/vr/ - Retro Games

Just finished DOPA on Hard. That last level was a fucking monster. Like 8 Shamblers, 5 of them literally one after the other in a line. I think I ended with like 10 health and no ammo at all.

DOPA's design is a pretty good example of taking iD's map design philosophies and just making them better. There's a solid sense of progression and tricky fights with a big focus on ambushes, and ammo is surprisingly tight. Twice I had to lead enemies into traps to kill them to save ammo, and I had to exploit monster infighting to get past the last Shambler before the finale in E5End.

My only problem is how much they seem to enjoy instant death traps, especially ones where it seems extremely unlikely that someone could figure out what's going on before they get killed. It's one thing to restart a level from the top when I fuck up a fight - it's another when I press a button, fall down a pit, and a giant spike block runs me over in a few seconds.

That finishes my week-or-so binge of Quake 1, both expansions, and this new episode. I have a deeper respect now for Quake's single player, though I think I still prefer Doom in the end.

[/blog]

Scourge > DOPA > Dissolution > Quake