But Quake's levels are so dense, that's never a problem. Usually vertical videogame levels guarantee a groan, at some point, when you fall off the top story and have to walk your way all the way back. It's basically just four rooms-10 minutes of winding and climbing would take about 10 seconds laid flat. He had a small plot of land, so he had to be creative. They make me think about how the wizard gets around his house, and the satisfaction he probably took in building this whole place. The graphics in the Wizard's Manse are indistinguishable from the rest of Quake, but those little mechanical steps give it character. Finally I'm on the top floor, looking down two levels and wondering if the wizard appreciates this view. They pop out of the wall with a thunk when I get close, forming stairs for me to hop up. The next room is simple, yet one of the most memorable in all of Quake: a series of narrow platforms over an acid pit. The powered-up super shotgun turns them into chunks. One flight of stairs later and I'm under another set of walkways and above another pit of water, but jumping in this time yields something even better: a passageway that leads to a quad damage powerup and a way up, level with the assholes who were just raining grenades down on my head. It's a quick swim to get back, and also includes a great bit of foreshadowing: a barred-off underwater passageway that I immediately want to find my way into. ![]() When I leap (okay, fall) into the water to avoid a grenade, I'm rewarded with a few goodies that recover the ammo and health I just lost. The manse's main room-I guess crisscrossing walkways over a pool of brown water once passed muster as a foyer?-forces me to skirt the left side of the room until I find a button that raises the right side's walkway. The bridge and a couple grenade-throwing ogres outside are the manse's lookout tower, and a warm-up for a level that's going to constantly ask to watch out above. I get lucky: an ogre and two Death Knights follow, and a poorly aimed fireball blast into the ogre's back makes him take a chainsaw to the Death Knight instead of me. I walk out onto a long bridge, then immediately retreat back to the cave I started in. ![]() The Wizard's Manse starts with one of Quake's most underused gimmicks: Enemies fighting each other.
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