), you can get it for $2.49 in the Steam Summer Sale [http://store.steampowered.com/app/2310/] that's underway right now.



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[Headsprouter]

Well, I played the levels on hard, and yes, they are rather challenging. You can tell the designer(s) understood the game and how to use level design to their advantage in making the player approach situations differently. There's a great moment in the first level (or one of the first?) where you can have good fun using the invisibility ring, and a secret level totally based around tight corners, Knights and the odd Vore to keep you ducking behind walls.

I didn't find every secret though, so it's possible I missed a cool Easter egg. Maybe the Dopefish still lives?

Overall, it'll entertain you, but it's nothing to write home about. A little reminder that Quake's name originally referred to a land where guns, magic and fleshy horrors coexisted.

Then it meant a sci-fi game where you fight cyborg aliens while defining the arena shooter...

Fast forward a few years, character class team-based multiplayer shooters are the hot new thing, now it's one of those!

What an identity crisis!

 

[Hawki]

A little reminder that Quake's name originally referred to a land where guns, magic and fleshy horrors coexisted.

Then it meant a sci-fi game where you fight cyborg aliens while defining the arena shooter...

Fast forward a few years, character class team-based multiplayer shooters are the hot new thing, now it's one of those!

What an identity crisis!

You forgot Quake IV and Quake Wars...*

Then again, the world seems to have forgotten about those games, so go figure.

*But I suppose they represent MMS & Battlefield-esque/area control trends respectively.

 

[TelosSupreme]

Wow, this is quite a surprise. Very similar move to John Romero making two new Doom levels in the last year. You can really tell that these guys understand what makes classic Id games and their level design good. Maybe even more than modern Id themselves...

 

[Headsprouter]

You forgot Quake IV and Quake Wars...*

Then again, the world seems to have forgotten about those games, so go figure.

*But I suppose they represent MMS & Battlefield-esque/area control trends respectively.

I actually didn't forget Quake 4, I was listing different identities Quake took rather than specifically games, seeing as at a glance (I've never played Quake 4) it seemed there was no notable identity shift from Quake 2, I thought it would be redundant to list it seeing as the gameplay and themes didn't change.

Had never heard of Quake wars though. Would have been worth a mention considering it looks to be Battlefield with Strogg.

"Then it was futuristic Battlefield where one side plays the cyborg aliens" might have cut it.

 

[DOOM GUY]

I've yet to try this episode myself, will do sometime later on today.

I've heard some good things and some bad things, hopefully the good outweighs the bad.

 

[Vern]

I've yet to try this episode myself, will do sometime later on today.

I've heard some good things and some bad things, hopefully the good outweighs the bad.

I'd definitely recommend playing it if you haven't already. I've regularly played Quake since it came out (I really can't believe it's been 20 years since I held that cardboard sleeve in my hands for the first time... still have the original disc and sleeve), and yes this episode doesn't match what the community has made in the last 20 years. Obviously not, if you have people mapping for a game for 20 years, there's bound to be some absolutely amazing stuff.

That being said, it's good. I think the levels ended up too horizontal, reminds me more of Doom than Quake. That was the amazing thing about Quake when it came out, it was actually 3D! Rooms over rooms! Bridges spanning areas you'd already been to, being able to move with freedom. It doesn't seem like enough effort was made to make use of that third dimension, which honestly I see quite a bit of in shooters today. And there wasn't much use of the ceiling, most areas just have a high roof that eventually turns into blackness. Which looks fine, and the few times I noticed some detail in the ceiling it was good, but I love looking around in Quake, and most user-made levels try to make every part of the room interesting.

So yeah, it's worth a play, and hopefully it's testing the waters to see if a new Quake game in the original universe would be well received. I know I'd buy it, I love the original Quake, never cared for 2, 3, or 4. But yeah, it has some downfalls, but if you like Quake, it's a good excuse to play it again.

 

[DOOM GUY]

I'd definitely recommend playing it if you haven't already. I've regularly played Quake since it came out (I really can't believe it's been 20 years since I held that cardboard sleeve in my hands for the first time... still have the original disc and sleeve), and yes this episode doesn't match what the community has made in the last 20 years. Obviously not, if you have people mapping for a game for 20 years, there's bound to be some absolutely amazing stuff.

That being said, it's good. I think the levels ended up too horizontal, reminds me more of Doom than Quake. That was the amazing thing about Quake when it came out, it was actually 3D! Rooms over rooms! Bridges spanning areas you'd already been to, being able to move with freedom. It doesn't seem like enough effort was made to make use of that third dimension, which honestly I see quite a bit of in shooters today. And there wasn't much use of the ceiling, most areas just have a high roof that eventually turns into blackness. Which looks fine, and the few times I noticed some detail in the ceiling it was good, but I love looking around in Quake, and most user-made levels try to make every part of the room interesting.

So yeah, it's worth a play, and hopefully it's testing the waters to see if a new Quake game in the original universe would be well received. I know I'd buy it, I love the original Quake, never cared for 2, 3, or 4. But yeah, it has some downfalls, but if you like Quake, it's a good excuse to play it again.

Ah, well sounds like it could have been better, but still, not bad.

I don't need an excuse to replay Quake, I do that regularly, just went through a co-op game a few days ago.